Exam 11: Motivating Salespeople

Some of your lower performing salespeople complain to you about begin stuck with a "bad" territory. They say that the higher performing salespeople have easier territories to sell in. Which of the following theory best describes the salespeople's thinking?

Motivation is defined as an individual's willingness to exert effort to achieve the organization's goals while satisfying individual needs.

On which of the following are profit-based quotas most likely to be based?

Quotas lend themselves to management by exception where managers can focus attention on salespeople who are exceptionally below quota.

Sales contests are usually held over periods of a year or more.

"Working smarter" refers to the understanding that an increase in the right kind of effort will produce greater performance.

According to Expectancy Theory a salesperson will be motivated to work harder when they believe that greater effort will lead to greater performance.

As the sales manager of a startup company, you realize that funds are tight. As a result you are implementing a recognition award plan. All of the following are advantages for recognition awards except:

Expectancy theory hypothesizes a relationship between effort, performance, and rewards.

Rehearsal is one behavioral self-management technique that could be either explicit or visualized.

A typical sales contest lasts for a year, a period of time that allows each salesperson to cover his or her territory completely and encourages maximum sell-through of the products.

Contest administrators should:

According to the text, the qualifications and rewards of an effective sales incentive program should be set with the following objective in mind:

Fred used to be a high performing sales rep for you. However, he has not performed well lately. You've decided it was time to have a talk with Fred. Among the list of things you want to occur in this meeting is for Fred to realize what he needs to do to increase his motivation. You plan on explaining expectancy theory which is based on the relationship between:

Which of the following are characteristics of employees in the disengagement phase?

A salesperson who has the following characteristics is can be labeled as having which motivational drive? -Has a desire to be the best salesperson in the company, but is not interested in outperforming specific people -Likes to be considered an expert, but are prone to feeling slighted -Changes jobs frequently -Takes things personally

Studies reveal little support for the common sense belief that salespeople typically set their quotas low so they are easily achieved.

For the majority of sales representatives to commit to achieving the level of performance required by a sales contest, the sales manager must communicate that the contest goals are:

The drive to initiate action on a task, the quality of effort on a task and the persistence to expend effort over a period of time sufficient to meet or exceed objectives most closely describes a salesperson who:

According to this theory, salespeople have three professional needs, achievement, affiliation and power. Also, a high need for achievement and affiliation has been related to higher sales force performance.