Chapter 17 Chapter Assignment

Yasmin works as a trained salesperson at a local furniture and appliance store. Which of the following is likely true about her role as a customer salesperson?

Knowledgeable salespeople enable retailers to assist their customers in selecting the products or services that are best for them.

Susana is a key account sales representative for Kimberly-Clark. Her primary customers are grocery chains and big box retailers such as Target. Susana uses a relationship selling approach. This approach is subject to which of the following disadvantages?

Relationship selling activities lead to more complex issues in evaluating salesperson performance.

Shun is a sales representative with a medical device company. He typically meets with hospital purchasing managers to discuss their interest in purchasing new equipment. Shun is highly trained and enjoys his job because no two sales calls are alike. One might last 20 minutes while another might take an hour. Which of the characteristics of personal selling most likely accounts for the difference in time Shun spends with each customer?

Shun tailors the sales message according to the motivations and interests of each customer.

A local banquet center is considering establishing several social media channels for their business. The owners are not very comfortable using new technology, but they believe having Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages could be beneficial to the company. Which of the following is a benefit the company might receive through social media usage?

The banquet center could establish more direct and meaningful conversations with customers by leveraging social media channels.

Zuwena is a marketing consultant and assists clients in determining the best ways to employ a personal sales force. Zuwena recently met with a company that installs residential solar panel systems. A typical installation costs $25,000 or more. Which of the following is the best reason why this company should utilize personal selling rather than advertising or sales promotion?

The product has a high value

Dell Computer uses a robust CRM program to track customer interactions. It recognized a key market segment as the adult male who enjoys gaming, and it developed specialized laptops and desktop systems specifically for the gamer customer. Dell utilized _______ management to promote these specialized products at a competitive price via e-mail and banner advertisements on social media channels.

campaign

Gustavo is an account representative for an office furniture company. He met with a business buyer who was interested in upgrading the office furniture in a doctor's waiting room. Gustavo presented several options and at the conclusion of the presentation, he asked which option would be best: Option A which included several small loveseats and chairs or Option B featuring a sectional couch and chairs. Gustavo is in the _______ stage of the selling process.

closing the sale

Rosa works as a sales representative for Grainger, an industrial tool and supply company. Her sales manager often tells her to look for smokestacks and dirty buildings as evidence of manufacturing facilities. Rosa pays attention when she's driving in her territory and often stops at buildings to introduce herself and find out what type of business is being conducted. Which type of prospecting activity is Rosa engaged in?

cold calling

Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, recently used a marketing campaign featuring the many former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes (former university and college players) who are working at Enterprise. The company favors hiring former athletes in sales positions since they possess the trait of _______, defined as a desire to achieve and a drive to win.

competitiveness

Chikae is a sales representative with Titleist, a golf products company. Chikae typically calls on business owners of golf shops or golf professionals at golf clubs in his territory. Chikae believes that is important to establish rapport with customers by getting to know them personally. Further, he's always working to achieve a win-win outcome and knows that good things will come if he takes care of the customer as his first priority. Chikae is using _______ selling.

consultative

Which of the following products would be most likely to benefit from personal selling activities rather than advertising or sales promotion?

custom replacement windows for a home

Allstate is a major property and casualty insurance company. It also seeks to identify new product opportunities, such as identity theft insurance, based on its interactions with customers. Allstate uses a(n) _______ approach to learn about customer needs and to develop new products or services that meet those needs.

customer centric

Ramla is an account representative with IBM business solutions. She recently contacted Chun who is the lead project manager at an insurance firm that purchased IBM cloud services. Ramla was interested in learning how the cloud services were working for Chun and if there were any questions or issues. Ramla is in the _______ stage of the personal selling process.

following - up

Anish was meeting with a prospective customer and completed his presentation regarding how the proposed investment portfolio would result in solid returns. The customer stated, "I'm concerned about the brokerage fees that your company charges. Our current brokerage company does not charge fees." Anish is in the _______ stage of the selling process.

handling objections

CDW is a technology reseller firm that uses both inbound and outbound telephone calls to serve customers. CDW has identified several focal areas and organizes its sales force according to how the business is classified including schools and higher education, government, manufacturing, service establishments, and banking/financial institutions. CDW is organizing its sales force by _______.

industry group

PNC Bank is a regional bank with over 2,000 branch locations across 19 states. It offers both commercial and personal banking services and maintains a centralized database of customer information. The company utilizes this database in making decisions by sharing the information with appropriate bank personnel. This is an example of a process known as _______.

knowledge management

Jiao is an account representative with Samsung. She recently attended the Consumer Electronics Show where she spoke with prospective customers about the new line of Samsung appliances. Visitors to the Samsung booth could enter to win a $100 gift card by registering their contact information. The chance to win a gift card is a form of _______ for Samsung.

lead generation

Claudia works for a family-owned heating and cooling company that serves commercial accounts. Her company has recently started selling gas-powered generators to reduce issues resulting from power outages. Claudia has identified several restaurants and grocery stores that have a need for back-up power as well as the financial capital to invest in a generator system. Claudia is engaging in a process known as _______.

lead qualification

Sanofi is a major pharmaceutical firm that employs account representatives to meet with physicians, pharmacists, and others to inform and persuade customers to prescribe Sanofi products. Sanofi organizes its sales force by _______ across major areas such as diabetes, oncology (cancer drugs), or vaccine therapy. A family practice physician might interact with several representatives from Sanofi.

product line

Elon is using the Nike Facebook page to review new models of basketball shoes. Elon enjoys reading the customer reviews and learning how other customers like himself rate the shoe. He often bases his purchasing decision on these reviews by considering factors such as foot support, lateral movement, and fit. Nike also uses the information to track how customer reviews of its products are impacting future sales. Each customer who posts a review receives a numerical rating called a net _______ score.

promoter

Sherwin-Williams employs outside sales representatives who work with customers such as paint contractors and facility managers to procure the Sherwin-Williams paint or wall coatings for their projects. A typical sales representative maintains approximately 150 accounts, and the sales representative identifies the annual revenue potential for each account. Sales managers oversee this process and establish _______, a sales volume goal by month or quarter for the sales representative to achieve.

quotas

Kraft Foods has a professional sales force of 1,000 sales representatives who work with grocery retailers and others to promote the various Kraft brands. Each sales representative receives a base salary, commission, and a bonus opportunity. The company surveys its customers annually and asks them to rate their sales representative on attributes such as expertise, knowledge, ability to understand the customer's needs, and likelihood to recommend the sales representative. How well each sales representative is evaluated by his or her customers determines the bonus compensation. The bonus is linked to customer _______.

satisfaction

Fabian recently purchased his first home and needs to buy a lawnmower. He visits Home Depot, and while in the store evaluating the various models, he uses his smartphone to check the prices of the same model at Menards and Lowe's. Fabian is engaging in a process known as _______.

showrooming

Nanami used her smartphone and the Amazon app to place an order for several items. She received confirmation of the order via e-mail and a tracking number in a second e-mail when her items shipped. These three instances of contact between Amazon and Nanami are called _______.

touch points

Prisha was in the market for a used automobile. She stopped at a local privately-owned dealership and was frustrated with the salesperson's approach. Prisha felt she was at odds with the salesperson, and that he was only interested in making a one-time sale. This type of selling is called _______.

transactional selling