The company that would not bid : a small business using a high cost of customer acquisition approach /
Al, a salesman for roofing contractor GF Smith & Co, was required to follow the company's time-intensive approach of solutions selling in order to create a bid. Solution selling was discovering customers' needs and proposing solutions rather than bidding on the customer request. For a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London :
SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals,
2019.
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| Series: | SAGE Knowledge. Cases.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | Al, a salesman for roofing contractor GF Smith & Co, was required to follow the company's time-intensive approach of solutions selling in order to create a bid. Solution selling was discovering customers' needs and proposing solutions rather than bidding on the customer request. For a solution selling proposal, the company required the presence of all decision-makers (typically a husband and a wife) in the household. Al and a colleague had spent several hours with a potential customer but had to cancel two follow-up meetings to give the bid because the customer's wife was too busy to attend. The customer had already received two other bids and was asking for Al's. Al knew he would lose the sale if his manager would not let him suspend the usual process in this case. Al was trying to determine what arguments he could make to the manager to convince him to suspend the process. The case exposes students to the cost of customer acquisition for small businesses and allows for discussion of point selling, solution selling, and upselling. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781526464309 1526464306 |