Peggy Markley is a sales rep for Versatile Office Equipment (VOE), selling the Assurance brand of portable photocopiers, facsimiles, word processors, and dictation machines. Peggy is a genuinely friendly person whom everybody seems to like because she makes it so obvious that she likes people. She has a smile and a friendly word for nearly everybody she encounters on a sales call. Her beautiful personality makes people take special notice of her. Once she has made a sales call, she seldom has to reintroduce herself to anyone. In each of her five years as a sales rep for VOE, Peggy has surpassed her annual quota, earning her membership in the company's High Flyers Club. Her record for keeping customers is unmatched by any other VOE sales rep. Training seminars for new salespeople often feature stories about her attention to customers. One of the favorites is about the time she was making a sales presentation in a prospect's office when they were interrupted by a phone call from the hospital saying that the man's pregnant wife had just gone into labor and would soon be delivering a baby. Because the prospect had taken public transportation to work, Peggy insisted on driving him to the hospital so he didn't lose any time. They arrived just in time for the man to see his first baby being born. Well, his wife was so grateful that Peggy became a family friend who was frequently invited to dinner. Peggy also won a profitable account. Surprisingly, none of the other customers whose appointments she had to cancel that day were upset with her when they heard the story. In fact, all of them readily rescheduled their appointments. Peggy seems to routinely do thoughtful things for her prospects and customers—whether it's bringing in hot cider and doughnuts on a wintry day in January, dropping off mail for them at the post office on her way to another appointment, or lending them her copy of a great book that she has just finished reading. Many of her customers say, "Peggy's more like a friend than just a salesperson." But Peggy Markley is not just a nice person. She's a top-notch sales professional, and her sales presentations and demonstrations are considered as good as anybody's. She stresses product quality, delivery, and customer service instead of price, pointing out that paying a little higher price for the best gives the greatest value in the long run. One of her typical strategies in dealing with price objections is to compliment a customer on her or his clothes or accessories. For example, she might say, "Your briefcase is so handsome and professional looking; I'm sure you didn't buy it because it was the lowest- priced one. You bought it because it was the best value for your money, right? Well, the same principle applies here—you'll get more value for your dollars by buying Assurance products. No other company comes close to matching our product quality, prompt delivery, return privileges, moneyback guarantees, or customer service at this competitive price." To reinforce her statements, Peggy always carries around a notebook of testimonial letters from satisfied customers and a list of prominent companies currently using Assurance products. Frequently, she brings a technical expert from Versatile's engineering, operations, or design departments along with her on a sales call to help analyze a customer's unique problems and suggest a solution. Extremely conscientious about warning her customers about upcoming price changes or product shortages, she frequently offers to set aside inventory for them at the current price for delivery later. Recently, Peggy has been asked to spend two weeks in Versatile's Training and Development (T&D) department to help prepare a comprehensive sales training program for newly hired salespeople. The new director of T&D, Frank Sherry, hired from the local university, quickly heard about Peggy's unique sales abilities and decided to ask her to help develop the new sales training program. After talking to Peggy, he was surprised to learn that she had never gone through any formal sales training herself. She had shifted into sales from the customer relations department when the company issued a general call for new salespeople from inhouse staff. About five years ago, after spending two weeks learning about the company's products and a week traveling with a senior sales rep, her sales manager gave her her own territory and told her to just "go sell 'em." As Peggy told Frank, "I don't think I could teach anybody to sell the way I do. The things I do are just natural extensions of my personality. I care about people, and I try to make them feel important. I've never tried to analyze what I do." 2 Frank Sherry knows that Peggy is well liked and respected in the company and that her association with his new training program will give it credibility. He also believes that she has some unique selling concepts and approaches that he and his staff can draw on and convert into meaningful formats to teach others. He tells Peggy he doesn't expect her to try to design a training program herself. He wants her to just sit down with him and other members of the T&D staff and describe what she does during a typical working d y, concentrating especially on her interactions with prospects and customers. Peggy agrees to do this.

Questions

1. Do you think Peggy uses any particular persuasion principles or selling strategies that others might learn, or is her success largely attributable to her unique personality? 

2. Assume that you are Frank Sherry and that you are trying to develop a teachable model or system to train others how to do what Peggy seems to do almost instinctively. Based on the limited information provided, identify and give examples of the specific principles of persuasion and closing strategies that Peggy applies in her personal selling activities. 

3. Should new salespeople be taught to sell like Peggy Markley, or should each sales trainee be allowed to develop his or her own personal style, closing strategies, and persuasive techniques? Why? 

4. Outline a sales training module for new sales trainees that integrates the basic persuasion principles with different closing strategies.