RECRUITING AND SELECTING PERSONNEL SALES MANAGEMENT TOPIC 7

AIM: Process involved in recruiting & selecting personnel in sales force. OBJECTIVES: 7.1 Discuss how to plan for recruiting and selection 7.2 Identify relevant hiring criteria for sales jobs. 7.3 Identify the different sources of recruits. 7.4 Understand the selection and validation process.

How to plan for recruiting and selection Planning process Recruiting Selecting prospects Validating the hiring process

Planning Process Should include a preliminary analysis of personnel needs, job analysis, review of job description & job qualifications. Based on these results sources of sales recruits & selection procedures should be planned. Addresses the following: - personnel needs, company culture, job analysis, job qualifications, legality of job qualifications.

Personnel Needs No. of SP needed will depend on – sales growth targets, distribution strategies, changes sales force org. & sales force turnover. Understanding reasons for SP turnover is important to assessing personnel needs. An estimate of the rate at which SP leave can be determined by sales force turnover rate. Turnover rate = separations per year average size of sales force Need to keep turnover rate low due to high cost of recruiting & training.

Company Culture Specific definition of the org’s culture is needed for planning cycles validity. Aligning co’s recruiting strategies to its core culture should help attract & retain higher performing SP. Very important to have cultural ‘fit’ between the company & the recruit.

Job Analysis Before recruiting new SP, they must understand activities, tasks & responsibilities of SP. Is a systematic way to describe how a job is to be performed & the tasks that make up the job. Methods of JA- interview with mgt & SP & use of questionnaires. A JA should focus on critical success tasks high performing SP spend time on against those lower performing SP. Send an observer on the field – good method to do JA. Written customer ratings are also good.

Job description – infor Job description – infor. From JA should be used to produce JD – a written doc that lists job relationships & requirements that characterize each sales position. JD explains to whom SP reports, how SP interacts with other staff mkting people, customers to be called on, specific tasks to be carried out, mental & physical demands of the job & types of product to be sold.

Job Qualifications Refer to aptitudes, skills, knowledge & personality to perform a job successfully. Statement of JQ would include education, previous work experience, technical expertise, aptitudes, interests. Used as a selection criteria help S.mgrs to choose best prospects. One of the dilemmas of mgrs is whether to hire technicians & teach them to sell or experienced SP & teach them technical.

Recruiting Goal of recruiting is to find & attract best qualified applicants for sales positions. The number of applicants need can be determined by using formula: R = H S * A H = required no. of hires S = % of recruits selected A = % of those selected who accept

Example: A company needs to hire 10 people & expects to select 10% of those applying. If 50% of those offered a position accept then: R = H = 10 = 200 S * A (0.10 * 0.50) Therefore, the firm needs to plan its recruiting process so as to attract 200 applicants.

Sources of applicants vary widely, depending on the job to be filled & past hiring success. Surveys suggest that recruiters have the most success when they have reliable information from trusted sources about a candidate. EXERCISE: list & discuss the sources of applicants a company can use.

Sources of sales applicant: Classified and on-line advertising Present employees Referrals/networking Employment agencies Schools & colleges Customers, suppliers & competitors

1. Classified and on-line advertising Adverts in newspapers, trade journals, & on the web. Adv. Their ability to attract a large number of applicants. Disadv. In attracting job applicants there is a tendency to overburden the selection process with under qualified applicants resulting in costly screening process.

2. Present Employees Often make good candidates for sales jobs They are familiar with co. policies, procedures & do not require as much training. Increase moral of workers Bad feelings may arise.

3. Referrals/Networking Recommendations by current employees References from managers & SP are valuable Statistics show that networking & informational interviewing to be among the top for effective recruiting in today’s world. Very important to maintain good network

4. Employment Agencies Are frequently used to help fill vacancies in firms. They save busy sales mgrs time and money Agency advertise, screen resumes, interview prospects & present qualified applicants to the client.

5. Schools, Colleges & Tertiary Institutes One of the best source Are attractive source of SP Easily trained & are more poised & mature They know how to budget their time Have perseverance needed to get the job done Lack sales experience Require considerable training & one-to-one coaching

6. Customers, Suppliers & Competitors They know the business & are familiar with co SP can bring with them loyal customers SP may find hard to adjust their selling styles to fit with co May create some dissatisfaction among own SP

Selecting Prospects After recruiting a pool of sales candidates, mgrs must screen out candidates who do not meet the hiring criteria. Next slide portrays a model for selecting salespeople

Direct recruit to control location or phone Hiring criteria for sales jobs used to guide selection process Complete application blanks Conduct screening interviews Check credit & background Complete psychological & achievement tests Secondary interviews Make offer for sales position Physical exam reject Modify hiring criteria tests or interview procedures Measure subsequent success on the job

1. Application Forms Method to gather personal history data is to have candidates fill out application blanks Need little time & easy to administer, in standard format Sales mgr wants infor. On educational background, past employment Absent infor. On gender, race, handicap, age martial status to avoid discrimination

2. Personal Interviews Requires interpersonal skills Interviews on two levels. 1st interview is used to inform candidate about the job & look for knockout factors Followed by main interview, candidates are screened in order to identify people who best match the job’s qualification Mgrs can follow up on infor. Obtained from application blanks. Allow mgrs to assess applicants interests & desire for the job Observe conversation & social skills May want to assess how easy it would be to manage then on selling

Interviews are subjective process thus mistakes may occur Minimise selection mistakes by training sales mgrs on what questions to ask, how to ask & how to rate applicants Patterned interviews – the sales mgr asks each prospect a set of questions & records responses on a form. Allows comparison Semi structured interviews – applicant is expected to take active role Field observation – taking candidates out to observe a day of field sales

3. Follow Up Sales mgr should track the timely responses of candidates by their responses in the form of letters, notes

4. Background & Credit Checks How honest are people about their education & employment history Assess the financial responsibility of applicants since this goes hand in hand with job responsibility

5. Testing Provide more objective information Three types of test: - intelligence tests – measure min mental capability - personality tests – such as team building - aptitude tests – determine whether a candidate has an interest in certain tasks & activities. - recommendations – should use tailor made tests

7. Physical Examination Routine physical examination Some companies are using additional tools such as internship programs and assessment centres.

Nine Mistakes & How to Avoid Relying solely on interviews to evaluate a candidate Using a generalised ‘success’ model for selection Too many criteria Evaluating ‘personality’ instead of job skills Using yourself as an example Failure to use statistically validated testing to predict job skills most critical to success Not researching why people have failed in a job Relying on general ‘good guy’ criteria Bypassing the reference check

Validating The Hiring Process Last step in hiring process, information is collected on the progress of sales personnel & used to adjust the hiring process.