An Association of Marketing Students®

OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY
Food Marketing 
Management Level

INSTRUCTIONAL AREA
Selling

PARTICIPANT INSTRUCTIONS

PROCEDURES

1.	The event will be presented to you through your reading of these instructions, including the Performance Indicators and Event Situation. You will have up to 10 minutes to review this information to determine how you will handle the role-play situation and demonstrate the performance indicators of this event. During the preparation period, you may make notes to use during the role-play situation.

2.	You will give an ID label to your adult assistant during the preparation time.

3.	You will have up to 10 minutes to role-play your situation with a judge (you may have more than one judge).

4.	You will be evaluated on how well you meet the performance indicators of this event.

5.	Turn in all your notes and event materials when you have completed the role-play.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 

1.	Establish a relationship with a client/customer.

2.	Determine customer/client needs.

3.	Recommend a specific product.

4.	Convert customer/client objections into selling points.

5.	Close the sale.

EVENT SITUATION

You are to assume the role of sales representative for The Grocer’s Friend, a grocery wholesaler. You will meet with the owner of Olson’s Food Mart (judge) to discuss the sale of private brands.

The Grocer’s Friend carries a complete line of canned and packaged food products along with soaps, detergents and personal care products. Your warehouse stocks all national brands along with Elite, a complete line of private-labeled products. The Elite line was developed by your company 10 years ago and has proved to be very successful with small, independent grocers.

One of your long-term customers is Olson’s Food Mart, a one-location family-owned grocery store in a rural community with a population of 12,000. Olson’s has been in business for 52 years and has built its business on quality customer service. Recently, a large, well-known warehouse-style grocer opened within Olson’s trading area. Olson’s owner (judge) knows the store will beat the competition in terms of service, but is very concerned about being price competitive.  

Olson’s has always purchased national branded products—never anything from the Elite line. Last week, the owner (judge) contacted your company wondering if the store should consider carrying private brand merchandise.

You are to meet with the owner (judge) of Olson’s Food Mart and sell the store on the Elite line. The role-play will take place in store’s office. The owner (judge) will begin the meeting by greeting you and asking to hear about your products. After you have completed your presentation and have answered the owner’s (judge’s) questions, the owner (judge) will conclude the role-play by thanking you for your suggestions.

JUDGE’S INSTRUCTIONS

DIRECTIONS, PROCEDURES AND JUDGE’S ROLE

In preparation for this event, you should review the following information with your event manager and other judges:

1.	Procedures

2.	Performance Indicators 

3.	Event Situation

4.	Judge Role-Play Characterization
Participants may conduct a slightly different type of meeting and/or discussion with you each time; however, it is important that the information you provide and the questions you ask be uniform for every participant.

5.   Judge’s Evaluation Instructions

6.	Judge’s Evaluation Form
Please use a critical and consistent eye in rating each participant.

JUDGE ROLE-PLAY CHARACTERIZATION

You are to assume the role of owner of Olson’s Food Mart, a one-location family-owned grocery store in a rural community with a population of 12,000. You will meet with the sales representative for a grocery wholesaler (participant) to discuss the purchase of private brands.

The sales representative (participant) is from The Grocer’s Friend, a grocery wholesaler that carries a complete line of canned and packaged food products along with soaps, detergents and personal care products. The Grocer’s Friend stocks all national brands along with Elite, a complete line of private labeled products. The Elite line was developed by the company 10 years ago and has proven to be very successful with the small, independent grocers.  

Olson’s has been in business for 52 years and has built its business on customer service.  Recently, a large, well-known warehouse-style grocer opened within Olson’s trading area, and while you know you can beat the competitor in customer service, you are concerned about being price competitive.  

While Olson’s has been a long-time customer of this grocery wholesaler, you have always purchased national branded products—never anything from the Elite line. Last week, you contacted The Grocer’s Friend wondering if Olson’s should consider carrying private brand merchandise. 

Your specific needs are to become more price competitive yet not sacrifice the outstanding customer service and quality products your customers have come to expect.

You are about to meet with The Grocer’s Friend’s sales representative (participant). The role-play will take place in the store’s office. The sales representative (participant) will begin the role-play by greeting you and asking to hear your suggestions. 

During the course of the role-play you are to ask the following questions of each participant: 

1.	Why do private brands have lower prices than their national brand competitors?

2.	Won’t my customers, who expect quality, think I’m just another cheap discount-oriented grocer if I carry private brands?

3.	Could you explain how offering the Elite line would expand my merchandise breadth?

Once the participant has presented his/her ideas and has answered your questions, you are to conclude the role-play by thanking the representative (participant).

You are not to make any comments after the event is over except to thank the participant.

JUDGE’S EVALUATION INSTRUCTIONS

Evaluation Form Information

The participants are to be evaluated on their ability to perform the specific performance indicators stated on the cover sheet of this event and restated on the Judge’s Evaluation Form. Although you may see other performance indicators being demonstrated by the participants, those listed in the Performance Indicators section are the critical ones you are measuring for this particular event.

Evaluation Form Interpretation

The evaluation levels listed below and the evaluation rating procedures should be discussed thoroughly with your event chairperson and the other judges to ensure complete and common understanding for judging consistency.

Level of Evaluation	Interpretation Level	
		
Excellent	Participant demonstrated the performance indicator in an extremely professional manner; greatly exceeds business standards; would rank in the top 10% of business personnel performing this performance indicator.	
		
Good	Participant demonstrated the performance indicator in an acceptable and effective manner; meets at least minimal business standards; there would be no need for additional formalized training at this time; would rank in the 70-89th percentile of business personnel performing this performance indicator.	
		
Fair	Participant demonstrated the performance indicator with limited effectiveness; performance generally fell below minimal business standards; additional training would be required to improve knowledge, attitude and/or skills; would rank in the 50-69th percentile of business personnel performing this performance indicator.	
		
Poor	Participant demonstrated the performance indicator with little or no effectiveness; a great deal of formal training would be needed immediately; perhaps this person should seek other employment; would rank in the 0-49th percentile of business personnel performing this performance indicator.	

JUDGE’S EVALUATION FORM
FMML-01
State Event 3 

DID THE PARTICIPANT:
1.  Establish relationship with client/customer?				
POOR	FAIR	GOOD	EXCELLENT	
0, 2	4, 6, 8	10, 12, 14	16, 18	
Attempts at establishing relationship with customer/client were inadequate or unclear.	Adequately established relationship with customer/client.	Effectively established relationship with customer/client.	Very effectively and thoroughly established relationship with customer/client.	
				
2.  Determine customer/client needs?				
POOR	FAIR	GOOD	EXCELLENT	
0, 2	4, 6, 8	10, 12, 14	16, 18	
Attempts at determining customer/client needs were inadequate or unclear.	Adequately determined customer/client needs.	Effectively determined customer/client needs.	Very effectively and 
thoroughly determined customer/client needs.	
				
3.  Recommend specific product?				
POOR	FAIR	GOOD	EXCELLENT	
0, 2	4, 6, 8	10, 12, 14	16, 18	
Attempts at recommending specific product were inadequate or unclear.	Adequately recommends specific product.	Effectively recommends specific product.	Very effectively and thoroughly recommends specific product.	
				
4.  Convert customer/client objections into selling points?	
POOR	FAIR	GOOD	EXCELLENT	
0, 2	4, 6, 8	10, 12, 14	16, 18	
Attempts at converting customer/client objections into selling points were inadequate or unclear	Adequately converted customer/client objections in to selling points.	Effectively converted customer/client objections in to selling points.	Very effectively and thoroughly converted customer/client objections in to selling points.	
				
5.  Close the sale?				
POOR	FAIR	GOOD	EXCELLENT	
0, 2	4, 6, 8	10, 12, 14	16, 18	
Attempts at closing the sale were inadequate or unclear.	Adequately closed the sale.	Effectively closed the sale.	Very effectively and clearly 
closed the sale.	
				
6. Overall impression of the participant’s skills and performance?				
POOR	FAIR	GOOD	EXCELLENT	
0, 1	2, 3, 4	5, 6, 7	8, 9, 10	
Demonstrated few skills with little or no effectiveness.	Demonstrated limited ability to link some skills effectively.	Effectively demonstrated specified skills.	Demonstrated skills in a confident, articulate and integrated manner that meets the highest professional business standards.	

Judge’s Initials 		TOTAL SCORE