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UFV, Chandigarh
BUSINESS 221
Monday ,9:30 am class
What My Sales Professor Did Not Prepare Me For - In My Sales Class
At My Business School

Case Study-1
Group No.: 9
Group Members: -
Name e-mail contact
Prabhleen Bedi bediprabhleen8@gmail.com 7087872620
Neetika Subba neetika.subba@gmail.com   9821654405

Himanshu Dhameja himanshudhameja2001@gmail.com  8178317620

Aditya Nagpal aditya.nagpal7@icloud.com 7087351673

Date Due: - 21-09-2020

Date Submitted: - 21-09-2020
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE NO.

Summary 5-7

Questions and Issues for Discussion 8-15

Original Research 16

Relation to concepts 17

References 18
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank our professor, Dr. Shyam Vyas who provided us his wonderful

knowledge that has been a guiding light throughout this case study. I would like to thank my

classmates, and other university friends who made a contribution in the completion of the

objectives of this case study.

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
 We have used our own words only.

 We have not copied

 We have not plagiarized.

 We have cited all the sources from where we have adapted/sourced.

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Summary
Marge Phillips was one of the sports territories’ precious salespeople in the Atlantic Zone. The

firm has been marketing a sportswear collection consisting primarily of three running suit styles.

She was still known to be one of their best salespeople since she was with us.

Anne had a question that they had to discuss. She has received a letter from one client of Marge.

He says he couldn't sell the goods she gave him while he tried all year. He said that soon after the

customer buys them, their running suits "are not worth a dime," they fall apart. He gave some

sales information that seemed to point to the fact that he still had a decent amount of our

inventory left at the end of the season. It was not the first time she had also obtained reports from

the other stores about less sales.

Marge says that she gets complaints about the merchandise quality, but that's not her concern.

She focused only on the profit-potential figures of the retailers, and quality seemed to her to be a

secondary concern. The facts on paper that Marge was definitely a good salesperson. Some of

her co-workers had said that she could sell snow to the Inuit. The running suits Marge sells are

made from one of many materials and labor combinations that resulted in suits of varying

durability.

There have been many questions about the consistency of the running suits marketed by the

brand. After a few washes, the seams fell apart, and the customers protested. Management 's

response was, "We sell good running suits, but you can't expect them to last forever." Marge

wasn't really concerned with quality goods and customer loyalty. She thought she had a job to

do, which was basically to sell. She developed customers, worked hard to establish partnerships,

had a strong focus on consumer acquisitions, and was going to bring new clients into her fold.
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The retention of established clients were left to her charisma and tact, and parties. As for Marge,

there were other questions for the manager. But she did such an outstanding job of selling, and

she made the company so much money that the boss didn't want to have a showdown. In fact,

this year's sales were up 17 percent for the country as a whole. Most of the increase was

attributed to the effect Marge had on other salesmen. There were reports she was contemplating

buying into a relationship and becoming the representative of a high-fashion apparel maker. If

Marge had left the business, it impacted the revenues. Anne was worried that Marge would

recruit away from the best salesperson from the company.

Anne remembered when she was hired for a merger. She still wanted to sell in the clothing

business, but no one would give her a chance. But when she graduated from college, Marge went

to work in one of the smaller stores of the big department to head the women's wear buyer for the

whole chain. So, Anne hired her for a 10% direct sales commission up to a quota. She had the

power, the level of service, and the motivation, and she was never satisfied. Anne didn't think

Marge worked less than 12 hours a day when she started. She's always been a fireball. Most of

her earnings she had been ploughing back into customer goodwill, and it seemed to have

benefited her. The only cost charged by the company was up to 1% of the actual profits of the

salesperson, and this had to be spent on entertainment. Its goal was to sell the commodity to the

customer by hook or crook.

Anne was surprised when Marge accepted the $1 million sales quota for her next year so calmly.

Currently, she expects that her revenue will grow to between $1.5 million and $2 million. Asked

why Marge claimed that her friend was a buyer for the chain of supermarkets she once worked

for. The buyer worked for Merge until Marge left for Sports Shirts to start working. Marge
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recalled that her friend was getting more than $5000 in cash, products, and holiday trips. Marge

said nothing to the chain management, mainly because she did the same thing that her friend

didn't hear about.

Marge gave a live band, followed by professional female and male buyers. Her clients were

well-pampered and well-attended. They felt obliged and honored to be invited to this shimmering

pleasant event at a five-star luxury venue. Marge believed in a substantial rise in sales and

wanted the operation to continue. It was very expensive, however.

Corporate management had begun to wonder about Marge's management skills, and some

wondered if she still had true sales capabilities. However, the reports and sales success could not

be overlooked. They thought she could only make a great sales manager if she could teach

salespeople about the art and craft of marketing (as well as marketing) and that could be an

interesting help to them.

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Questions and issues for discussion

Q1. Is Marge Philips a good salesperson? In your opinion – is selling more- more important or is

it that providing satisfaction to customer and solving his/her/ their problem more important?

Why??

Q2. Who is a successful sales person? What are qualities of a good sales person? Elaborate.

Would you say Marge is successful salesperson? Why yes or Why not ?

Q3. What is your understanding of an Ethical issue? What are ethics? Elaborate with special

focus on ethical issues usually faced by a sales person in selling situations. Talk to a few

successful sales people (remotely & online only, & understand the ethical issues they face in

selling situations.

Q4. Do Marge’s sales results justify her methods of selling?

Q5. What should Anne do? What should Anne NOT do? Why?
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Q1. Is Marge Philips a good salesperson? In your opinion – is selling more- more

important or is it that providing satisfaction to customer and solving his/her/ their

problem more important? Why??

Ans Marge Philips can be called a good salesperson because she is always meet quotas in fact,

exceed them often. Also, she always finds new accounts, and zealously cultivate and cultivate

existing customer accounts. But as a good salesperson, one should focus on providing

satisfaction to the customer and solving his or her problem more than selling. This is because a

salesperson must always aim for lifetime value, not a transaction value. A good salesperson

always analyzes the needs of their costumers, recommend solutions, and gain commitment,

implement the recommendation, and maintain and grow the relationship. Selling a product and

getting money for it, is not it? You must come up with a solution to their problems. This will

help the salesperson to build a strong relationship with the customer. If you keep providing them

satisfaction and give solutions to their query, then they might recommend your brand to their

friends and families! It’s a known fact that people buy those products which are recommended

by their close friends or family. Also, word of mouth is a key influencer these days. A happy and

satisfied customer would never leave your brand.

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Q2. Who is a successful sales person? What are qualities of a good sales person?

Elaborate. Would you say Marge is successful salesperson? Why yes or Why not?

Ans A successful salesperson is a person who:

 Applies knowledge

 Works hard and for long hours

 Listens carefully

 Willingness to be successful 

 Has an optimistic outlook

 Has a good knowledge of their job and the product or service which they are selling

 Has effective time management? 

Qualities of a good salesperson are:

 Empathizes with his customer

 Is a decent, fair, and helpful person

 Is non-abusive and manipulative

 Is a problem solver

No, Marge was not a successful salesperson. She did find many customer accounts, exceeded her

quotas, and even gave a party with a live band and professional female and male escorts for

buyers. Her customers were pampered and attended to very well. They felt obliged and

privileged at being invited to this swanky fun event at a five-star upscale location. Her charm and

beauty were an added factor – and when she put up an estimate of the quantity of volume each of

these invited buyers would possibly order (in front of their wives/escorts) they simply committed

to buying mostly. But she ignored the problems which were being faced by her customers. She
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believed that her job was only to sell not to come up with a solution for her buyer’s problems.

She only cared about customer acquisition and she retained customers by her charm, tact, and

parties. A good salesperson must always come up with a solution if his buyers are facing any

problem because this would lead to building a good relationship with the customers. We always

aim for lifetime value, not transaction value!

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Q3. What is your understanding of an Ethical issue? What are ethics? Elaborate

with special focus on ethical issues usually faced by a sales person in selling

situations. Talk to a few successful sales people (remotely & online only, &

understand the ethical issues they face in selling situations.

Ans All are concerned with ethical issues. Most have problems when we're there. Might be a

business code, ethical problems are dilemmas and responses that can also depend on the

circumstances, as well as the principles and business context. In contrast, what is intolerable

about one is. The person can be considered normal to the practise of another person. For

instance, do you try to persuade your customers to purchase more than they need or rearrange

orders to maximise their winning chances while your company is going into a sales competition?

Are you going back to your target and requesting imminent price increases? For others, the

explanation is that 'winners' are unethical in such a move.

Ethics isn't for other people. They are either right or wrong and have a common unofficial code

of ethics to handle these cases where there are grey areas. For others, a range of ethical dilemmas

generate sales positions that trigger work stress. Individuals and salespersons or administrators

have to decide whether to comply with these legal problems. Ethicality for the detriment of

others entails integrity, truthfulness, impartiality and unequal advantage. Some managers prefer

to see ethics as "soft" and operate against the concept of maximization of benefits that drives

many organizations.

We got a chance to speak with one of the sales managers of the business who sells personalized

beauty items for both men and women. He said that this time that is when the pandemic is going

their business affected by this. Their offline store revenues resulted from the pandemic, but on
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the other hand, their online store indicates a small rise in sales. What he feels is a rise in online

sales because nowadays people come to social media or other sites and do things like beauty

videos and similar things that immediately advertise their product but before this pandemic their

main face of the business that interacts with their core consumers is their own Salesperson.

Moreover, he continued by saying that Goods manufacturers should contribute to customer

education. Offering firms high-quality goods and services have little to do with fair pricing fear

from a customer with good details. He also acknowledges the feedback which came from the

different sources and molds their salespeople. Salespersons face many legal dilemmas at a

personal level. The most evident and perhaps the most traditional ethical conflict is that the

vendor wants to get the full price from a purchaser finding as much profit as possible from the

contract.
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Q4. Do Marge’s sales results justify her methods of selling?

Ans She was a quiet hardworking employee that is why she was a top salesperson of the

company and the surprising fact is that she used to work less than 12 hours a day. She used to

make more sales call, appointments with buyers and more presentations which lead to impressive

sales result from her side and a lot of profits for the company. She had more sales than any

salesperson in the firm which clearly indicates her workaholic life and high sales targets she uses

to achieve.
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Q5. What should Anne do? What should Anne NOT do? Why?

Ans Anne being the sales manager of the firm, she should take the following steps:

1. Anne should meet with Marge and persuade her of the concept of educating junior

salespeople about the strategies and techniques Marge uses for high-sales.

2. As the boss, Anne can teach Marge about clients and their life values and not just about

achieving sales targets, as this will impact the company in the long term.

3. Lastly, Anne should not concentrate excessively on achieving sales targets but should

concentrate on how costumers can be recovered and should teach Marge to do the same.
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Original Research
The study is time-based, analytical research that should be appropriate, timely, effective, and

reliable. To ensure that the study is timely, appropriate, effective, and reliable, our team

performed original research using the survey. The case reveals how the margin, the sales

manager, and the management have all not responded to the input given by the customers and

have dismissed the allegations. Marge also used bribery to get more orders from consumers. This

is an immoral way of acting.

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Relation to concepts
 Quantitative theory of sales: These sales people believe in the game of numbers. The

believe that sales would be more if amount of effort put into sales would be more. Larger

the net the salesperson would cast, more would be the sale.

 Customer Attrition: This refers to loss of customers. This means that customers won’t

always come to you to buy goods that is why you need to find new customer accounts

everyday with proper research. A good research may also help you to retain the

customers.

 Service orientation: This means that a good salesperson must always come up with a

solution if the customer is having any problem. This would lead to a good relationship

with the customer. Afterall lifetime value is what salesperson crave.

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REFERENCES
No references.