7 – Selection and Placement of Sales Personnel

Introduction

Salesperson selection systems range from simple one-step systems based solely on an informal personal interview to complex multistep systems integrating various processes to acquire information about applicants for sales jobs.

“A selection system is a set of successive ‘screens’ at any of which an applicant may be dropped
from further consideration”.

Companies that use multistep selection systems differ in the number of steps and the sequence in which they are included. Each organisation creates its selection system to satisfy its unique information needs and cost constraints. As candidates progress through the system, the extra information allows for more precise predictions of success and failure rates.

It is critical to choose the right salespeople to avoid disappointments for both the employer and the employee. Effective sales managers go to great lengths to ensure access to the best salespeople. Having the wrong employees costs a lot of money to any organisation since neither the employer nor the employee is happy. The turnover rate of a company reveals the success of its selection process. Both the firm and the salesperson are at risk. The organisation loses because the salesperson does not fit into the required profession, and the salesperson loses since he or she chose the wrong career and lost time that cannot be restored. Unlike other careers, success in sales does not rely just on intellectual competence. The salesperson is also subjected to a great deal of emotional pressure. His personality, ability, experience, temperament, and aptitude are also crucial in dealing with frequently disappointing situations. Selection, like management, is both an art and a science. It is an art since it involves experience and science to follow systematic methods.

The process of selecting sales professionals varies from firm to firm, depending on the requirements. The applicant progresses through numerous stages, and his or her chances of selection improve as more stages are completed. The organisation must select a qualified applicant who will be an addition to the company and will fit well to meet his criteria.

7.1 The Selection Process

1. Preliminary Interview
2. Formal Application
3. Interview
4. Reference Check
5. Testing
6. Physical Examination
7. Employment Offer

7.1.1 Preliminary Interview

The receptionist in the employment office is usually in charge of the initial screening. This interview is simply a sorting procedure in which prospective employees are provided information on the nature of the roles available in the organisation. The relevant information is then extracted from the candidates concerning their education, experience, skill, salary demanded, reasons for leaving the current job, job interest, physical appearance, age, and speaking ability. If an applicant fits the organization’s qualifications, he may be chosen for further consideration. If he does not, he is eliminated at this level.

7.1.2 Formal Application Blank

An application blank is a brief history sheet detailing an employee’s background that can be valuable for future reference.

Selection System

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An application blank is a conventional, widely regarded tool for gathering information from a prospective applicant so that management can make an informed decision.

The blank provides preliminary information and aids in the interview process by highlighting topics of interest and discussion. It is a valuable tool for gathering previous data from the applicant and preserving it for subsequent use.

Ideally, each organisation should develop its official application form based on its information needs. However, to save time and money on producing its application form, the company can use a standard application form. The following information categories are used in standard application forms on common terms:

1. Personal
(a) name
(b) address
(c) sex
(d) date of birth and age
(e) marital status
(f) children/dependents.

2. Education
(a) schooling: primary/secondary
(b) higher education: institutions
(c) qualifications
(d) specified training, e.g., apprenticeships, sales
(e) membership in professional bodies.

3. Employment History
(a) number of jobs held
(b) name of companies worked for
(c) duration and dates of employment
(d) positions, duties and responsibilities.

4. Other Interests
(a) sports
(b) hobbies
(c) membership in societies or clubs.

7.1.3 Interview

An interview is an attempt to acquire information from an applicant about his suitability for the position under consideration. No other approach is as effective in appraising an individual’s ability in speech communication, personal appearance and attitude toward selling, and personal impact on others, all of which are critical for the person involved in selling.

Interview Decisions

Management must make the following critical judgments about interviews:

Who: Typically, multiple people are interviewed, and each applicant is evaluated. The district or branch sales manager conducts the interview in major sales organisations, whereas in small organisations, the top sales and marketing professionals are in charge.

Where: Similarly, the location of the interview is determined by the size and degree of decentralisation of the organisation. In big and highly decentralised organisations, the responsibility falls on the district, branch, or regional-level sales department, but in centralised organisations, it falls on top sales and marketing professionals.

When: A short interview is typically used as a preliminary interview at the beginning of the screening process, whereas a detailed or in-depth interview is used later in the selection process.

Interviewing Techniques

In a sales organisation, four types of interviewing techniques are commonly employed. They are as follows:

Non-Directed/Non-Structured Interview: This type of interview does not adhere to a regular format of questions but involves a relaxed chat. According to some personnel specialists, a non-directive technique provides the most insight into an individual’s attitude and interests. This strategy is possibly the most effective for examining an individual’s psyche in depth. The biggest disadvantage is that administering the interview and interpreting the results necessitate specialised training.

Patterned/Structured Interview: In this strategy, interviewers are given a list or a precise outline of questions to ask to extract a fundamental core of information.

McMurray explains why a patterned interview will likely improve interviewers’ judgement: First, the interviewer works with precise job specifications; he understands the traits that each position necessitates. Second, he has a strategy in place and knows what questions to ask. Third, he has received training in interviewing tactics. Fourth, he checked with outside sources before the interview and knew much about the applicant. Fifth, the interviewer has been carefully chosen to ensure that he has enough intelligence and emotional stability.

Interaction (Stress) Interview: This is a complicated approach. In this case, the interviewer is hostile toward the candidate. He purposefully annoys, embarrasses, and frustrates him to put him on the defensive. The interaction interview replicates the applicant’s stress while selling and how he would react to them.

Rating Scales: The outcomes of this method come from similar ratings of the same interviewee by various interviewers. The interview’s rating scales are designed so that the interviewers’ ratings are directed toward a limited number of responses. For example, when evaluating a candidate’s attitude, an interviewer must select the following responses: negative and whining, pessimistic, excellent and healthy, or strong loyalty.

7.1.4 Reference Check

Applicants are sometimes required to provide references for people on whom they may rely to speak positively about them.

The primary goal of reference checks as a selection technique is to confirm information such as dates of employment, earnings, sales volume, absenteeism, and the nature of the previous selling work. The standard process is to check references in person, by phone, or by mail.

7.1.5 Psychological Testing

“Tests are the most misused, the least understood, yet the most valuable sources of information about the applicants.”.

A psychological test can be defined broadly and narrowly. Broadly, it has been defined as a “systematic approach for comparing the behaviour of two or more persons.” In a narrow sense, “it is a sample of an aspect of an individual’s behaviour, performance or attitude.”

Because sales management is getting more formalised and the expense of selection and training is rising, psychological testing is becoming more important as a sales employee selection tool.

The primary goal of testing is to discover numerous characteristics of a person’s behaviour, such as IQ, accomplishments, hobbies, aptitude, personality traits, etc.

Different Types of Psychological Tests

Psychological tests are classified into four types based on human behaviour. However, in most cases, the three categories of aptitude, personality, and achievement tests are used in the sales personnel selection procedure.

1. Aptitude or Ability Tests:

These assess a candidate’s talent/ability to learn the job or skill. They discover anomalies or flaws in a person’s sensory or cognitive abilities. They concentrate on a specific aptitude, such as studying, reasoning, or a mechanical bent of mind. These tests can be of the following varieties:

a. Mental or Intelligence Test: These tests assess the candidate’s general intellectual activity or intelligence quotient (IQ). They also assess the candidate’s word fluency, memory, inductive reasoning, perceptive speed, and spatial vision.

b. Mechanical Aptitude Test: These assess a person’s ability to master a specific mechanical task by assessing visual-motor coordination or integration.

c. Psychomotor or Skill Test: These assessments assess a person’s ability to perform a specific task. They are used to assess mental dexterity, mental ability, and other characteristics involving muscular movement, control, and coordination.

2. Personality tests:

Personality tests determine an individual’s value system, emotional reactivity and maturity, and typical mood. Their primary goal is to assess non-intellectual people’s basic make-up or features. These tests are classified into the following categories:

i.Objective Test: This test assesses neurotic tendencies, self-sufficiency, dominance-submission, and self-esteem and is graded objectively.

ii. Project Tests: In this test, the candidate must project his or her interpretation into specific typical stimulus settings that reflect his or her values, motives, and personality.

iii. Situation Test: This demonstrates a candidate’s capacity to withstand stress and resourcefulness under duress. In a nutshell, it measures an applicant’s reaction to a specific situation.

3. Tests of Achievement (Proficiency):

Achievement exams measure how much a person knows about a subject. They examine the candidate’s admissions feasibility and assess his capabilities.

a. Tests for measuring job knowledge: These are given to determine a person’s level of qualification and ability to execute the job.

b. Work sample tests: They demand that the actual job be administered as a test.

Interest Test: When using interest tests, it is presumed that there is a relationship between the test and motivation. As a result, if two people have comparable competence, the one more interested in a specific job is more likely to succeed. These exams are designed to determine the types of jobs the candidate is interested in.

However, because the interest test scores of successful and failed salespeople are considerably different, these are not often considered in the selection of sales employees.

7.1.6 Physical Examination

A salesperson’s job necessitates remarkable stamina, strength, or tolerance for difficult working conditions. Physical examination reveals the presence or absence of certain qualities in the candidate. The primary goal of physical examination in the salesperson selection phase is to:

1. It demonstrates whether the individual is physically capable of performing the salesperson’s job in the organisation.

2. It inhibits the selection of people infected with contagious diseases.

3. It discovers the candidate’s existing limitations. It keeps a record of them so that the issue of the company’s duties can be resolved in the case of a workers’ compensation claim.

Rating of Interviewee

After studying all selection process elements, these should now be rated on the placement summary. The numerous facts should be compared to the vital profile requirements, and a score should be recorded in the corresponding area. He should be given a rating of one for a perfect match, two for an average match, three for below average, and four for entirely unsatisfactory. To explain apparent differences, leave a comment in the corresponding column. Overall comments can be expressed in the provided section.

Because the weighting of the individual elements will vary, the scores should not be totalled or averaged to arrive at the final recommendation. The manager must assess each candidate as a combination of elements and, after identifying strong and weak points, make a suggestion and rate the man on a four-category scale. Typically, positions for Category 1 men are offered right away. Category 2 employees are not qualified in every way, but they are worth hiring in the absence of a better candidate. Only in extreme cases, when someone must be employed, should category 3 males be hired. No matter how desperate the management is, category four employees should never be hired because they will only exacerbate the problem rather than solve it.

Two more factors that the manager must examine when making his decision are the man’s compatibility with prospective colleagues and superiors and the company’s future management demands.

A man’s success is frequently determined by how well he fits within a team. It is typically disastrous to place a vibrant, assertive, and ambitious twenty-six-year-old in a sales staff of security-conscious senior citizens clinging to their pensions. Having a man who is overly compatible with his superior is also risky. This is sometimes caused by “mirror-image” selection, a typical flaw among rookie managers. Because a candidate has a similar background to the manager, that is, comes from the same part of the country, went to the same school, shares an interest in water polo, and so on, it may be tempting to assume that he possesses similar business abilities. However, if a manager is prone to such temptations, he should delegate the interview to a colleague.

7.1.7 Employment Offer

A job offer is made to the candidate who has completed all preceding processes.

Placement of Sales Personnel

Once an offer of employment has been extended and accepted, the procurement function’s final stage is completed, and the process of placing the employee on the new job and orienting him to the organisation begins.

The term “placement” can be described as “the selection of the job to which an accepted candidate will be assigned, as well as his assignment to the job It is a match between what the supervisor believes he can do with the job needs (job requirements), what he enforces (in strained working circumstances), and what he delivers in the form of payroll, companionship with others, promotional opportunities, and so on.”

Probation

Following selection, the employee is usually placed on probation for one to two years, after which his job may be regularised if his work is satisfactory during this time. Only in extremely rare situations is an employee who has been placed asked to resign, and even then, only if something very serious is against him or he is proven guilty of continuous neglect in the performance of his duties. The new employee is assigned to the position of probationer until the trial period is completed.

7.2 Future

Every organisation must consider its future management needs and the demand for professional salespeople. Typically, various types of personnel will be required to meet these two demands. As a result, two different man profiles may be required while searching for similar sales positions. Those men with management potential should undoubtedly outperform the career sales personnel in leadership, self-reliance, and ability to take responsibility. Unless new requirements are implemented, there may be too many guys with high potential employed who will rapidly get dissatisfied and depart. If only career salesmen are hired, there will be no potential management pool for the future. The link between the two groups will be determined by the spans of control, the number of management levels, and the management life cycle in each work.