TRAINING SALESMAN WITH THE SALES MANAGEMENT GAME Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 158 TRAINING SALESMAN WITH THE SALES MANAGEMENT GAME by Louis E. Boone A large company, seeking to fill a vice presidential vacancy in its ranks, decided to interview three prospects from its ranks. The first applicant, who headed the firm’s engineering division, was interviewed at length. Finally, the interviewer asked him: “Tell me, Charley, what does two and two equal?” Without hesitating the engineer answered, “Four! Two and two are always four. This is a primary law of mathematics.” The interviewer thanked the engineer and requested that the second applicant, the firm’s national sales manager, report for an interview. In the course of the interview the same question was asked: “What does two and two equal?” “Five!” responded the sales manager. Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 159 “Would you mind explaining your answer?’ “Of course. I always tell my salesmen: if you can get four orders you can get five!” The interviewer then ushered the third applicant, the firm’ s senior accountant, into his office. And, again, the same question was asked: “What does two and two equal?” The accountant quickly rose and closed the office door. He walked over to the interviewer and, in a low voice, answered, “What did you have in mind?” The objectives of gaming, like the world of the accountant, are not filled with absolutes. As you have already heard this morning, games have been introduced during the past two decades as a means of providing students with experience as decision makers in a realistic environment. The simulation allows the student to test in a dynamic setting theories and concepts learned in previous courses. It integrates basic concepts Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 160 developed in other business courses and forces the decision maker to recognize -- perhaps as never before -- the interrelationships between the various courses and the functions of the business executive. The goal of most students of business administration is to become a business executive--with all of the commensurate authority and responsibility for making effective business decisions. These students learn theories, develop concepts, and gain knowledge in production, marketing, and finance in order to understand the functions of each area and the interrelationships between areas as they contribute to the overall operation of the firm. “Tool” courses in accounting, statistics, and quantitative analysis sharpen the future executive’s analytical abilities. Unlike the results from exclusive reliance on the case method, business simulations present a dynamic environment in Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 161 which to make business decisions. Company and industry simulations force the decision maker to analyze all facets of the market -- the products to be produced and marketed, the present and potential consumers, pricing considerations, promotional mixes and dollar expenditures, and the channel or channels of distribution--while anticipating and reacting to the decisions of competitors in the industry. A simulation is therefore a model of an industry in which various factors collectively determine sales and costs of the operating firms. Although the business simulation does not exactly duplicate an actual industry, much of the excitement of actual competition is provided, as well as invaluable experience in the making of business decisions in a competitive, realistic environment. Most of us have witnessed the development and publication of simulations for business courses. From their beginnings as teaching aids in the capstone business policy course, they have Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 162 steadily evolved to the functional areas, Games are now commercially available in production, marketing, and finance. Bill Sommerfield, tonight’s dinner speaker, has published simulations dealing with business policy, marketing management, sales management, accounting, investments--all within the past five years. My own experience with development of THE SALES MANAGEMENT GAME resulted from the success of my first marketing management game. MARKETING STRATEGY was first published in 1971 by Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company and was an immediate success. In 1972 I was contacted by General Learning Corporation and asked to develop a game for the sales management course. THE SALES MANAGEMENT GAME was the result. The game is competitive in that the class is organized into several companies. Competitive interaction among the firms determines how well each management team performs in the game. Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 163 Each group of 3-5 students assumes the functions of the sales manager for a firm marketing relatively homogeneous industrial drills and grinders. Each management team must determine discounted prices for its products; select, train, and perhaps discharge salesmen; assign the sales personnel to territories; allocate the company’s sales efforts to each of the products; decide upon the type of sales compensation plan to be used; determine optimum sales support levels; and decide whether to purchase marketing research studies to aid in the decision-making process. In summary, each group faces all of the decisions confronting a sales manager. Details on the specific operation of the model are available in the instructor’s manual that accompanies the game. Sample copies may be obtained by writing General Learning Corporation, 250 James Street, Morristown, New Jersey 07960. The game has been well-received both in college and university sales and sales management classes, and also in Simulations, Gaming and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 164 industry sales training programs. A good indication of its reception is that Dave Kurtz and I are busy on the second edition. A major change will be the addition of variable complexity of decisions so that students will be requested to make more complex decisions as their experience as decision makers increases. This should allow the game environment to be a continually challenging one. Table of Contents Volume 1, 1974 Long Live Your Business Game Marketing In Action In Collegiate Education How to Create Your Own Business Game with Imaginit The Design, Conduct and Evaluation of a Computerized Management Game as a Form of Experiential Learning Experiential Learning: Conceptualization and Definition The Teaching Potential of a Structured Experience The Lecture versus the Game Tracking the Elective: Student-Goal Oriented Education The Use of Internal and External Assignments with a Marketing Simulation Game Constructing Mini-Courses to Supplement Business Simulations A Video-Tape/Computer Learning Experience A Collective Bargaining Negotiation Simulation: Settle or Strike Simulation in Personnel Administration Introduction to Pablum: A public Administration Game Enrichment of a Multi-Functional Game through Dynamic Overlays and Intensive Decision Analysis An Orientation to the Oklahoma Farm Management Game A Description of INTSTRAT: A Game of Investment Strategy DØG: A Decision Mathematics Game The Use of Production Scheduling Simulation in a Production Planning and Control Course Interactive Gaming: A Production Example Marketing Interaction: A Marketing Management Game ADMAG I: An Advertising Management Game Meeting the Decline in College Enrollments Using the Money Game in the Classroom Training Salesmen with The Sales Management Game Smith Management Game (BUSOP) The Business Game: A New Approach to Managerial Accounting Administration: The Key to a Successful Gaming Experience Simulation: A Frustration, A ‘Game’, or a Meaningful Experience Using Complex Simulations in Policy Courses in Institutions with Limited Resources Flexibility in Simulation Design for Continual Student Motivation A Terminal Keyboard Experience in Executive Gaming Application of Theory and of Computerized Grading in Management Simulation The Executive Education Experience Using the Toronto Management Game Experiences with the Harvard Management Game Managing the Dynamic Small Business Via Simulation The Use of Business Game and a Simulated Stock Exchange in a Business Policy Course Managerial Strategy and Systems - An integrative M.B.A. Course SIMQ, A Business Simulation Game for Decision Science Students: Towards a Total Gaming and Teaching Package The Use of Simulation in a Financial Planning Course Simulation as a Supplementary Learning Experience in Marketing Principles Intercollegiate Business Gaming: The State of the Art Intercollegiate Business Gaming from a Participant's Viewpoint Correlates of Satisfaction, Learning and Success in Business Gaming A Student' s View of Leadership Training with a Two-Level Hierarchy, Two Course Simulation Autocratic versus Democratic Decision Making: The Executive Game as an Experiment Identifying Potential Game Participants Assessment Centers Selection Based on Simulation Business Games in the Process of Management Training in Israel and the United States Evolution and Flexibility in Business Gaming Quantitative Applications of Games Growing Emphasis on Implementation Debits and Credits: First National ABSEL Conference