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Understand the crucial aspects of selecting, placing, and socializing successful salespeople. Learn the purposes, predictors, and procedures involved in sales personnel selection. Gain insights into making informed decisions for enhancing productivity and efficiency in sales teams.
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CHAPTER 9 SELECTION, PLACEMENT, AND SOCIALIZATION OF SUCCESSFUL SALESPEOPLE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES The selection, placement, and socialization of salespeople are extremely important to the sales force and the new individual. This chapter should help you understand: • The purposes, importance, and influencing factors of selection and placement. • The predictors used to make selection decisions. • The many forms of personnel selection, as well as their differences and similarities. • That evaluation of selection and placement decisions is very necessary. • With whom the final decision rests. • The need to effectively socialize new personnel into their jobs.
SELECTION AND PLACEMENT OF SUCCESSFUL SALES PERSONNEL Selection of sales personnel refers to the process of selecting the best available person for the job. Placement is concerned with ensuring that job demands match an individual’s skills, knowledge, and abilities, along with preferences, interests, and personality.
IS SELECTION THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT IN FIELDING A SALES FORCE? The selection of the right people is, without a doubt, extremely important to the success of the sales district, the region, and the total sales force.
PURPOSES AND IMPORTANCE OF SELECTION AND PLACEMENT • Selection and placement procedures provide the fuel that runs the sales force. • Sales managers want to improve productivity. • The proper match between person and job can improve productivity and reduce operating costs.
FIGURE 9.1 MAJOR INFLUENCES AND COMPONENTS OF SALES FORCE SELECTION
PREDICTORS FOR SELECTION DECISIONS WHAT ARE PREDICTORS? The various pieces of information about the person are often called predictors. They are referred to as tests when used to make selection decisions.
The Uniform Guidelines include all forms of information collection methods used to make selection decisions.
SOURCES FOR COLLECTING INFORMATION • Skills, knowledge, and ability. • Preferences, interests, and personality. • Other category: employment tests, interviews, etc. • Other characteristics: physical examinations, reference checks, etc.
IS THE INFORMATION JOB RELATED? • Any information collected from the applicant should be related to the job. • Information classified into the “other characteristics” category usually represents minimum qualifications for a job.
THE SELECTION PROCESS THE JOB APPLICATION BLANK An orderly, convenient method of collecting necessary information for determining an applicant’s minimum qualifications.
When reviewing an application blank, the sales manager should look for the following: • Minimum job requirements. • All dates accounted for. • Number of jobs and length of time spent on each job. • Reason given for leaving jobs. • Pattern of growth.
THE PERSONAL INTERVIEW – AONE-ON-ONE SELLING SITUATION The personal interview usually involves the one-on-one, face-to-face meeting of two strangers, both seeking to sell themselves to the other.
TABLE 9.1 INTERVIEWS ARE IMPORTANT FOR THE SALES MANAGER AND THE APPLICANT
Types of Interviews In a structured interview, the recruiter asks questions, often from a standard form. In an unstructured interview, the recruiter asks few preplanned questions and often begins with open-ended questions such as “Tell me about yourself” or “Why do you want to sell for IBM?”.
The Stress Interview – An interviewer may place the applicant in a stressful situation to ascertain how the person might cope with stress when selling.
Nonverbal cues in interviews: • Body movements. • Gestures. • Firmness of handshake. • Eye contact. • Physical appearance. • One of the reasons nonverbal cues are so powerful is that, in most cases, interviewers are not aware of them as possible casual agents of impression formation. Interpretation of nonverbal cues varies with each person.
Four basic guidelines to interviewing: • Collect information that relates directly to job performance. • Consciously wait until the interview is over to make a final decision. • Always remember that weaknesses can be offset by strengths and potential. • The interview is only one method of obtaining information on the applicant.
TESTS Employment test refers to a procedure, technique, or measurement instrument for ascertaining characteristics such as aptitudes, capacities, intelligence, knowledge, skills, or personality.
Sales managers may decide the following: • Not to use tests. • To administer tests and interpret the results themselves. • To administer tests and have someone else interpret the results. • To turn the testing over to consulting industrial psychologists. • The majority of sales managers use tests as only one part of the selection process. • To be used successfully, tests must have reliability and validity.
Test subjects that are often used for selecting sales personnel include: • Aptitude tests. • Intelligence tests. • Interest tests. • Knowledge tests. • Personality tests.
The polygraph test measures blood pressure, respiration, heartbeat and skin response and plots these on a graph. Polygraph tests are seldom used to screen applicants for outside sales jobs for national companies and primarily are used by smaller companies.
The major problems with testing are: • Tests are misused and not understood. • Applicants can become “test wise.”
ASSESSMENT CENTERS The assessment center is a centralized organizational unit within the firm.
EMPLOYMENT REFERENCES References are the names of persons from whom information can be obtained on an applicant’s ability and character.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS Almost all companies require their prospective employees to undergo physical examinations. As a general rule, if the applicant gets this far in the process, he or she has the job unless health problems are discovered.
EVALUATING SELECTION AND PLACEMENT DECISIONS The quality and effectiveness of selection and placement decisions depend on sales managers hiring as many applicants as possible who turn out to be good performers.
Costs to consider include both actual and potential costs: • Actual costs. • Recruiting and assessment costs. • Induction and orientation costs. • Training costs.
Costs to consider include both actual and potential cost: continued • Potential costs. • Costs associated with hiring a person who subsequently fails. • Costs associated with rejecting a person who would have been successful on the job.
Some of the benefits of an effective hiring policy: • Lowering the cost of turnovers and absenteeism. • Lowering training time. • Meeting individual territorial sales potential. • Increasing customer satisfaction by having the same salesperson call. • Improving morale. • Because of these benefits, recruiting effectiveness increases, thus lowering the total costs associated with operating the sales force.
THE SOCIALIZATION OF SALES PERSONNEL Socialization is the process by which salespeople learn the sales culture and behaviors appropriate for their roles in the organization.
Properly done, the socialization process can help: • Increase performance and job satisfaction. • Reduce job anxieties and the fear of failure. • Reduce turnover. • Impart a positive image of the company, job duties, and future expectations. • Save the manager’s time and thus reduce costs.
THE BOTTOM LINE Establishing a sales force is a complex process that involves many variables. Sales managers use predictors for hiring decisions. The selection process is no longer based on intuitive feelings. The personal interview is an important part of the selection process. Managers also can use certain employment tests for selecting personnel. Sales force productivity benefits with the selection of good employees.
