Part 1- The Field of Sales Force Management
1. Explain how and why customers' expectations are changing.
2. What is an outside sales force? Is this type of sales force used only by producers and wholesalers? Is it used only in business-to-business selling?
3. How can a salesperson add value to his or her customers' business?
4. How does relationship-oriented selling differ from transaction-oriented selling?
5. Study the six categories of sales jobs (i.e., consultative seller, etc.) and answer these questions:
a) In which types of jobs is the sales rep most free of close supervision?
b) Which types of jobs are likely to be the highest paid?
c) For which groups is a high degree of motivation most necessary?
6. We said that today's professional sales rep-resentative is a marketing consultant and a manager of a market-his or her territory. Explain how a sales rep can be a marketing consultant and a manager.
7. What can sales managers do to increase the professionalism of their salespeople?
8. How does a sales job differ from other jobs?
9. How will the trend toward flatter organizations affect the job of the middle-level sales manager?
10. Why do many successful salespeople fail to become successful sales managers?
11. Assume that you are a sales manager. What characteristics would you look for, or what criteria would you use, when promoting a salesperson to the position of district sales manager?
12. It has been said, "Nothing happens until somebody sells something." How would you explain this to a student who is majoring in accounting, finance, or engineering?
13. Should someone who is not majoring in marketing take a course in personal selling? In sales management?
14. Review your activities of the past week and identify those in which you did some per¬sonal selling.
15. Assume that your company, which sells paper products, has 60 percent of the business at your largest account. What factors would make it relatively easy for you to get a larger share of that customer's busi¬ness, and what factors would make it harder?
16. Whom would you make sales manager?
Part 2- Strategic Sales Force Management
1. What are the pros and cons of Mr. Evans's e-commerce strategy?
2. What is the best argument that Ms. Miko can make to keep her sales force intact?
3. In your opinion, should Cardinal Connectors Inc. eliminate its sales force? Explain.
Part 3-
1. Which step of the personal selling process has been most impacted by Internet technology?
2. Shuld marketing or sales be responsible for generating leads?
3. How does the salesperson determine whether the lead is a good prospect?
4. Shuld the salesperson try to close on every call? Why or why not?
5. Identify what type of question each of the following is:
a) If your inventory could be reduced by 20 percent, how much would that save you?
b) Can you tell me how you recruit your new salespeople?
c) How does the turnover in your sales force affect your operations?
d) Have you experienced any problems in servicing your office equipment?
6. Identify a feature, an advantage, and a benefit for each of the following products: a camera, a backpack, fat-free ice cream, lawn care service.
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using prepared, or canned, sales presentations? Give examples of when using a
8. Whose side are you on, Buddy's or Laura's? Explain.
9. Notice that Omnico, Inc. is not identified with any particular industry. Do you think buddy-buddy relationships (like those cultivated on a golf course) are more critical to the success of salespeople in certain kinds of industries? Discuss.
10. Who is right, Janice or George?
11. What would you recommend to Janice and to George?
Part 4- Sales Force Organization
1. Explain how coordination can be effectively secured between the sales department and each of the following departments: production, engineering and design, personnel, finance, export sales.
2. What are the reasons for the lack of coordi-nation that sometimes exists between advertising executives and field sales managers? What are some proposals for developing better coordination between these two groups?
3. The choice of organizational structure is influenced by factors such as:
a) Size of the company.
b) Nature of the products.
c) Nature and density of the market.
d) Ability of executives.
e) Financial condition of the company.
Explain how each of these conditions may affect the choice of structure.
4. In your opinion, what are the best policies or procedures for solving the following problems, which are often found in a line and staff organization?
a) A strong-willed staff executive tries to take on line authority instead of remain¬ing an adviser.
b) A line executive consistently bypasses or ignores advice from staff departments.
5. What type of organizational specialization within the sales department do you recom¬mend in each of the following companies?
a) Manufacturer of high-quality women's sportswear with 100 salespeople selling to department stores and specialty stores throughout the nation.
b) Plumbing wholesaler covering the southeastern quarter of the country with 50 salespeople.
c) Manufacturer of chemicals used in fertil-izers with 35 salespeople selling to 500 accounts located throughout the country.
d) Manufacturer of office machines with 1,000 salespeople.
6. A regional hardware wholesaler in Detroit, Michigan, employed 20 salespeople, each of whom sold the full line of products. It became apparent that the list of products was simply too long for one person to sell effectively. The company felt it had a choice of
a) reorganizing the sales force by product lines or
b) adding more representatives, reducing each person's territory, but still having each carry the full line.
What do you recommend?
7. A manufacturer of small aircraft designed for executive transportation in large companies has decided to implement the concept of a selling center. What people in this company should be on the selling teams? What problems is this firm likely to encounter when it uses team selling?
8. How does the quote at the beginning of the chapter-"Listen to the customer and act on what they tell you"-How does this quote from a marketing executive relate to the concepts discussed in the first four chapters?
9.
a) What courses of action would you propose for a company that wants to get its manufacturer's reps to devote more time to selling its products?
b) A manufacturer of small motors uses in-dustrial distributors to reach its market. What can this producer do to encourage the distributors to spend more time selling the company's products?
10. A manufacturer of playground equipment now uses its own sales force to sell directly to customer groups such as city park departments, school districts, private day nurseries, and companies that maintain day care centers for employees' children. This producer would like to install a telemarketing system to reduce some of its field-selling costs. What problems is this seller likely to encounter in the telemarketing move? What recommendations do you have for solving these problems?
11. A manufacturer of pharmaceuticals wants to market its products in the European Union (EU). Its sales are currently $400,000. How should the company enter the EU market-with its own sales force or with some type of independent distributor? Support your choice.
12. A U.S. manufacturer of industrial tools wants to market its products overseas. It is consid-ering establishing sales organizations in several different countries. In which of the countries listed below do you think this man-ufacturer should use an independent selling organization rather than its own sales force?
a) Switzerland.
b) Malaysia.
c) Spain.
d) China.