MKTG 420 Salesmanship

Week 1

Week 1 DQ 1

a) What are the most important qualities that your company should look for in an area sales manager?
b) Which of the two candidates would you recommend for the job? Why?
c) Each of the candidates has some strengths and weaknesses they would bring to the job. What do you consider the major weaknesses of each candidate? Why?

Week 1 DQ 2

a) Assess yourself on the four self-management dimensions (closing, consultative, relationship, and display dimensions) described in the scenario. How do you rate on these dimensions?
b) Give two examples of sales positions that would rate high on each of the dimensions.
c) How important are each of these dimensions in a transactional account relationship?

Week 1 Assignment:

MKTG 420 Week 1 Case Study Salesmanship

Week 2

Week 2 DQ 1

Review Earning Buyer Trust and read about the five trust-earning components identified in research on trust. Rank the relative importance of these five components based on your experience.

a)  Explain your rationale for your selection and ranking.
b)  How do you think that you measure up on earning buyer trust? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Week 2 DQ 2

Read the Shield Financial “Lead Generation” Case on page 109 at the end of the chapter in the text. (Graded)

a)  What is your opinion of Doug’s approach to create a standard plan? 
b)  If you were the sales manager, how would you deal with the sales representatives’ lack of motivation to follow up on leads?
c)  How might some of the leads react if they are not contacted by Shield?

Week 2 Quiz

1. Question: (TCO 1) Which of the following are considered to represent some key customer changes occurring today?
2. Question: (TCO 1) The integration of communications technology in sales, is more commonly known as which of the following?
3. Question: (TCO 1) Having a good understanding of the industry and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, are aspects of which of the following competencies?
4. Question: (TCO 2) The most effective way to close a sale and to get the customer’s signature on the order form is generally through which of the following?
5. Question: (TCO 2) Personal selling has many advantages over the other promotional tools. For instance, personal selling is which of the following?
6. Question: (TCO 2) The most important part of the salesperson’s job is which of the following?
7. Question: (TCO 3) A key aspect of managing time effectively is which of the following?
8. Question: (TCO 3) Developing a plan for how you want your customers to perceive your product is referred to as which of the following?
9. Question: (TCO 3) Which of the following are examples of commonly used organizational goals?
10. Question: (TCO 3) When the Scott Paper Company switched its focus to improving its profitability, which of the following were logical salesforce consequences?

Week 3:

Week 3 DQ 1

A key to building a strong customer relationship is to demonstrate relating skills with the customer.

a) What are some of these skills? 
b) Describe ways that a sales representative can demonstrate these skills in a customer relationship?
c) What behaviors can cause tension in the relationship between the customer and the sales representative?

Week 3 DQ 2

According to the text, business-to-business telemarketing is experiencing significant growth.

a)  What are some of the reasons for this accelerated growth?
b)  What are some of the challenges associated with increased use of telemarketing?

Week 4

Week 4 DQ 1

The recruitment and selection of salespeople are certainly among the most challenging and important responsibilities of sales management. Please comment. (Graded)

a)  How can sales managers use the recruiting process to ensure that the salespeople that are hired are good team players?
b) What kinds of questions can be asked in the interview to test if a candidate has strong teamwork skills and experience?
c) What are some of the problems associated with poorly-executed recruitment and selection of sales people?

Week 4 DQ 2

The first and most important step in designing a sales training program is the assessment of training needs, which provides the starting point for setting training goals and designing the program. (Graded)

a) Discuss the methods of assessing sales training needs.
b) What are some examples of training objectives?
c) Discuss some of the different methods of delivering sales training and their effectiveness.

Week 4 Assignment:

MKTG 420 Week 4 You Decide

Week 4 Quiz

1. Question: (TCO 4) Which form of salesforce organization is expected to increase in popularity the most over the next five years?
2. Question: (TCO 4) Reason(s) for the growing popularity of telemarketing include which of the following?
3. Question: (TCO 4) The main objective of developing a strategic account program is to do which of the following?
4. Question: (TCO 4) Which of the following are examples of functional specialists?
5. Question: (TCO 5) Recruiting salespeople from one’s competitors or customers is a fairly widespread practice, because of which of the following?
6. Question: (TCO 5) The most important issue(s) associated with testing candidates is (are) which of the following?
7. Question: (TCO 5) The primary objective of the process is to build a profile of the successful performer that can be used to select additional salespeople. What is the proper term for this?
8. Question: (TCO 6) To enhance product knowledge and teamwork among its new sales recruits, Whirlpool developed a program where all of the recruits would live together in a house (prior to being deployed in the field) to learn about the company’s products by actually using them on a daily basis. This type of training can be classified as which of the following?
9. Question: (TCO 6) On-the-job training refers to which of the following?
10. Question: (TCO 6) You have just been promoted to sales manager at your insurance company and are in charge of eight salespeople, three of which have been with the company less than a year. You know that most turnover occurs between 12 and 15 months of employment in your industry, so you decide to develop a high-quality training program for your salesforce. Which of the following is true, with regard to the research on sales training and turnover?

Week 5

Week 5 DQ 1

How has the Internet affected your own buying behaviors? Given the effects that the Internet has had on individuals’ buying behaviors, how do you think that salespeople’s jobs have changed? How should sales managers manage these changes?

Week 5 DQ 2

Nick Pirrone, VP of sales and marketing for Steeltime, Inc. recently invested over $250,000 in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. He has a problem, however. His 10 salespeople either do not know how to use the system or simply do not want to use it.

 The CRM system was to be used to move prospects through Steeltime’s sales cycle more efficiently and to improve the level of customer satisfaction. When the system was introduced seven months ago, the sales and marketing staff embarked on extensive training to learn the system. Thus, Pirrone feels that his salespeople have the knowledge to use the system, but that they are simply ignoring his wishes and choosing not to do so.

Week 6

Week 6 DQ 1

You recently received a promotion to district sales manager. You are eager to show your leadership ability and ready to implement a strategy to make your company successful. Your boss has come to you to explain a new selling strategy that he would like to see you implement. It involves having your salespeople be a little more aggressive with their customers. Essentially, he would like them to oversell their customers.

Week 6 DQ 2

Read the Shield Financial: Overheard Trade Secrets on page 276 in the text. Discuss the questions at the end of the case:

a) What are the ethical issues involved in this case?
b) What are the possible actions Bloom could take?
c) What are the possible reactions from the customers to Rowland’s information?
d) What is an ideal course of action given all of the issues involved?

Week 6 Quiz

1. Question: (TCO 7) If you were a sales manager, which of the following would you consider to be a signal of plateauing among your salespeople?
2. Question: (TCO 7) As a sales manager, you go out of your way to personally demonstrate proper selling technique to salespeople, show up on time to meetings and appointments, and always present a professional image through appropriate dress and grooming. Your actions are likely seen by your sales staff as which of the following?
3. Question: (TCO 7) “Before we go in to this account, what is your objective for this call?” This question is primarily asked to observe a salesperson’s development in which area?
4. Question: (TCO 8) Some of your lower-performing salespeople complain to you about being stuck with a “bad” territory. They say that the higher-performing salespeople have easier territories to sell in. Which of the following theories best describes the salespeople’s thinking?
5. Question: (TCO 8) The most frequently used type of quota by sales organizations is which of the following?
6. Question: (TCO 8) As a new first-line sales manager, you would like to understand what motivates each salesperson. Joe, one of your salespeople, is a person who is almost completely self-motivated. You don’t need to do much of anything to keep this person going. Joe always sets high goals for himself and likes it when the branch achieves its monthly quota, regardless of who sold the most to make that possible. Based on this information, you determine that Joe has which motivational drive?
7. Question: (TCO 9) If a salesperson displays Machiavellian tendencies, we would also expect to find which of the following?
8. Question: (TCO 9) According to the text, the most frequent area for ethical abuse in a sales organization usually occurs with which of the following?
9. Question: (TCO 9) The statement that “any person who decides in every situation to act as a good man is bound to be destroyed in the company of so many men who are not good” was made by which of the following?
10. Question: (TCO 9) An excellent way for a manager to build a strong sales ethics program is which of the following?

Week 7

Week 7 DQ 1

What challenges do sales managers face when using team-based compensation?

a)  What are the advantages and disadvantages of using team selling?
b) If a team of five salespeople can sell six times as much as five individual salespeople, doesn’t it make sense to use that team instead of the five individually? 

Week 7 DQ 2

Read the Shield Financial “Missed Quota” case on page 345 in the text.

a) Should Bloom keep investing his time in helping MacAllister to improve?
b) Should he let MacAllister try to prove himself on his own?
c) Is there a better approach, and if so, what do you recommend?

Week 7 Course Projects:

MKTG 420 Week 7 Course Project (Lyra Video Game Parlor)