Presentation

2

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Recruitment and Selection of a sales force

Student’s Name

Institutional affiliation

Introduction

Sales is an essential element in any business because the sales force represents the first point of contact between a business. Hence, the hiring process must ensure that the people employed are fit for the business. The process of recruitment involves attracting a pool of applicants for various sales positions in a business. In contrast, the selection process involves selecting the best fit for the job from shortlisted candidates and giving them a job in a business. This paper addresses the recruitment and selection process for salesforce in detail.

Recruitment of a sales force

The recruitment process can be done in four steps; identification of requirements, identification of sources of recruitment, communicating the information and receiving applications.

1. Identification of requirements

The first step in recruiting the sales force is identifying a gap or need for additional sales staff in the business. When a business identifies the positions needed to be filled, it should also identify the number of people needed for those positions. Another important thing to note in this step is the job description of the different sales positions, including the educational and personal attributes needed for the different positions (Pandey, 2017). Additionally, the job description gives detailed functions and responsibilities of different positions. At this point, the goal of a business at this point will be to attract individuals who are equipped and willing to take on the challenges associated with working in sales.

2. Identification of the sources of recruitment

A business can recruit its sales force from either external sources or internal sources. A business will select the source depending on the needs of the business and the nature of its positions. Internal sources of recruitment can be transfers or promotions. Transfers will involve moving a sales employee to another branch of a business to occupy the same position as in the previous branch. In contrast, promotions involve moving a sales employee to a higher ranked position in the sales force (Khandelwal & Kumar, 2019). Promotions will be very effective in hiring a sales manager since it will mean hiring someone who knows the organization well. A business can also recruit from external sources such as employment agencies, educational institutions, recommendations and advertisements. If a business wishes to attract a large pool of applicants, then advertising the vacancy or vacancies is the best option.

3. Communication

Once the business has identified where they can get their salesforce, the next step will be communicating vacancies to the intended audience. The information to be communicated will include the qualifications of the sales employees, requirements, job descriptions, and application methods. If a company is recruiting from within an organization, it can effectively use its notice board (Pandey, 2017). When external recruitment is required, the sales positions can be advertised in different media; broadcast, print, and social media.

4. Receiving applications

The recruitment process ends when a business receives the application forms for the different positions advertised. When advertising for applications, a business must indicate how the applications can be sent, with the most effective methods being via email or the company website (Hamza et al., 2021). When a business receives the applications, they now have a pool of applicants to select the sales staff.

Selection process

The selection process of a good sales force should be thorough and will include the following steps.

1. Initial screening

The first step in the selection process involves initial screening to eliminate applicants that are not fit for the job due to their character, performance and educational history.

2. Filling an application form & Employee test.

A business will require the applicants to fill in a few details in the application form, which are just simple, like the name of the applicants and address. The forms will help gather verifiable historical data from applicants. Once the management has a few applicants, they can go ahead and do some tests to help assess the qualifications and potential for success (Nikolaou, 2017). Some employee tests could be oral, but most of them are written. In recruiting a sales force, the business can include some scenarios to assess the sales skills of an individual and their ability to solve real business issues.

3. Job interviews

An interview will allow the applicants to exchange information about the position applied. The applicants who will get to this stage are promising candidates, and the interview is meant to help choose the best fit for a business. Interviews must be planned before ensuring that the interview content is sufficient to recruit qualified and competent sales personnel. Planning of an interview will include planning the location of the interview, which should be quiet and with minimal distractions (Poláková, 2019). The interviewer(s) must know the sales applicants from the previous steps and have listening skills and communicate effectively. During the interview, the interviewers will need to assess various types of information about the applications; occupational experience, personal attributes, academic achievement and organizational fit. The most important skills needed for sales personnel will be interpersonal skills since their jobs will involve interacting with customers, and hence they need to have good interpersonal skills. The salespersons will need to have persuasion skills to convince potential buyers into becoming customers.

4. Conditional job offers

Since a business is not yet sure about an employees output, the best thing is to give the applicants that pass the previous steps a tentative job offer that will become permanent after an applicant meets certain conditions (Billups & Podar, 2018).

5. Background investigation

The human resource team should conduct a background investigation to help verify that an applicant's information in their application forms and resume is accurate. The investigation can also involve looking at the legal status and the credit status of the applicant. The information that an organization seeks can be found from the referees, credit references, former employers and online searches (Popp et al., 2020). The investigation is very important since past behaviour will always be seen in an applicant's future behaviour.

6. Physical/Medical examination

It is important to assess that one is fit to perform the tasks involved in sales in a business. An important examination is looking at the mental stability and wellbeing of a person to ensure they can work effectively in a sales position where they are needed to interact with customers and fellow employees.

7. Permanent job offer

This is the final step in the recruitment process. Once an organization is sure about the sales skills of an individual and that they are fit for the positions, then a permanent job offer is given to the applicant; an induction to the organization is important to familiarize an employee with colleagues and the organization.

Conclusion

Sales are an integral part of the business. The recruitment and selection process of a salesforce must be comprehensive to ensure that a business gets the right people for the job to help boost sales and profits in a business. The recruitment will include identifying a gap and receiving applications for a job opening. If the selection process is done well, the salesforce hired will be competent and equipped for their jobs.

References

Billups, M. J., & Poddar, A. (2018). Entry-level Salesperson Selection: An Engaging

Experiential Exercise for Sales Management Students. Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education, 26.

Hamza, P. A., Othman, B. J., Gardi, B., Sorguli, S., Aziz, H. M., Ahmed, S. A., ... & Anwar, G.

(2021). Recruitment and Selection: The Relationship between Recruitment and Selection with Organizational Performance. International Journal of Engineering, Business and Management, 5(3), 1-13.

reference to current scenario in organizations. Malaya Journal of Matematik (MJM), 7(3, 2019), 412-418.

Journal of Psychology, 24.

Pandey, K. (2017). TLP for Sales Management & Promotion Management/Sales Force

management 2016-2017.

finanční výzkum, 85.

Popp, N., Jensen, J. A., McEvoy, C. D., & Weiner, J. F. (2020). An examination of the effects of

outsourcing ticket sales force management. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship.