Ssm lecture-08 & 09 (sales force recruitment & selection)

07/06/10 1
By :
Prof. Amit Kumar

07/06/10 2
“A student pursuing management education from IILM-
Graduate School of Management, for example may find
himself or herself placed in a firm as a Sales Manager.
Our goal is to prepare the student for the exciting
challenges related to leading sales organizations in
today’s hyper-competitive global economy”.
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Importance of this course
Selling & Sales Management

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Selling & Sales Management

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Learning Outcomes
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
• Understand why having a formal selection process improves
the quality of newly hired salespeople
• Discuss why it is important to analyze the skills a salespeople
needs to succeed and include that information in a job
description.
• Name the sources from which salespeople can be recruited
both within and outside of the firm.
• Explain the five steps of the selection processing
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Selling & Sales Management Sales Force Recruitment & Selection

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Contents
• Finding & Recruiting Applicants
• Recruiting Internal Applicants
• External Applicants
• Selection Procedures
– Having the Candidate Complete an Application Form
– Testing the Candidate
– Personally Interviewing the Candidate
– Verifying the Candidate's Background Information
– Conducting a Physical Exam (If Necessary)
• Evaluating the Success of Recruitment & Selection Efforts
• Socialization Process
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Recruitment
Recruiting is the process firms use to find and
hire the best qualified candidates for an
open sales position.
Recruitment is an act of inducing qualified and appropriate
people to get interested in and apply for a salesperson’s
position within a sales organization.
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Finding and Recruiting Applicants
The recruiting step in the selection process is based
upon accurate information gathered in the planning
stage while forecasting turnover, conducting a
comprehensive job analysis, and writing an
accurate and concise job description.
The sales manager must also determine an
appropriate number of applicants that need to apply
for the open position.
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• Performs Sales Management +HR Management !
• Recruits, Selects, Trains, Motivates, Leads, Controls
and Compensates Sales Teams
• Selection and Recruitment of efficient sales people is
always a process of building competitive advantage
for an organization
The Sales Manager
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To estimate the number of applicants that need to
be generated in the recruiting step, let's assume
that a firm needs to hire two salespeople; that
traditionally 10% of the applicants who apply with
the firm are offered a sales position; and 80% of
them accept the offer. This will lead the following
solution:
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Number of Applicants Needed =
2 open position
(.10 Selected) (.80 Acceptance)X

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Sales manager sometimes have a hard time
generating a large pool of highly qualified
applicants from which to fill an open sales
position. As a result, most firms look at several
origins, including both internal and external
sources to the company.
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Recruiting Internal Applicants
• Internal applicants are potential candidates for open
sales positions that currently work for the company;
perhaps as engineer, product manager, CSR or
manufacturing managers.
• Many company first look within their firms to find
outstanding candidates.
• Managers already know a great deal about internal
applicants, including their work habits, personality and
ability to assume more responsibility- information that is
seldom known about external applicants
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Recruiting Internal Applicants
Internal sources
- existing employees
- lateral and upward moves
- interns and cooperative students
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Recruiting External Applicants
• External applicants are candidates for the sales
positions that are generated from a variety of sources
that include:
• Referrals
• Advertisements
• Private recruiters
• Educational institutes
• Job/career fair
• Trade shows
• E-recruiting
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External Applicants: Referrals
• There is a saying, “It's not what you know but who
you know”.
• Networking is the practice of forming relationships and
consulting with other salespeople, executives and
friends to learn about positions that may or may not be
publicly advertised.
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External Applicants: Advertisements
• A universal method of finding sales applicants is by
advertising in newspaper, magazine, and/or online.
• The format of information includes:
– Title of the job opening
– Minimum job qualifications
– Preferred job qualifications
– Location of sales territory
– Discussion of pay and benefits
– Statements of core company values
– Who and how to contact the hiring firm
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External Applicants: Advertisements
Blind advertisements offer only a limited amount of
information about the sales position and therefore
tend to generate an applicant pool with wide range
of experience and qualifications.
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External Applicants: Private Recruiters
• For more complex sales positions, like technical and
international sales, career counselors or 'headhunters'
from private recruiting firms are utilized to locate and
conduct initial applicant screening. (HR Outsourcing)
• Examples of Professional recruiting firms like Porter
Group Inc, Sales Ladder, Sales Recruiters Inc, etc.
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External Applicants: Educational Institutes
• College and universities can be excellent sources of
applicants for firms seeking entry-level salespeople.
Firms like Hilti Corporation, an international manufacturer
of construction products, are hiring new sales people
from University of Sales Center Alliance (USCA)
schools, a consortium of sales centers located at
universities throughout the US.
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External Applicants: Job Fair/
Trade Shows
• Job Fairs are career conferences jointly conducted by
trade groups, student organizations, universities, cities
or business consortium.
• At Trade shows, manufacturer and vendors sometimes
post signs advertising open position for distributors and
sales agents.
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External Applicants: E-Recruiting
• E-recruiting is becoming increasingly common, since
firms can quickly and economically generate a large
pool of candidates using this methods.
• Job data banks are available at such sites as:
www.sales.monster.com, www.careerbiulder.com,
www.naukri.com, www.efinancialcareers.com.
• Firms are even starting to post their job openings on
websites like, Face book and MySpace
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Selection Procedures
• An objective selection process allows the sales
manager to access the qualification levels of the
applicant pool and gain essential information that is
needed to select the best person for the job.
• The five stages of the selection process include:
1. Having the Candidate Complete an Application Form
2. Testing the Candidate
3. Personally Interviewing the Candidate
4. Verifying the Candidate's Background Information
5. Conducting a Physical Exam (If Necessary)
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– An application form is an electronic or paper form
that asks the job candidate to provide a standard list
of formation about his or her background, education,
and work experiences.
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Benefits
– Completed form provide managers with consistent information
about candidate's …..Also, forms have to be signed by the
candidates, thereby granting the firm legal permission to verify
the information they provide.
– Second, completing the form requires a candidate to read and
follow direction, respond to questions and express themselves,
which offers sales manager an initial impression of the
applicant.
– Third, sales manager can use the information gleaned from
application to develop personal interview questions. (like,
Reason for Gap, What motivated you to choose English as a
major in undergraduate studies etc).
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Application form should not ask questions
about an applicant's martial status, gender,
religion, race, age or handicaps.
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• Firms test applicants to try to confirm what they have
learned about candidates during the interview process.
A psychological test is a method of sampling small,
representative sets of behavioral responses gathered
under uniform conditions. The samples are then
scored based upon predetermined rules or formula.
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• A range of psychological tests are available to sales
manager, including:
• Personality Test
• Intelligence Test
• Ability Test
• Aptitude Test
• Emotional Intelligence Test
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2. Testing the Candidate: Personality Test
• Personality Tests are designed to measure personality
traits that motivate sales applicants- traits such as
empathy and ego.
• Examples include the Multiple Personal Inventory and
the Gordon Personal Profile.
• Applicants are asked to respond on a scale with anchors
of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree
1. I get stressed out easily.
2. I put others first.
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2. Testing the Candidate: Intelligence Test
• Intelligence Tests to estimate the quality of information
acquired and used by applicant.
• Such as, Wonderlic Personnel Test can be completed in 12
to 15 minutes. This test measures applicants' memory,
reasoning and verbal ability.
• Another is Otis Self-Administering Test of Mental Ability.
• Respondents answer each question as being True or False.
1. The two of the following numbers added up to 13: 1, 6, 3, 5, 11
2. A pie can be cut into more than 7 pieces by making only 4
diameter cuts through its center.
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2. Testing the Candidate: Ability Test
• Ability Test are designed to estimate the current
strengths and weaknesses of an applicant to effectively
perform specific tasks, such as abstract reasoning and
complex problem solving.
• Such as, the Customer Contact Aptitude Series (CCAS)
is an ability test that measures the core reasoning
capabilities related to sales and customer service
positions.
1. What number comes next in the following
sequence. 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, .5, .25, ?
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2. Testing the Candidate: Aptitude Test
• Aptitude Tests, which are similar to ability tests, measure an
applicant's style of work, how the person interacts with other
people, and whether the person has an interest in or ability to
perform certain tasks, such as selling.
• Campbell Interest and Skills Survey is one such test. (
www.pearsonassessments.com/tests/ciss.htm)
• Applicants are asked to respond on a scale with anchors of
Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree
1. I like to study and solve math or science problems.
2. I like to lead and persuade people and sell ideas and things.
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2. Testing the Candidate: Emotional Intelligence Test
• Emotional Intelligence Test is an individual's ability to
process emotional information as it relates to the
perception, assimilation, understanding and
management of human emotion.
• Applicants are asked to respond on a scale with anchors
of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree
1. I do not get angry when verbally attacked.
2. In my life the stress never ends.
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3. Personal Interview
• The personal interview is considered by many people to
be the most important stage in the hiring process
because managers heavily rely on it- especially because
testing applicants can be expensive.
• During personal interviews, job applicants appear before
the firm's sales manager and other employees.
A variety of different types of interviews sales
managers typically conduct.
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3. Personal Interview: Structured Interview
• A structured interview means that, prior to the meeting
with applicants, the sales manager or interview team
prepares a list of questions along with a range of
acceptable answers, like:
– What has been your proudest achievement? Cites examples of
his or her selling success.
– What do you like about being in sales? Independence, Ultimate
earning potential
– What kind of boss do you work best with? A boss who allows
freedom, communicates expectations and helps as needed
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• A structured interview means that, prior to the meeting
with applicants, the sales manager or interview team
prepares a list of questions along with a range of
acceptable answers, like:
– What is the best way to develop your specific life goal? By
focusing on family, contributing to firm and society
– You have a buyer who wants to buy immediately, but you are
not sure the product is right for the buyer. What do you do?
Would not sell the product until certain it is what the customer
needs and he or she will be truly satisfied with it.
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• Structured interviews have several advantages.
– It offers confidence to sales manager and 'structure' to the
process.
– This approach ensures that important areas are covered
during the interview.
– Finally, standard questions make it easier to record and
compare applicant's responses.
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• One criticism of structured interviews is that less
experienced sales managers may simply follow the
questions on the list and not probe for the responses
that deviate from the expected answers.
• For example, the interviewer might focus on reading
and recording the applicant's responses rather than
critically evaluating the applicants.
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3. Personal Interview: Semi-Structured Interview
• A semi-structured interview allows sales managers to
ask a series of open-ended questions that applicants
can address in their own words.
• An example of question might be: 'Why are you
interested in a sales position?' Then, after the applicant
answers, 'I enjoy the freedom and travel'. The sales
manager can delve more deeply by asking: 'What do
you enjoy specifically about business travel?‘
This allows the sales manager to gain insight about the
applicant as the discussion moves along a natural,
logical course.
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3. Personal Interview: Semi-Structured Interview
Firm uses semi-structured interviews more often when
interviewing candidates for the higher-level sales
management jobs.
The goal in this situation is not try to access
whether the candidate has given 'right or wrong'
answers, but to gain a sense of his or her
overall strategic sales vision for the firm.
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3. Personal Interview: Stress Interview
• Firms often employ role-playing or field exercises
during the interview process.
• In a stress interview, the interviewer places the applicant
in an unstructured situation to see how well he or see
will perform.
• For example, an applicant might be asked to sell the
interviewer item, like pen, furniture, software products
like CRM, ERP.
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3. Personal Interview: Stress Interview
• A Field observation allows an applicant to travel with
and observe a salesperson making sales calls on
current and potential clients.
• In a Group interview, a group of applicants for the
position are placed in a group or open forum and
encouraged to ask questions.
• Panel interview involves placing a single applicant
before the panel of two or more company
representatives.
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4. Background Verification
• Past performance of a candidate is, of course, a
potential indicator of the person's future performance.
• One study reported that, HR managers routinely
observe job candidates exaggerating their educational
requirements, salaries or time working for former
employers.
• That is why it is important to do verification. (there are
independent background checking firms verify the
background of all Infosys, TCS candidates)..
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4. Background Verification
• One way to gauge the honesty of applicants is to ask
judgment-neutral questions on application form. (Relate
this with the resume or ask few related questions in the
interview)
• Sales managers also need to contact the references
listed by candidates they are seriously considering
hiring.
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5. Conducting a Physical Exam (If Necessary)
• The final stage of the selection process is the physical
exam.
• Firm used to require drug tests and physical exams as
part of their normal hiring procedure.
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Evaluating the Success of
Recruitment and Selection Efforts
Because recruiting and selection consume so much
of the firm's resources and sales manager's time, it
is imperative that an evaluation of applicant sources
be performed.
In fact, an evaluation allows the sales manager to
determine the effectiveness of each applicant
source.
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Matrix for Evaluating the Success of
Recruitment & Selection Efforts
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Sales Applicant
Sources
Numbers of
applicant
generated
Numbers
of
applicant
hired
Percent
retained
after 3
years
Cost Percent with
above average
performance after
two years
Internal Applicant
Sources
Referrals
Advertisements
(Newspapers,
Magazine)
Private Recruiters
(Educational, E-
web sites, Job fairs)

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Strategic position
analysis
Decide on the number of
people to hire
Identify best sources of
recruitment:
internal and external sources
Generate database of
candidates
Evaluate candidates
Select and induce
candidates to accept
positions
Socialize
Turnover
Establish
hiring
objectives
Job qualification
Job description
Organizational
characteristics,
company image
and climate,
styles of
supervision,
compensation,
and motivation
of the company
Selection
Socialization
Recruitment
Planning
The hiring process
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Socialization Process
• process of orienting a new salesperson to the sales
organization, territory, or division in which he or
she will be working
• Three Stages
Anticipatory stage
Encounter stage
Settling stage
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Ssm lecture-08 & 09 (sales force recruitment & selection)

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