Module Five

Staffing the Sales Force:

Recruitment and Selection

Learning Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.

Explain the critical role of recruitment selection

and building and maintaining a productive sales
force.
Describe how recruitment and selection affect
sales force socialization and performance.
Identify the key activities in planning and executing
a program for sales force recruitment and
selection.
Discuss the legal and ethical considerations in
sales force recruitment and selection.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Importance of
Recruitment and Selection
Problems associated with inadequate
implementation:
Inadequate sales coverage and lack of customer
follow-up
Increased training costs to overcome deficiencies
More supervisory problems
Higher turnover rates
Difficulty in establishing enduring relationships
with customers
Suboptimal total salesforce performance

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Recruitment and Selection Process

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Planning for
Recruitment & Selection

Recruitment: Locating
Prospective Candidates

Selection:
Evaluation and Hiring

Job Analysis
Job Qualifications
Job Description
Recruitment &
Selection Objec.
Recruitment &
Selection Strategy

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Internal Sources
External Sources

Screening Resumes
and Applications
Initial Interview
Intensive Interview
Testing
Assessment Centers
Background Invest.
Physical Exam
Selection Decision
and Job Offer

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Planning for Recruitment and Selection

Job Analysis:
Entails an investigation of the tasks, duties,
and responsibilities of the job.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

1.

Environmental Factors

What is the competition

the salesperson faces?
What kinds of
customers will be
contacted, and what
problems do they have?
What knowledge, skills,
and potential are
needed for this
position?

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Steps in
conducting a
job analysis

3.
Performance Factors

2.
Critical Analysis

Evaluation of
Performance &
Environmental Factors

1-Performing selling
function
2-On what factors they
will be judged
3-How much time they
spend on travelling,
selling, filling our reports,
etc
Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Planning for Recruitment and Selection

Job Qualifications:
Refers to the aptitude, skills, knowledge, personal
traits, and willingness to accept occupational
conditions necessary to perform the job.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Developing a Set
of Job Qualifications

1.
Personality traits

Developing
a set of job
qualifications

2.
Profiling

Personality Traits: intelligence, decisiveness, energy

enthusiasm ,results orientation, maturity ,assertiveness
,sensitivity, openness, tough-mindedness
Profiling: A technique that sales managers can use to identify
desired job qualifications, set up a skill profile, or composite of
traits, skills and characteristics of the top achievers in a sales
organization. It provides a benchmark, with which to evaluate
sales job candidates
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Planning for Recruitment and Selection

Job Description:
A written summary of the job containing the job
title, duties, administrative relationships, types
of products sold, customer types, and other
significant requirements.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Preparing a Job Description

Counsel customers on
their problems.
Build relationships
with channel partners.
Maintain loyalty for the
company.

Install the
product or
display.
Report
complaints.
Handle
adjustments,
returns, and
allowances.

Make regular calls.

Sell the product or product line.
Check stock; identify possible
product uses.

1.
Sales activities
6.
Goodwill

2.
Servicing functions
Preparing a
job description
3.
Account/territory
management

5.
Executive activities
4.
Sales promotion

Develop monthly and

weekly work plan.
Make a daily work
plan for the next day.
Organize field activity
for sales calls .
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Develop new accounts.

Promote products.
Make calls with buyers
salespeople.

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Arrange route for best

coverage.
Maintain sales
portfolios, samples.
Maintain customer
database.
Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Basic Qualities of a Sales Person

The ability to collect a wide range of facts that
can be brought to bear in making a sale
The ability to make clear, effective presentations
A personal sensitivity to the feelings of others and
how these feelings are communicated
The ability to establish & maintain strong, positive
relationships with a wide range of people
A basic technical knowledge of the field in which
one is selling, which must be used to cultivate
business relationships and promote sales

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Recruitment:
Locating Prospective Candidates
Internal Sources
Employee referral programs
Internships

External Sources

Advertisements
Private employment agencies
Colleges and universities
Job fairs
Professional Associations
Competitors, Govt Agencies, Suppliers & Customers

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Selection:
Evaluation and Hiring

Screening Resumes and Applications

Interviews
References
Psychological Test
Medical Examination
Selection Decision and Job Offer

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Screening Resumes and Applications

Evidence of job qualifications

Work history
Salary history
Accomplishments
Responsibilities
Appearance and completeness

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Interviews
Types of interviews
Initial Interviews
Intensive Interviews
Stress Interviews

Locations

Campus
Recruiters Location (i.e. Plant Trip)
Neutral Site
Telephone

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

THE PERSONAL INTERVIEW

A ONE-ON-ONE SELLING SITUATION
The personal interview usually involves the oneon-one, face-to-face meeting of two strangers,
both seeking to sell themselves to the other.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

THE INTERVIEW QUADRANT

SUCCESSFUL-LOOKING
PERFORMANCE
FAILURE

The successfullooking failure

The unsuccessfullooking failure

The successfullooking success

PERFORMANCE
The unsuccessful- SUCCESS
looking success

UNSUCCESSFUL-LOOKING

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Types of Interviews
In a structured interview, the recruiter asks
questions, often from a standard form.
In an unstructured interview, the recruiter
asks few preplanned questions and often
begins with open-ended questions such as
Tell me about yourself or Why do you
want to sell for IBM?.
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

The Stress Interview An interviewer may

place the applicant in a stressful situation
to ascertain how the person might cope
with stress when selling.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Nonverbal cues in interviews:

Body movements.
Gestures.
Firmness of handshake.
Eye contact.
Physical appearance.
One of the reasons nonverbal cues are so powerful is that,
in most cases, interviewers are not aware of them as
possible casual agents of impression formation.
Interpretation of nonverbal cues varies with each person.
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

TESTS
Employment test refers to a procedure,
technique, or measurement instrument for
ascertaining characteristics such as aptitudes,
capacities, intelligence, knowledge, skills, or
personality.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

FIVE PHASES OF THE SALES INTERVIEW

1. P re p a ra tio n
2 . O p e n in g th e I n te r v ie w
3 . T h e I n te r v ie w P ro p e r
4 . E n d in g th e I n te r v ie w
5 . P o s t- in te r v ie w
A c tiv itie s
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Four basic guidelines to interviewing:

Collect information that relates directly to
job performance.
Consciously wait until the interview is over
to make a final decision.
Always remember that weaknesses can be
offset by strengths and potential.
The interview is only one method of
obtaining information on the applicant.
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Sales managers may decide the following:

Not to use tests.
To administer tests and interpret the results
themselves.
To administer tests and have someone else
interpret the results.
To turn the testing over to consulting
industrial psychologists.
The majority of sales managers use tests as only
one part of the selection process.
To be used successfully, tests must have
reliability and validity.
Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Testing: Value and Types

Value
May be used to assist with initial screening
May indicate compatibility with job responsibilities
May indicate compatibility with organizations culture
and personnel

Types

Personality : Assesses Personality Variables

Intelligence : Test of Mental Ability
Psychological : Test to Measure Persons Behavior
Assessment Centre's: Real Problem-solving Situation

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Testing: Guidelines for Using

Select a test that minimizes the applicants
ability to anticipate desired responses
Use tests as part of the selection process, but
do not base the hiring decision solely on test
results

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

The major problems with testing are:

Tests are misused and not understood.
Applicants can become test wise.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

References
Be wary of first-party
references
Radial search referrals
might be used
Use an interview
background check
Use the critical incident
technique
Pick out problem areas

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Obtain a numerical
scale reference rating
Identify an individuals
best job
Check for
idiosyncrasies
Check financial and
personal habits
Get customer opinion

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Medical Examination
Almost all companies require their prospective
employees to undergo physical examinations. As
a general rule, if the applicant gets this far in the
process, he or she has the job unless health
problems are discovered.

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Selection Decision and Job Offer

Evaluate qualifications in order of importance

Look for offsetting strengths and weaknesses
Rank candidates
If none meet qualifications, may extend search
May have to offer market bonus (signing
bonus) to highly qualified candidates

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Legal and Ethical Considerations:

Guidelines for Sales Managers
Become familiar with key legislation affecting
recruitment and selection
Conduct job analysis with an open mind
Job descriptions and job qualifications should
be accurate and based on a thoughtful job
analysis
All selection tools should be related to job
performance

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams

Legal and Ethical Considerations:

Guidelines for Sales Managers
Sources of job candidates should be
informed of the firms legal position
Communications must be devoid of
discriminatory content
Avoid other practices that may be perceived
as ethically questionable

Professional Selling:
A Trust-Based Approach

Module 5:
Staffing the Sales Force: Recruitment and Selection

Ingram

LaForge Avila
Schwepker Jr. Williams