product manager who routinely interacts with individuals from production, customer
service, and shipping to coordinate production runs with promised delivery
dates. The product manager has no direct authority over any of the personnel in
production or customer service and shipping. For the following situations, explain
how you would try to gain the cooperation of the right people to meet customer
needs. It is important that you achieve customer satisfaction but not at the
expense of profitability.
Scenario A: A large customer unexpectedly runs out of shopping bags and is
requesting a shipment within 72 hours. Normal lead time for existing
customers is 10 working days. Production is fully booked, that
is, there is no idle capacity in the California plant.
Scenario B: A long-time customer buys three sizes of shopping bags, all
shipped in identical corrugated boxes. The smallest bags are packed
500 to a box, the medium-sized bags 250 to a box, and the largest
100 to a box. Black-and-white labels on one end of the corrugated
boxes denote bag sizes. The customer wants labels in three different
colors to denote bag size. According to the customer, store
employees could then tell at a glance if stock for a particular size
was running low and thus place prompt requests for reorders. Currently,
the black-and-white labels are applied by a machine as part
of the manufacturing process. The color labels would have to be
custom produced and hand-fed into the labeling machine, whereas
existing labels are printed inexpensively in large quantities and fed
automatically into the labeling machine.
2. Your knowledge of selling can help you get started in a sales career. Landing a job
is like making a major sale in that your knowledge, skills, and attitudes must meet
the needs of the employer. One way to match up with employer needs is to use
the feature-advantage-benefit (FAB) approach to assess yourself relative to
employer needs. In selling, a feature is a factual statement about the product
or service, for example, ‘‘at 10 pounds, it is the lightest electrical motor in its performance
category.’’ An advantage describes how the product can be used or
help the customer, for example, ‘‘it is light enough to be used in portable applications.’’
The benefit is the favorable outcome the customer will experience from
the advantage, for example, ‘‘your customers no longer will have to come to the
repair center for assistance, as service reps will be able to use portable repair kits in
the field.’’ To translate this method to the job search, think of yourself as the
‘‘product.’’ Select an appropriate company and discover what they are looking
for in sales job applicants. You can use classified ads, the college placement
The FAB Job-Search Matrix (Example)
A B C D
Need Feature Advantage Benefit
Employer or Problem Student Employer
‘‘This job requires . . . ’’ ‘‘I have . . . ’’ ‘‘This means . . . ’’ ‘‘You will . . . ’’
frequent sales
presentations to
individuals and groups
taken 10 classes that
required presentations
I require limited or no
training in making
presentations
save on the cost of training;
you have ability and confidence
to be productive early