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MARK 454: ROLE PLAY- APPROACH AND NEEDS

Roleplay number 2

Salesperson: Hello!
Customer: Hi!
Salesperson: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
My name is Dwight, I am Precision Photocopiers’ new sales representatives.
Customer: Pleasure meeting you as well. I’m Pam, the owner of ABC printing.
Salesperson: It is so great being in your store in person. And can I say, this place looks
fantastic.
Customer: Thank you.
Salesperson: How has your day been so far?
Customer: Good thank you, it was a busy day for sure, but it’s a good kind of exhausted. I am
just really proud of the work I’ve accomplished.
Salesperson: As you should. I really like that print you have here on the wall, is it inspired by
Munch?
Customer: Yes, it’s a replica of The scream. I have other abstract prints around, but I’ve been
so busy I haven’t had the time to hang the others on my walls.
SITUATION QUESTIONS:
Salesperson: It’s only the beginning of your business, so it’s normal if everything isn’t
perfectly organized yet. Have you had a lot of customers yet?
Customer: Yes, the opening weekend brought lots of curious passersby, and it has only
slowed down a little bit since then.
Salesperson: That great! I think it’s not going to stop with the upcoming holiday season, do
you have anything planned for then?
Customer: Yes, I have lots of orders scheduled over the next few weeks because of the
holidays. I’m just hoping the excitement will continue to get me through the season.
Salesperson: Are you the one that makes all the decisions for the store?
Customer: Yes, I am the owner, so I’m the one responsible for all the marketing,
administrative and financial decisions for the store. As of right now, I’m also the sole
employee. Although, I am planning on expanding later and if all goes well, I want to hire a
salesperson to help me at the start of next year.
Salesperson: That is a lot of work for just one person, do you think it allows for a good
customer relationship with your clients?

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Customer: I still take the time during the day to help my clients with their shopping. And I
even have regular customers already that like to stop by the store just to talk for a bit. I must
admit though I am struggling at the end of the day to do all the paperwork by myself.
Salesperson: Are you doing anything to promote the store?
Customer: Yes, we’re planning on having a black Friday sale at the end of November, I just
have to promote it on our social media pages and print out pamphlets to leave in the store.
Salesperson: Do you have any printers to do that or are you planning on getting it done
professionally?
Customer: No, unfortunately I don’t have a photocopier in the office yet, I guess I’ll just have
to go print it at the nearby store. It is a 30-minute drive to get there though.
PROBLEM QUESTIONS:
Salesperson: Right, this might become an issue don’t you think? Considering you have so
much work on your plate, a 60-minute round-trip may not be the best use of your time.
Customer: Well, I guess that is true, and with the holiday season approaching, I will have to
take care of the book-keeping, and inventory in addition to running the store during the day,
so really a lot of paperwork that might need the use of a scanner or a printer.
Salesperson: All that work does sound exhausting. Do you think that it might become
detrimental to the store in the long run? Because all that additional work may cause you to be
less focused with your customers, or you might end up making mistakes doing inventory for
example. I’m only asking because I know I’m much more prone to making mistakes when
I’m swamped with work.
Customer: The adventure has just begun for me, but I’ll admit I have been feeling very
stressed amongst all this excitement.
Salesperson: So, what you are saying is that you are planning on increasing sale during the
holiday season by doing a special event, but you’ll have to do that alone on top of all the
paperwork you have to do.
Customer: Yes, that is true.
Salesperson: Would you say time management has been your biggest issue so far then?
Customer: Yes, just because it’s the beginning and I have so much to do, I have to admit I am
a bit disorganized for now and I cannot yet find the time to do everything I have to do during
the day.
IMPLICATION QUESTIONS:
Salesperson: I can very well see how that might become overwhelming for just one person. If
I may ask, do you think not having a photocopier in your premises has caused delays for your
business yet?
Customer: Well, it’s how you said, for now I’ve just been focused on building a good
customer’s relationship. So, I guess I have been lagging a bit behind on the paperwork. But

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the fact that I just started also mean I just haven’t really had the need to print or scan anything
yet. And that’s why I haven’t really had any delays yet.
Salesperson: Right, but you will need to pretty soon don’t you agree? Like in order to keep
track of your orders for your inventory or as you said to print out the pamphlets needed for
your Black Friday event.
Customer: Right, that is true.
Salesperson: If I may ask, how much more do you think you could achieve if you had a
printer on hand?
Customer: I don’t really know a lot about printers, but I guess if it can avoid me the money
for the print shop then it might make my life easier.
SPIN-OFF QUESTIONS:
Salesperson: Don’t you think that if you didn’t have to do the hour-long ride to go print your
flyers, it might leave you some free time to take care of other things, like inventory? It could
even free you some time just so that you could relax for an hour.
Customer: That actually sounds lovely, I can’t remember the last time I just had an hour to
myself.
Salesperson: What’s more, don’t you think it might be easier to do the promoting events for
the store if you had a photocopier in the office?
Customer: I didn’t think about that before, but if that could give me that hour to myself, I can
see how that would be beneficial for sure.
Salesperson: If you’ll be okay with that, I can present you the 2 photocopiers that I have in
stock. The Jenny 1 - 2OO is cheaper, smaller, and cost efficient but the Jenny 2 Document
Centre 600 really is time saving as it does a bit of everything, which could help you a lot for
your time management issue.
Customer: Right, but how much timesaving can it be?
Salesperson: I guess if you think about it, it only saves a few minutes of your time compared
to our other Jenny printer, but in the long run this few minutes may become the hour you
longed for to relax.
Customer: Right, I wasn’t sure I needed a printer immediately, seeing as I don’t really have
that much paperwork yet. Also, I am just starting my business, so the cheapest option might
interest me more.
Salesperson: Yes, I completely understand. It is true that the Jenny 1 - 2OO is $250 compared
to the $400 of the other jenny. If you’re not sure, I can offer you a demonstration in our
offices so that you can try both of them out. I understand how busy you are so I can even
arrange to have our meeting when your shop is closed, let’s say 7PM at my office?
Customer: That time would be preferable indeed. It is nice of you to offer that for me. I just
hope your office isn’t too far away so that I can still work when I get home.

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Salesperson: Don’t worry about that, it only took me 10 minutes to come see you today, so it
shouldn’t bother you too much.
Customer: That seems perfect then, will next Wednesday be okay for you?
Salesperson: Wednesday is wonderful. I truly hope a demonstration will help you make a
choice, as both our printers offer benefits that I’m sure would help you in your day-to-day
tasks, even those you didn’t know you had! I’d just like to add that this meeting won’t require
you in any way to buy our printers, it is just a demonstration.
Customer: That actually put my mind at ease a little, so thank you. And you never know,
maybe taking care of this now will check it off my list and I won’t need to do it next year.
Salesperson: In any case, it was so nice meeting you Pam, I will see you on Wednesday then.
Customer: Of course, goodbye then.
Salesperson: Goodbye.