Reference no: EM132835200

Janice Jones graduated from a Canadian community college with a diploma in marketing management. At 22. she was an engaging person, an active community volunteer, and heavily involved in extracurricular activities at her college. She played on the varsity basketball team and served in a leadership capacity in her school's student government. While doing this, she maintained high enough grades to remain on the Dean's Honour list throughout her college career, Janice always loved selling. She excelled at it in any of her part time retail jobs and loved meeting people. She was a true "people person." Janice's short-term goal upon graduation was to make a lot of money so she could settle down and be comfortable before she was 30 years old.

Ishmar Patel was a recruiter for the Canadian division of a major business machine manufacturer. The company's expansion plans created a need for 10 new salespeople so Ishmar was on the recruiting trail at colleges and universities across Canada. When he arrived on campus, he was given a pile of resumes to review in hopes of finding a few candidates to whom he would offer an interview. After a day of reviewing there were a few that caught his eye but in particular, he liked the resumé of Janice Jones To him, she seemed to have all of the qualities that often lead to success in sales, so he offered her an interview. During the interview. Janice was outstanding. She presented herself well and was confident in her abilities.

Ishmar informed Janice of the responsibilities of the job and the tremendous earnings potential in fact, he informed her that some of the current salespeople were earning in excess of $200 000 per year. Janice's eyes lit up as she visualized herself being able to reach her short-term financial goals. Ishmar was so impressed by her interview that he offered her the job and, not being known to shy away from challenges, Janice accepted Janice immediately purchased a new car and a new wardrobe as her new position would require her to have reliable transportation and always appear professional. She was proud of her new position but over the course of the first few months, she felt overwhelmed She had a touch lime getting appointments and was beginning to take the rejection personally. Her stress levels were increasing each week. She found that even after getting appointments with prospective buyers. only half were actually giving her the order If she kept up her current level of sale she determined that she would earn approximately $60000 her first year of sales.

She was disappointed with this After hearing in the Interview that many of her colleagues were earning six-figure salaries, she had thought that she could easily reach these figures, if not exceed them. After all she had always succeeded in anything she put her mind to. Near the end of the third business quarter, Janice had a particularly poor week of sales. Combined with the fact that she had just received notice of a rent in crease, she wondered if she was in the wrong line of work.

Janice set up a meeting with her sales manager for the following Monday morning. She spent the week end depressed about the meeting she was contemplating quitting her job and moving on to something different She hated thinking this way as she had always enjoyed selling and had planned a career in it

1. What should Janice do to properly prepare for her meeting?

2. How should Janice's sales manager handle the meeting?

3. Should Janice consider switching careers? Why or why not?

4. What qualities did Janice have that would make her an attractive sales recruit?

5. Were Janice's expectations too high as she entered a sales career?

6. What can professors do to better prepare students for sales career?