CHSE Odisha Elective Salesmanship common mistakes
CHSE Odisha Elective Salesmanship · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
When asked to distinguish salesmanship from selling or from advertising, the candidate defines both terms separately and stops, without stating a point-by-point basis of difference (objective, nature of contact, direction of communication, cost per contact, scope of feedback).
Textbook chapters introduce each concept in isolation, so candidates memorise two definitions and assume a comparison has been made; examiners award marks for the contrasted criteria, not the two definitions.
What to do instead
Before writing, draw a three-column table (basis / concept A / concept B) with at least four bases, then convert each row into a sentence. Practise with pairs such as salesmanship vs. personal selling, advertising vs. sales promotion, and selling vs. marketing.
The candidate answers a 'nature and importance' question purely with a list of benefits to the firm (higher sales, profit, goodwill) and omits the consumer and social dimension, and omits the limitation or criticism side when the question asks to evaluate importance.
Most candidates prepare importance as a one-directional list from the seller's viewpoint and never practise the buyer/society angle or the counter-argument, so the answer looks complete to them but is one-sided to the examiner.
What to do instead
Build a fixed three-part frame for any importance question: importance to the producer, importance to the consumer, importance to society/economy. Add two limitations (cost per contact, high turnover of sales staff, risk of mis-selling) and state how each is mitigated.
In the selling process, the candidate lists the steps in the right order but describes each step as a definition only, never showing the link from one step to the next, and skips the pre-approach and follow-up stages because they seem minor.
Steps are memorised as a sequence of headings; candidates rehearse the names, not the transitions, and pre-approach and follow-up are the least dramatic stages so they get dropped under time pressure.
What to do instead
For each step write one sentence of the form 'output of this step becomes input to the next', and give one concrete example per step. Always include prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation and demonstration, objection handling, close, and follow-up, and state what a failure at each step costs.
The candidate draws an organisation chart for a sales organisation but does not state the basis of departmentation (geographic, product, customer, or function), does not distinguish line from staff roles, and does not mention span of control or the size determinants of the sales force.
Organisation questions invite a diagram, and candidates produce a neat chart with boxes and lines, believing the diagram earns the marks; the examiner is marking the justification of structure and the workload-based method of sizing.
What to do instead
For every organisation answer, name the basis of division, give one advantage and one disadvantage of that basis, mark line versus staff positions, and compute sales-force size with the workload method (number of accounts x call frequency / calls per salesperson per period).
When asked about recruitment, selection, training, motivation, or compensation, the candidate gives only the definition and a generic list, without naming specific tools (for example application blank, interview, aptitude or role-play tests, on-the-job vs. vestibule training, straight salary vs. straight commission vs. salary-plus-incentive) or the criterion for choosing among them.
These topics are studied as separate short chapters, so candidates learn labels without the decision rule for selecting a tool, and exam answers become a thesaurus of terms rather than a reasoned choice.
What to do instead
Prepare a one-page comparison table for each area: tool, what it measures or achieves, cost, and when it is preferred. In the exam, name the tool, state the criterion, and give one situational example (for example commission-heavy pay for a new-product launch is weak because income is uncertain).
The candidate explains buyer behaviour by listing Maslow's hierarchy or the five-stage buying decision process without applying it to the given product or situation, and treats all buyers as identical, ignoring the difference between consumer and organisational buying.
Models are memorised as static diagrams; candidates are trained to reproduce the pyramid or the arrow diagram and are not trained to map a named product onto the model, which is what application questions demand.
What to do instead
For every model answer, add an applied paragraph using a specific product: identify the need level, the buying role (initiator, influencer, decider, buyer, user), the type of buying decision (routine, limited, extensive), and the post-purchase stage. State explicitly how organisational buying differs (multiple decision makers, derived demand, longer cycle, formal negotiation).
On objection handling, the candidate defines an objection and lists types, but does not name the specific handling techniques (direct denial, indirect denial, boomerang, compensation, question or clarification, postpone) or match a technique to a sample objection.
Objection handling is often taught as a list of objection categories (price, need, time, competitor, product), so candidates stop at classification and never learn the response methods or the principle of welcoming rather than fearing objections.
What to do instead
Memorise six named techniques and practise writing a two-line script for each against three standard objections (price too high, already using a competitor, need to think about it). Always add the precaution that direct denial must be used only when the objection is factually wrong.
The candidate confuses sales promotion with advertising, or describes sales promotion only as 'discounts', omitting the distinction between consumer promotion and dealer promotion, and omitting the trade-off between short-term push and long-term brand equity.
In practice the words are used loosely, and textbook lists of promotion tools are long, so candidates collapse them into price cuts and lose the classification and evaluation marks.
What to do instead
Learn a two-way grid: consumer-oriented (samples, coupons, premiums, contests, refunds, point-of-purchase displays) versus trade-oriented (dealer contests, buying allowances, free goods, dealer training). For each, state the objective, the timing, and the risk of over-use. Add one line on how sales promotion supports or undermines personal selling and advertising.
The candidate defines a sales quota, forecast, and territory as three unrelated terms, does not state that the forecast precedes the quota which precedes territory design, and cannot compute a simple territory workload or a quota based on market potential.
The three topics sit in separate sections of the syllabus, so candidates revise them separately and miss the planning sequence; the numerical relationship is rarely practised because it looks like arithmetic rather than theory.
What to do instead
Learn the chain: forecast (what we expect to sell) leads to quota (what each person is assigned) leads to territory (where and to whom). Practise one worked example each of the workload method for territory size and of quota setting from territory potential, and learn quota types (sales volume, rupee, activity, point-based, combination) with one use case each.
On ethics and consumer protection, the candidate recites the definition of consumer rights and the name of the consumer protection law but cannot name the redressal machinery, the grounds on which a complaint lies, or the limits of a seller's legal obligations, and does not connect ethical selling to specific practices such as misleading claims, bait advertising, or high-pressure closing.
Legal topics are treated as rote lists of rights and are revised last, so only the headline names survive; candidates also blend older and newer versions of consumer legislation and lose accuracy marks.
What to do instead
Build a fact sheet: the three-tier redressal structure (district, state, national commission) with pecuniary jurisdiction and time limits as currently in force, the definition of 'consumer' and 'unfair trade practice', and six specific unethical selling behaviours with the remedy for each. Verify the current figures from the official statute rather than from memory; if unsure, state the structure without the figures.