A. Review Assignment Requirements
In addition to reading the “Assignment Structure” and “Evaluation Criteria” information, take a few minutes to review the requirements for Assignments 2, 3, 4, and 5. You may need to look up some terms in the textbook if you are not familiar with them—use the index. All of the assignments are designed to relate to a single product or service of your choosing. Once you have chosen your product or service, you must stay with that product for all these assignments. Review the requirements carefully!
Part I: Choose a Product or Service
Choose a product or service that you would like to focus on for your integrated assignments. Think about a product or service for which all of the assignments will make sense and be achievable. Here are some suggestions for you to consider:
- Choose a product or service that has a well-known brand name and has been running for a while. Do not pick a company that is about to open. You would have trouble finding good information on the product when writing Assignment 2.
- Do not choose a product/service at your workplace. This could cause breaching of internal data: a violation of the Privacy Act of Canada.
- Think along the line of where you spend your spare time. It could be a product that you use often; a hobby that you have enjoyed for many years; or a volunteer position that you have worked.
- Think of a product/service that sells in business-to-business (B2B) situations. For example, toothpaste should be sold to major grocery stores, rather than door to door of a residential area. This will help you greatly to do your Assignment 3.
Part II: Submit Your Assignment Plan to Your Open Learning Faculty Member
Once you have chosen your product or service, write your Integrated Assignment Plan (approx. 400 words) which must briefly include the elements listed below. Please use the provided headings in APA style and present your ideas clearly. Remember, do not use any data (or documents) from your current and/or past employer(s) or workplace(s), as this could violate the University Academy Integrity policy.
- Assignment 1/Product or Service Choice: This is the name of the product or service that you will be using for Assignments 2, 3, 4, and 5. Include a brief description of what the product or service is, why you have chosen it, and the product or service website. Do not choose a brand product that does not have a website. This will limit your ability to write and cite your sources in your Assignment 2.
- Assignment 2/Module 2: Product Overview: Write a product overview that describes the product or service that you will sell. Remember you must research your chosen product through public sources (e.g., websites, journals, newspapers, etc.). Include where you plan to gather information you need on the product, including its features, its value proposition, and its major competitors..
- Assignment 3/Module 3: Develop a Prospect List: Develop a plan for how you will create a list of prospects for your product or service. Write down at least three public sources from which you could obtain names and contact information. You could pre-read Module 3, Topic 3 for ideas. Your final list will need to include the actual real names and contact information of at least thirty qualified prospects. You will need to use real sources for your list, set criteria that you can use to qualify them, and create a list that includes a bit of information about each prospect. You need to choose an organization that you understand well enough to do this Avoid plagiarism! This list must be created from scratch by you, and not a list that you obtained from an organization or other internal sources. Your faculty member needs to verify these names are real via public sources. How you create this list is an important part of conducting ethical research. If you are using publicly available documents and/or databases to develop your list, then you can proceed. However, if you intend to conduct primary research that requires you to speak directly with people in order to get them onto your list, you will be required to submit an application to the Research Ethics Board for approval prior to conducting your survey. If you are uncertain about this, please raise the issue with the Open Learning Faculty Member.
- Assignment 4/Module 4: Prepare a Sales Presentation: Design a plan for how you will prepare a sales presentation: you will create multiple scripts for telephone and email, questions that you could use to advance the sale, and a minimum ten-slide PowerPoint presentation and sales script to accompany it. How could you gather detailed, meaningful information about your product or service that could actually convert a prospect to a sale?
- Assignment 5/Module 5: Do a Sales Presentation and Report: In the assignment, you will need to complete a minimum of three and a maximum of five sales calls. You will use the materials you prepared in this Assignment Plan and previous assignments to complete call reports after you complete each call.