| Course | MT202 Building Customer Sales and Loyalty |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Needs analysis |
| Length | About 980 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT202 Unit 3
Forty Questions Would Lose Him: A Unit 3 Needs Analysis for a Beverage Distributor's Pallet Supply
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT202: Building Customer Sales and Loyalty
Unit 3 Needs Analysis
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Hartline Pallet Supply, Bluestem Beverage, their staff and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
The Call
Dana Ruiz sells new, repaired and recycled wooden pallets for Hartline Pallet Supply, which also runs a pickup service for broken pallets. Her meeting is with Gary Holm, warehouse manager at Bluestem Beverage, a composite distributor in Omaha that ships beer, water and energy drinks to about 1,100 bars, grocers and convenience stores. Bluestem buys about 2,400 pallets a month from a competitor whose contract ends in four months. Gary agreed to forty minutes because, in his words, "pallets are not my favorite topic, but I'll listen."
How the Questions Are Organized
The questions follow the SPIN sequence from Rackham (1988) of situation, problem, implication and need-payoff questions. His research on large sales found that successful representatives asked few situation questions, because buyers find them tedious, and spent more time on implication and need-payoff questions, which let the buyer state the value of a solution in his own words. Each question below carries its purpose, the reason it is asked, and the answer Gary gave in the role play.
Situation Questions
Dana asks only three. "How many pallets do you go through in a typical month, and how many come back from customers?" The purpose is to size the account and learn the return rate. Gary answered about 2,400 out and roughly 900 back, many of them broken.
"Who decides which grade of pallet you buy?" The purpose is to map the buying center. Gary said he chooses the grade, but the operations director signs anything over a year. That makes a two-person buying center in the sense Webster and Wind (1972) described, with Gary as user and influencer and the director as decider.
"How are broken pallets handled today?" The purpose is to find the hidden cost. Gary said his crew stacks them behind the building until a scrap hauler takes them, about every three weeks.
Problem Questions
"How often does a pallet fail during loading?" The purpose is to surface quality issues. Gary said a few times a week a stringer cracks under a full load of canned beer, and the crew restacks it by hand.
"What happens to the broken pallets while they wait for the hauler?" The purpose is to find a space or safety problem. Gary admitted the pile takes up four dock spaces in summer and that a forklift operator punctured a tire on a loose nail board in July.
"Are there customers who complain about the pallets themselves?" The purpose is to connect pallets to customer service. Gary said two grocery chains have rejected deliveries on cracked pallets this year.
Implication Questions
"When a grocery chain rejects a delivery, what does that cost you?" The purpose is to put a number on the problem. Gary said a rejected load means a second truck trip the next day, about $450 in driver time and fuel, and an apology call from his sales manager. He estimated eight rejections so far this year.
"What does losing four dock spaces mean in July?" The purpose is to connect the scrap pile to throughput. Gary said trucks wait in the yard on the busiest days, and drivers have complained.
"How does restacking a failed pallet affect the crew's shift?" The purpose is to reveal labor cost. Gary said each failure takes two people about fifteen minutes, and the crew already works overtime in summer.
"If the forklift tire incident had been an injury instead, what would have followed?" The purpose is to raise a risk he has not priced. Gary paused and said that would have meant an investigation, a claim and probably a lost operator for weeks.
Gary came in thinking about pallet prices and left talking about dock space, rejected loads and a forklift tire.
Need-Payoff Questions
"If broken pallets were picked up weekly instead of every three weeks, what would that free up?" Gary said he would get his dock spaces back in summer.
"How much would fewer cracked pallets be worth to your relationship with the grocery chains?" Gary said keeping the two chains happy matters more than any pallet price, because they are his largest accounts.
"What would you want to see before recommending a change to your operations director?" Gary said a trial on one product line and a written pickup schedule.
Needs Confirmed
Ranking the answers, the first need is fewer pallet failures under heavy canned loads, an explicit need Gary stated when he described the grocery rejections. It is ranked first because it touches his largest customers. The second is weekly removal of broken pallets, an implied need Dana inferred from the dock space and the forklift tire; Gary never asked for it, but his answers showed its value. The third is a low-risk way to prove the change to his director, an explicit need he named at the end.
Price did not appear on the list. Gary will raise it, but his answers show that a cheaper pallet that cracks under beer would cost him more than it saves.
One question surfaced nothing: "Have you considered plastic pallets?" Gary said no and moved on. It stays in the set, because a buyer who later hears a competitor pitch plastic will remember who raised it first.
Weitz et al. (1986) argued that effective salespeople adapt their approach to what they learn about each buyer, and that knowledge of the customer drives that adaptation. The point of this analysis is to know enough about Bluestem that the proposal in the next unit fits its dock, its customers and its director, not a generic pallet buyer.
References
Rackham, N. (1988). SPIN selling. McGraw-Hill.
Webster, F. E., & Wind, Y. (1972). A general model for understanding organizational buying behavior. Journal of Marketing, 36(2), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297203600204
Weitz, B. A., Sujan, H., & Sujan, M. (1986). Knowledge, motivation, and adaptive behavior: A framework for improving selling effectiveness. Journal of Marketing, 50(4), 174-191. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298605000404
MT202 Unit 3 instructions, in plain terms
The third unit generally asks for a needs analysis built around the questions a salesperson would ask a specific buyer before proposing anything. Most prompts want the questions grouped by type, whether SPIN, open and closed, or a funnel from broad to narrow, depending on your readings. Each question should carry a stated purpose, and many sections ask for the buyer's likely answers, written in a role play or drawn from an interview. After the questions, the analysis ranks the needs the answers confirm and separates needs the buyer stated from ones the seller inferred. Keep situation questions few, since buyers tire of them. If your section continues the buyer from Unit 2, use the same account so later units can build on it. Expect about three pages, with the questioning model's source cited in APA 7 along with the course text.
How the MT 202 Unit 3 example is put together
The analysis opens by setting the meeting: who sells what, who is buying, how many pallets are at stake and when the competitor's contract ends. A short section explains the SPIN order and Rackham's finding that successful large-sale calls used few situation questions. Each question then appears with its purpose and the manager's answer, so the reader sees what it uncovered. A Webster and Wind sentence identifies the operations director as the decider. The implication questions turn a rejected grocery load into about $450 and a stray nail board into an injury risk. The highlighted line records how the manager's attention moved from price to dock space. A ranked list of three needs follows, each labeled explicit or implied with the answer that confirmed it, and a final paragraph explains why one question about plastic pallets stays in the set.
Reading the MT202 Unit 3 grading rubric
Grades on this analysis tend to depend on whether the questions are purposeful and whether the needs follow from the answers. A question list without purposes looks like a script; a purpose column shows the writer knows what each question is meant to reveal. Grouping by type and keeping situation questions short demonstrates the questioning model rather than naming it. Recorded answers must sound like a real buyer, including some reluctance, or the analysis has no evidence. The ranking of needs is where higher marks are earned, particularly when the writer separates what the buyer said from what the seller inferred and explains the order. Noting a question that produced nothing, and why it stays, shows judgment. Rackham, Webster and Wind, and Weitz and colleagues are cited on the APA 7 reference page.
MT202 Unit 3 help from the desk
Needs analyses lose credit when they read like an interrogation of twenty situation questions about headcount and history. Another common weakness is an answer column in which the buyer agrees with everything, which leaves no needs to discover. Some writers list needs at the end that no question uncovered. Others rank needs without explaining the order. Price is often treated as the main need by default, even when the answers point elsewhere. Be careful to keep implication questions specific, since a vague question about costs invites a vague answer. If your section supplies a role-play partner, record the real answers and analyze them honestly. Share the buyer, the product and the questioning model your readings use, and our writers can build a question set with purposes, a realistic role play and a ranked needs list.
Get an MT202 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Which buyer, and which product or service? A profile written earlier in the term makes a good starting point, sent with the Unit 3 prompt and rubric. Questions get grouped under the model your readings teach, each with a purpose and a recorded answer, and the needs are ranked beneath. It arrives in 24-48h, the first one free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT202 Unit 3 questions, answered
Do I have to use SPIN questions?
Use whatever questioning model your section teaches. SPIN is common in sales texts, but some courses use open and closed questions, or a funnel from broad to narrow. The graded part is the same across models: each question needs a purpose, and the answers should lead to needs you can name. Cite the model you follow.
Where do the buyer's answers come from?
Many sections ask you to role-play or imagine the buyer, so the answers are yours to write, but they must be realistic. Base them on the buyer profile if you have one. If you interviewed a real person, change identifying details and note that the conversation was real. Answers that conveniently confirm every need tend to lose credibility with graders.
How many questions should the analysis include?
Check the prompt, since some sections set a number. Ten to fifteen is common. Fewer than eight rarely covers all question types, and more than twenty usually signals padding. Quality matters more than count: a question that surfaces a cost the buyer had not noticed is worth several that confirm facts already known.
Where can I find a free MT202 Unit 3 sample paper?
The full MT202 Unit 3 needs analysis is on this page. It organizes a pallet supplier's questions for a beverage distributor by SPIN type, records the answers, ranks three confirmed needs and carries margin notes.
Why does price not appear among the needs in the sample?
Because the manager's answers showed that cracked pallets and rejected grocery loads cost him more than any price difference. He will still raise price later, but the analysis ranks needs by what the answers revealed, and price was not among them.