Business Owner: This new technology will allow us to track everything

Question

Business Owner: This new technology will allow us to track everything that happens at our store, from delivery arrival times to the volume of sales made within each hour. Because we can now track which associates sell the highest volume within each time period, we will now know which of our salespeople are most effective at their jobs.(CONCLUSION)

So according to the business owner there is no other parameter/s to track the effectiveness of their employees.

D it is.

Which of the following is an assumption required by the argument above?

A. Different time periods during a given day are no more likely to have higher sales figures than other time periods.
B. The tracking technology will be convenient and inexpensive to both install and operate.
C. All salespeople have different periods of the day in which their sales volume are the highest.
D. There are no factors other than sales volume that impact how effective a salesperson is at her job.
E. There are no seasonal variations in sales cycles that can affect a salesperson’s productivity.

Siva2021 · Answer

A is the correct answer.Performances of salespeople may lag depending on the time period for example after lunch when they feel sleepy.So this criteria has to be taken into account.The salesmen are equally active during different times of the day.Their inactivity should not be affected by the time period of the day.This factor should be considered.So this is the correct condition.Please feel free to give kudos.

KS15 · Answer

Business Owner: This new technology will allow us to track everything that happens at our store, from delivery arrival times to the volume of sales made within each hour. Because we can now track which associates sell the highest volume within each time period, we will now know which of our salespeople are most effective at their jobs.(CONCLUSION)

So according to the business owner there is no other parameter/s to track the effectiveness of their employees.

D it is.

Which of the following is an assumption required by the argument above?

A. Different time periods during a given day are no more likely to have higher sales figures than other time periods.
B. The tracking technology will be convenient and inexpensive to both install and operate.
C. All salespeople have different periods of the day in which their sales volume are the highest.
D. There are no factors other than sales volume that impact how effective a salesperson is at her job: I f there are some/many factors other than sales volume that impact, we don't care. We only care about how they are being evaluated currently.Eliminate  
E. There are no seasonal variations in sales cycles that can affect a salesperson’s productivity :If there are some/many seasonal variations in sales cycles that can affect a salesperson's productivity, then it is not possible to find out how effective he/she is using his/her sales numbers.Looks good

ABC can be easily eliminated. Tough to choose between D &E. Answer E

emockus · Answer

I went with D. The argument says that the system can track everything but if there are outside factors that impact a salesperson, the system cannot track the outside factors and the data is not 100%. Thus, the most effective salesperson cannot be identified.

I ruled out A because the argument says that the system can analyze sales data to determine the best salesperson per time period - management can break down each time period to see who is the most effective in each specific time period.

I ruled out E because if there are cyclical sales trends, the system can identify this to find the most effective salesperson for a specific cycle.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

Jk8269 · Answer

What is OA.I guess answer is D. Because the argument states that with the knowledge of how much sales done by a associate in a time period, one can estimate his/her effectiveness at work.
It means it assumes giving higher sales means highly efficient.
Where as option A is concerned with the fact that at different time periods sales figures are varying. This is not concerned with the effectiveness of salespersons
Correct me if I am wrong..
Please provide OA

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JS1290 · Answer

I went with D as well because the assumption is that the new technology is also able to track the outside factors as well. If it is not, then the company will not know which salesperson is the best.

sobby · Answer

we need to link some how effectiveness with sales volume or defend only sales reflect effectiveness.
Now 
A- so what ,if it is high also during some time period, there is no where mention that sales person are coming in different shifts..so every one have equal opportunity to exploit the time.
B-out of scope
C- they will be best performer in respective time period .it is not hampering conclusion
D- yes , we need to consider this ...if some other factor governs the sales then total calculation for effectiveness will be futile--- this is kind of defender assumption.
E-So what , it will effect all the employees--so out...

Shiv2016 · Answer

Business Owner: This new technology will allow us to track everything that happens at our store, from delivery arrival times to the volume of sales made within each hour. Because we can now track which associates sell the highest volume within each time period, we will now know which of our salespeople are most effective at their jobs.(CONCLUSION)

So according to the business owner there is no other parameter/s to track the effectiveness of their employees.

D it is.

So according to the business owner there is no other parameter/s to track the effectiveness of their employees.

D it is.

chesstitans · Answer

A sounds good, but it is actually wrong because in A, LESS OR EQUALY likely to have higher sales figures still happens.

chesstitans · Answer

Also, D is a very common in GMAT, test takers should know this.

rahulbanerjee1992 · Answer

effectiveness  is a subjective term here, so if there is no other factor to account for effectiveness other than sales volume, our conclusion is more sound.

bluetrain · Answer

There is a problem on (D)

In premise, they say that the new technology allow us to track "every thing from delivery arrival times to the volume of sales"
So they can evaluate their employee.

Therefore, "No factors" in (d) is too much to be an assumption.

(There are "no" factors other than sales volume that impact how effective a salesperson is at her job.)

Experts please help.

Designated Target · Answer

We can apply the Supporter/ Defender Assumption Model because it is easy to figure out the blank in the question: 
Premise: The new technology can track the highest volume with each time period
Conclusion: The company will know which of our salespeople are most effective at their jobs.
=> Information on HIGHEST VOLUME each time period can come to conclude about the EFFECTIVENESS at their job. 
=> The assumption will be fill the blank that articulate two pieces of information (D) is correct. 
A. While it could be true in real life, but it doesn't have to be true in this case. Negating the answer, the conclusion is still possible if no factors other than sale volume cannot affect the effectiveness. Also, the conclusion is to assert the effectiveness at their jobs, not in a certain days, a certain time period. 
E. If even there are seasonal variation in sales cycles, it can happen to every sales's productivity. What involves in the evaluation of salesman's effectiveness

sunny91 · Answer

chesstitans ,  VeritasPrepKarishma ,

Please explain that how do u rule out A. The technology tracks everything, but if there are different sales at different periods, productivity of one salesman will be different from that of others. Nowhere, in the premise it's mentioned that the technology can compute to optimize the different sales figure. The technology tracks
everything. So, with this concept in mind, the owners could reach the conclusion that since sales are same through out the day, they can evaluate sales person's productivity.

chesstitans · Answer

For CR questions, you should sense anything wrong with an option in few seconds. In other words, you should have reasons to eliminate one option.
"Different time periods during a given day are no more likely to have higher sales figures than other time periods."
there are many problems with A:
 One issue is A compares " time periods during a given day" with "other time periods". 
Secondly, A does not directly and closedly connect with the argument, premise and the conclusion.
Third, "more likely " indicates the probability which seems irrelevant to the argument.
Also, I feel something is not right with "Different time periods during a given day".

rahul16singh28 · Answer

Hi  chetan2u ,

Can you help me in this.

I eliminated D because its mentioned as "her". This is Gender Specific and the Conclusion says nothing about Gender.

chetan2u · Answer

Rahul, generally you would not face a situation like this in actual.
But the reasoning is correct only in D. The gender specific is not an issue here.
It talks of salesperson only and not saleswoman

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

D. Look at the gap in logic between the premise and conclusion in this argument. The premise is that the technology will track who had the "highest sales volume" and the conclusion is about who is "most effective at their job". While the two can certainly be correlated, they're not the exact same thing, so the argument isn't airtight. Only answer choice D deals with that particular gap, and if you negate D using the Assumption Negation Technique, you get:

There are factors other than sales volume that impact how effective a salesperson is at her job.

This directly undermines the conclusion, proving that choice D is a necessary piece of information in order for the premises to guarantee the conclusion.  Choice D is correct.

D4498 · Answer

I am not able to eliminate option c.How to eliminate it?

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Batman117 · Answer

D.
New technology provides sales data so we can identify efficiency of our sales person
SO HERE WE ARE ASSUMING THAT JUST BY NO OF SALES IS ENOUGH TO IDENTIFY WHETHER SALES PERSON EFFECTIVE.

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Business Owner: This new technology will allow us to track everything

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Business Owner: This new technology will allow us to track everything

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