60) A company uses sales representatives for selling the company’s more complex and
customized products to large accounts, while using inside salespeople and Web ordering for low-
end selling. Which of the following describes the company’s sales force best?
A) demand creators
B) direct marketing force
C) missionary sellers
D) technical salesforce
E) leveraged salesforce
61) Your company has customer-service representatives who provide you with leads, write up
proposals, fulfill orders, and provide post-sales support. Your responsibilities are to concentrate
on the larger accounts with more complex and customized needs. Your company most likely has
a ________ salesforce.
A) distributive
B) territory based
C) leveraged
D) decentralized
E) parallel
62) ________ consists of manufacturers’ reps, sales agents, and brokers who earn a commission
based on sales.
A) Virtual salesforce
B) Domestic salesforce
C) Contingent sales force
D) Contractual sales force
E) Decentralized salesforce
63) Part-time paid employees who work exclusively for the company are a part of the ________
salesforce.
A) direct
B) virtual
C) contractual
D) implicit
E) brokered
64) Fixed compensation receives more emphasis in sales rep jobs with ________.
A) a high ratio of selling to nonselling duties
B) a high requirement for individual initiatives
C) an intensive focus on selling activities
D) very little need for teamwork
E) technical complexities
65) Identify the first step in the workload approach to establish sales force size.
A) grouping customers into size classes according to annual sales volume
B) establishing desirable call frequencies for each customer class
C) determining the total workload for the country in terms of sales calls per year
D) determining the average number of calls a sales representative can make per year
E) calculating the total number of sales reps needed
66) Which of the following sales positions is most likely to have fixed compensation?
A) an FMCG salesperson selling to supermarkets
B) a salesperson who handles the industrial customers
C) an insurance agent who works part time
D) a service representative in charge of handling incoming customer queries
E) a telecaller calling up existing customers to bring in additional sales
67) Today’s customers expect a salesperson to have extensive product knowledge, to be efficient
and reliable, and to provide ideas to improve the customer’s operations. These demands are
forcing companies to make higher investments in ________.
A) sales training
B) internal selling
C) management controls
D) advertising
E) sales promotions
68) Company call center executives provide procedural information to the clients who call up to
know the specifications and operation of the product. These call center employees can be called
________.
A) technical support people
B) sales assistants
C) telemarketers
D) deliverer
E) consultants
69) ________ questions ask about the consequences of the buyer’s problems.
A) Situation
B) Problem
C) Implication
D) Need-payoff
E) Solution
70) Jackson, the sales representative of a European manufacturer of commercial heavy duty
washing machines, calls on the hotels in California. During a sales call, he asks the housekeeping
manager of a hotel “How many bed sheets do you wash in a day, on an average?” This question
can be classified as a(n) ________ question.
A) situation
B) problem
C) implication
D) need-payoff
E) consequence
71) Which of the following is an example of a problem question?
A) What system are you using to invoice your customers?
B) How does this problem affect your people’s productivity?
C) What parts of the system create errors?
D) How much would you save if our company could help reduce errors by 80 percent?
E) Which operating system have you installed in your personal computer?
72) Which of the following types of questions directly enquires about the value or usefulness of a
proposed solution?
A) situation questions
B) problem questions
C) implication questions
D) consequence questions
E) need-payoff questions
73) Which of the following is the first step in the process of personal selling?
A) prospecting and qualifying
B) sales preapproach
C) sales presentation
D) unearthing objections
E) demonstrating advantages
74) A salesperson who is contacting possible buyers by mail or phone to assess their level of
interest and financial capacity is in the ________ step of the selling process.
A) preapproach
B) prospecting
C) qualifying
D) following up
E) objection handling
75) In which of the following stages of personal selling does a salesperson tell the product story
to the buyer?
A) preapproach
B) prospecting
C) presentation
D) closing
E) objection handling
76) Catalog marketing and telemarketing are examples of indirect marketing.
77) One of the shortcomings of direct marketing is that the firms cannot easily measure its
response.
78) Direct mail permits target market selectivity and allows early testing and response
measurement.
79) A company’s best prospects are customers who have never bought its products.
80) Direct marketing has the ability to test different elements of an offer strategy under real
marketplace conditions.
81) If a company exaggerates the features of its products in its product catalogue, it can be
classified as deception.
82) Internet is not a suitable channel for engaging in interactive marketing.
83) Display advertisements can be used as a medium for interactive advertising.
84) Microsites are versions of Web sites designed for access from mobile devices.
85) Paid search refers to the practice of charging Internet users a small premium for obtaining
individualized search results.
86) Interstitials are advertisements that pop up between changes on a Web site.
87) Podcasts are digital media files created for playback on portable MP3 players and computers.
88) Word of mouth marketing is not an effective marketing strategy for small firms.
89) Earned media refers to the various paid advertising channels used by companies to obtain
visibility on the Internet.
90) An important characteristic of online communities and forums is the two-way information
flow.
91) Blogs cannot be used for word of mouth advertising as they are not updated on a regular
basis.
92) Advertising is the only way companies can tap social networks to their benefit.
93) Niche social networks provide a more targeted market to the advertisers.
94) Viral marketing is a form of direct marketing where a company advertises its products
through multiple channels simultaneously to spread the word as fast as possible to the maximum
number of people.
95) Buzz marketing is most useful for products that are unconventional and unique.
96) Viral and buzz campaigns are performed with minimal involvement of consumers and
prospects.
97) A clique is a small group whose members interact frequently.
98) A firm is said to engage in shill marketing if it pays people to anonymously promote a
product or service to consumers in public places without disclosing their financial relationship to
the sponsoring firm.
99) Proxies and cookies can be used by firms to monitor customers when they are blogging,
commenting, or posting in social networks.
100) Most industrial companies rely heavily on Internet selling and buzz marketing to promote
their products.
101) A salesperson calling on supermarkets to take repeat orders is called an order taker.
102) Demand creators are not permitted to take an order but expected rather to build goodwill or
educate the actual or potential user.
103) Targeting refers to the process of deciding which customers will get scarce products during
product shortages.
104) Information gathering refers to the act of conducting market research and doing intelligence
work.
105) A contractual sales force consists of part-time employees who work exclusively for the
company.
106) A company that sells one product line to one end-using industry with customers in many
locations would use product or market structure for its salesforce.
107) The first step in the workload approach for designing salesforce size is to establish desirable
call frequencies for each customer class.
108) The fixed amount in a salesperson’s salary is majorly designed to stimulate and reward
efforts from salespeople.
109) Variable compensation is common in jobs where the selling task is technically complex and
requires teamwork.
110) Sales representatives who are paid mostly in commissions require more supervision than
other salespeople.
111) An employee who provides clerical backup for outside salespersons, runs credit checks,
follows up on deliveries, and answer customers’ business-related questions is called a sales
assistant.
112) A manager is using feed-forward sales supervision when he communicates what the sales
reps should be doing and motivates them to do it.
113) Implication questions ask about the consequences of a buyer’s problems, difficulties, or
dissatisfactions.
114) Situation questions focus on the problems, difficulties, and dissatisfaction a buyer might be
experiencing with the existing situation.
115) Closing signs from the buyer include physical actions, statements or comments, and
questions.
116) What is direct marketing? What are the various channels that direct marketers use?
117) Most direct marketers apply the RFM formula to select customers. Explain this formula and
how it is used to select customers.
118) What are the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in interactive marketing using the
Web?
119) Briefly describe the various forms of online interactive marketing.
120) Explain the importance of word of mouth marketing. Briefly describe some of the channels
that customers use to spread word of mouth.
121) Explain viral marketing and buzz marketing.
122) The term sales representative covers a broad range of positions, tasks, and responsibilities.
List and briefly describe each of the positions.
123) Briefly explain the various tasks that the salespeople of an organization perform.
124) Most companies set annual quotas. Quotas can be on dollar sales, unit volume, margin,
selling effort, or activity and product type. Compensation is often tied to the degree of quota
attainment. What problems does the setting of quotas present to both the company and to the
sales representative?
125) What are the six steps in personal selling?
126) DB bank is launching a new investment product targeting senior citizens in the U.S. The
company decides to use direct marketing for selling the product. What direct marketing strategy
would allow the company early testing and response measurement of the product?
127) What are the five elements of an offer strategy?
128) Integron Inc., a company that manufactures office furniture, has recently observed a dip in
its profitability. Salespeople visit an average prospect at least six times before closing a deal.
What suggestion can you give the company to reduce this expense of direct marketing and
increase its profitability?
129) Roler Telecom, a leading mobile telephone operator in Asia, engages in aggressive
marketing promotions. The company sends promotional messages to customers and makes
promotional calls on a regular basis. However, these aggressive promotion efforts often irritate
its customers. What could be the likely outcome of this?
130) Ardrino Inc., which produces computer gadgets such as Webcams, earphones, and mouse
devices, makes effective use of the Web to sell its products. The company uses email as the
major medium for prospecting because it is cost effective. What are the possible challenges that
the company can face due to its heavy dependence on the Internet? Would you suggest any
changes in their strategy?
131) What aspects need to be considered when designing a company Web site?
132) When you search Google for keywords such as “insurance,” you observe highlighted results
in a different color and format, above the search results. What are these results? Do they bring
revenue to Google?
133) When you click on some of the links in a Web site, before displaying the intended page,
you see advertisements from third parties. What are these advertisements called?
134) What is the major difference between earned media and paid media?
135) Many individuals, including famous personalities, maintain online diaries to express their
views on a regular basis. What are these online journals called? What marketing implications do
these journals have?
136) Provide two examples of social networking Web sites that can be used for marketing
purposes.
137) Ranbor Mobiles is planning to launch a new smart phone. The company wants to create
awareness and hype about the product in the target market. It releases an ad featuring a popular
youth icon and highlights the phone’s special features on a popular video sharing Web site.
Within an hour of its release, the ad was viewed a million times. Is Ranbor using a viral
marketing strategy or a shill marketing strategy? Explain your answer.
138) What is buzz marketing?
139) Stromm Inc. is a leading manufacturer of electronic appliances. The company has recently
invented an air conditioner that consumes much less power than competing offerings and wants
to create a hype for the new product. What marketing strategies can the company use to make the
product a talking point?
140) What are cliques? How can two cliques be related?
141) Jack is the sales representative of a company that designs and installs modular kitchens. The
company’s salesforce is trained to customize their offerings as per customer requirements. After
analyzing factors such as the space available and the budget, Jack provides personalized designs
to individual customers. What kind of a salesperson is Jack? Briefly explain your answer.
142) You are appointed as the B2B sales representative of a manufacturing company. What are
the various tasks that you will have to perform as a B2B salesperson?
143) You are the sales manager of a company that manufactures and markets server computers.
The company’s products require high-involvement from the sellers and require salespeople to
provide complex and technical information. What kind of a compensation structure do you select
for your sales representatives?
144) Which type of questions allow salespeople to understand facts or explore the buyer’s
present state of affairs?
145) You work as a sales representative in a company that manufactures surgical equipment.
Before calling on an important prospect, you decide to search the Internet and find out details
about him. What step in the selling process is being carried out here? What is the importance of
this step?