Deck 13: Evaluating Salesperson Performance

Question 1

What are the common instructions given to sales managers using evaluation forms?

Answer 1

Read the definitions of each trait thoroughly and carefully before rating. Guard against the common tendency to overrate. Do not let personal like or dislike influence your rating. Have sound reasons for your ratings. Never rate an employee on several instances of good or poor work but rather on his or her general success or failure over the whole appraisal period. Base your rating on the observed performance of the salesperson.

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of an objective evaluation method?

A) Personality rating factors
B) Active and new prospect account tallies
C) Behaviorally anchored rating scales
D) Technical skills
E) Good customer relationship tallies

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following ratios does NOT reflect how well a salesperson is capturing the potential business that exists in his or her territory?

A) Account penetration ratio
B) The cost per call ratio
C) The new account conversion ratio
D) The sales per account ratio
E) The average order size ratio

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In 360-degree sales performance feedback, which of the following people would NOT be included?

A) The customer
B) The sales team
C) The sales manager
D) The competitors
E) The delivery personnel

Question 5

Which of the following would NOT be an advisable instruction to management for the completion of performance rating forms?

A) Guard against the common tendency to overrate
B) Do not let personal like or dislike influence your rating
C) Have sound reasons for your ratings
D) Never rate an employee on several instances of good or poor work, but rather, on his or her general success or failure over the whole appraisal period
E) Base your rating on the salesperson's potential ability

Question 6

Interpersonal bias, lack of an outcome focus and the halo effect are all problems encountered with:

A) Marketing audits
B) Cost/profitability analyses
C) Performance measures based on a salesperson's service record
D) The BARS system
E) Subjective performance rating forms

Question 7

The customer relationship management philosophy embraces the idea that the customer is a customer of:

A) The sales representative
B) The sales team
C) The sales manager
D) The company
E) The customer

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a commonly evaluated subjective attribute used in merit rating forms?

A) Customer and company relations
B) Job knowledge
C) Sales results
D) Dependability
E) Resourcefulness

Question 9

The instruction, ""Do not permit your evaluation of one factor to influence your evaluation of another,"" would prevent _____ from affecting a performance measurement rating form.

A) Organizational use influences
B) A lack of outcome focus
C) The halo effect
D) The central tendency effect
E) Interpersonal bias

Question 10

A BARS system focuses on:

A) A full range of factors that affect any employee's performance
B) A few critical success factors
C) Only objective performance indexes
D) The one critical incident that separates successful salespeople from unsuccessful ones
E) Only those factors that motivate employees

Question 11

A salesperson's hit ratio or batting average is the:

A) Number of new accounts/total number of accounts
B) Sales dollar volume/total sales volume in dollars
C) Number of orders/total number of sales
D) Total costs/number of calls
E) Number of new accounts/total number of accounts

Question 12

Which of the following statements about methods of measuring a salesperson's performance is true?

A) Number of days worked x calls per day is used to determine a salesperson's optimum territory size
B) Non-selling activities are hard to measure because the data must be collected from current and potential customers
C) A salesperson who makes 30 calls 20 planned and 10 unplanned) and collects 24 orders has a batting average of .8 and a planned call ratio of 2
D) Days worked x call rate x batting average x average order size = sales
E) Account share is a key measure for companies that rely on team selling

Question 13

Which of the following is an example of a productivity ratio that a sales manager might use to evaluate a sales representative?

A) Order cancellation ratio
B) Lost account ratio
C) Planned call ratio
D) Average order size ratio
E) All of the above

Question 14

A review of a salesperson's evaluations shows that the average score given, on a 7-point scale, was 4.5 with a variance of 1.0. This indicates that the appraiser may have been adversely affected by:

A) The central tendency effect
B) The halo effect
C) Organizational use influence
D) Leniency
E) An interpersonal bias

Question 15

If promotion and monetary rewards hinge on ratings, management can be affected by:

A) The halo effect
B) Leniency
C) The lack of outcome focus
D) The central tendency
E) An interpersonal bias

Question 16

The account penetration ratio:

A) Provides a direct measure of whether the salesperson is skimming the cream off the territory
B) Measures how well a salesperson is able to keep prior accounts as active customers
C) Measures how successful a salesperson is at turning leads into suspects
D) Indicates a salesperson's average success per account
E) Reveals the salesperson's call patterns

Question 17

Outcome bias occurs when a sales manager:

A) Allows the outcome of a mistake made by a salesperson to overly influence the his or her decision
B) Allows the basis of a decision made by the manager to overly influence the salesperson
C) Allows the basis of a decision made by a salesperson to overly influence the his or her decision
D) Allows the input of a decision or a series of decisions made by a manager to overly influence the performance ratings made by the manager
E) Allows the outcome of a decision or a series of decisions made by a salesperson to overly influence the performance ratings made by the manager

Question 18

Which of the following statements about BARS (behaviorally anchored rating scale) systems is true?

A) There are often many factors that are critical to the success of a salesperson and these are identified in the procedure for developing a BARS system
B) A BARS system emphasizes behavior rather than performance and effectiveness
C) Unlike other performance appraisal systems, a BARS system requires appropriate personnel to consider in detail the components of a salesperson's performance
D) One advantage of a BARS system over other performance appraisal systems is the fact that it is an inexpensive system to implement
E) A BARS system is a sophisticated type of merit rating form

Question 19

Which of the following describes an advantage inherent in the BARS (behaviorally anchored rating scale) system?

A) A BARS system removes the possibility of bias
B) A BARS system is inexpensive to develop and implement
C) A BARS system emphasizes behavior and performance rather than effectiveness
D) A BARS system provides an accurate measure of behavior, performance and effectiveness
E) A BARS system gives management the ability to develop one scale to assess the performance of all types of salespeople within their firm

Question 20

The worst type of merit rating forms:

A) Are superior to all other subjective performance appraisal methods
B) Burden managers by requiring written justification for each rating
C) Are overly concerned with behaviors and not with actual performance
D) Simply list attributes of interest along one side of the form and evaluation adjectives along the other
E) Require mangers to assess such hard-to-measure attributes as job knowledge and customer relations

Question 21

What is the difference between a cost per call ratio and an order per call ratio?

Question 22

Which performance measure would a manager use to determine whether the salesperson was skimming the best accounts or working a territory systematically and hard?

Question 23

What sales performance ratio would a manager most likely use to measure a salesperson's effectiveness in acquiring new accounts. How is this measure calculated?

Question 24

Cost per call is _________.

A) Total cost divided by number calls.
B) Total sales divided by number of calls.
C) Expenses divided by sales.
D) Sales divided by expenses.
E) None of the above.

Question 25

How is a salesperson's hit rate measured?

Question 26

When assessing a salesperson's division of time among sales calls, traveling, office work, and other activities, what is the assumed goal?

Question 27

The sales expense ratio combines salespeople's ______ and __________

A) Outputs; behavior
B) Effectiveness; Attribution
C) Bias; objectivity
D) Inputs; results
E) Effort; expense

Question 28

When appraisals of salespeople __________________ job satisfaction increases.

A) Provide clear criteria
B) Meet the approval of salespeople
C) Are perceived as fair
D) Are perceived as fair and used in determining rewards
E) All of the above

Question 29

What objective measures of performance are used in evaluating salespeople?

Question 30

What are the typical measures of effectiveness used in assessing salespeople?

Question 31

What three factors could cause a salesperson to fall below quota?

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of an account development and servicing ratio that a sales manager might use to evaluate a sales representative?

A) Sales expense ratio
B) Account penetration ratio
C) Calls per account ratio
D) The hit ratio
E) Planned call ratio

Question 33

What are the common problems associated with subjective measures of sales performance?

Question 34

What is 360-degree performance feedback?

Question 35

Input measures for calls includes all the following EXCEPT:

A) Total Number of Calls
B) Total calls to retrieve lost clients
C) Number of planned calls
D) Number of unplanned calls
E) None of the above

Question 36

The concept of performance management is analogous to:

A) Behavioral anchored rating scales BARS)
B) Total quality management TQM)
C) Performance promotion policies PPP)
D) Just-in-time sales JIT)
E) Accelerated sales analysis ASA)

Question 37

(Days Worked) x (Calls per Day) provides a direct measure of:

A) Inequities in territory potential
B) A salesperson's level motivation
C) Inequities in territory size
D) The extent of customer contact
E) A salesperson's aptitude

Question 38

What are the most commonly used attributes in evaluating salespeople's performance?

Question 39

What are some of the subjective measures used in sales performance analysis and how are they typically used?

Question 40

In attribution theory, how is performance measured?

Question 41

The average size of the orders a salesperson secures is as important as the number of orders.

Question 42

As a rating system, BARS is costly to implement.

Question 43

Customer relationship management (CRM) emphasizes the relationship of the customer to the salesperson.

Question 44

Attribution theory classifies performance based on effectiveness, difficulty, and effort.

Question 45

Ultimately sales organizations need to work toward developing a performance management system.

Question 46

Low sales per account ratio could indicate that a salesperson is not servicing his or her smaller, less profitable accounts.

Question 47

Even when quotas are done well, the measure ""percentage of quota attained"" still omits much with respect to a salesperson's performance.

Question 48

Many objective measures of performance evaluation focus on the efforts sales representatives expend rather than the results of those efforts.

Question 49

360-degree performance feedback focuses on those sources of sales performance measures that can be observed most closely, within a 360-degree radius.

Question 50

A salesperson's call rate refers to the ratio of calls made to the number of sales closed.

Question 51

As a rating system, BARS tends to emphasize effectiveness rather than behavior and performance.

Question 52

Ability equals task difficulty multiplied by effort.

Question 53

""Input measures"" fall under which broad category of measures firms use to evaluate salespeople?

A) Objective measures
B) Subjective measures
C) Output measures
D) Output to input ratios
E) None of the above

Question 54

Total costs divided by number of calls equals ""hit ratio.""

Question 55

Careful specification of performance standards by territory will eliminate inequities across territories.

Question 56

The average order size ratio is also called the salesperson's batting average.

Question 57

Salespeople should be asked to prepare a self-evaluation prior to the formal performance evaluation.

Question 58

Unlike sales and cost analyses, the objective measures of performance have no disadvantages.

Question 59

The acronym BARS stands for Behavior Activated Ranking System.

Question 60

In addition to sales and profits, the other measures firms use to evaluate salespeople fall into two broad categories: (1) objective measures and (2) subjective measures.

Question 61

_____ will affect a salesperson's behavior and performance.

A) Role perceptions
B) Aptitude
C) Skill level
D) Motivation level
E) All of the above

Question 62

Percentage of quota attained sales performance evaluation ignores:

A) Probability of sales success
B) Profitability of sales
C) Cost of goods purchased
D) Sales force effort
E) Quota definition

Question 63

The problem of contextual or background information affecting sales performance, often ignored by sales managers is called _______________ by psychologist Fritz Heider.

A) Quota attainment deficit
B) Motivation management monitoring
C) Fundamental attribution error
D) Frequency allocation factor
E) Attributed allocative efficiency

Question 64

In reviewing Tom's sales performance, his sales manager sees Tom had a very high rate of canceled orders. This may indicate Tom:

A) Is not calling on enough customers
B) Is using high-pressure tactics
C) Avoids calling on difficult customers
D) Is not putting sufficient effort into his job
E) Is pursuing too many small orders

Question 65

Warren is evaluating his salespeople's performance and finds Fred is well below his quota. The problem could be:

A) Fred
B) The quota
C) A change in the marketing environment
D) Any of the above
E) None of the above

Question 66

Cost and sales analyses for evaluating salespeople:

A) Ignore many contributions that a salesperson might make
B) Inject bias into the evaluation process
C) Are the most common methods used by Fortune 1000 companies
D) Are accurately described by none of the above
E) Usually give the most representative indication of performance

Question 67

An often neglected part of sales performance evaluation is:

A) Input measures
B) Expense analysis
C) Output assessment
D) Differences in territories
E) Feedback

Question 68

The various account measures provide a sales manager with perspective on the equity of territory assignments and:

A) The cost per call ratio
B) The call productivity ratio
C) How well the territory is being handled
D) The attribution theory effort to aptitude quotient
E) The salesperson's behavioral personality effectiveness percentage

Question 69

In light of attribution theory, evaluating the performance of a salesperson is all about the sales manager attributing causes of that performance.

Question 70

_____________ is behavior evaluated in terms of its contribution to the goals of the organization.

A) Attribution
B) Retribution
C) Bias
D) Performance
E) Selling

Question 71

Lori is deciding which input measures to use as part of her assessment of sales performance. Which of the following is a measure of a salesperson's input?

A) Number of orders
B) Average order size
C) Number of canceled orders
D) Number of active accounts
E) Days worked

Question 72

Behavior is what salespeople:

A) Do
B) Avoid
C) Find rewarding
D) Offer customers
E) All of the above

Question 73

In attribution theory, performance equals:

A) ability x effort) +/- task difficulty
B) Task difficulty/effort
C) Ability x luck
D) Effort/ability
E) task difficulty x effort)/ability

Question 74

In the most recent sales evaluation, Greg had twenty percent more sales than the next best salesperson. This is indicative of Greg's:

A) Advertising effectiveness
B) Time utilization
C) Ability to close sales
D) Personality
E) Nonselling activities

Question 75

Which of the following is NOT an output factor used to evaluate salespeople?

A) Number of orders
B) Average order size
C) Number of calls
D) Number of active accounts
E) Number of canceled orders

Question 76

Which of the following is NOT a measure of salespeople's effectiveness?

A) Sales volume
B) Market share
C) Profitability of sales
D) Effort
E) Customer retention rate

Question 77

Total number of calls, days worked, calls to prospects are measures of:

A) Output
B) Effort expended
C) Sales revenue
D) Account servicing
E) All of the above

Question 78

Martin is looking at the number of sales calls, travel time and office work time of his sales force. Martin's goal in time and utilization analysis is to have salespeople:

A) Maximize face-to-face customer time
B) Minimize output
C) Develop a CRM system to replace anchored ratings
D) Expedite expense maximization
E) All of the above