Texas Monthly is a regional magazine covering politics, business, and culture, but focusing largely on leisure activities and events in Texas. The magazine has a large real estate–advertising section, as well as classified sections in which nearly all advertisers are Texas-based businesses appealing to a prospective buyer who is interested in connecting with Texas history and culture. It also has a large, loyal reader base all over Texas, mostly urban, well educated, and affluent; the magazine’s salespeople pride themselves on their ability to find creative solutions for their customers.

Today, Amy Vandaveer, a sales representative for Texas Monthly, is meeting with the marketing director for the Woodlands Town Center, a major community-development organization. The Woodlands is a planned community outside of Houston, and the recently added Woodlands Town Center includes restaurants, shops, and a hotel and convention center.

The marketing director’s goal is to make the Woodlands Town Center a destination for Houston residents, rather than another area serving people who already live in the Woodlands. Up to this point, the Woodlands Town Center has relied mostly on word of mouth and the positive publicity that it received after winning awards to attract visitors; now, the marketing director is interested in using more print advertising and has scheduled this meeting with Amy to learn more about the possibilities of advertising with Texas Monthly.

As a rule, Amy uses relatively informal presentations on her sales calls. The most significant part of her presentation is a copy of Texas Monthly; showing potential customers a recent issue gives them the opportunity to see the magazine’s overall look and feel, as well as to have a good look at the context in which their ads would appear. Over the course of the informal presentation, Amy also shows the customer statistics on the reader base of Texas Monthly and the ways in which they respond to ads in the magazine, as well as a price sheet for various types of ads.

After listening to what the Woodlands Town Center needs, Amy proposes a four-page color ad, which can also be printed separately from the magazine for use as a brochure. Although the price depends on the number of stand-alone brochures that are ordered, she estimates that the cost of the ad would be about $50,000. The marketing director and Amy agree on a timeline for a more formal proposal that can be shared with the rest of the Woodlands Town Center board, and Amy moves on to the rest of her day. (See Chapter 6 opener and Reality Selling Today Video Role-Play 3 in Appendix 1 for more information.)

Read Employment Memorandum 1 in Appendix 3, which introduces you to your new training position with the Hotel Convention Center. You should also study the product strategy materials that follow the memo to become familiar with the company, product, and competitive knowledge you need in your new position.

Read the Customer Service/Sales Memorandum in Part I of Appendix 3 and complete the two-part customer/service assignment provided by your sales manager. In item 1, you are to configure a price/product sales proposal; in item 2, you are to write a sales cover letter for the sales proposal. Note that the information presented in the price/product sales proposal consists of product facts/features, and the information presented in your sales cover letter should present specific benefit statements. These forms should be custom-fitted to meet the specific needs of your customer, B. H. Rivera. All the product information you need is in the product strategy materials provided as enclosures and attachments to Employment Memorandum 1.