Quiz+ | Quiz 6: Prospecting

Q 1

Suppose you're working at a trade show. You walk the floor of the show during one of your breaks, and you strike up a conversation with a sales rep from a competitor. She starts talking about their products and gives details on price breaks she offers to banks. She asks, "What kind of price deals do you give banks?" What would you say?

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Essay

According to the code of conduct of any business organization, it is unethical to reveal the business details, like the price breaks ups, pricing strategies etc to the competitors or to anyone outside the organizations. Some organizations also resorts to legal actions against such cases. In the given scenario, the sales person of the competitor asks the other about the pricing details of the 2 nd salesperson's organization after revealing his/her own pricing details. It is quite unethical to reveal those details to the competitors and the sales person is not supposed to do so. Therefore, the 2 nd salesperson should remind the other sales person about the code of conduct and should not reveal the details when asked.

Q 2

Describe a referral event that could be created, assuming you are a member of a club in your college. Your target market for new leads consists of students not currently members in that club.

Free

Essay

Prospecting stands for the process wherein a firm locates potential customers for its products or services and tries to make these customers into the regular buyers of the firm's offerings. The following is a referral event by Mr. Y who is a member of a club in his college and this referral event targets students who are not in his club- Mr. Y is a member of a book club in his college and through his contacts he had been considered as a referral by a company that is into the selling of software for the students that is capable of making them know what activities had been taken in the class everyday. This app could be more useful for the students who were absent for particular day/days from the college as the teachers will be feeding the details of the topic and assignments that they have assigned to the class for that day. In this event, alongwith the students who are a part of Mr. Y's club, the students who are non-members could also be made attracted towards this app and a potential customer of the same. This will successfully make the event worthy enough to pool large number of students as the buyers of this application by paying a certain monthly fee.

Q 3

Suppose a spotter not only tells you about a potential prospect but also provides you with confidential memos and e-mails, detailing the people involved and what the issues are. However, all the e-mails and notes are marked with statements that prohibit the information from being shared with anyone outside of the company. What will you do with that confidential information that you're not supposed to have?

Free

Essay

Spotters are individuals who provide information about prospective customers to the sales person in return of specified fees. The information provided by these individuals is genuine. In the presented scenario, the spotter provided the sales person with more than required information about the customers. Some of this information is confidential. Revealing this information to other by the salesperson will be considered as an unethical activity. The spotter gave this information under his own risk and belief that the sales person won't reveal it to anyone else. Therefore, the salesperson should filter out the data to separate out non-confidential information before using or revealing it to others.

Q 4

Negative referrals are certainly not what a salesperson wants. Think of a time when you actually were a negative referral for a product or service or company. Why did you do it? What could the company or salesperson have done to cause you to not be a negative referral?

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Q 5

What things would concern you about prospecting? How will you deal with those ?concerns?

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Q 6

Assume you are a landscape contractor, and you specialize in planting quality trees and plants. Whom might you use as paid spotters to generate leads?

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Q 7

Reluctance to prospect is a real phenomenon. What can you do now (and avoid doing now), while you're in school, to avoid being reluctant to prospect when you become a salesperson?

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Q 8

Assume you sell restaurant supplies, such as cooking equipment, tabletop accessories, tables, and chairs. Locate at least one merchandise mart and one trade show or fair where you might be able to display your products.

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Q 9

How would you develop a prospect list under the following situations? a. You belong to a Lions Club that needs to recruit new members. b. You sell carpet-cleaning services to businesses.

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Q 10

"Building Partnerships 6.1" describes how salespeople for Blue Linux look for prospects as they drive in their territory. Would there be any risks to relying exclusively on that technique?

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Q 11

"From the Buyer's Seat 6.1" described how some sellers try to get Macy's to buy clothing products that are too expensive. Assume that you are a seller who is selling clothing that is above Macy's price lines. What would you do?

Essay

Q 12

If you were a salesperson for the following, how would you develop a prospect list? a. A new line of doors that are energy efficient. b. A travel agency specializing in vacations to Chile. c. A manufacturer of a theft deterrent device for Blue Ray players.

Essay

Q 13

A few years back, I was a Federated Insurance salesperson and had a large Redi-Mix Concrete contractor I was quoting. This was the second time I had quoted this account, and I had built a good relationship there. My price was $159,000 for their property and casualty insurance. I knew they paid only $150,000 the year before, but I had uncovered many coverage disadvantages and issues in their current program. I had a really great shot at selling this account. The commission rate on P C is about 15 percent, so I would make about $23,000 if I made the sale. The buyer said that I was to stop by on Friday morning and that his current agent was coming later that afternoon with a quote. The insurance expiration day was that Saturday. I gave my proposal, and it went very well. I gave the buyer a list of 10 things to ask the other agent in which I had coverage advantages. The buyer said he wanted to do business with me, but because his current agent was already coming in that afternoon, he felt like he should see what she had to offer and go through the issues I had pointed out. I left and set an appointment for first thing Monday morning. On Monday at 8:00, I was there, and the owner said that I had earned the business! I was pumped! He pulled out his checkbook and gave me a check for $15,900 as a down payment. I called my underwriter to tell him the great news, and he said, "Awesome!" He asked, "When is it effective?" I said, "As of last Saturday." He said to have them sign a form saying they had not had any claims since Saturday. I asked the owner, and he said he didn't have any claims. Then he said, "Oh, I forgot, Joe hit a deer on the way home from a job on Saturday in the company truck. It wasn't bad, though, about $1,200 in damages we are guessing. Joe wasn't hurt or anything." I was devastated! What were my options? I could call the underwriter and tell him about the claim, knowing that he most likely would tell me to give the check back and that I could not bind an account that already had a claim pending. And I'd lose $23,000 in commission. Or I could tell the owner not to worry about it, knowing that Federated would pay the claim if I pretended I didn't know about the accident and bind the account. Or I could tell the owner that I would pay for the $1,200 claim out of my pocket because I would earn a hefty $23,000 commission check. What should the salesperson do?

Essay

Q 14

A few years back, I was a Federated Insurance salesperson and had a large Redi-Mix Concrete contractor I was quoting. This was the second time I had quoted this account, and I had built a good relationship there. My price was $159,000 for their property and casualty insurance. I knew they paid only $150,000 the year before, but I had uncovered many coverage disadvantages and issues in their current program. I had a really great shot at selling this account. The commission rate on P C is about 15 percent, so I would make about $23,000 if I made the sale. The buyer said that I was to stop by on Friday morning and that his current agent was coming later that afternoon with a quote. The insurance expiration day was that Saturday. I gave my proposal, and it went very well. I gave the buyer a list of 10 things to ask the other agent in which I had coverage advantages. The buyer said he wanted to do business with me, but because his current agent was already coming in that afternoon, he felt like he should see what she had to offer and go through the issues I had pointed out. I left and set an appointment for first thing Monday morning. On Monday at 8:00, I was there, and the owner said that I had earned the business! I was pumped! He pulled out his checkbook and gave me a check for $15,900 as a down payment. I called my underwriter to tell him the great news, and he said, "Awesome!" He asked, "When is it effective?" I said, "As of last Saturday." He said to have them sign a form saying they had not had any claims since Saturday. I asked the owner, and he said he didn't have any claims. Then he said, "Oh, I forgot, Joe hit a deer on the way home from a job on Saturday in the company truck. It wasn't bad, though, about $1,200 in damages we are guessing. Joe wasn't hurt or anything." I was devastated! What were my options? I could call the underwriter and tell him about the claim, knowing that he most likely would tell me to give the check back and that I could not bind an account that already had a claim pending. And I'd lose $23,000 in commission. Or I could tell the owner not to worry about it, knowing that Federated would pay the claim if I pretended I didn't know about the accident and bind the account. Or I could tell the owner that I would pay for the $1,200 claim out of my pocket because I would earn a hefty $23,000 commission check. How should the salesperson communicate that decision to his customer? To his own company, Federated?

Essay

Q 15

The Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile is a Windy City landmark on Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile. Located in the heart of world-class shopping and dining, this hotel is within walking distance of top attractions, including the Navy Pier, Shedd Aquarium, Millennium Park, as well as the landmark Chicago Theater District. The hotel rooms and suites have state-of-the-art flat-screen TVs, deluxe bedding, and ergonomic furnishings. With 66,400 square feet of event space, including 54 meeting rooms, this luxury hotel creates a distinguished venue for business engagements, social gatherings, and elegant wedding receptions. The largest meeting room is the Grand Ballroom with maximum meeting space of 19,193 square feet and a maximum seating capacity of 2,200. The hotel is known for its outstanding service coupled with magnificent style. Assume that you are a salesperson for the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. Your goal is to book meetings and conventions from businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Provide a list of company names and addresses of five actual leads for the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. You don't have to know whether the leads already have used the hotel. Explain where you got the list of leads.

Essay

Q 16

The Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile is a Windy City landmark on Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile. Located in the heart of world-class shopping and dining, this hotel is within walking distance of top attractions, including the Navy Pier, Shedd Aquarium, Millennium Park, as well as the landmark Chicago Theater District. The hotel rooms and suites have state-of-the-art flat-screen TVs, deluxe bedding, and ergonomic furnishings. With 66,400 square feet of event space, including 54 meeting rooms, this luxury hotel creates a distinguished venue for business engagements, social gatherings, and elegant wedding receptions. The largest meeting room is the Grand Ballroom with maximum meeting space of 19,193 square feet and a maximum seating capacity of 2,200. The hotel is known for its outstanding service coupled with magnificent style. Assume that you are a salesperson for the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. Your goal is to book meetings and conventions from businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Develop the details of an appropriate referral event for the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. Provide information about the place of the event as well as what should happen during the event. Be creative. Remember that referral events should be fun for current clients as well as leads.

Essay

Quiz 6: Prospecting

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