Assignment 2: Product Overview (10%) Instructions and Submission

A good salesperson will have a robust understanding of the product that he or she is selling. Many salespeople stop at the point of understanding the technical details of the product. Excellent salespeople take their understanding further, and gain knowledge of the product on a much broader range of dimensions.

A. Review Feedback from Integrated Assignment Plan

Before beginning this activity, you must have completed and received approval on your Assignment 1.2: Integrated Assignment Plan. Your paper will not be marked unless you have a full written approval from your Open Learning Faculty Member. Review the feedback from your Open Learning Faculty Member and make any required adjustments to your plan. Wait until you have full approval before beginning this assignment. Sometimes, you may have to pick a different product/service in order to be successful in this project.

B. Write a Product Overview and Reflection

In a report of approximately 1,500–2,000 words, demonstrate your knowledge of your chosen product/service. See the “Assignment Structure” section for details on how to format your paper.

Part I: Product Overview (40 marks)

Create a well-organized product overview of 1,000–1,300 words with all the information the salesperson would need to know before developing his or her sales presentation. You are required to conduct a thorough literature search about the product/service and your competition. All information gathered for this assignment must be collected from public sources. You must cite and reference the sources in APA style to avoid plagiarism! The more you have cited and referenced, the stronger your paper will be, because you are not just speaking from your own opinion.

If you are intending to complete primary research, for example, speaking directly to people to obtain product knowledge, you will need to submit an application to the Research Ethics Board prior to conducting such a study. Failure to do so will make the data collected inadmissible for grading.

If you plan to conduct primary research, please discuss this with the Open Learning Faculty Member.

Revisit Module 2, Topic 2: Becoming a Product Expert, and Topic 4: Product Positioning, to refresh your understanding of the following headings and subheadings. You must divide your content into the following headings and sub-headings, to demonstrate your full understanding of using these terminologies.

Introduction

Introduce some background information so your reader(s) can understand what you are selling.

Product

1. Product development and quality improvement processes
2. Performance data and specifications
3. Maintenance and service contracts
4. Price and delivery
5. ROI or cost/benefit
6. Features and benefits

Company

1. Company history and overview
2. Company culture and organization

Competition

1. Competitive analysis worksheet (see textbook, Table 7.1, for a sample). You must use the format from your textbook and use descriptive information rather than numeric rating. Don’t forget to cite and reference where you gather information to compile this table.

Positioning

1. Source of differentiation
2. Product positioning
3. Four levels of total product concept

Part II: Reflection (25 marks)

Write a reflection of 500–700 words to answer the following:

• If you were a salesperson selling this product/service, would you track this sort of information (product, company, and competitive knowledge) for a product/service? How would you use this information?
• What process would you use to gather the information and keep it updated? Is there any other information you would like to obtain? What is it?
• How confident would you feel selling the product/service you have written about? Why or why not?

Note

Most of the information or ideas you have gathered for this assignment are from other source(s) (i.e., not your own), please cite and reference them in APA style accordingly. The more you can cite and reference, the more creditable and believable you will be. This can avoid plagiarism!