Review and Assignments for Chapter 17
Review Quesons
1. Discuss the role of personal selling in promoting products. What advantages does
personal selling offer over other forms of promotion?
2. What are the major advantages of personal selling to the company selling a product?
What are the advantages to the person or company buying the product?
Personal selling is considerably more effective than other forms of promotion in obtaining
a sale and gaining a satisfied customer. An advantage to a buyer, especially of a new or
3. What are the key differences between relationship selling and traditional methods of
selling? Which types of products or services do you think would be conducive to
relationship selling?
The answer for the first part of the question should focus on the key differences highlighted
Relationship selling is most suitable for products that are complex or customized, need
4. Based on the key differences between traditional and relationship selling, which type of
sales approach would you use as a salesperson? Do the different approaches require
different personal strengths or attributes?
5. What does sales follow-up entail? Why is it an essential step in the selling process,
particularly from the perspective of relationship selling? How does it relate to
cognitive dissonance?
Although students’ answers will vary, they should address some of these points: A
salesperson who properly follows up a sale ensures that delivery schedules are met,
6. Consider each step in the selling process. Which steps could be conducted through
technology (Internet, webinars, etc.)? Which are most important to handle
“face-to-face”?
7. How does each of the sales management functions contribute to a successful,
high-performing sales force?
Students should consider the contributions of goal setting, effective sales process and
Applicaon Quesons
1. You are a new salesperson for a well-known medical software company, and one of your
clients is a large group of physicians. You have just arranged an initial meeting with
the office manager. Develop a list of questions you will ask at this meeting to uncover
the group’s specific needs.
Although students’ answers will vary, they should address some of these points: The
need-satisfaction approach would be the most effective method of selling medical software
2. In how many ways can ZapData (http://www.zapdata.com/) benefit salespeople? Which
of its services would be most useful to marketing managers? Other businesspeople?
3. Consider each step in the selling process. Which steps could be conducted through
technology (Internet, webinars, etc.)? Which are most important to handle
“face-to-face”?
4. What kinds of sales management opportunities are available at Amway and Quixtar?
Use the companies’ websites (www.amway.com; www.quixtar.com) to research one of
these companies and determine its sales process, sales force structure, and how it
recruits and trains its salespeople.
Applicaon Exercise
Have you ever waited forever to get a fast-food hamburger? Have you ever been left to languish
in a dressing room by a salesperson that left for a coffee break? If so, you already know that sales
and customer service are integral parts of marketing. While you are working on this chapter,
keep a journal of your personal sales and customer service experiences with local merchants.
Don’t ignore the details. Even such things as how crowded a store or restaurant is when you visit
may affect your perceptions of the service you received.
Activities
1. Keep your journal for a week, recording all sales and service transactions, if possible, on the
day they occur.
2. At the end of the week, examine your journal and pick the most noteworthy entry. Provide
the basic information about the transaction: company where it occurred, type of transaction
(purchase, return, complaint, etc.), type of good or service involved, and so forth.
3. Once you have outlined the situation, evaluate the experience. Use the information about
selling in this chapter as support for your evaluation. For example, did the salesperson
seem to treat the situation as an individual, discrete transaction, or did he or she seem
interested in building a relationship?
4. Finally, make recommendations as to how the company can improve its sales or service.
Suggestions should be logical and achievable (meaning you have to consider the cost of
implementing your suggestion).
Purpose: To have students think critically about sales and sales experiences from the customer
and sales representative point of view
Setting It Up: This works best as an individual assignment. The journal format allows for
collection of data as well as reflection on their meaning.
This exercise was inspired by the following Great Idea in Teaching Marketing:
John Ronchetto, University of San Diego
Sales and Customer Service Experiential Journal and Paper
During the first ten weeks of a personal selling course, students keep a journal or diary of their
separate sales and customer service experiences with local merchants. For each interaction, they
register factual information (where, when, nature of interaction), key selling or conflict
In the second phase of this assignment, students write about one of their most noteworthy
experiences in terms of learning value. They discuss the organization, the sales or service
In their written analysis and evaluation of this specific sales or service encounter, students
recommend the most important actions the sales or service person should take to change the
Ethics Exercise
Sally Burke works for Hi-Tech Electronics. Her responsibilities include selecting items to
advertise in her company’s Sunday newspaper FSIs. One hot item is a 74-inch flat-panel 3D
Questions
1. Is it unethical to advertise products at their post-rebate price to increase sales? Why, or
why not? What is another sales promotion method Hi-Tech Electronics could use to
persuade customers to buy their plasma TV at the store?
Students’ answers will vary, but they should include the following points: Most products
containing a rebate will show the original price, the price after the rebate, and the savings.
2. Rebate programs are commonly used by electronic manufacturers because the rebates
arouse consumers’ interest in buying products, yet only half of purchasers ultimately
claim their rebates. Is a rebate program itself unethical if the manufacturer knows
consumers are unlikely to receive their money?
Students may have differing opinions. It would be unethical for manufacturers to not pay
the customers who do fill out the rebate claim; however, those customers who do not fill
3. Visit a local electronics store or website and find a product being sold with a mail-in
rebate offer. Are the rebate instructions clear? Would you take the time to complete
the process?
Video Assignment: New Balance Hubway
New Balance Hubway is a bike-sharing system located in Boston, Massachusetts, designed to
augment existing transportation systems in the greater Boston area. In this clip, Hubway
discusses how they generate buzz and get funding to build their bike share network.
1. By crunching the numbers and awarding highest-use members “Gold-club” t-shirts,
Hubway was performing which step in the customer relationship management (CRM)
system?
a. Identifying customer relationships
b. Understanding the interactions of the customer base
c. Capturing customer data
d. Leveraging customer information
2. For Hubway, PR launch events function as a point-of-sale interaction.
a. True
b. False
3. Based on this video clip, New Balance Hubway uses advertising and promotion more than
personal selling.
a. True
b. False
4. Twitter allows Hubway to talk and respond directly to customers, and all social media
allows Hubway to give one person a direct message, creating a strong relationship and
encouraging word of mouth. It also allows for conversations to happen in a one-on-one
way. Social media is the modern version of personal selling.
a. True
b. False
ANS: A
While lacking physical face-to-face communication, social media can be a type of personal
selling, though it is not exclusively used in that way.
5. Customers coming out to events, such as the one at the Boston Public Library, and buying
annual memberships make those events _____.
a. learning opportunities
b. campaign management
c. touch points
d. relationship selling
Case Assignment: Girl Scouts of the USA
Girl Scouts of the USA have been part of the American tradition for over 100 years, and their
cookies have been part of American culture for almost as long. In March 12, 1912, in Savannah,
Girl Scout Cookies made their first appearance in 1917 as a way to finance troop
activities. The cookies were homemade by the girls under the supervision of their mothers. The
Cookie fundraisers were suspended during World War II, when the girls sold calendars
due to shortages in sugar, flour, and butter. But after the war, cookie sales increased, and by
Over the years, the Girl Scouts of the USA have added and removed cookie varieties,
redesigned packaging, and changed officially licensed bakers. At their National Girl Scout
On National S’mores Day 2016 (August 10), the Girl Scouts of the USA announced the
The new cookies were inspired by the s’more, another iconic American treat popularized
“The new Girl Scout S’mores cookies capture the adventurous spirit, love of the
outdoors, and feeling of community that are synonymous with Girl Scouts,” said Sylvia
Girl Scouts are responsible for the popularity of the s’more going all the way back to the
To celebrate National S’mores Day and the new cookies, Girl Scout councils around the
Sources: “Girl Scout Cookie History,” Girl Scouts, accessed October 24, 2016,
Scout S’mores Cookies for 2017 Lineup,” Girl Scouts, August 10, 2016, accessed October 24,
2016,