MKT 622 Exam 1 Personal Selling Questions And
Complete Answers
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER ZenRecruit case (cont.)•
Leads allocated in a round-robin fashion• Sales tasks:
• Contact (often within minutes, to schedule more in-depth conversation about needs)
• Discovery call (to understand recruiting process, problems, roles needed to fill)
• Demo (tailored demo to prospect's role, industry, and needs (~1 hour))
• Trial (30-day free trial, check in periodically)
• Proposal (send formal proposal with pricing & recap hiring challenges and how help)
• Follow-up and close (after review proposal, price negotiations, discount approved by
mgr.)
• 5-week sales cycle (from lead creation close)
• 95% annual customer renewal rate
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER Fred: • Joined ZenRecruit in
2015• Had spent 7 years as an account manager in the SMB division at IBM.• His
references said he was great at developing and maintaining lasting relationships with
his customers.• He was polished polite and had great follow-up in his interview process•
However, he repeatedly complained about Zen Recruit's "high prices" and frequently
asked Kaggwa for price discounts to close deals.• His father recently passed away and
he was still recovering from his loss; he also mentioned some marital issues in informal
conversations
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER Adina: • Joined ZenRecruit in
2015 and was Kaggwa's first hire• Adina and Kaggwa worked together at their last
company• Youngest of five siblings and the only daughter of a family deeply rooted in the
,sales profession• Her father was a top salesperson in the manufacturing sector; her
mother was a regional sales VP for a national mobile telecom co.; all of her brothers
were in sales• Her sales fundamentals were strong• She had high expectations for
herself to be a top performer• Kaggwa was grooming Adina to be a future manager
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER Erin: • Joined ZenRecruit in
2015• Had a reputation in Denver start-up scene as one who as eager to help early-stage
ventures• Was excited and performed well during her first 6 months• In recent months,
she complained she received far fewer leads than in the past and had less help from
Kaggwa (her sales manager)• Kaggwa also felt it took more coaching effort to develop
Erin's skills and noticed some drop-off in her timely follow-up with prospects• Erin
recently announced she was expecting a child - need this????
SALES MANAGEMENT - ANSWER Sales management is the process of hiring, training
and motivating sales staff, coordinating operations across the sales department and
implementing a cohesive sales strategy that drives business revenues. Sales are the
lifeblood of any organization and managing the sales process is one of the most
important functions of any business.
BUYING IS A PROCESS - ANSWER Buying is a process of parallel streams:(1)Explore:
buyers identify a need (and begin information search)(2)Evaluate: buyers look at options
(via self-directed search, peers, salespeople)(3)Engage: buyers engage with providers
in various ways (e.g., download a white paper, send out a request-for-proposal
(RFP))(4)Experience: buyers make a decision and experience value from use
THE SALES FORCE REMAINS IMPORTANT - ANSWER • Salespeople make up more than
11% of the country's workforce (BLS)• Most buying journeys still rely on knowledgeable
sales help (online tools complement, rather than substitute, for sales conversations)•
References have changed (e.g., PowerReviews.com)• Lines are blurring between
Marketing and Sales
THE IMPORTANCE OF TALENT - ANSWER • Prior skills are now minimum requirements •
Salespeople need to collaborate across departments (73%) (need to be a
coordinator/orchestrator)• Need to have a single view of the customer across
departments (70%), but only 17% say their company is good at this.• Who's responsible
for the customer experience? "all of them"
, MULTICHANNEL MANAGEMENT - ANSWER • Customers are offline and online at the
same time• Death of salespeople overblown (multi-channel world e.g., Casper Sleep -
"clicks and bricks")
HIRING - ANSWER Stats:• Average turnover in sales is 20-30%• Takes 3-4 months to hire
a salesperson• Takes 9+ months to ramp up a new salesperson• Salespeople are
expensive: $41k - $370k• Bad hires are costly (direct and opportunity costs) (e.g.,
$75-$90k for telesales and $1M+ for medical devices)• Rarely given the attention it
deserves
HIRING - ANSWER • Where do you find salespeople to hire?• 50%+ of US college
graduates will work in sales at some point in their careers (regardless of their major)•
4,000+ Colleges and Universities - very few have a sales program or even a sales course
HIRING - HUNTERS VS. FARMERS - ANSWER • Classic distinction too simple.• Sales jobs
are very diverse (e.g., selling direct vs. through distributors, inside sales to small firms
vs. outside sales to enterprise accounts, products vs. solutions)
HIRING - CHASING STARS - ANSWER • Top 1% often outperform average performance
by 125%+But...• Stardom is not easily portable• Much of selling depends upon the
context - the relationships, knowledge, and trust the rep established with others in the
company.
HIRING - UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW - ANSWER Managers overrate their ability to
predict applicant's performance based on interviews8/27/2022 12First impressions•
Involuntary, less than a second• Quick to judge faces as trustworthy, threatening, or
competent• Confirmation bias: we tend to process answers to our interview questions in
ways that confirm our first impression
HIRING - UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW - ANSWER Inconsistent judgments• People are
inconsistent in making summary judgments about complex information (e.g.,
radiologists contradict themselves 20% of the time!).
HIRING - PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS - ANSWER Personality assessments• To be
more consistent, firms are increasingly using personality assessments (e.g.,
Complete Answers
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER ZenRecruit case (cont.)•
Leads allocated in a round-robin fashion• Sales tasks:
• Contact (often within minutes, to schedule more in-depth conversation about needs)
• Discovery call (to understand recruiting process, problems, roles needed to fill)
• Demo (tailored demo to prospect's role, industry, and needs (~1 hour))
• Trial (30-day free trial, check in periodically)
• Proposal (send formal proposal with pricing & recap hiring challenges and how help)
• Follow-up and close (after review proposal, price negotiations, discount approved by
mgr.)
• 5-week sales cycle (from lead creation close)
• 95% annual customer renewal rate
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER Fred: • Joined ZenRecruit in
2015• Had spent 7 years as an account manager in the SMB division at IBM.• His
references said he was great at developing and maintaining lasting relationships with
his customers.• He was polished polite and had great follow-up in his interview process•
However, he repeatedly complained about Zen Recruit's "high prices" and frequently
asked Kaggwa for price discounts to close deals.• His father recently passed away and
he was still recovering from his loss; he also mentioned some marital issues in informal
conversations
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER Adina: • Joined ZenRecruit in
2015 and was Kaggwa's first hire• Adina and Kaggwa worked together at their last
company• Youngest of five siblings and the only daughter of a family deeply rooted in the
,sales profession• Her father was a top salesperson in the manufacturing sector; her
mother was a regional sales VP for a national mobile telecom co.; all of her brothers
were in sales• Her sales fundamentals were strong• She had high expectations for
herself to be a top performer• Kaggwa was grooming Adina to be a future manager
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & COACHING - ANSWER Erin: • Joined ZenRecruit in
2015• Had a reputation in Denver start-up scene as one who as eager to help early-stage
ventures• Was excited and performed well during her first 6 months• In recent months,
she complained she received far fewer leads than in the past and had less help from
Kaggwa (her sales manager)• Kaggwa also felt it took more coaching effort to develop
Erin's skills and noticed some drop-off in her timely follow-up with prospects• Erin
recently announced she was expecting a child - need this????
SALES MANAGEMENT - ANSWER Sales management is the process of hiring, training
and motivating sales staff, coordinating operations across the sales department and
implementing a cohesive sales strategy that drives business revenues. Sales are the
lifeblood of any organization and managing the sales process is one of the most
important functions of any business.
BUYING IS A PROCESS - ANSWER Buying is a process of parallel streams:(1)Explore:
buyers identify a need (and begin information search)(2)Evaluate: buyers look at options
(via self-directed search, peers, salespeople)(3)Engage: buyers engage with providers
in various ways (e.g., download a white paper, send out a request-for-proposal
(RFP))(4)Experience: buyers make a decision and experience value from use
THE SALES FORCE REMAINS IMPORTANT - ANSWER • Salespeople make up more than
11% of the country's workforce (BLS)• Most buying journeys still rely on knowledgeable
sales help (online tools complement, rather than substitute, for sales conversations)•
References have changed (e.g., PowerReviews.com)• Lines are blurring between
Marketing and Sales
THE IMPORTANCE OF TALENT - ANSWER • Prior skills are now minimum requirements •
Salespeople need to collaborate across departments (73%) (need to be a
coordinator/orchestrator)• Need to have a single view of the customer across
departments (70%), but only 17% say their company is good at this.• Who's responsible
for the customer experience? "all of them"
, MULTICHANNEL MANAGEMENT - ANSWER • Customers are offline and online at the
same time• Death of salespeople overblown (multi-channel world e.g., Casper Sleep -
"clicks and bricks")
HIRING - ANSWER Stats:• Average turnover in sales is 20-30%• Takes 3-4 months to hire
a salesperson• Takes 9+ months to ramp up a new salesperson• Salespeople are
expensive: $41k - $370k• Bad hires are costly (direct and opportunity costs) (e.g.,
$75-$90k for telesales and $1M+ for medical devices)• Rarely given the attention it
deserves
HIRING - ANSWER • Where do you find salespeople to hire?• 50%+ of US college
graduates will work in sales at some point in their careers (regardless of their major)•
4,000+ Colleges and Universities - very few have a sales program or even a sales course
HIRING - HUNTERS VS. FARMERS - ANSWER • Classic distinction too simple.• Sales jobs
are very diverse (e.g., selling direct vs. through distributors, inside sales to small firms
vs. outside sales to enterprise accounts, products vs. solutions)
HIRING - CHASING STARS - ANSWER • Top 1% often outperform average performance
by 125%+But...• Stardom is not easily portable• Much of selling depends upon the
context - the relationships, knowledge, and trust the rep established with others in the
company.
HIRING - UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW - ANSWER Managers overrate their ability to
predict applicant's performance based on interviews8/27/2022 12First impressions•
Involuntary, less than a second• Quick to judge faces as trustworthy, threatening, or
competent• Confirmation bias: we tend to process answers to our interview questions in
ways that confirm our first impression
HIRING - UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW - ANSWER Inconsistent judgments• People are
inconsistent in making summary judgments about complex information (e.g.,
radiologists contradict themselves 20% of the time!).
HIRING - PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS - ANSWER Personality assessments• To be
more consistent, firms are increasingly using personality assessments (e.g.,
