Chapter 6 &7

Sales Force Profiling, recruiting

& Selection

Main references :
Sales Force Management 2017 by Gregory A. Rich &
Selling & Sales Management 2019 David Jobber, Geoffrey Lancaster and
Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh

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Profiling & recruiting
Outline
1. Selection and Strategic Planning
2. Importance Of A Good Selection
Program
3. The Law and Selection
4. Scope Of Staffing Process
• Planning Phase
• Recruiting Phase
• Selection Phase
• Hiring Phase
• Assimilation Phase
• 5. Determining The Number Of
People Wanted
6. Developing A Profile Of The Type Of People Needed
• Job Analysis, Description, Qualifications
7. Recruiting and Its Importance
8. Sources For Recruiting Salespeople
• Referrals
• Current Employees
• Other Companies (Competitors, Customers…)
• Job Advertisements
• Company Website
• Educational Institutions
• Employment Agencies
• Part-time Workers
5. Diversity
6. Recruiting Evaluation
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Selection and Strategic Planning
•The selection process should be
strategically integrated with all aspects
of sales force management

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Importance of Recruiting and Selection
• Recruitment refers to finding potential job applicants, telling them about the
company, and getting them to apply.

• Selection refers to activities involved in choosing qualified candidates that have

the greatest aptitude for the job.

• Ineffective recruitment and selection can result in the following:

• wrong salespeople being hired
• thousands of dollars a year spent in training
• lost productivity
• lost sales

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Importance of a Good Selection Program
• Qualified salespeople are scarce
• Good selection improves sales force performance
• Good selection promotes cost savings
• Good selection eases other managerial tasks
• Sales managers are no better than their sales force

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Scope of Sales Force Staffing Process
1. Plan the recruiting and selection process
2. Recruit an adequate number of applicants
3. Select the most qualified applicants
4. Hire those people who have been selected
5. Assimilate the new hires into the company

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 Determining the Number of People Needed
Strategic Plans
Total
Eliminated/
New Terminations/ new
- combined + Promotions + Retirements + =
territories resignations reps
territories
needed
Eliminated one
Promoted two One
rep by combining Two retirements
Expansion salespeople to termination
A1 and A2 expected
management expected
territories
4 - 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 8

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 The Recruitment Process

Identify Attract
Conduct Prepare Select
sales job a pool
a job a job best
qualifications. of sales
analysis. description. recruits.
recruits.

A job analysis The outcome of formal job The duties and firms need to continuously
entails steps to analysis is a job responsibilities identify, locate, and attract
identify the duties, description, which of the job salespeople. Candidates pools
requirements, explains the duties and incumbent
responsibilities, and responsibilities of the detailed in the
conditions of the job. sales position, the skills job description
needed on the job, and should be
on what basis the new converted into
and current employees a set of job
will be evaluated. qualifications.
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Developing A Profile Of The Type Of People Needed

Three tasks associated with developing a profile of the type

of people wanted:
1. Job analysis
A job description is probably the most important
2. Job description single tool used in the operation of a sales force
3. Job qualifications
(or hiring specifications)

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When conducting a Job Analysis
1. Steps in 2.
Analyze the conducting a Determine duties and
environment in which responsibilities
the salesperson
job analysis expected from
is to work. the salesperson .

• What is the competition

the salesperson faces? 3. Obtain information from
these sources:
• What kinds of Talking to sales person,
Observe and • salespeople
customers will be • channel partners
record sales tasks
contacted, and what
being performed. • customers
problems do they have?
• distribution manager
• What knowledge, skills,
and potential are
needed for this
position?

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 6 Facets in Preparing a Job Description
6. 1.
Goodwill: Sales activities:
Counsel customers on their Make regular calls, Sell
problems. the product or product
line, Check stock; identify
Build relationships with possible product uses.
channel partners.
Maintain loyalty for the
company.
Preparing a 2.
job Servicing functions :
description
Install the product or
display, Report
5. complaints, Handle
Executive activities: adjustments, returns,
and allowances.
Develop monthly and
weekly work plan, Make a
daily work plan for the next 4. 3.
day, Organize field activity Sales promotion: Account/territory
for sales calls Develop new Management:
accounts, Promote Arrange route for best coverage,
products & Make calls Maintain sales portfolios,
with buyer’s samples, Maintain customer
salespeople 11
database.
Developing a Set of Job Qualifications

Critical Personality Qualifications Models for success

Traits The characteristics
 intelligence Characteristics
of good,
 decisiveness of a sales job
average, and poor
 energy and that required
enthusiasm salespeople can be
travel, Little compared to the
 results orientation supervision and
 maturity recruits.
 assertiveness
high turnover - predictive statistical
 sensitivity models to project
performance
 openness
 tough-mindedness

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 10 traits and abilities of top salespeople

Trait Related ability

1. Emotional intelligence 1. To understand customers, to adapt
2. Analytical intelligence 2. To solve problems
3. Creative intelligence 3. To sell idea, to adapt
4. Integrity 4. To build trust
5. Social competence 5. To build relationships
6. Risk taker 6. To be innovative
7. Optimism 7. To handle rejection
8. Resilience 8. To complete the sale
9. Self-motivation 9. To work hard
10. Cooperativeness 10. To work on team

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 Referrals

Sources of Part-time
workers
Current
employees
sales force
recruits Recruiting Other
Employment companies
agencies
Sources •Competitors
•Customers

Job ads in:

Educational •Employment
websites
institutions
•Newspapers
•Trade journals
Company
website

Rich 2017
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Sources of Recruits:

Referrals
• A referral is a recommendation by one individual that another be hired
for a position
• Salespeople currently working for the company are an excellent source
of referrals
• They know the job
• They know and regularly interact with qualified individuals from other companies
• Most sales executives say that referrals is their preferred source of
recruits
• Only problem: Not enough of them

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Sources of Recruits:

Current Employees
• Promoting from within builds morale
• These workers are acquainted with the product
and already understand company policies and
programs
• Relatively inexpensive source to both recruit and
train

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Sources of Recruits:

Other companies
• Recruits from competitor firms
• Tend to know the product and market very well
• Are experienced sellers and so require less training
• May struggle unlearning old practices, making adjustments to new culture
• Presents an ethical dilemma to some (called “pirating”)
• Recruits from customer firms
• Same pros and cons as recruits from competitors
• Less likely to present an ethical dilemma, though must be handled diplomatically
• Common concern is that these recruits may not stay long

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Sources of Recruits:

Job Advertisements Assume a firm buys a job ad on

salesjobs.com that…

• Can be placed in • Costs $198 per month

• Employment websites (e.g., monster.com) • Generates a monthly
• Newspapers average of 5.5 applicants
• Brings in applicants that can
• Trade journals be hired at the rate of 10%
• Tends to produce many applicants for low (that is, the firm hires 1 out of
cost, but the average quality of the applicants 10 applicants).
is questionable
• Applicants from ads in trade journals tend to be
Given this, what is the
higher quality than those from newspapers cost per hire?

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Sources of Recruits:

The company website

• Companies should have a “Join our team” section on their
website
• Cost of obtaining these recruits is very low
• These applicants have shown initiative to apply for a job with
the company; so they tend to be enthusiastic and genuinely
interested in the position

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Sources of Recruits:

Educational institutions
• Job fairs at college campuses provide a large number of
individuals who are educated and need a job
• Some companies work to gain a positive image among
students (potential recruits) by speaking to classes and getting
involved in student organizations
• Some companies recruit for sales positions The National Collegiate Sales
by sponsoring university sales competitions Competition is held annually at
Kennesaw State University

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Sources of Recruits:

Employment agencies
• These agencies do the initial screening
• A relatively expensive source of recruits
• Fees usually range from 10 to 40 percent of the new
employees’ annual compensation
• Results in higher quality recruits

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Sources of Recruits:

Part-time workers
• Are easy to contact, readily available, and usually can work flexible
hours
• Sometimes have family obligations that require them to work from
home
• Are used commonly for in-home selling organizations, such as those
that market jewelry, cosmetics, housewares…

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Diversity
• Although this varies widely by industry, these two
groups are generally underrepresented in many
outside sales forces:
• Minorities Minorities will increasingly make up
more and more of the U.S. labor force
• Women
• Practicing diversity in selection
• Is required by law
• Is good business practice as both the labor force and the purchasing population are becoming
more diverse

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 Recruiting Evaluative Criteria – For The Past Two Years
Recruiting Number Of Number Percent Cost Percent Performing
Evaluation Source Recruits Hired Retained Per Hire Above Average
Matrix
Referrals
Current employees
Competitors
Other companies
Employment websites
Newspaper job ads
Trade journal job ads
Company website
Educational institutions
Employment agencies
Part-time workers

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Selection Outline
1. Selection and Strategic Planning
2. Importance Of A Good Selection
Program
3. The Law and Selection
4. Scope Of Staffing Process
• Planning Phase
• Recruiting Phase
• Selection Phase
• Hiring Phase
• Assimilation Phase
• 5. Determining The Number Of
People Wanted
6. Developing A Profile Of The Type Of People Needed
• Job Analysis, Description, Qualifications
7. Recruiting and Its Importance
8. Sources For Recruiting Salespeople
• Referrals
• Current Employees
• Other Companies (Competitors, Customers…)
• Job Advertisements
• Company Website
• Educational Institutions
• Employment Agencies
• Part-time Workers
5. Diversity
6. Recruiting Evaluation
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Selection Tools
• Resumes/Application forms
• Personal interviews
• Employment testing
• References and other outside sources
• Assessment Centers
Hiring and the Law
• Selection tools should not discriminate against legally protected
groups (e.g., women, minorities, religious groups, disabled
individuals…)
• So ideally, selection tools should go through the process of validation
• …the process of statistically measuring the extent to which a given selection
tool is related to job performance.
• Interviewers may ask question in sensitive areas during the interviews
if they relate to bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQs)
Resumes/Application Forms
• A common first step in the selection process is for applicants to
submit a resume and completed application form through the
company website
• For lower-level sales positions (e.g., retail), application forms are used by
themselves
• This information is often the basis for probing, follow-up
questions during the interview
Personal Interviews
• Interview structure
• Guided interviews
• Nondirected interviews
• Interview focus
• Situation-based and behavior-based interviews ( eg. Role play)
• Performance-based interviews
• Stress interviews
Employment testing
• Mental intelligence tests
• Sales aptitude tests
• Interest tests
• Personality tests
• Drug tests
References
• References are people familiar with the applicant’s experience or
aptitude
• Since these names and contact information are typically provided by the
applicant, positive references are the norm
• Companies are extremely leery about giving out meaningful
information
• Why? For fear of being sued for defamation of character
• When hiring experienced salespeople, the best references are
that applicants’ previous customers
Assessment Centers
• A lengthy assessment experience involving a series of exercises
• Business games, case analyses, leaderless discussion groups, role-playing,
individual presentations…
• Conducted by trained executive observers
• Usually lasts from one to three days
• Quite costly
• Which is why assessment centers are more commonly used to fill higher-
level positions (and not entry-level sales)
Job Offer Decision in the Hiring Phase
• Before making the job offer, the firm should
rank recruits in two ways:
• The firm’s preference for the applicants
• The applicant’s preference for the firm
• Extending the offer
• Remember, everyone likes to feel important
• Do not leave other applicants dangling
Socialization and Assimilation
• Socialization is the process through which the new
recruits take on the values and attitudes of the
people who are already working for the firm
• Two stages of socialization:
1. Preentry socialization: Occurs during the preemployment
period, up until the job offer is accepted
2. Assimilation of new hires: Begins when the recruit accepts
the position. Often involves mentoring.
 Types of Socialization
makes new salespeople
feel they are an integral
part of the company by
exposing them to the
corporate culture (values,
philosophy, group norms,
different work groups,
corporate officers)

1. Types of 2.
Initial Extended
socialization socialization socialization

begins with the recruiting

and selection process and
ends with the initial
orientation of the
salesperson to the firm’s
procedures and policies
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 Initial Socialization
Initial
1. 2.
socialization Selection
Recruiting

3.
Send the sales candidate Introductory
literature that details the training In interview process
company’s philosophy. candidate can be exposed to
Internet site may discuss company values and
corporate culture and explains philosophy.
why a recruit would want to
seek a job there. Salespeople can be socialized
by doing the following:
• reading literature on company’s
history, products, job
description, and compensation
and benefit packages
• attending introductory training
programs before they are
exposed to actual operations of
the firm
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Extended Socialization
1. Extended
2.
Long-term socialization Job rotation
training

3.
Long-term training helps Corporate
with standardization of social activity Sales trainees learn how
values, behavior norms, different departments
and philosophy and it
helps produce consistent work as well as making
sales performance results social contacts when they
as salespeople become are exposed to the
highly motivated team Socializing new salespeople at overall organization.
players. company picnics, sports teams,
and sales meetings allows
interaction with experienced
salespersons, sales managers,
and company executives.

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Meeting Social and Psychological Needs
• Newly hired salespeople and their families often have
a big adjustment – especially when the job is in a
new city
• The sales manager is in a position to cushion the
shock of social uprooting
 Some reading : source Rich 2017

Fastenal, the world’s largest distributor of hardware fasteners (e.g., screws, bolts, rivets, etc.), understands
that its success is strongly tied to its ability to hire the right people for its sales force. In particular, this
multibillion-dollar organization looks for ambitious, hardworking individuals that are adept at building
relationships with its business customers through superior service. Profiling and recruiting salespeople is an
on-going, continuous process at Fastenal, which actively looks to fill its entry-level sales positions from a
number of sources, including universities.

Jason Heaster, a District Sales Manager from Fastenal, explains why his company generally prefers to recruit
college students over experienced salespeople: “From what we’ve found over the years in recruiting and trying
to develop a good sales force, we find that students are easier to train because they don’t have preconceived
notions about how to sell.
Experienced salespeople, on the other hand, sometimes are slower to adapt to our culture.” But like almost all
sales organization Fastenal does not focus exclusively on a single recruiting source. “We also place job ads
on employment websites, like monster.com—and often we get names of excellent candidates from referrals
made by members of our existing sales force.”

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