Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 14e (Manning/Ahearne/Reece)
Chapter 1 Relationship Selling Opportunities in the Information Economy
1) The three prescriptions involved in developing a personal-selling philosophy are to adopt the
marketing concept, to assume the role of problem solver or partner in helping customers make
informed and intelligent business decisions, and to:
A) value personal selling
B) assess risk accurately
C) learn skills of persuasion
D) overcome objections
E) create a pipeline
2) Sanchez’s success is due largely to the fact that:
A) he was born with the personality of a successful salesperson and capitalized on that
B) he understood the key factors involved in becoming an excellent salesperson and worked to
develop skills to support those factors
C) he has unlimited energy and makes more cold calls than any other salesperson at his level in
the company
D) he knows how to persuade prospects to buy the products he is selling
E) men tend to be more successful at selling industrial products than women are
3) To become a successful salesperson, Sanchez had to adopt a personal selling philosophy.
Which of the three prescriptions of that philosophy is not only a mindset but a skill that he has
practiced and honed to become successful?
A) adopt the marketing concept
B) value personal selling
C) assume the role of problem solver or partner in helping customers make informed and
intelligent buying decisions
D) focus on product knowledge and everything else will follow
E) develop the ability to create rapport with customers so they are buying from a friend
4) What essential quality will Roni need to have to be successful in sales?
A) She will need to enjoy interacting with potential customers and customers.
B) She will need to enjoy making money.
C) She will need to enjoy creating branding and marketing campaigns for products.
D) She will need to enjoy servicing customers who have purchased the product from the
company.
E) She will need to enjoy competing fiercely with other salespeople for sales and commissions.
5) Assuming the role of a problem solver is part of developing a personal-selling philosophy.
6) Salespeople use social media to:
A) design web pages with product features
B) learn to use administrative software
C) create and maintain customer contact
D) set up mobile offices from their vehicles
E) automate selling so they do not have to make client contact
7) The phrase “information economy” refers to the shift in the economy from:
A) agricultural production to industrial activity
B) industrial activity to agricultural production
C) industrial activity to an emphasis on information processing
D) information processing to industrial activity
E) agricultural production to information processing
8) Technology has increased the speed at which we collect customer intelligence and disseminate
product information, and it allows salespeople to add value for their employers by doing which
of the following in addition to selling to customers?
A) distributing information to competitors
B) gathering information on the marketplace
C) purchasing from vendors in adjacent industries
D) developing sales training programs for external clients
E) performing marketing and strategy functions
9) Sanchez and his department are most likely using which of the following sales methods?
A) unified selling
B) value–added selling
C) transactional selling
D) traditional selling
E) economy selling
10) Which of the following trends in sales has led to an increase in both the education and skills
a salesperson needs?
A) an increase in commission per sale
B) an increase in the time spent on personal relationships
C) an increase in web–based selling channels
D) a shift from in–person to telephone sales
E) a shift from “selling” to “consulting“
11) Of the following activities routinely performed by salespeople, which one contributes
LEAST financially to both the salesperson and the company?
A) service calls
B) face–to–face selling
C) telephone selling
D) waiting and traveling
E) billing clients
12) Some top-performing salespeople earn more than their managers. This compensation is most
likely made up of:
A) bonuses only
B) base salary, commissions, bonuses, and incentives
C) commissions and charge-backs
D) bonuses and dividends
E) IPOs and base salary
13) On average, an experienced, high-performing salesperson will find the highest compensation
opportunities with which type of selling?
A) feature/benefit
B) transactional
C) value-added
D) solution
E) directed
14) Psychic income in selling most likely refers to which one of the following?
A) visibility provided by working in the sales department
B) satisfaction of being on a commission payment plan
C) high commissions earned because of successful “intuitive” selling
D) opportunity to be a member of the sales team
E) job recognition afforded sales personnel
15) Salespeople are competitive with workers in other positions when being considered for
promotion to positions of greater responsibilities because salespeople:
A) have limited opportunities for advancement in the sales department
B) are compensated primarily through psychic income
C) have worked for many companies in their careers
D) have numerous opportunities to advance to middle-management ranks
E) have high visibility within companies already relative to other positions
16) There is a pay gap between men and women in the field of sales, with men earning more than
women. Despite this, sales represents an excellent financial opportunity for women for which of
the following reasons?
A) The pay gap in sales is less than the pay gap in the workforce overall.
B) The pay gap varies from company to company.
C) The pay gap is only an issue in certain industries.
D) The psychic income from sales is equivalent to the value of the pay gap.
E) The psychic income from sales cannot be quantified.
17) Which of the following would be a reason for Sanchez to remain in his Senior Regional
Sales Director position instead of moving to executive management?
A) Upper management makes a much larger salary than a Senior Regional Sales Director does.
B) The Senior Regional Sales Director position spends a significant amount of time traveling the
territory every month.
C) He would be one of the only Latino members of the upper management team.
D) He has more freedom to direct his own business strategy in sales than he does in upper
management.
E) The company likes to promote employees with sales backgrounds into upper management.
18) Despite her interest in sales, Roni is concerned when she learns that, on average, female
salespeople make less money than do male salespeople. Which one of the following statements is
most likely true?
A) Male salespeople have controlled the industry for almost a century, so there is no reason to
think female salespeople will ever be able to equal male earnings.
B) Male salespeople would like to earn salaries equal to the salaries of female salespeople, but
industry regulations have set their starting salaries at unequal rates.
C) Female salespeople will never earn as much as male salespeople will in certain industries,
such as heavy industry and transportation.
D) Female salespeople make less money than male salespeople do because they must take care
of their families and therefore cannot be as focused on their jobs as men are.
E) The difference between the average earnings of female and male salespeople is less than the
difference between the average earnings of female and male workers in other professions.
19) Right before graduation, Roni receives two job offers. One is for a sales position and offers a
base salary of $30,000 plus commissions. The other is for a marketing assistant position and
offers a straight salary of $40,000. Which of the following is likely to be true about the two
positions?
A) The sales job could end up paying more than the marketing job if Roni does well and makes
more than $10,000 in commissions.
B) The sales and marketing positions will have roughly equivalent duties, but different salaries.
C) Roni will need more training to do the marketing job than to do the sales job.
D) The marketing job pays more in salary because it is more demanding than the sales job is.
E) The sales job relies more on personality and the marketing job relies more on skills.
20) The target client for this system is likely to be a client company that:
A) is interested in using technology to sell to clients, but has not started yet because they don’t
know exactly what their needs are or how their clients will react
B) has a stable base of clients that have been with them for years and place consistent orders
C) has enough familiarity with using technology to sell to clients to know that an integrated
system will increase sales efficiency
D) focuses exclusively on selling services and not products, so that they can conduct business
exclusively over the internet
E) is expanding into new markets and needs help with supply chain efficiency and logistics
21) Another name for missionary salespeople is “detail salespeople.”
22) Salespeople today need to have more education and skills than salespeople did in the past.
23) Salespeople who are promoted to management make more money than do their coworkers
who stay in sales.
24) Sales positions can be a good track for promotion to supervisory-management positions.
25) The highest compensation for salespeople generally goes to those focusing on transactional
sales.
26) ________ income helps satisfy our need for recognition and security.
27) The ________ salesperson is usually not compensated on the basis of the orders obtained,
but receives recognition for indirectly increasing sales.
28) Which of the following is an activity that would most likely be performed by a customer
service representative (CSR)?
A) processing employee paperwork
B) delivering supplies to the factory floor
C) providing telephone support for installation
D) calling on prospects to sell them the product
E) reconciling bank statements with accounting records
29) The duties of inside salespeople may overlap heavily with the duties of:
A) sales managers
B) account managers
C) product developers
D) supply buyers
E) internal auditors
30) Alan Karbashian spends all day driving from customer site to customer site for sales
meetings in his job with a national medical parts manufacturer. Alan is considered a(n):
A) inside sales representative
B) outside sales representative
C) alignment representative
D) distributing representative
E) interchange representative
31) In a well-structured sales department, inside and outside salespeople often:
A) compete for sales and customers
B) duplicate their efforts and increase the company’s cost per sale
C) work together to generate leads, close sales, and provide service
D) exchange leads depending on what the expected sales will be
E) combine their monthly sales figures to increase commissions
32) Trade selling and missionary (detail) sales are both examples of sales:
A) directly from the manufacturer to the consumer
B) from the distributor to the consumer
C) bypassing the manufacturer to the distributor
D) inside the supply chain but not to the consumer
E) externally from the consumer to the supplier
33) Sales opportunities in the service sector are most likely expanding because:
A) service providers connect directly with consumers
B) the service industry has a higher growth rate than does the product industry
C) modern consumers need help with activities that they used to be able to do on their own
D) the service industry is starting to saturate the market relative to the industrial and product
industries
E) the service industry provides a higher commission rate for salespeople than other industries
34) Which of the following sectors would NOT be considered part of the service industry?
A) hotel
B) insurance
C) banking
D) real estate
E) chemicals
35) What event contributed most to the increased need for telecommunications salespeople?
A) deregulation of telephone service
B) anti–trust suits brought against the telecommunications industry
C) financial improprieties in the telecommunications industry
D) creation of a national regulatory committee for telephone service
E) development of voice-over-IP (VoIP) technologies
36) Sales engineers are people with extensive knowledge of their product who also:
A) provide service on the product after the sale
B) develop the product as part of the research and development team
C) communicate the benefits of the product to the customers
D) have advanced degrees in science or technology
E) have graduate–level sales training
37) Which of the following describes a category of sales personnel in the field of manufacturing?
A) sales engineer
B) field researcher
C) comptroller
D) technical support representative
E) research and development director
38) Salespeople in the U.S. report that they work in sales primarily to:
A) be promoted to management
B) avoid working traditional hours
C) have greater flexibility with retirement
D) make more money
E) generate pension credits