MKT 301 Chapter 16 Questions

How would a customer sales force structure benefit Reliable Tools?

It would enable the company's salespeople to build close relationships with customers.

________ weakens a given promotion's ability to trigger an immediate purchase.

Promotion clutter

________ are like coupons except that the price reduction occurs after the purchase rather than at the retail outlet.

Rebates

________ consists of short-term incentives to encourage the purchase of a product or service

Sales promotion

Which of the following is true about the sales force of a company?

Salespeople represent customers to the company, championing customers' interests.

Which of the following is true with regard to prospecting?

Salespersons identify qualified potential customers.

________ are offers of a trial amount of a product.

Samples

Which of the following is true with regard to value selling?

Value selling refers to delivering superior customer value and capturing a fair return on that value.

Which of the following best explains the growth of telephone and online selling?

the ability to make up to 8 times as many more customer contacts per day than an outside salesperson

In the ________, separate sales forces are set up for different industries.

customer sales force structure

Kevin is a salesperson working for a company that manufactures gardening tools. He is involved in door-to-door sales and travels every day to call on customers. In his company, Kevin is most likely a part of the ________.

outside sales force

Before calling on a prospect, the salesperson should learn as much as possible about the organization and its buyers. This step is known as ________.

preapproach

All of the following are basic types of compensation plans for salespeople EXCEPT ________.

salary plus company shares

The workload approach takes into account all of the following EXCEPT ________.

success rate at closing orders with account

Kelly works as a sales representative at Ginner Machine Works. She uses the phone and the Internet to identify prospects and make sales. Kelly calls customers and explains the products offered by Ginner and the advantages of using them. If requested, she also mails the customer product information brochures. Which of the following is most likely Kelly involved in?

telemarketing and online selling

________ refers to the sales step in which a salesperson asks the customer for an order.

Closing

Which of the following is most likely a true statement about sales compensation in economically tough circumstances?

Cutting sales force compensation is usually a last resort for firms that want to maintain positive customer relationships.

In what situation is a complex sales force structure used?

when a company sells a wide variety of products to many types of customers over a broad geographic area

Which of the following helps companies in setting sales force size?

workload approach

Which of the following is true with regard to the inside sales force of a company?

Inside salespeople provide support for the outside sales force, freeing them to spend more time selling to major accounts and finding new prospects.

________ include displays and demonstrations that take place at the point of sale.

POP promotions

Which of the following is true about the customer sales force structure?

Separate sales forces are set up for different industries, serving current customers versus finding new ones.

Which of the following questions is NOT asked when designing a sales force strategy and structure?

Should salespeople follow strict steps in the sales process?

If a company ________, it should adopt a product sales force structure, in which the sales force specializes along product lines.

has numerous and complex products

Which of the following is an advantage of using a sales force automation system?

improves customer service

The purpose of a training program for salespeople is to teach them about all of the following EXCEPT ________.

industry history

At the beginning of each year, the management of Dee Decor states the exact amount a salesperson should sell. This specific sales target is also known as a ________.

sales quota

More and more companies are moving away from high-commission plans because ________.

salespeople tend to become pushy which affects customer relationships

A(n) ________ is an individual who represents a company to customers by prospecting, communicating, selling, servicing, information gathering, and/or relationship building.

salesperson

________ refer to sales promotion tools used to persuade resellers to carry a brand, give it shelf space, promote it in advertising, and push it to consumers.

Trade promotions

Travis Computing Systems earns most of its revenue from sales and in-person computer services. The sales force at Travis recently began telemarketing and online selling. How would telemarketing and online selling most likely benefit Travis?

Travis sales reps would be able to service hard-to-reach customers more effectively.

In which of the following steps of the selling process is a salesperson most likely to meet the customer for the first time?

approach

A ________ calls for consumers to submit an entry to be judged by a panel that will select the best entries.

contest

Which of the following is the last step in the selling process?

follow-up

Which of the following steps in the selling process is most focused on ensuring customer satisfaction and repeat business?

follow-up

Sales force management includes all of the following EXCEPT ________ salespeople.

paying

Which consumer promotion tool requires the consumer to provide a proof of purchase to the manufacturer?

rebates

Which of the following is NOT a position that a salesperson covers?

shipping arranger

All of the following are disadvantages of team selling EXCEPT ________.

team selling reduces the overall efficiency of the selling process

A(n) ________ shows how much time is spent selling, traveling, waiting, taking breaks, and doing administrative chores by the salesperson.

time-and-duty analysis tool

________ refers to the standard that establishes the amount each salesperson should sell and how sales should be divided among the company's products.

A sales quota

Ultra Tech Inc., a company manufacturing gardening tools, has decided to switch to a territorial sales force structure. Which of the following benefits is the company most likely to gain as a result of this decision?

As each salesperson travels within a limited geographic area, travel expenses would decline.

Morrill Motors splits the United States of America into 10 sales regions. Within each of those regions, the company has separate sales personnel selling the company's full line of products. Morrill Motors uses a ________ sales force structure.

territorial

Sigma Inc. has 2,000 Type-A accounts, each requiring 35 calls per year, and 1,000 Type-B accounts, each requiring 15 calls per year. What is the sales force's workload

85,000 calls

________ refers to a practice in which salespeople drop in unannounced on various offices.

Cold calling

Which of the following is a primary reason that companies use e-learning to conduct sales training programs?

E-learning cuts travel and training costs.

Under what conditions is a company most likely to use a product sales force structure?

If a company has numerous and complex products, it can adopt a product sales force structure, in which the sales force specializes along product lines.

Which of the following is true about the product sales force structure?

In a product sales force structure, salespersons specialize in only a particular product line as the company produces numerous and complex products.

Why have firms adopted sales force automation systems?

Many firms have adopted sales force automation systems to help their salespeople better manage their time, improve customer service, lower sales costs, and increase sales performance.

Eric Brown is a human resource manager in a company selling and manufacturing personal computers. Who among the following is Eric most likely to hire as a salesperson if his objective is to minimize training costs post recruitment?

Melissa, a proven salesperson from a competing firm

Which of the following is true with regard to personal selling?

Personal selling entails personal presentations by a firm's sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.

________ are goods offered either free or at low cost as an incentive to buy a product, ranging from toys included with kids' products to phone cards and DVDs.

Premiums

Which of the following best explains why companies are adopting the team selling approach to service large, complex accounts?

Products have become too complicated for one salesperson to handle a large company's needs.

________ are useful articles imprinted with an advertiser's name, logo, or message that are given as gifts to consumers.

Promotional products

________ is defined as analyzing, planning, implementing, and controlling sales force activities.

Sales force management

Which of the following is true about the sales force of a company?

Salespeople represent customers to the company and manage the buyer-seller relationship.

Which of the following would most likely improve coordination between marketing and sales?

Salespeople should participate in marketing planning sessions by sharing firsthand customer knowledge.

Which of the following is true about the territorial sales force structure?

Travel expenses are relatively small as each salesperson travels within a limited geographic area.

Which of the following abilities would LEAST likely be measured when recruiting and testing applicants for a sales position?

accounting skills

At Price & Wallace Inc., a pharmaceuticals company, members of the sales force and marketing department tend to have disagreements when things go wrong with a customer. The marketers blame the salespeople for poorly executing their strategies, while the salespeople blame the marketers for being out of touch with customers. Which of the following steps should upper management at Price & Wallace take to help bring the sales and marketing functions closer together?

appoint a high-level marketing executive to oversee both marketing and sales

Richard, a salesperson, works for Wellington Steelworks. After researching a qualified lead, Richard is preparing opening lines for meeting the customer for the first time. Which step of the selling process is he about to enter?

approach

A(n) ________ is a written representation of a salesperson's completed activities.

call report

In ________, the producer marks the reduced prices directly on the label or package. These offer consumers savings off the regular price of a product and are very effective in stimulating short-term sales.

cents-off deals

After successfully overcoming a potential customer's objection to buying the vacuum cleaner he was selling, Terrence, a salesperson, asked the customer for an order. Terrence is in the ________ stage of the selling process.

closing

Salespeople can draw prospective leads by referrals from all of the following EXCEPT

competitive salespeople

Which of the following is NOT likely to improve coordination between marketing and sales?

creating rewards systems that put marketing and sales in competition with each other

Which of the following factors has most likely contributed to the rapid growth of sales promotion, particularly in consumer markets?

declining advertising efficiency

Purposes of social selling, the use of online, mobile, and social media, are to do all of the following EXCEPT ________.

eliminate person-to-person selling

All of the following are traits that buyers dislike in salespeople EXCEPT ________.

empathy

Creating a brand-marketing event or serving as a sole or participating sponsor of events created by others is known as ________.

event marketing

Mary Conti, a sales manager at National Computer Training, wants to evaluate the performance of her sales force in the New England territory. Which of the following would Mary most likely use?

expense reports

All of the following are problems associated with the poor selection of salespeople EXCEPT ________.

fewer training expenses

Sales promotions are targeted toward members of the sales force, business customers, retailers, wholesalers, and ________.

final buyers

Which of the following will NOT be a call objective in a preapproach plan?

find the initial lead

Right after closing, Joshua, a senior sales manager at Halcyon Technologies, called up the customer to ensure that she was satisfied with Halcyon's products. By calling the customer, Joshua also wanted to ensure repeat business. In this instance, Joshua is in the ________ stage

follow-up

Robin works in a manufacturing company in Ohio. She sells products and handles customer requests via the company's online live chat feature. In her company, Robin is most likely a part of the ________.

inside sales force

A hybrid sales rep ________.

is a modern cross between a field sales rep and an inside rep

Disadvantages of social selling include ________.

its expense and the difficulty of presenting some things via the Internet

A salesperson of a manufacturing company has qualified a number of leads. Which of the following is most likely the next step in the selling process?

learning as much as possible about the qualified prospects

Which of the following is especially crucial in the approach stage of the selling process?

listening to the customer

Prospects can be qualified by looking at all of the following characteristics EXCEPT

occupational mobility

Melissa Price is a member of the sales force at Urban Fashions, a Houston-based manufacturer of women's apparel. Melissa is preparing for a first meeting with a wholesaler who is a potential customer. She is learning as much as she can about her prospect and his organization. Melissa is in the ________ step of the personal selling process.

preapproach

Capitalizing on the customer's complaints about the previous detergents she has used, Sheila, a salesperson, explains to the customer why her company's detergent Swish is better and how it can be a one-stop solution for everyday washing. In which of the following steps of the selling process is Sheila?

presentation

During the ________ step of the selling process, the salesperson tells the value story to the buyer, showing how the company's product or service solves the customer's problems.

presentation

Johnson Business Solutions maintains one sales force for its copy machines and a separate sales force for its computer systems. Johnson Business Solutions utilizes a ________.

product sales force structure

In the ________ stage of the selling process, a company first identifies qualified potential customers.

prospecting

Which of the following is the first step in the personal selling process?

prospecting and qualifying

A manufacturer that offers cash or gifts to dealers for encouraging the purchase of its products is using ________.

push money

During the prospecting stage, a salesperson needs to identify the good leads and screen out the poor ones through a process known as ________.

qualifying

Which of the following refers to a closing technique used by salespeople?

reviewing points of agreement

Several compensation plans are available to reward and motivate Reliable Tool's salespeople. Since generating new leads and new business can be a goal for the sales force, which compensation plan approach is MOST likely to motivate and direct the salespeople in that direction?

salary, commission, and bonus

Which of the following refers to a positive incentive intended to increase the sales force effort?

sales contests

Which of the following involves computerized, digitized sales force operations that let salespeople work more effectively anytime, anywhere?

sales force automation system

Which of the following is the most effective—but most expensive—way to introduce a new product or create new excitement for an existing one?

sampling

Which of the following is the best way for a company to increase selling time?

simplifying administrative duties

Amanda Perkins is a senior sales manager in Arlington Steelworks. As the customer base of her company has grown larger and more demanding over the last few years, Amanda insists on ________, or using groups of people from various departments such as sales, technical support, engineering, and even upper management to service complex accounts.

team selling

Hannah Adams is a senior sales manager in Elmo Corp., a rapidly growing company manufacturing personal computers and printers. In order to handle sales effectively, Hannah insists on using the services of different groups of people from different departments within the company such as the sales, marketing, technical support, and finance departments. In this instance, Hannah makes use of ________.

team selling

In the ________, each salesperson is assigned to an exclusive geographic area and sells the company's full line of products or services to all customers in that region.

territorial sales force structure

For sales managers to understand how the members of the Reliable Tools sales force spend their time, the salespeople must submit a(n) ________.

time-and-duty analysis

Why are more companies using team selling?

useful for servicing large, complex accounts. Sales teams can uncover problems, solutions, and sales opportunities that no individual salesperson could. In many cases, the move to team selling mirrors similar changes in customers' buying organizations. Many large customer companies have implemented team-based purchasing, requiring marketers to employ equivalent team-based selling. When dealing with large, complex accounts, one salesperson can't be an expert in everything the customer needs. Instead, selling is done by strategic account teams, quarterbacked by senior account managers or customer business managers.