Shadow Assignment, The Presentation Technique by Thompson Report

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One might state that a sale is achieved the moment a contract between the buyer and the seller is signed. Such a statement is obviously limited, where the selling process involves many stages before and after a deal was concluded. In that regard, this paper provides a brief overview of the selling process, based on the case of Dennis Thompson, the owner of an insurance store, and Carolyn S. Hardin, a potential customer whose mother has a life insurance policy that requires clarification.

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It can be stated that in the present case there was no approach or prospecting involved. With the customer, Harding, approaching the office of Thompson on her own, Thompson did not have to do much to identify her as a potential customer. Accordingly, as soon as she walked through the company’s door, she was already identified as a potential customer, and thus, the prospecting stage could be omitted in this case. Additionally, it can be stated that there was no approach as well, as the case revolves around Hardin meeting Thompson with no activities preceding the actual personal contact from Thompson’s side. The same can be also said about gaining entry.

The preparation for the presentation can be seen through Hardin’s questions which Thompson answered. Such preparation is related to the seller’s knowledge of the insurance industry, as “[c]ustomers view a good sales representative as a source of valuable sales information” (Marks). During such a discussion, the seller was able to recognize the problems of the customers and identifying her needs. Thompson used closed questions, which are questions that seek specific answers, usually direct, limited, and to the point.

The rationale for using such questions can be seen in that the seller can drive such questions in the direction of his interest. In that regard, acknowledging that his interest is to choose the direction of car insurance, rather than life insurance, which policy he could not change. Nevertheless, it can be stated that in this case the burden of responsibility was retained by the buyer, i.e. Hardin, as she was the initiator of the discussion regarding the life policy and she was the one changing the direction of the discussion to car insurance. In that regard, it can be stated that the seller in this case was rather passive, being unable to satisfy the curiosity needs of the customer.

The presentation technique used by Thompson is a demonstration, in which he showed Hardin the process of accumulating dividends. Thompson did not use any visual aid material, which could have been helpful in enhancing the customer’s understands that the present option is capable of solving her problem. Accordingly, the same can be said about explaining the benefits and the features of the car insurance policy. The main objections of the Hardin were related to a life insurance policy, although it can be stated that she had other objections related to the car insurance coverage which she could not verbalize. In the first case, Thompson used the indirect denial approach to handle the objections, where he used the recommendation of the company in Missouri to indirectly tell Harding that she already has the best option available. For the sent case, Thompson neither managed to clarify the objections by himself nor did he manage to make the customer verbalize the objections by herself.

The close in a sense of a statement or a question that secures an affirmative decision to buy never occurred in this case. In that regard, Thompson did not close was largely linked to his insecurity over Hardin’s need for a car policy. Such insecurity can be seen in the way Thompson unconfidently suggested that he would hopefully see her about the car insurance. Thus, this meeting can be regarded as unsuccessful, where no sale occurred, nor the seller confirmed the customer’s future decision to buy.

There were many mistakes in the proposed scenario and accordingly many aspects that could have been handled differently. The absence of the preparatory stages, in this case, was an opportunity for the seller, which he did not utilize to the fullest extent. In that regard, the success was only in maintaining the existing insurance policy, while he had the opportunity to sell a car insurance policy as well if he had satisfied the customers’ informational need proposing benefits to purchase.

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References

Marks, Ron. Personal Selling : A Relational Approach. 7th ed: Atomic Dog Publishing, 2006. Print.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Shadow Assignment, The Presentation Technique by Thompson." December 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shadow-assignment-the-presentation-technique-by-thompson/.

1. IvyPanda. "Shadow Assignment, The Presentation Technique by Thompson." December 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shadow-assignment-the-presentation-technique-by-thompson/.


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IvyPanda. "Shadow Assignment, The Presentation Technique by Thompson." December 17, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shadow-assignment-the-presentation-technique-by-thompson/.

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