The Sales Director of a Medium-Sized Company Selling Chemicals to the Lumber

Multiple Choice

The sales director of a medium-sized company selling chemicals to the lumber industry has analyzed sales and found serious problems with the closing rate of sales representatives relative to the number of prospects. The sales director commissioned a research company to analyze the numbers in the CRM system and conduct interviews with prospects who became customers as well as with prospects who did not buy from the company. He also hired a sales training consultant to analyze the sales representatives and the training they receive.
-The sales director discovers that salespeople have been discussing competitors in an effort to introduce doubt about competing products to prospects. Why has this backfired?

A) Discussing competitors makes the prospects wonder why the salespeople are so interested,and the prospects do research on the competitors.
B) Prospects assume that the salespeople must be representing the competing companies,so they send their orders in to the incorrect companies.
C) The insecurity that leads the salespeople to discuss their competitors with prospects also prevents the salespeople from asking for the sale.
D) Prospects cannot understand the nuances of the competing features of the products until they have used both products.
E) Salespeople are inadvertently discussing the benefits of competing products instead of the ways in which they fall short of their own products.