ABC’s of Relationship Selling, 13e (Futrell)
Chapter 4 Communication for Relationship Building: It’s not All Talk
1) The ability to communicate effectively is the second most important skill for a sales career
behind financial shrewdness.
2) Communication, in a sales context, is an exchange process.
3) In a normal two-person conversation, at least 60 percent of the social meaning is expressed
verbally.
4) The source of communication in a sales presentation is the producer/manufacturer.
5) The conversion by the salesperson of ideas and concepts into language and material is the
decoding process.
6) The receiver is the person for whom communication is intended.
7) In order for feedback to be valid, it must be verbal.
8) Recognition and analysis of nonverbal communication in sales transactions has been
acknowledged for years.
9) Personal space refers to all the area around a person that an individual will not allow another
person to enter without consent.
10) Entering a buyer’s intimate space before the prospect is ready is endearing to the buyer and
helps the salesperson close the sale.
11) Social space is established in a selling situation when two people shake hands.
12) An adaptive salesperson uses his or her actions, communication and behaviors to
demonstrate to the buyer that he or she is similar to the buyer and compatible with the buyer.
13) The unspoken message in most companies is that freedom in dress may be a privilege of
rank.
14) Adaptive selling describes the salesperson’s ability to adjust and modify their behaviors to
better align with their customers’ needs.
15) A prospect can communicate with you without uttering a word.
16) Acceptance signals indicate the buyer is favorably inclined toward the presentation.
17) The buyer projects caution signals with a body angle that leans toward you.
18) Buyers may project caution signals with puzzled expressions.
19) A salesperson can change caution signals into agreement signals by speeding up her planned
presentation.
20) Disagreement signals should alert the salesperson that the prospect is either neutral to or
skeptical of what is being said in the sales presentation.
21) When a salesperson receives disagreement signals, he should immediately stop his planned
presentation and quickly adjust to the unplanned situation.
22) Disagreement signals should be handled by using close-ended questions and projecting
acceptance signals.
23) A senser is a people-oriented individual who is sensitive to people’s needs.
24) Self-concept theory asserts that buyers have four images: real self, self-image, ideal self, and
looking-glass self.
25) The ideal self is how people see themselves, and the looking-glass self refers to how people
think others regard them.
26) Successful salespeople are true to their own self-image and do not try to match their
communication style with that of their prospect.
27) Mirroring or mimicry happens when people take part in similar actions at relatively the same
time (i.e. within three to five seconds).
28) Even if a salesperson fails to notice the feedback signals being sent by a prospect, feedback
has still occurred.
29) Probing questions are intended to assess the buyer’s attitude about a sales presentation.
30) Empathy is the ability to identify and understand the other person’s feelings, ideas, and
situation.
31) Unless necessary, highly technical presentations should be avoided.
32) Hearing means getting meaning from sounds.
33) People can listen approximately twice as fast as they can talk.
34) Active listening involves trying to see the other person’s viewpoint.
35) When engaged in marginal listening, Andrew, the salesperson, refrains from evaluating the
message and tries to see the prospects’ point of view.
36) The evaluative listener tries to hear what another person says but makes little effort to
understand the purpose of the message.
37) A salesperson can be more effective in converting his or her ideas into language with an
enthusiastic attitude and effective proof statements.
38) Proof statements can add credibility to a sales message.
39) Which of the following is the LEAST likely communication method for building long-term
relationships based on the Core Principles of Professional Selling?
A) Asking questions periodically
B) Assessing body language
C) Listening carefully to others
D) Making comments when needed
E) Becoming multi-lingual
40) ________ is the act of transmitting verbal and nonverbal information and understanding
between seller and buyer.
A) Communication
B) Empathizing
C) Persuasion
D) Decoding
E) Encoding
41) In a normal two-person conversation, more than 65% of the social meaning of what is
communicated is conveyed:
A) by the receiver.
B) nonverbally.
C) in a distorted manner.
D) orally.
E) in written format.
42) Research has found that the majority of face-to-face communication consists of ________
expressions.
A) explicit
B) verbal
C) vocal
D) nonverbal
E) persuasive
43) From a communications model perspective, the salesperson in a sales call is the:
A) source.
B) dispatcher.
C) presenter.
D) receiver.
E) decoder.
44) What is the salesperson doing when he translates the ideas and concepts contained in his
mind into words?
A) Decoding
B) Processing
C) Encoding
D) Translating
E) Receiving
45) Reaction to the communication as transmitted to the sender is known as:
A) medium.
B) feedback.
C) source.
D) message.
E) decoder.
46) In the communication process, the information conveyed by the salesperson to the prospect
during the sales presentation is called:
A) the source context.
B) encoding.
C) the medium.
D) decoding.
E) the message.
47) When you call on a prospect, your words, visual materials, and your body language are all
used to communicate with your prospect. These are called:
A) feedback precipitators.
B) encoding tools.
C) mediums.
D) decoding mechanisms.
E) message sources.
48) The Top-Flite salesperson calls on a sports equipment retailer and describes his company’s
new golf balls as having “titanium in the cover to create explosive distance” and “tungsten in the
core for amazing control on the greens”. In the communication process, the description of the
golf balls is the:
A) medium.
B) feedback.
C) source.
D) message.
E) decoder.
49) The Top-Flite salesperson calls on a sports equipment retailer and describes his company’s
new golf balls as having “titanium in the cover to create explosive distance” and “tungsten in the
core for amazing control on the greens”. The retailer does not understand why the golf balls have
tungsten in their core because he is not a golfer himself. In terms of the communication process,
this represents a problem with:
A) source context.
B) encoding.
C) the medium.
D) decoding.
E) the message feedback.
50) What is the term used to describe the reception and translation of information by the
receiver?
A) The communication process
B) The message context
C) The encoding process
D) The decoding process
E) The medium selection
51) The Top-Flite salesperson calls on a sports equipment retailer to sell him the company’s new
line of golf balls specifically designed for women golfers. From a communications model
perspective, the retailer is the:
A) source.
B) encoder.
C) communication deliverer.
D) receiver.
E) sender.
52) In terms of the basic communication model:
A) the customer is the source.
B) the trial close is the feedback.
C) there is no noise.
D) the sales presentation contains the message.
E) the medium is either verbal or nonverbal, but not both.
53) The MIT Precision Products salesperson called on the dentist and described his company’s
new drill as having “unbelievable cutting power” and “a perfect balance to reduce hand fatigue.”
The dentist looked at the salesperson as if he were crazy and said, “I will never use your
company’s product. It was due to an MIT product that I failed to graduate with the rest of my
classmates.” In terms of the communication process, the dentist:
A) encoded the message.
B) created noise.
C) provided feedback.
D) changed the communication channel.
E) altered the communication medium.