Chapter 13
Communicating Customer Value: Personal Selling and
Direct Marketing
GENERAL CONTENT: Multiple-Choice Questions
1. These employees are well-educated, well-trained professionals who work to build and maintain long-term customer relationships by listening to their customers, assessing customer needs, and organizing the company’s efforts to solve customer problems. Who are these employees?
a. Managers.
b. Missionary salespeople.
c. Salespeople.
d. Sales managers.
e. All of the above.
(Answer: e; 401; Moderate)
2. Which of the following communication and promotion tools involve direct connections with customers aimed toward building customer-unique value and lasting relationships?
a. Personal selling.
b. Direct marketing.
c. E-commerce.
d. Publicity.
e. A and B.
(Answer: e; p. 401; Moderate)
3. Johnson Fabric Company has four selling positions for employees. One of them is not really an actual selling position. Which is it?
a. Order taker.
b. Missionary salesperson.
c. Order getter.
d. Creative selling.
e. B and D
(Answer: e; p. 402; Moderate)
4. A _____ is an individual acting for a company by performing one or more of the following activities: prospecting, communicating, servicing, and information gathering.
a. sales manager
b. sales executive
c. sales support person
d. salesperson
e. none of the above
(Answer: d; p. 402; Easy)
5. _____ involves two-way, personal communication between salespeople and individual customers—whether face-to-face, by telephone, through video or Web conferences, or by other means.
a. Advertising
b. Persuasive selling
c. Personal selling
d. Integrated marketing communication
e. A and B
(Answer: c; p. 402; Easy)
6. Current view holds that salespeople should be concerned with producing customer satisfaction and company profit. So whom do they generally serve?
a. They represent the company to customers.
b. They represent the company to investors.
c. They represent the customer to the company.
d. A and C
e. None of the above
(Answer: d; p. 402; Challenging)
7. When a firm sets out to analyze, plan, implement, and control sales force activities through sales force management, it sets and designs its_____, recruits, selects, trains, supervises, compensates, and evaluates the firm’s salespeople.
a. sales territories
b. sales force management
c. team selling efforts
d. coop selling and advertising
e. promotional objectives
(Answer: b; p. 414; Challenging)
8. Of the three typical types of sales force structures, which one is often supported by many levels of sales management positions in specific geographical areas?
a. Territorial.
b. Product.
c. Customer.
d. Complex systems.
e. Matrix.
(Answer: a; p. 403; Moderate)
9. Which of the following is not a disadvantage of a product sales force structure?
a. Extra selling costs involved with multiple sales visits from separate divisions.
b. Attention given to individual products.
c. Salespeople may wait to see the same customer’s purchasing agents.
d. Increase customer delivery time.
e. B and C
(Answer: d; p. 403; Challenging)
10. What do many companies use to set sales force size?
a. The workload approach.
b. Product availability.
c. Demographic characteristics of the sales force.
d. Sales quotas established.
e. Profit margin.
(Answer: a; p. 404; Moderate)
11. To reduce time demands on their outside sales forces, many companies have increased the size of their inside sales forces, which include technical support people, sales assistants, and _____.
a. order takers
b. order getters
c. telemarketers
d. administrative assistants
e. secretaries
(Answer: c; p. 405; Easy)
12. Which activity was not mentioned in the text as typical for a sales assistant?
a. Call ahead and confirm appointments.
b. Provide technical support.
c. Conduct credit checks.
d. Follow up on deliveries.
e. C and D
(Answer: b; p. 40%; Moderate)
13. A growing trend for many companies is to use a group of people from sales, marketing, engineering, finance, technical support, and even upper management to service large, complex accounts. This approach is called _____.
a. department selling
b. multiple selling
c. team selling
d. management-controlled selling
e. simultaneous selling
(Answer: c; p. 407; Easy)
14. In many cases today, a major reason to adopt team selling results from changes in _____.
a. customers’ buying organizations
b. competition
c. rising costs
d. fewer skilled salespeople
e. none of the above
(Answer: a; p. 407; Moderate)
15. One of the following is not a pitfall or disadvantage of team selling. Which is it?
a. Selling teams can confuse or overwhelm consumers.
b. Individual salespeople may have trouble learning to work with and trust others.
c. In the long run, team selling ties up more time and increases overall costs.
d. Difficulties in evaluating individual contributions to the team selling effort can create some sticky compensation issues.
e. All of the above.
(Answer: c; p. 408; Challenging)
16. The catalyst of any successful sales force organization is _____.
a. the recruitment and selection of good salespeople
b. current and relevant customer research data
c. relevant and extensive sales training
d. sales managers who work with their people
e. all of the above
(Answer: a; p. 408; Challenging)
17. In a typical sales force, the top 30 percent of the salespeople may bring in _____ percent of the sales.
a. 40
b. 50
c. 60
d. 70
e. 80
(Answer: c; p. 408; Easy)
18. All of the following are problems associated with the poor selection of salespeople except one. Which one?
a. Lower sales.
b. Costly turnover.
c. Less productivity.
d. Less office support.
e. Loss of company image.
(Answer: d; p. 408; Easy)
19. Which of the following traits should salespeople have?
a. Honesty.
b. Patience.
c. Responsiveness.
d. All of the above.
e. A and C
(Answer: d; p. 409; Easy)
20. Studies show that good salespeople possess all of these traits except which one?
a. Honesty.
b. Patience.
c. Caring.
d. At least average listener.
e. None of the above.
(Answer: d; p. 409; Moderate)
21. Sales applicants are typically not tested for _____.
a. sales aptitude
b. organizational skills
c. accounting skills
d. analytical skills
e. B and D
(Answer: c; p. 409; Moderate)
22. Initial sales training typically covers all of the following topics except one. Which one?
a. Company’s history and objectives.
b. Company’s financial structure.
c. Chief products and markets.
d. Field procedures and responsibilities.
e. B and C
(Answer: d; p. 409; Moderate)
23. The chapter suggests that Cisco benefits from the _____.
a. best products
b. best prices
c. best-trained sales force
d. best technical support
e. best market value
(Answer: c; p. 410; Moderate)
24. To attract salespeople, a company must have an appealing compensation plan. It is made up of several elements—a fixed amount, _____, expenses, and fringe benefits.
a. bonuses
b. retirement
c. a variable amount
d. nonmonetary rewards
e. recognition
(Answer: c; p. 410; Moderate)
25. Management at Happy Motors must decide what mix of compensation elements to offer their sales force. Which of the following is not one of the four basic types of compensation plans?
a. Straight commission.
b. Straight salary.
c. Salary and commission.
d. Commission and bonuses.
e. None of the above.
(Answer: d; p. 410; Easy)
26. A recent study showed that 70 percent of all companies use a combination of _____ to compensate its sales force.
a. base salary and expense accounts
b. commission and fringe benefits
c. base salary and incentives
d. base salary only
e. none of the above
(Answer: c; p. 410; Moderate)
27. Sales force compensation should direct the sales force toward activities that are consistent with _____.
a. overall company strategies
b. overall marketing objectives
c. overall company objectives
d. overall department objectives
e. all of the above
(Answer: e; p. 410; Challenging)
28. Through sales management supervision, the company directs and _____the sales force to do a better job.
a. coaches
b. motivates
c. coerces
d. influences
e. forces
(Answer: b; p. 410; Easy)
29. Which sales management tool shows which customers and prospects to see during the next 12 months and in which months, as well as which activities to carry out?
a. Time-and-duty analysis.
b. Sales force automation systems.
c. Annual call plan.
d. Sales quota plan.
e. None of the above.
(Answer: c; p. 411; Moderate)
30. Salespeople and sales managers now realize that perhaps the fastest-growing sales force technology tool is _____.
a. the cell phone
b. the laptop computer
c. e-mail
d. the Internet
e. the U.S. mail
(Answer: d; p. 412; Easy)
Companies are always looking for ways to increase selling time. All of the following are ways to save time to accomplish this goal except one. Which one?
f. Use phones instead of traveling.
g. Simplify record keeping.
h. Find better call and routing plans.
i. Reduce the number of customers each sales rep should see.
j. Increase the number of customers each sales rep should see.
(Answer: d; p. 411; Challenging)
31. Sales efficiency has been greatly improved using sales force automation systems. Salespeople primarily use laptops, handheld computing devices, _____, and customer-contact software.
a. video conferencing
b. the U.S. mail
c. Web technologies
d. cell phones
e. none of the above
(Answer: c; p. 412; Moderate)
32. Three common techniques sales managers use to boost sales force morale include the organizational climate, sales quotas, and positive _____.
a. incentives
b. thinking
c. recognition
d. vocabularies and mannerisms
e. feedback
(Answer: a; p. 412; Easy)
33. Management sets standards that state the amount each salesperson should sell and how sales should be divided among the company’s products with _____.
a. sales goals
b. company quotas
c. sales quotas
d. sales incentives
e. all of the above
(Answer: c; p. 412; Moderate)
34. Of all the tools commonly used, which one of the following is the best for management to use in evaluating salespeople?
a. Call reports.
b. Sales reports.
c. Expense reports.
d. Sales quota reports.
e. Customer feedback reports.
(Answer: b; p. 413; Moderate)
35. The selling process consists of several steps that the salesperson must master. They focus on the goals of _____ and _____ from them.
a. closing sales; getting orders
b. getting new customers; extracting their problems to solve
c. getting new customers; obtaining orders
d. overcoming objections; obtaining orders
e. quoting prices; obtaining orders
(Answer: c; p. 413; Moderate)
36. The step that follows preapproach in the selling process is _____.
a. presentation
b. demonstration
c. handling objections
d. approach
e. qualifying
(Answer: d; p. 414; Easy)
37. What should the salesperson and the sales manager accomplish during an evaluation?
a. Provide constructive feedback.
b. Provide motivation to perform well.
c. Develop and communicate clear standards.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.
(Answer: d; p. 413; Moderate)
38. The prospecting step in the selling process includes identifying and _____ the prospects. Without both of them much time and effort will be wasted.
a. calling
b. qualifying
c. preselling
d. making an appointment with
e. approaching
(Answer: b; p. 414; Moderate)
39. Prospects can be qualified by looking at their financial ability, volume of business, _____, location, and possibilities for growth.
a. ability to pay
b. longevity in the market
c. special needs
d. compensation
e. image
(Answer: c; p. 414; Moderate)
40. The type of salesperson that fits best with today’s marketing concept is a _____.
a. hard-sell salesperson
b. problem-solver salesperson
c. razzle-dazzle salesperson
d. salesperson on salary and not on commission
e. salesperson on commission and not on salary
(Answer: b; p. 409; Easy)
41. The qualities that buyers like most in salespeople include empathy, honesty, dependability, thoroughness, follow-through, and _____.
a. being a good listener
b. being a good communicator
c. being sympathetic
d. being a caring person
e. candor
(Answer: a; p. 415; Moderate)
42. The qualities buyers’ dislike most in salespeople includes all of the following except _____.
a. being pushy
b. being deceitful
c. being too early for an appointment
d. being unprepared
e. all of the above
(Answer: c; p. 415; Easy)
43. To handle objections successfully, a salesperson should use a positive approach, seek out hidden objections, ask the buyer to clarify any objections, take objections as opportunities to provide more information, and _____.
a. turn the objections into humor
b. seek to minimize or play down the objections
c. compliment the buyer for bringing the objections up
d. turn the objections into reasons for buying
e. A and C
(Answer: d; pp. 415–416; Challenging)
44. Other than prospecting, a difficult step in the sales process for most people is to _____ because they may lack confidence or feel guilty about asking for an order.
a. approach the prospect
b. make a professional presentation
c. handle the objections well
d. close the sale
e. follow up
(Answer: d; p. 416; Moderate)
45. Which step in the sales process is necessary if the salesperson wants to ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business?
a. Proper approach.
b. Professional presentation.
c. Handling objections well.
d. Follow-up.
e. All of the above.
(Answer: d; p. 416; Challenging)
46. Today, most companies still use direct marketing as a _____ for marketing their goods.
a. supplementary channel or medium
b. major marketing mix element
c. compliment to personal selling
d. technique reserved for mature and international markets
e. A, B, and C
(Answer: e; p. 417; Challenging)
47. Today, direct marketing relies heavily on database technologies and the Internet. Early direct marketers used primarily direct mailers, telemarketers, and _____.
a. door-to-door salespeople