Sales Aptitude Test

As account manager, you will be taking over a difficult customer with whom your company has been struggling to expand your business. This customer currently has the largest market share in your region and is expected to grow their strong position. However, your company’s previous account managers had not been able to build a good trust-based relationship with the customer’s key stakeholders and has even lost some business over the last few years.

Your company’s top management still strongly believes that you should be able to grow your business with the customer if you make the right approach. How do you approach this customer?

You are a salesman for Dynacad Industries. Dynacad’s products are computer-aided design (CAD) systems that are sold into a variety of industrial companies. Though you had CAD experience in a previous job, you have been with Dynacad for 14 months and as of yet have not generated much business.

You are under pressure to produce when suddenly you are assigned a promising account that had been the responsibility of Jack Cutting. Jack had to retire suddenly because of severe health problems. The order that Jack was working on was for Dynacad’s largest and most expensive system, and would amount to a sizable deal for the company.

As you reviewed the customer’s needs and the model being proposed, you realized that this system is overly large and complex. However, the system you think would be a better fit for the customer costs far less than the larger, proposed system. What do you do?

This is your first meeting with a new potential customer to present your products. The person in charge of the meeting, Laura, seemed agitated and closed the meeting with a statement that she believed that your product was not needed. What are the best courses of action now?

Five types of tires were tested in three different driving conditions.

Consider the following table of their test scores:

If a tire type scored 4 or less in any category, it failed the test.

What is the highest average score of the tire types that passed the test?

In the summer, Agathe wore an ill-fitting sun hat and oversized sunglasses to the beach in Greece. Both slipped off when she fell asleep in her swimsuit on the beach at 2 p.m.

What will most likely happen to Agathe?

The company's sick leave policy says:

This company’s sick leave policy applies to all our employees who have been with our company for more than six months. Our employees can take sick leave only when they want to recover from a sudden illness, accident, or injury. They can use up to 10 days of sick leave for these purposes per calendar year.

Upon completion of each 12 month period of employment, employees will receive 3 additional days of sick leave for every completed 12 month period of working for the company. Unspent additional sick leave days cannot be transferred to the next 12 month period. For example, an employee who has worked for the company for 10 years would receive 30 additional days of sick leave, or 40 in total.

Keep in mind that employees who become sick should either use their sick days or work from home to avoid spreading illnesses.

Fill in the blanks, with numbers, for the cases below. Enter the number 0 for cases when an employee doesn't have the right to sick leave, according to the policy.

• Emily, who has worked for us for almost half a year and still hasn't used any sick leave days, has the right to use up to __ sick leave days this year.
• Faith, who just started her 3rd year of working for us and has not taken sick leave until now, had a car accident. She has the right to use up to __ days of sick leave to recover from her injuries.
• Vanessa, who started to work for us a little over a year ago, took 2 days of sick leave last year. She was Faith's passenger in the car accident. Vanessa has the right to use up to __ days of sick leave to recover from her injuries.
• Edith, who began working for us 8 months ago, has the right to use up to __ sick leave days for a volunteer adult care program at a local hospital that lasts the whole day.
• If Gabrielle, who has worked for us for 20 months, and who took a 10-day sick leave immediately after her 6-month trial period had finished, gets ill tomorrow, she will have the right to use up to __  days of sick leave.

In which year did the company make the largest profit per employee?

Which product line saw the largest absolute increase in income (dollar amount, not percentage) in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year?

The charts below show the number of cars John sold last year and the profit per car he made.

How much did John earn last year?

No matter how tired Billy is, he never slows down or stops painting. In fact, it would only take Billy 4 hours to paint a fence by himself. It would take Suzy 6 hours to paint the same fence by herself.

On Friday, Billy and Suzy worked together to paint the fence, but Billy got tired after only 2 hours.

How much time did it take to paint the whole fence?

The charts below show the number of cars John sold last year and the profit he made per car.

Considering all car types, in which quarter did John make the largest average profit per car?

David found a vintage watch his father lost 38 years ago. The watch's date showed that it had worked for over two years after his father lost it. When David found the watch, it was 3 times as old as when his father lost it.

How old was the watch when David's father lost it?

Dan put a large bet on a horse. However, a day before the race, the horse was injured.

Select which of the following statements are true:

For three days, Jake went to an auction where he spent a total of $150 on auction bidding for 5 porcelain teacups. On the way to the auction's first day, he stopped and spent $5 for a coffee before it started. On the second day he spent $100 more bidding for 3 porcelain teacups than he spent bidding for 2 porcelain teacups on the last day.

How much did Jake spend on his second day?

John has some apples, and two brothers, Jack and Jim.

John eats 3 of his apples and splits the remainder equally between himself and each one of his brothers. Jack and Jim both eat half the apples they have been given. Together the three brothers have 4 apples left.

How many apples did John start with?

It has rained continuously for 15 days. Tomorrow, an important football match is being held in an outdoor stadium.

Select which of the following statements are true:

An eagerly awaited new album has been leaked several hours before its official release. Listeners are now able to download the album for free.

How will this affect album sales?

A brother and sister own equal parts in a company. The minority shareholders have the remaining 12,000 shares or 30% of the company.

What is the number of shares that the sister owns?

An author writes an argumentative essay to persuade readers to agree with a claim about a topic. When writing an argumentative essay, it's important to establish credibility with readers to convince them that the author is trustworthy. True statements, accurate evidence, and clear logic increase an author's credibility. However, false statements, inaccurate evidence, and unclear logic make an author less credible. With lower credibility, an author is less likely to persuade readers to agree with a claim--even when it is trustworthy.

Select the statement that most effectively summarizes the above text:

Germany's economy avoided falling into recession during the final three months of last year. This means that it avoided two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, which is the definition of a recession. This was a small, but positive, surprise for all analysts who, after the July-to-September period that featured a 0.3% decline, predicted the continuation of this negative trend.

Reasons for slower growth last year include a slowdown in the global economy and a weaker car sector, with some German consumers less willing to buy new cars amid confusion over new emission standards.

Joe Johnson, senior financial analyst, told the BBC that US tariffs on EU car exports, which US President Donald Trump has threatened, could have a major impact on Germany. He thinks that, if this happens, Germany might fall into recession.

What can be concluded from the text above?

In an upcoming referendum, voters will be asked whether the minimum wage should be increased. Telephone polls of likely voters were conducted to predict what the result might be. All respondents were put into at least one of six categories based on profession and age: scientist, lawyer, hourly wage earner, small business owner, younger voter, older voter.

The opinion polls showed:

• A majority of voters are in favor of keeping the current minimum wage.
• A majority of scientists and lawyers supported a rise in the minimum wage.
• Younger voters are more inclined to support a rise in the minimum wage.
• Older voters tend to support no change.
• Hourly wage earners overwhelmingly supported a rise in the minimum wage.
• Small business owners were evenly split on the subject.

Select all the statements that can be concluded from the above text:

Cats are common pets throughout the world, and their worldwide population exceeds 500 million.

Cats are the second most popular pet in the U.S. by number of pets owned, behind freshwater fish. Although cat ownership has commonly been associated with women, research has shown that men and women in the U.S. are equally likely to own a cat.

They are ranked as the third most popular pet in the U.K. by number of pets owned, after fish and dogs, with 8 million being owned.

What can be concluded from the text above?

Carefully read the following excerpt from an article on paper production:

With the recovery rate of used paper for recycling approaching 70 percent in the United States and Europe, and approaching 80 percent in Japan, to keep up with our demand for paper we need to continue using fresh fiber as well as recycled, according to the premise set forward in a new report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Detailing the reasons why fresh fiber combined with recycled is important for a single integrated wood fiber system, the report examines the “complementarity” of using both and discusses the functions of different types of fibers and the issues related to both recycling old fiber and sourcing fresh fiber. In 2012, 400 million tons of paper and paperboard were produced and consumed globally, which is double that in 1985, notes the report. As the population continues to expand and standards of living increase, this number is expected to climb by another 40 percent by 2028. While many would advocate for cutting down on paper use in the first place, in the face of global demand the most sustainable fiber may have to be the next best thing. But therein lies the rub: finding adequate quantities of said fiber will be the challenge of the global pulp and paper industry.

Which statement most effectively summarizes the text?