PrepTest 146, Section 3, Question 3
Sales manager: Having spent my entire career in(39 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- Adevote more effort(6 more words not shown)
- Bdevote more effort(10 more words not shown)
- Ckeep to a(11 more words not shown)
- Dpromote more natural(5 more words not shown)
- Ereward superstar performance(4 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A company doesn't have to wait for a natural superstar to get superstar performance. A good manager can help many salespeople reach that level.
What we’re looking for
That is the useful contrast. Natural talent is rare, but the passage offers another route to the performance companies want. So I'd expect the unfinished recommendation to emphasize finding good managers instead of concentrating the search on naturally exceptional salespeople. The manager's career history supplies background; the argument's practical point comes from comparing those two routes.
Working the answers
- A
Training might be part of good management, but the passage doesn't equate the two. It also doesn't compare training with evaluating employees. We need a recommendation based on the contrast between rare natural stars and managers who can help other people perform well.
- BCorrect
This carries that contrast into a recommendation: put more effort into finding good managers than into finding natural superstar salespeople. Good managers can help many people perform at the desired level, while natural stars are rare.
We could still ask how hard good managers are to recruit. The passage doesn't prove they are plentiful or give us a complete hiring strategy. But B is the completion supported by the reasons offered; the other choices introduce different decisions those reasons don't address.
- C
We aren't told that a manager responsible for three salespeople is more effective than one responsible for ten. A good manager might manage a larger group well. Nothing here connects the number of employees supervised with the benefit described.
- D
Being an excellent salesperson isn't the same as being an excellent manager. A natural star could sell extremely well without being able to help other people improve. We need good managers, and D hasn't established that promoting the natural stars will supply them.
- E
The argument is about how to produce strong performance, not how to divide rewards between talent and performance. Companies could adopt many different reward systems while still benefiting from finding good managers. E doesn't complete the argument's comparison.
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