Personnel Management in

Sales Field
 Sales Force Management
 Involving Sales Executives in Sales Force
Management
 Job Analysis
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Sales Force Management: Activities
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Sales Force Management
 Economies of effective sales force management
 Quality of sales executives
 Number of executives
 Rate of sales personnel turnover
 Controllable by company
 Non-controllable by company
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Rate of sales personnel turnover
 Controllable by company
 Poor recruiting and selection
 Training deficiencies
 Inadequate supervision and motivation
 Transfer to other departments
 Communication breakdown
 Promotion to higher position
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Rate of sales personnel turnover
 Uncontrollable by company
 Retirement
 Death
 Illness or physical disability
 Personal and marital difficulties
 Dislike for job after sometime
 Better position elsewhere
 Customer complaints (?)
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Involvement of Sales Executives:
 Good Estimate of sales and business potential
 Identifying the sales force gap
 Knowledge of Law binding sales force
personnel
 Equal employment opportunities
 Non-discrimination
 Hire and fire resrictions
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Job Analysis: shall identify
 Duties and responsibilities
 Reporting structure
 Nature of demand of job
 Trade
 Missionary
 Technical
 Personnel Management in
Sales Field
 Sales Job Specification shall clarify the
persons role in:
 Sales
 Service
 Territory management
 Sales promotion
 Customer relation (goodwill creation)
 Executive responsibility – reporting, organizing,
planning, meetings etc
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 Preliminary activities:
 Do job analysis
 Write job description
 Prepare job specification
 Recruitment process:
 Evaluate the sources of good potential
 Build a supply of prospective sales personnel
 Select those with highest probability of success
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 Organization for Recruiting & Selection:
 Traditionally by the HR or Personnel Dept
 Initial selection/screening will be done:
 By HR if it is for HO Sales Dept or
 By Regional Sales Manager if it is for regional office
 Decentralized recruitment reduces interviewing
and selection costs
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 Prerecruiting Reservoir:
 Due to uncertainties of the need for sale
spersonnel, a pool of prospective candidates
for final selection is kept in the company
 This reservoir is updated frequently
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 Sources of Sales Force recruits:
 Within the company:
 Referrals from company sales personnel and
executives
 Internal transfers from other departments
 Purchase people recommending sales persons who
come to meet them
 Outside the company (next slide)
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 Outside Sources of Sales Force recruits:
 Direct unsolicited application
 Employment agencies
 Employees of customers
 Sales executive's clubs
 Sales forces of non-competing companies
 Educational institutions
 Advertisements
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 Outside Sources of Sales Force recruits:
 Direct unsolicited application
 Employment agencies
 Employees of customers
 Sales executive's clubs
 Sales forces of non-competing companies
 Educational institutions
 Advertisements
 Recruiting Sales Personnel
 The Recruiting Effort:
 College recruiting
 Requires planning, preliminary assessment
 Direct-to-consumer sales persons are recruited
by recommendation from existing sales persons
 Preliminary work by recruiting consultants
 Indirect recruiting:
 Blind advertisements (classifieds)
 Recruiting brochures with career counselors
 Selecting Sales Personnel
 Selection System:
 Pre-interview screening
 Formal application
 Interview
 Reference and credit checks
 Physical examination
 Employment offer
 Selecting Sales Personnel
 Formal application
 Should help in scoring of personal history and
shall include
 Age, gender, single/married, languages etc
 Qualifications and trainings
 Experience – relevant and otherwise
 Ambition
 Selecting Sales Personnel
 The Interview:
 How many interviews?
 Interviewers
 Interview techniques:
 Patterned interview with the help of a questionnaire
 Non-directive interview where candidate is given
freedom to speak freely about his experience
 Interaction (stress) interview
 Use rating scales
 Selecting Sales Personnel
 References:
 Present or former employers
 Former customers
 Reputable persons other than employers,
customers or relatives
 Mutual acquaintances
 Credit checks
 Selecting Sales Personnel
 Psychological tests:
 Validation of tests to actual performance to be
verified
 Can use discriminant analysis test
 Can evolve different selection criterion for
different category of people
 Selecting Sales Personnel
 Types of Psychological tests:
 Tests of ability: intelligence and aptitude
 Tests of habitual characteristics
 Personality, interests and attitudes
 Achievement tests on subject matter