Please email us with your
comments on this book.
Extra Case Studies
Please select a chapter:
Chapter
1 Selling and its strategic role
Check the newspapers for adverts for sales jobs. What do they
have in common? What characteristics are they asking for in
salespeople? What characteristics are they looking for in sales
managers? How do they seek to attract applicants?
Chapter
2 Buyer behaviour
Imagine yourself to be the sales manager for a company which
supplies payroll calculating services. Using the Internet
and such other sources as might be available, identify five
companies which might be suitable potential customers for
your service. Bear in mind that companies with very large
numbers of employees might have their own systems, but would
of course represent large contracts for your firm. Having
identified your companies, decide how you would approach each
one. What differences would there be in the benefits you offer
to each firm? Why would you need to offer different benefits?
Chapter
3 Preparing to sell
Go shopping wearing smart clothes, then go shopping again
wearing shabby clothes. Try visiting the following types of
retailer: a clothes shop, a builders’ merchant, a travel
agent, and a hairdresser. What differences do you notice in
the way you are treated in shops? How do you account for those
differences? What differences would you expect if you were
going in to sell, rather than to buy? Did you notice any differences
between the shops themselves, in terms of the way you were
treated?
Chapter
4 The sales presentation
Choose a product which you own, e.g. a mobile telephone, calculator,
computer, etc. and list all its features. A good way of doing
this is to imagine that you have lost it and you are describing
it to the lost-property department. Now go down the list of
features and convert each one to a benefit – a useful
phrase to use here is “Which means that…….”
How many features can you describe? What does converting the
features to benefits tell you about how to sell? Which of
the lists would be more use to a prospective buyer?
Chapter
5 Selling to major accounts
Using the business press, the Internet and other available
sources, find examples of major account deals. What were the
criteria you used in deciding what is a major account and
what is not? What are the timescales on the deals you investigated?
What negotiating positions do you think might have applied?
Chapter
6 Recruitment
Using newspapers and magazines, find advertisements for sales
jobs. What do they have in common? What differences do you
observe? What type of people do the advertisements seem to
be targeted to? How do the advertisers encourage applicants
to come forward, and how do they seek to discourage unsuitable
applicants?
Chapter
7 Training
Analyse your recent learning experiences: lectures, reading,
tutorials, assignments, etc. Which do you remember best? Why
do you think this is?
Chapter
8 Motivation and remuneration
Using the Internet, find companies which provide incentives
for sales staff. What type of incentive appears to be mainly
on offer? Why would these incentives be more popular than
simply being given the money?
Chapter
9 Forecasting and budgeting
Using back copies of the Financial Times from three months
ago, choose five companies at random. Using time-series techniques,
try to predict what their share prices should be now. How
accurate was your prediction? What factors might have caused
your prediction to deviate from the actual outcome? How could
you make the prediction more accurate?
Chapter
10 Monitoring and feedback
Examine your most recent pieces of coursework. What kind of
feedback have you received? How will it affect your performance
in the future? How do you feel about the feedback you are
being given?
Chapter
11 Internationalization
Using the Internet, examine the websites for low-cost airlines
such as Volare, Basiqair, Iceland Express, and Germanwings.
What concessions do these airlines make to British customers?
Had you heard of these airlines before? If you were a national
of the same countries these airlines are based in, would you
fly with them, or with an airline like EasyJet or Mytravellite?
Why?
Chapter
12 Exhibitions and trade fairs
Using the Internet, trade press and other available sources
analyse the advertising issued by exhibition organisers. How
accurate is the information given, do you think? Would exhibitors
be satisfied or disappointed with the outcomes if they were
to exhibit at these exhibitions? How could exhibitors check
the truth of the organisers’ claims?
Chapter
13 Ethics, consumer protection and the law
Visit the websites of major companies and look for their mission
statements or ethical statements. What do these have in common?
Which groups of stakeholder are commonly mentioned? To what
extent are these stakeholders’ interests taken seriously?
|