| Course | MT453 Professional Selling |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Role-play script |
| Length | About 1,130 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT453 Unit 7
Forty-Seven Minutes Waiting for Hot Water: An MT453 Unit 7 Role-Play Script Asking for a Sixty-Day Pilot
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT453: Professional Selling
Unit 7 Role-Play Script
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Pellston Hygiene, Salado Creek Foods, every person and every figure are composite; the sources cited are real.
Cast and Setting
REP: Pellston Hygiene's seller for the South Texas territory, who covers sanitation programs. She timed a line 1 allergen changeover two weeks ago. KESSLER: Dale Kessler, who runs production at Salado Creek Foods. He knows the changeover was observed but has not seen the results. VEGA: Lorena Vega, purchasing manager. She knows Pellston's chemistry costs more per gallon and has told the incumbent supplier about the meeting.
The meeting takes place in the plant's conference room on Thursday, March 12, 2026, scheduled for forty-five minutes.
The Script
REP: Thank you both for the time. Two weeks ago, Tomás let me time the line 1 changeover from dairy queso to the bean dip. I'd like to share what we saw and then ask you both a few questions about what it means for the line. Is that all right?
KESSLER: Go ahead. Keep it short; I've got a production meeting at ten.
REP: The changeover took five hours and thirty-eight minutes from last case to first good case. Two things stood out. The crew waited forty-seven minutes for the hot water to recover before they could rinse the filler. And two swabs failed after the first clean, so they re-cleaned the filler heads, which added fifty-two minutes.
KESSLER: The hot water's been a problem since we added the second line. I didn't know it was that long.
REP: Is that wait typical, or was that night unusual?
KESSLER: Tomás would know better, but I'd guess it's most nights we run both lines.
REP: When a changeover runs past five hours, what happens to what's scheduled behind it?
KESSLER: It pushes the morning run. If we're behind on the grocery orders, we pull the next day's run forward and something else slips.
REP: And with the new grocery contract, will you be running more changeovers or fewer?
KESSLER: More. They want the dairy-free line in three more flavors.
REP: So the hour lost to hot water, plus the re-cleans, happens more often as the contract grows. On a line that's sold out, what is an hour of running time worth to you?
KESSLER: Ana in finance says about nineteen hundred dollars of contribution an hour on line 1.
REP: Let me make sure I have it right. Line 1 runs about three of these changeovers a week. If even an hour and a half came back on each one, that's over two hundred hours a year, at nineteen hundred dollars an hour.
KESSLER: That's real money. That's more than we spend on chemicals by a long way.
The plant manager states the cost himself; the seller only asks the questions that let him add it up.
VEGA: Can I say something? I appreciate the analysis. But your chemistry is about thirty percent more per gallon, and our current supplier has already told me they'll match any price you put in front of us.
REP: That's fair, and I'm glad you said it. Our chemistry does cost more per gallon. If they match our price, what would change on line 1?
VEGA: Nothing, I suppose. We'd pay less.
REP: Right. And the changeover would still wait forty-seven minutes for hot water and still fail swabs at the filler heads, because price isn't what's causing those. What we're proposing is a different way of running the changeover: foam and dosing equipment sized to your hot water, the cleaning sequence redesigned around the filler, and swab verification built in. The chemistry matters, yet the hours come back from the equipment and the sequence.
VEGA: So how would I compare you on paper?
REP: Cost per changeover instead of cost per gallon. I can give you that figure for your current program from the observation, and for ours from a pilot. Would that comparison work for your report?
VEGA: If finance signs off on the method, yes.
KESSLER: What are you asking for?
REP: A sixty-day pilot on line 1, starting after your spring audit, on April 20. We supply the equipment, chemistry and training for the pilot at no charge. Before it starts, we agree in writing on what success looks like: an average changeover of four hours fifteen minutes or less across at least twenty changeovers, a first-pass swab rate of ninety-five percent or better and cost per changeover reported every two weeks. If we miss those, we take the equipment out.
KESSLER: I like it. But I can't say yes without Nadia. Quality has to validate any change to the procedure, and she won't sign off on something she hasn't seen.
REP: That's exactly right, and I'd rather she wrote the validation plan with us than approved it afterward. Would you introduce me to her this week, so she can review the criteria and set the validation steps before anything changes?
KESSLER: I'll set up a meeting. If she's comfortable, you have your pilot.
REP: Thank you. I'll send both of you a one-page summary of the observation and the draft criteria today, and I'll bring the cost per changeover to the meeting with Nadia.
Evaluating the Call
The call's primary objective, set in the pre-call plan, was a commitment to a pilot with signed criteria. It ended with a conditional commitment and a named next step: an introduction to the quality manager this week, with the pilot depending on her approval. Measured against Rackham (1988), that is an advance, because the customer agreed to an action that moves the sale forward, but it is not yet the full objective.
The implication questions did their work: the plant manager calculated the cost of the lost hours himself, which made the purchasing objection easier to answer. The response to the price-matching threat succeeded because it acknowledged the price gap and moved the comparison to cost per changeover, a measure the purchasing manager agreed to use if finance accepts it. Weitz et al. (1986) describe this kind of adjustment to each buyer's concerns as adaptive selling.
Two weaknesses remain. The quality manager should have been in the room, as the Unit 3 buying center analysis warned; her absence turned a possible yes into a conditional one. And the representative did not confirm the controller's contribution figure, which the purchasing manager may challenge. Anderson et al. (2006) stress that every figure in a value case should come from the customer's own records, so the next step is to have finance confirm the $1,900 an hour before the pilot criteria are signed.
References
Anderson, J. C., Narus, J. A., & van Rossum, W. (2006). Customer value propositions in business markets. Harvard Business Review, 84(3), 90-99.
Rackham, N. (1988). SPIN selling. McGraw-Hill.
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
The Purdue Global MT453 Unit 7 instructions
Unit 7 of MT453 asks for a written role-play script of a complete sales call, usually followed by a short evaluation. List the cast and setting first, including what each person knows walking in. Build the call backward from its final request, so that every earlier turn earns part of it. Write the buyers as people with reasons: they interrupt, object fairly and do not agree simply because the seller asks. Many sections want each seller turn labeled with the move it makes, such as an implication question, a summary or a trial close. Include at least one realistic objection and show how it is handled. A conditional answer at the end is often more convincing than a full yes. After the script, evaluate the call against the objective from your pre-call plan, naming what worked and what did not.
How the MT 453 Unit 7 example is put together
Pellston's script opens with a cast list giving each person's knowledge and a dated setting. The call starts with a short recap of the timed changeover, the hot water wait and the re-cleans. Questions follow about the schedule, the grocery agreement and the value of an hour, and the plant manager states the $1,900 figure himself, under a highlighted line on letting him add it up. The purchasing manager raises the price-matching threat near the middle; the representative concedes the gap and asks what would change on the line if prices matched. The request names a start date after the audit and signed criteria. The plant manager's answer depends on the quality manager. The evaluation, citing Rackham and Weitz and colleagues, calls the outcome an advance, names the absent quality manager as the main weakness and asks finance to confirm the contribution figure.
Reading the MT453 Unit 7 grading rubric
Role-play scripts are graded on realism and purpose. Instructors credit scripts built toward a clear request, with each turn moving the call forward. Buyers who behave like real people, with fair objections and limited time, earn more than buyers who agree with everything. Seller turns that apply course methods, such as letting the buyer state the value, are rewarded. Objection handling that acknowledges the point and changes the comparison shows skill. A specific request with dates and criteria is a frequent marking point. A conditional or partial yes, honestly reported, is credited above an implausibly complete close. The evaluation earns marks when it judges the call against its stated objective and names weaknesses. Clear formatting with speaker names makes the script easy to follow.
Common MT453 Unit 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The most frequent Unit 7 weakness is a script in which the buyer agrees with every point and signs at the end. Another is a seller who talks in paragraphs while the buyer says a word or two. Objections are often weak versions easily dismissed. Students frequently forget to ask for anything specific, ending with a promise to follow up. Evaluations tend to praise the call without comparing it with the pre-call objective. Margin labels sometimes name techniques the turn does not actually use. Before submitting, read only the buyer's lines and ask whether they sound like a real plant manager or purchasing manager with other things to do. Then check that your final request includes a date, criteria and the buyer's action, and that your evaluation says whether it was achieved.
Get an MT453 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Your Unit 7 scenario may assign the buyer and product, or leave both to you, and some sections want a recorded version too. Whatever the prompt specifies, send it with the rubric; a custom script with realistic buyer lines, an objection and a clear commitment request is written to it and returned in 24-48h. First one: no charge. 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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MT453 Unit 7 questions, answered
How long should a role-play script be?
Length depends on the prompt, but a written script for a full call often runs 1,500 to 3,000 words, enough for an opening, discovery, a presentation of fit, an objection and a close. If your section also records the role play, a script that runs ten to fifteen minutes aloud is usually workable. Check whether the reflection counts toward the length.
Should the buyer agree at the end?
Not necessarily. A realistic buyer may agree conditionally, ask for time, or accept a smaller step than the one requested. What matters is that the seller asks for a specific commitment and that the buyer's answer is believable. A script that ends in easy agreement can look artificial, and a conditional yes gives your reflection more to analyze.
Do I need to label the techniques in the script?
Many sections ask for annotations, either in a margin column or in a separate commentary. Even when they are optional, labeling each seller turn with its purpose, such as an implication question or a trial close, helps a grader see the method. Use the terms from your course readings so the labels match what the rubric expects.
Where can I find a free MT453 Unit 7 sample paper?
The full MT453 Unit 7 role-play script is on this page, with a sales call for a sixty-day sanitation pilot and an evaluation of the call.
How does the seller answer the price-matching threat in the MT453 Unit 7 sample?
She agrees the chemistry costs more per gallon, asks what would change on the line if prices matched and proposes comparing suppliers by cost per changeover.