Chapter 9, Problem 9.101ACI

Effectiveness of sales closing techniques. Industrial sales professionals have long debated the effectiveness of various sales closing techniques. For example, a University of Akron study investigated the impact of five different closing techniques and a no-close condition on the level of a sales prospect’s trust in the salesperson (Industrial Marketing Management, September 1996). More recently, a B2B Marketing Insider blog (October 7, 2010) examined five currently-used sales closing techniques. Consider the following study. Sales scenarios are presented to a sample of 230 purchasing executives. Each subject received one of the five closing techniques or a scenario in which no close was achieved. After reading the sales scenario, each executive was asked to rate his/her level of trust in the salesperson on a 7-point scale. The table reports the six treatments employed in the study and the number of subjects receiving each treatment.

Treatments: Closing Techniques	Sample Size
1 No close	35
2 Financial close	35
3 Time Line close	30
4 Sympathy close	40
5 The Visual close	35
6 Thermometer close	55
Source: Based on J M Hawes “Do Closing Techniques Diminish Prospect Trust?” from Industrial Marketing Management, September 1996, Vol 25(5)

a. Consider the following hypotheses:

H₀: The salesperson’s level of prospect trust is not influenced by the choice of closing method.

H_a: The salesperson’s level of prospect trust is influenced by the choice of closing method. Rewrite these hypotheses in the form required for an analysis of variance.

b. Assume the ANOVA F-statistic is F = 2.21. Is there sufficient evidence to reject H₀ at α = .05?

c. What assumptions must be met for the test of part a to be valid?

d. Would you classify this experiment as observational or designed? Explain.