MBA Sales 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'sales velocity' and what four factors determine it?
- Revenue generated per unit of time, driven by number of opportunities, win rate, deal size, and sales cycle length (Correct answer)
- The speed of outbound prospecting, driven by call volume, email rate, meetings booked, and demos completed
- Pipeline growth rate, driven by inbound leads, referrals, content downloads, and trade show attendance
- Rep productivity, driven by quota attainment, activity levels, tenure, and training hours
Correct answer: Revenue generated per unit of time, driven by number of opportunities, win rate, deal size, and sales cycle length
Sales velocity = (Opportunities × Win Rate × Average Deal Size) / Sales Cycle Length, quantifying how fast revenue flows through the pipeline.
Question 2: Which approach does the Challenger Sale methodology argue is most effective for complex B2B sales?
- Teaching prospects new insights, tailoring the pitch, and taking control of the sale (Correct answer)
- Building deep personal relationships before initiating any sales conversation
- Always aligning with the customer's stated needs without challenging their assumptions
- Relying primarily on product demonstrations and feature comparisons
Correct answer: Teaching prospects new insights, tailoring the pitch, and taking control of the sale
The Challenger model, based on CEB research, found that reps who teach, tailor, and take control outperform relationship builders in complex sales environments.
Question 3: In enterprise sales, what is the purpose of a mutual action plan (MAP)?
- To align buyer and seller on shared milestones, responsibilities, and timelines toward a deal close (Correct answer)
- To document the salesperson's internal approval process for discounting
- To outline the marketing team's lead generation activities for the account
- To track post-sale implementation milestones only
Correct answer: To align buyer and seller on shared milestones, responsibilities, and timelines toward a deal close
A MAP creates shared accountability by listing every step both parties must complete, making the path to close transparent and collaborative.
Question 4: What does a high 'Sales Accepted Lead' (SAL) to 'Sales Qualified Lead' (SQL) conversion rate indicate?
- Marketing is generating leads that align well with the sales team's qualification criteria (Correct answer)
- The sales team is accepting too many unqualified leads from marketing
- Prospects are converting quickly without meaningful discovery
- The SDR team is qualifying leads without passing them to account executives
Correct answer: Marketing is generating leads that align well with the sales team's qualification criteria
A high SAL-to-SQL rate means that leads marketing hands off are genuinely progressing through qualification, indicating strong marketing-sales alignment.
Question 5: Which ethical issue arises when a salesperson overpromises product capabilities to close a deal?
- It creates expectation gaps that damage customer trust and increase churn (Correct answer)
- It improves short-term revenue at the cost of marketing budget
- It violates CRM data entry policies
- It reduces the company's negotiating leverage in renewals
Correct answer: It creates expectation gaps that damage customer trust and increase churn
Overpromising closes the deal but destroys trust when reality falls short, leading to dissatisfied customers, churn, and reputational damage.
Question 6: Which territory design principle helps minimize travel time and maximize face-to-face selling time for field sales reps?
- Geographic clustering of accounts within compact, contiguous territories (Correct answer)
- Assigning accounts alphabetically by company name
- Distributing accounts equally by revenue potential regardless of location
- Rotating accounts among reps every quarter to build relationships
Correct answer: Geographic clustering of accounts within compact, contiguous territories
Geographically compact territories reduce drive time between accounts, giving field reps more hours for actual selling rather than commuting.
Question 7: What is the primary risk of a sales organization that relies entirely on 'hero' salespeople rather than a repeatable process?
- Revenue becomes unpredictable and non-scalable when top performers leave (Correct answer)
- The company over-invests in CRM technology
- Marketing and sales alignment breaks down
- Customer onboarding slows significantly
Correct answer: Revenue becomes unpredictable and non-scalable when top performers leave
Hero-dependent sales models create fragile revenue that collapses when key individuals leave, because success cannot be transferred or systematically replicated.
MBA Sales 5
What is 'sales velocity' and what four factors determine it?