Hi Tutor,

I was given an assignment about the article ""If at First You Don't Succeed, Try and Try Again? Negotiating Skeptical Customers and Bridging Cultural Differences as a Sales Rep" by Ekaterina Kniazeva and was given this 7 questions to answer related to the business case.

1. Describe the challenges that Michelle encountered when trying to establish a customer connection with student researchers at an academic biotechnology laboratory. Are these challenges unique to the story presented in this case study? Think about what other areas and industries might have similar difficulties and situations. 2. Outline Bill's creative idea for targeting both the academic market and establishing a connection with an international contact. Do you think Bill has a sound plan? What are some other possible approaches he could take? 3. When attempting to market the new benchtop machine, Michelle tried a number of strategies to get through to the student researchers, all of which proved to be unsuccessful. Taking each of those strategies into consideration, how could you improve them and make them more successful? What seems to be the main source of Michelle's failure? 4. suggest a plan of attack for Michelle to establish a connection on her way to a successful contract with an academic laboratory. Please be as detailed as possible. 5. Bill hired Michelle because of her experience dealing with international negotiations. He is intending to use her knowledge and background to his advantage in establishing a lead in Japan via Professor Saito. Given the information provided in the case study as well as additional research into the subject matter based on your own reading, explain how American businessmen might differ from their Japanese counterparts in terms of communication and negotiation. 6. Assemble a detailed plan for how both Bill and Michelle might utilize their knowledge of culture and sales tactics to successfully communicate with Professor Saito in hopes of pursuing an international expansion for WestGene. 7. Explore the role of gender in using female sales representatives in an academic laboratory setting. How does it compare to a commercial setting? What cultural implications might this choice have in the United States versus Japan?

Can you please provide me with some possible ideas or answers to these questions?

Thanks