Assignment:
As vice president of sales for a rapidly growing company, you are grappling with the question of expanding the size of your direct sales force (from its current level of 60 national salespeople). You are considering hiring from 5 to 10 additional personnel.
How would you estimate the additional dollar cost of each additional salesperson? Based on your company's past sales experience, how would you estimate the expected net revenue generated by an additional salesperson? (Be specific about the information you might use to derive this estimate.) How would you use these cost and revenue estimates to determine whether a sales force increase (or possibly a decrease) is warranted?
In what respects are the following common practices subtle (or not-so-subtle) forms of price discrimination?
1. Frequent-flier and frequent-stay programs
2. Manufacturers' discount coupon programs
3. A retailer's guarantee to match a lower competing price.
A New Hampshire resort offers year-round activities: in winter, skiing and other cold-weather activities; and in summer, golf, tennis, and hiking. The resort's operating costs are essentially the same in winter and summer. Management charges higher nightly rates in the winter, when its average occupancy rate is 75 percent, than in the summer, when its occupancy rate is 85 percent. Can this policy be consistent with profit-maximization? Explain.