Question

Answer each question in mini ESSAYS and in your own words

ALL QUESTIONS MUST ANSWER IN FORM OF ESSAY. IF YOU CANT ANSWER ALL , LEAVE IT ALONE PLEASE

1- What is meant “by sales force diversity? Do you agree? Where might you disagree?

2- Giving examples, explain the difference between Transactional Selling and Relationship Selling?

3- How E-Commerce changed the dynamics of sales management in today’s market place?

4- China has been your manufacturing base. Now prices are up, deliveries are late, vendors are refusing orders, what is going on? As a sales manager how might you attempt to deal with this critical situation?

Answer 1

1. Diversity in sales force is not just limited to gender diversity. Diversity in sales force aims at inclusion of diverse skill sets and thought processes from various ethnics, origins, race, education background, etc. Diversity improves the brainstorming and idea pouring sessions of the team and hence can be considered as of having tangible business impact.

Sales force diversity results in:

• Better sales revenue
• Improved team behavior and customer handling capability
• Encourages creativity and innovation

The primary roadblock that sales force diversity might face is the initial resistance from customers. Customers are not used to working with diverse people and hence, they may be skeptical with the inclusion of diversity in sales force.

2. The main difference between transactional and relationship selling lies in the approach with which the sales representative meets his potential customers.

In transactional selling, the sales representative wants to sell his product anyhow, without caring much about customer needs and preferences. Such kind of selling is just short-term and is focused only on a single sale. For example: A sales representative, wanting to achieve his sales target, goes to a customer and presses him to buy his products. He is not concerned about whether the customer likes the product or the feedback of the customer regarding the product. The sales representative is concerned only about the current sale and not about building his customer base.

In relationship selling, the sales representative aims at building his customer base. He acknowledges the queries and feedback of the customer regarding the product and addresses their preference. The customer feels valued in this kind of selling.

For example: the company has launched a new product. The sales rep goes to his customer base and makes them aware about the product features. He does not force his customers to buy his product but proactively takes feedback of his customers about the new product. This feedback is then shared with management for product enhancement.

3. E-commerce has made the market place very dynamic and flexible. Earlier the sales management needed to create awareness about the product by approaching the customers and highlighting the pros of the product. But with the advent of e-commerce, creating awareness about the product is very easy. The sales representative just needs to describe the product on company’s website and whole customer base can access the information. E-commerce has made life of sales representative, quite easy and flexible.

4. As a sales manager, I would first conduct a root cause analysis to understand the real reason behind the delay. I would use my relation management skills to address the vendors, share the problems, which led to the delay and convince them to accept the current order. I will also make sure that this kind of delay does not happen in future. A brainstorming session with the team will be conducted to address the root cause and establish measures to counteract it in future production.