Read the case given below and answer the questions at the end of the case: To say that I am exceedingly upset by what I witnessed in one of our dealer's offices. The other day would be a gross understatement. I saw one of our sales representatives, trying to sell to a dealer and he did not know what he was talking about. He could not answer some of the simplest questions of the dealer about our product and kept saying that he would find out the answer from the head office. Needless to say he didn't make the sale. "Since the personal lall up was Mr. Prakash, President of the Polanis Computer Company, Basant Mehta, the newly hired sales manager for the company, decided he had better head March. Basant nodded and asked "Is this representative of the entire sales force or an isolated case?" "Mr. Mehta that's what am paying you to find out and do something about." As Basant walked back to his new office to deal with a multitude of other sales operation problems he said his task unfolding as two major activities. (i) to determine how much the present sales force really knew about the computer products and how they are used and (ii) to develop an effective program to equip the sales force with the required product knowledge. On reaching his desk, Basant called his assistant, Vinod Kale. Vinod had been with the company since its inception eight years ago. Vinod started as a part time worker, while he studied for his graduation, and then took up a temporary when he graduated and joined the company full time. He was as little frustrated that he hadn't been promoted to Sales Manager when Basant was brought in from outside by Mr. Prakash. Basant asked Vinod, "I've just been in a meeting with Mr. Peach, and he has rather firm connections that the product knowledge of our representatives isn't what it should be. He wants us to do something about it. How do you feel about this..." "oh, don't pay too much attention to the old man. He's been on that trip ever since he started the company. As far as he is concerned, no sales representative ever knows enough about the product or knows enough about the customer's problems. It doesn't make any difference to him that we are selling fairly well and sometimes exceeding quotas. In his eyes, that's just because the product is so good. He thinks he is the only one in the company who really knows about the product. It doesn't matter what you do, he'll still be saying the same things to you, and everything he sees one of the representatives making a presentation. Basant thanked Vinod for his opinions but couldn't help wondering whether he could afford to ignore Mr. Prakash's comments. Questions: (a) How can Basant determine how much the sales representatives know about the product and its applications? (b) How should he plan to develop the desired degree of expertise among sales people?