a detailed presentation on sales recruitment techniques

1. Gopal Thapa
Nepal Commerce Campus

2.  Evaluate the sources from which sales personnel
with good potentials are obtainable
 Tap the identified recruiting sources and build a
supply of prospective sales personnel
 Select those who have the highest probability of
success

3.  Recruitment is a process to discover the source of
manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing
schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting
that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate
effective selection of an efficient working force.”
—Yoder
 “Recruitment involves seeking and attracting a pool of
people from which qualified candidates for job vacancies
can be chosen.”
— Byars and Rue

4.  All the activities involved in securing the
applications for the sales positions are referred to
as recruitment.
 Recruitment sets out the necessary stages to
clarify what kind of person is required, where
he/she might be found and how to make the right
choice.
 The choice of he/she is very significant.

5.  Selection systems for sales personnel range from
simple one-step systems consisting of nothing more
than an informal personal interview to complex
multistep systems incorporating diverse mechanisms
designed to gather information about applicants for
sales job.
 “A selection system is a set of successive ‘screens’ at
any of which an applicant may be dropped from further
consideration”.

6.  Training of the sales person will never become
obsolete.
 As long as technology changes, new people enter the
work force, businesses strive to improve, organisations
will need training.
 The term “training” may change (e.g., it is currently
referred to as learning, coaching, facilitating, etc.) but
the concept remains the same people continually need
help in mastering new skills, applying new knowledge
and/or adjusting their attitudes

7.  According to Yoder, "The recruitment policy is
concerned with quality and qualifications of
manpower".
- Yoder
 It establishes broad guidelines for the staffing
process.

8.  Number of recruits desired
 Recruitment sources
 Recruitment needs
 Recruitment cost
 Size of sales organization
 Rate of turnover
 Forecasted sales volume
 Government policies
 Personnel policies of competing organization
 Organizational personnel policies

9.  Before an organization begins recruiting
applicants, it should form a checklist of questions
which outline a chronological sequence for the
recruitment and selection process

10.  What kind of job is to be filled?
 What sort of person would do this job
successfully?
 Where will this person be found?
 What recruitment sources can be employed to
find this person?
 Which person is to be recruited out of the selected
applications?

11.  What is the main role for this job?
 What does the job description include?
 Whether the job description includes the following?
(a) The name of the job;
(b) Who is the Boss;
(c) Why this job exists – its objectives;
(d) How far the job holder is personally responsible for
achieving results?
(e) Control and use of people, materials and money.

12.  Is this principally a job dealing with buyers in
commercial organisation, dealing with retailers or
dealing with end users?
 Is the company looking for a future area or sales
manager or is it looking only for someone to fill
this specific job for a period of time?
 What is the remuneration package for the job?
What is the mix of salary?
 What commissions and other benefits are going to
be offered?

13.  To find out the right person for the right job a "Person
Specification Form" should be made depending upon the job
specifications and organizational needs.
 The person specification form is a checklist of abilities
separating those aspects which are essential (the job cannot be
effectively done without them) and those which are desirable
(it would be nice to have them but could manage without).
 By using the two categories of essential and desirable, a
minimum candidate and an ideal candidate can be identified.

14.  Intellectual Abilities: common sense, creativity
 Motivation: salary, prestige, recognition
 Specific Attainments: technical/professional knowledge or
qualification, previous experience
 People Skills: Communication, leadership
 Working Conditions: Locations, hours

15.  Employment Agencies
 Advertising
 Internal transfers
 Educational Institutions
 Salesmen of other Companies

16.  The simple answer to this is that the one who best fits
the specification
 and who has the essential characteristics as defined
should be recruited.
 This implies an structured approach of three steps

17.  First, compare application form or C.V. with the person specification and
remove all those who do not meet the essential criteria.
 Secondly, move on to those areas where the 'Measuring Instruments' and
an assessment at interview are needed like: education, work history,
family background , domestic and social situation, present financial
situation, health, leisure interests, ambitions and future plans.
 Thirdly, it involves the identification of the pattern of behavior which will
help in forming judgments. The terms patterns should be stressed – the
company should look for a consistent picture at school, at work, in social
life which shows, for example, tenacity, perseverance, commitment or lack
of these.

18.  Preliminary Interview
 Formal Application
 Interview
 Reference Check
 Testing
 Physical Examination
 Employment Offer

19.  The initial screening is usually undertaken by the receptionist
in the employment office.
 This interview is essentially a sorting process in which
perspective applicants are given the necessary information
about the nature of the jobs in the organization.
 The necessary information then is elicited from the candidates
relating to their education experience, skill, salary demanded,
the reasons for leaving the present job, their job interest,
physical appearance, age and facility of speech.
 If a candidate meets with the requirements of the organization
he may be selected for further action. If not, he is eliminated at
this preliminary stage.

20.  An application blank is a brief history sheet of an employee's
background and can be useful for future reference in case of
need.
 An application blank is a traditional, widely accepted device
for getting information from a prospective applicant which
will enable the management to make a proper selection.
 The blank provides preliminary information and helps in
interview by indicating the areas of interest and discussion.
 It is a useful device for collecting historical data from the
candidate as well as storing information for later reference.

21.  Personal: name, address, sex, date of birth and age, marital
status, children/dependents.
 Education: qualifications, specified training, e.g., apprenticeships,
sales, membership of professional bodies.
 Employment History: number of jobs held, name of
companies worked for, duration and dates of employment, positions,
duties and responsibility.
 Other Interests: sports, hobbies, membership of
societies/clubs.

22.  An interview is an attempt at gathering
information from the candidate concerning his
suitability for the job under consideration.
 No method other than interview is quite as
satisfactory in judging an individuals' ability in
oral communication, personal appearance and
attitude towards selling and personal impact on
others which are most important for the person
involved in selling

23.  Who: district or branch sales manager, top personnel of sales and
marketing department.
 Where: place of interviewing depends upon the size and degree of
decentralization in the organization.
 When: A short interview is generally used at the initial stage of
screening process as preliminary interview, while a detailed/depth
interview is used at a later stage in the selection process

24. Non-Directed/Non-Structured Interview
 This kind of interview does not follow a standard format of questions,
instead it involves a relaxed discussion.
 Some personnel experts say that a non-directive technique yields maximum
insight into an individual's attitude and interests.
 This method is perhaps the best way of probing an individual's personality
in depth.
 The main drawback is that administering the interview and interpreting the
results demands specialized instructions

25. Patterned/Structured Interview:
 In this method the interviewers are given a
prepared list of questions or a specific outline of
questions designed to elicit a basic core of
information

26. Interaction (Stress) Interview:
 It is a highly complex technique. In this the
interviewer assumes a hostile role towards the
applicant.
 He deliberately puts him on the defensive by
trying to annoy, embarrass and frustrate him.
 The interaction interview simulates the stresses
the applicant would meet in actual selling and how
he would react to them.

27. Rating Scales:
 In this method results are obtained from
comparable ratings of the same individual by
different interviewers.
 The rating scales of the interview are so
constructed that interviewers' ratings are
channeled into a limited choice of responses.
 For instance,
negative and complaining, pessimistic, positive and healthy, strong loyalty

28.  Sometimes applicants are asked to name as
references those people on whom they can rely to
speak about them.
 The main purpose of reference checks as a
selection tool is to verify the facts such as dates of
employment, earnings, sales volume, absenteeism
and nature of the past selling job.
 This typical procedure is to check the references
by personal visit, telephone or letter.

29.  “Tests are the most misused, the least understood, yet the most
valuable sources of information about the applicants".
 Broadly, "Systematic approach for comparing the behaviour
of two or more persons".
 In narrow sense, "It is a sample of an aspect of an individual's
behaviour, performance or attitude".
 Purpose of testing is to identify the various aspects of a
persons' behaviour such as intelligence, achievements,
interests, aptitude, personality traits, etc.

30. Aptitude or Ability Test:
 These are used to measure the talent/ability of a candidate to learn the job
or skill.
 They detect peculiarities or defects in a person's sensory or intellectual
capacity.
 They focus attention on a particular type of talent, e.g., learning, reasoning
or a mechanical bend of mind.
 Such tests may be of the following types:

31.  Mental or Intelligence Test: IQ word fluency,
memory, inductive reasoning, speed of perception
and spatial visualization.
 Mechanical Aptitude Test: measure the capacity of a
person to learn a particular type of mechanical work
Psychomotor or Skill Test: measure a person's ability
to do a specific job.

32.  These tests try to find out an individual's value
system, his emotional reactions and maturity and
his characteristic mood.
 Their major motive is to measure the basic make
up or characteristics of individuals which are non-
intellectual in nature.
 These tests can be categorized into the following
types:

33.  Objective Test: They measure neurotic
tendencies, self-sufficiency, dominance
submission and self-confidence. These are scored
objectively.
 Project Tests: In this the candidate is asked to
project his own interpretation into certain
standard stimulus situations which reflects his
own values, motives and personality.
 (c) Situation Test: This reveals the ability of a
candidate to undergo stress and his
 demonstration of ingenuity under pressure. In
short, we can say that it is a measure

34.  a) Objective Test: They measure neurotic tendencies, self-
sufficiency, dominance submission and self-confidence. These are scored
objectively.
 (b) Project Tests: In this the candidate is asked to project his own
interpretation into certain standard stimulus situations which reflects his
own values, motives and personality.
 (c) Situation Test: This reveals the ability of a candidate to
undergo stress and his demonstration of ingenuity under pressure.
 In short, we can say that it is a measure of applicant's reaction when he is
placed in a particular situation

35.  Achievement tests seek to determine how much
the individual knows about a subject.
 They determine the admission feasibility of the
candidate and measure what he is capable of
doing.
 (a) Tests for measuring job knowledge: They are
administered to determine degree of their
 qualification and feasibility to perform the job.
 (b) Work sample tests: They demand the
administration of the actual job as a test.

36.  It is assumed in the use of interest tests that a
relationship exists between test and motivation.
 Hence, if two persons have equal ability, the one with
a greater interest in a particular job is more successful.
 These tests aim at finding out the types of work in
 which the candidate is interested.
 However, these are not used much in the selection
procedure of sales personnel as significant variation has
been found in the interest test scores of successful and
unsuccessful sales persons.

37.  Sales persons' job requires unusual stamina,
strength or tolerance of hard working conditions.
 The major purpose of physical examination in the
selection procedure of sales persons is that:
 It gives a clear indication whether candidate is physically able to perform
the sales person's job in the company.
 2. It prevents selection of people who suffer from some contagious
diseases.
 3. It discovers the existing disabilities of the candidate and a record of the
same is maintained so that the question of company's responsibilities would
be settled in the event of a workman's compensation claim

38.  Having studied all the factors related to selection
process, these should now be rated on the placement
summary.
 The various facts should be compared with the
requirements of the main profile and a score noted in the
appropriate box.
 He should be rated 1 for a perfect match, 2 for
 an average match, 3 for below average and 4 for totally
unsatisfactory.
 Comments should be made in the appropriate column to
explain apparent discrepancies