I.

INTRODUCTION

 Selection systems for sales personnel range from simple

one step systems consisting of nothing more than an
informal personal interview, to complex multiple-step
systems incorporating diverse mechanisms designed to
gather information about applicants for sales jobs.
 A selection system is a set of successive “screens”, at
any of which an applicant may be dropped from further
consideration.
 I. INTRODUCTION

 A selection system fulfills its main mission if it

improves management’s ability to estimate success and
failure probabilities. Management, in other words,
because has available the information gathered through
the selection system, makes more accurate estimates of
the chances that a particular applicant will succeed a
company sales position.
Steps in Selection Process

Step 1 – Pre – Interview Screening

Step 2 – Formal Application

Step 3 - Interview

Step 4 - References

Step 5 – Employment Tests

Step 6 – Physical Examinations

 II. Steps in Selection Process
1. Pre – Interview Screening
• Preinterview screening is for the purpose of
eliminating obviously unqualified applicants, thus
saving the time of interviewers and applicants.

• The applicant is provided information about the

company and general details about selling positions
in it a well prepared recruiting brochure does this
effectively and does not require an employee’s time
for anything other than to hand it to the applicant.
 II. Steps in Selection Process
1. Pre – Interview Screening
• The preliminary interview is short, perhaps no
more than twenty minutes. Questions about the
company and the job are answered while the
company employee determines whether the
applicant meets minimum qualifications.
• If this hurdle is passed and the applicant
expresses interest, he or she is asked to fill out a
formal application form, and an appointment is
made for one or more formal interviews.
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
2. Formal Application
• The formal application form serves as a central record

for all pertinent information collected during the

selection process.
• A formal application is filled out after a preliminary

interview indicates that a job candidate has promise as

a company salesperson.
• The application form may be filled out by the

applicant personally or by an interviewer who records

the applicant’s responses.
• Sometimes, section are reserved for later recording of

the results of such selection steps as reference and

credit checks, testing, and physical examination.
 II. Steps in Selection Process
3. The Interview
• The interview is the most widely used selection step

and in some companies it comprises the entire

selection system.
• Some personnel experts criticize the interview as an

unreliable tool, but it is an effective way to obtain

certain information.
• No other method is quite so satisfactory in judging an

individual as to ability in oral communication,

personal appearance and manners, attitude toward
selling and the life in general, reaction to obstacles
presented face to face, and personal impact upon
others.
 II. Steps in Selection Process
3. The Interview
• Good interviewers avoid covering the same
ground as other selection devices. The
interviewer reviews the completed application
form before the interview and refrains from
asking questions already answered.
 II. Steps in Selection Process
3. The Interview
• Questions during interviewing: The questions
asked to the applicant should reflect the
following:
o Attitude
o Motivation
o Initiative
o Stability
o Planning
o Insight
o Social skills
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
3. The Interview
There are different ways to do interviewing techniques and
they are as follows :-
• Patterned Interview : Here a interviewer uses a prepared
outline of questions to elicit a basic core of information. The
interviewer may directly work from the outline, recording
answers as they are given, but this may make the conversation
suited and the applicant nervous.
• Nondirective Interview : In this technique the applicant is
encouraged to talk freely about his or her experience, training,
and future plans. The interviewer asks a few direct questions
and says only enough to keep the interviewee talking.
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
• Interaction (Stress) Interview : The interaction
interview stimulates and stresses the applicant that
would meet in actual selling & provides way to observe
the applicant’s reaction to them. This interviewing
technique has long been used by sales executives who,
in interviewing prospective sales personnel, hand the
applicant an Ashtray or other object and say “ Here,
sell this to me”.
• Rating Scale : One shortcoming of personal interview
is its tendency to lack objectivity, a defect that is
reduced through rating scales. These are so constructed
that interviewers ratings are channeled into a limited
choice of responses. In evaluating an applicants general
appearance, for e.g., one much –used form forces an
interviewer to choose one of five descriptive phrases:
very neat, nicely dressed, presentable, untidy, slovenly.
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
4. References
• References provide information on the applicants
not available from other sources. Some employers
deny the value of references saying that references
hesitate to criticize personal friends, ex-employees.
But the experienced employers reads between the
lines, and sees where, for example, the weak
candidate is not praised.
• Personal contact is best way to obtain information
from references, since facial expressions and voice
intonations reveal a great deal, and most people are
more frank orally than in writing.
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
4. References
• Credit Check : Many companies run credit checks

on applicants for sales positions. When a heavy

burden of personal debt is found, it may indicate
financial worries interfering with productivity,
motivating factor serving to spur productivity to
determine which requires further investigation.
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
5. Employment Tests
• The purpose of testing is to determine whether

applicants have the traits the company feels leads

to selling successfully. In turn, this results in
Advantages such as lower turnover and increased
performance.
• Types of Tests: Four types of psychological tests

are used in selection system for sales personnel: -

• Tests of ability measure how well a person can

perform particular tasks with maximum

motivation (tests for best performance).
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
• Tests of habitual characteristics gauge how
prospective employees at in their daily work
normally (tests of typical performance).
• Interest test measures an individuals interest in a

particular type of job.

• Achievement tests measure how much

individuals have learned from their experiences,

training, or education.
• Effective sales executives recognize that
psychological testing, although capable of making
valuable contribution, is 1 step in selection system
 II. Steps in the Selection Process
6. Physical Examination
• Since good health is important to a

salespersons success, most companies

require physical examination.
• Because of the relatively high cost, the

physical examination generally is one of the

last step.
 III. Conclusion
• Appropriate selection procedures, and their
skillful execution, result in greater selling
efficiency. A higher- grade salesperson is
produced, and the advantage of having such
employees make impressive list- better work
quality improved market coverage, superior
customer relations, and a lower ratio of selling
expense to sales.
• Thus, good selection fits the right person to the
right job, thereby increasing job satisfaction and
reducing the cost of personnel turnover.