Professional Selling and CRM: Salesperson's Challenges and Solutions

This assignment analyzes the challenges faced by a new salesperson, Rick Lester, in a professional selling and CRM role. It explores Rick's struggles with work-life balance, negative responses from superiors, and the difficulties of the job compared to his initial training. The assignment addresses the need for better support and training for new salespeople, suggesting improvements to company practices, such as providing business cards, changing job titles, and recognizing sales achievements. It also suggests that professors should provide realistic job expectations and invite experienced salespeople to share their experiences with students. The assignment concludes with references to relevant research on salesperson exhaustion, stress, deviant behavior, and customer complaints.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL SELLING AND CRM
PROFESSIONAL SELLING AND CRM
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1PROFESSIONAL SELLING AND CRM
First Part:
Rick Lester is a salesman who is depressed because of his job. One day
he was cold and damp from the rain when he was analyzing his position in
the job and thinking about how he needs to learn so many things in order to
have a good position in his occupation. He sat in his van in the parking lot
outside of a Food World Supermarket when he had just telephoned the
division sales office to have an embarrassing reply in turn of a valid query
that he made. Hearing such kind of a response made Rick think that indeed
he was making a living in a way that is not a “piece of cake”. It had only
been one month in his job and a hard realization struck him; however, when
he saw Mr. Brown make calls in the two-week job training period, it had
seemed so much easier to him. Now that he had to do the same thing on his
own, he realized how tough it was to continue in the stream.
Rick pursued his sales class from the University of Alabama situated at
Birmingham; he had his parents and two younger sisters and they had lived
in Birmingham for a relatively long time. His father was also a salesman and
his mother were a homemaker. It was while studying in the University of
Alabama that Rick met a nice girl and after graduating from UBA, they got
married. He had received a lot of job opportunities all in the sales
department, but he selected Nabisco for the benefits they were offering. One
month into the job and Rick realized what the job demanded and also that
his wife did not like him to be introduced as a salesperson. This self-
assessment made him come to a decision that it might be better for him get
a job in the bank instead.

2PROFESSIONAL SELLING AND CRM
Second Part:
Question 1:
As a salesperson, who is new in his job, Rick would require support
from his authorities. He is unable to have a proper work and life balance
which is making him depressed (Leischnig et al. 2015). Hence, it is better for
him to “turn his keys”.
Question 2:
Mr. Brown’s reply to Rick’s query was not at all appropriate. It was not
only embarrassing but insulting. It is a big reason behind Rick’s decision to
quit. Instead Mr. Brown should have been more considerate in his reply and
provided a genuine solution to the worker.
Question 3:
It is not a better option to recruit and train only the people who have
work experience. The company should provide better training and after the
worker is hired, they should focus more on preparing the new salesperson
(Tao et al. 2016).
Question 4:
The company could have provided business cards; changed the title
from salesperson to “Account Executive” or “Area Representative” or even
“Sales Associate” (Swimberghe et al. 2014). There are also the ways of
recognizing sales achievement through trophies, travel awards and more.
Question 5:
Professors can provide them with job expectations that are more
realistic. They would inform them about the frustration, low status and
disappointment that salespeople have to face (Darrat et al. 2016). It would
be better to cover such topics that the textbooks would not say to the
students and bringing in young salesperson to share their experience is a
better way.

3PROFESSIONAL SELLING AND CRM

4PROFESSIONAL SELLING AND CRM
References:
Darrat, Mahmoud, Guclu Atinc, and Barry J. Babin. "On the dysfunctional
consequences of salesperson exhaustion." Journal of Marketing Theory
and Practice 24.2 (2016): 236-245.
Leischnig, Alexander, Björn S. Ivens, and Stephan C. Henneberg. "When
stress frustrates and when it does not: Configural models of frustrated
versus mellow salespeople." Psychology & Marketing 32.11 (2015):
1098-1114.
Swimberghe, Krist, Robert Paul Jones, and Mahmoud Darrat. "Deviant
behavior in retail, when sales associates “Go Bad”! Examining the
relationship between the work–family interface, job stress, and
salesperson deviance." Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services 21.4 (2014): 424-431.
Tao, Kungpo, Kiran Karande, and Aaron D. Arndt. "How angry customer
complaints influence salesperson commitment to service
quality." Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 24.3 (2016): 265-
282.