Importance of Selection of Sales People
Discuss the importance of recruitment and selection of sales people. What are some of the problems associated with selecting the wrong person for the job?
Sales people are the front line of many businesses in the sales division. If a business has a shop front where customers come and have to inquire about potential purchases, current purchases or prior purchases then more often than not a salesperson is their first port of call. While it may appear that technology and self service are up and coming replacements for salespeople there is still definitely reason to employ qualified staff. It is for this reason that the recruitment and selection process is an important part of any business when hiring sales people. Selecting the wrong people for the job can result in problems such as staff turnover issues, customer complaints, costs associated with rehiring and even longer term issues such as a company suffering from disrepute.
Recruitment can be defined as the process of finding potential job applicants, telling them about the company and getting them to apply (Hair et al. 2009). Essentially this process should not just narrow applicants down to potential employees, but be narrowing the applicants down to potentially good employees. Hair et al. (2009) also notes that the entire sales division ultimately depends on a successful recruiting approach. In essence there are five steps in the recruitment process: 1. Conduct a job analysis * A process identifying the duties, requirements, responsibilities, and conditions a job. 2. Prepare a job description * Explains to job applicants and current sales personnel what the duties and responsibilities of the sales position are. 3. Identify sales job qualifications * Characteristics recruits should have to perform a sales job satisfactorily. 4. Attract a pool of sales recruits 5. (Hair et al. 2009) (Hair et al. 2009)
Select the best recruits
A particular field where
Sales people are the front line of many businesses in the sales division. If a business has a shop front where customers come and have to inquire about potential purchases, current purchases or prior purchases then more often than not a salesperson is their first port of call. While it may appear that technology and self service are up and coming replacements for salespeople there is still definitely reason to employ qualified staff. It is for this reason that the recruitment and selection process is an important part of any business when hiring sales people. Selecting the wrong people for the job can result in problems such as staff turnover issues, customer complaints, costs associated with rehiring and even longer term issues such as a company suffering from disrepute.
Recruitment can be defined as the process of finding potential job applicants, telling them about the company and getting them to apply (Hair et al. 2009). Essentially this process should not just narrow applicants down to potential employees, but be narrowing the applicants down to potentially good employees. Hair et al. (2009) also notes that the entire sales division ultimately depends on a successful recruiting approach. In essence there are five steps in the recruitment process: 1. Conduct a job analysis * A process identifying the duties, requirements, responsibilities, and conditions a job. 2. Prepare a job description * Explains to job applicants and current sales personnel what the duties and responsibilities of the sales position are. 3. Identify sales job qualifications * Characteristics recruits should have to perform a sales job satisfactorily. 4. Attract a pool of sales recruits 5. (Hair et al. 2009) (Hair et al. 2009)
Select the best recruits
A particular field where
References: Berry, R. 2011. Older people and the internet. London, England Burke, R. R. 2002. Technology and the Customer Inferface: What Consumers Want in the Physical and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 30 (4): 411-432. Hair, J. F., R. E. Anderson, R. Mehta, and B. J. Babin. 2009. Sales Management: Building Customer Relationships and Partnerships. Boston, U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin Company. Perkins, L. A., K. M. Thomas, and G. A. Taylor. 2000. Advertising and recruitment: Marketing to minorities. Psychology & Marketing 17 (3): 235-255. Schulman, P. 1999. Applying Learned Optimism to Increase Sales Productivity. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management 19 (1): 31-37.