Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople

This report is written to introduce the importance of recruitment and selection of sales people, or rather, to show the function and position that sales people perform in the normal operation of an enterprise, especially in the daily operation of the marketing department. Meanwhile, to prove the significance of recruitment and selection of sales people, this report will give the bad effects and problems caused by the selection of wrong sales people especially to the normal development of an enterprise.

Introduction of importance of recruitment and selection of sales people

1 Definition of recruitment and selection

Recruitment involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen (Lloyd L. Byars & Leslie W. Rue, 2005).

The objective of the selection process is to choose the individual who can successfully perform the job from the pool of qualified candidates (Lloyd L. Byars & Leslie W. Rue, 2005).

Recruitment and selection of employees is a significant and fundamental process in the human resource management. It satisfies the talent needs of a company and can ensure high-quality staff.

The role of human resource recruitment is to build a supply of potential new hires that the organization can draw on if the need arises (Raymond A. Noe & John R. Hollenbeck& Barry Gerhart &Patrick M). “Which company can win? Not to depend on the feature of products, not to depend on the cost. In the constantly changing business environment urged by high technology, the key of competition is to find and retain talented employees.”(Dave Ulrich)

2 the importance of sales people

Sales people tend to create the benefit that supports the company’s normal operating costs and provides fund for the next step in the development of company. Any product is to achieve the final destination that is sold and becomes a real commodity. Sales people are the suitable person to realize the product’s value. And at the same time they will bring profit that produced in the sales process. From this point, sales people are indispensable and irreplaceable in the normal operation of an enterprise.

3 the importance of recruitment and selection of sales people

Sales people stand for the corporate image and determine whether a product can be promoted well. In the long term, recruitment and selection of sales people is beneficial to enterprise strategic management and the increase of return on net assets. The significance can be induced in several respects in detail from the following aspects.

First, recruitment and selection of sales people is related to the survival and development of an enterprise. It has a bearing on the normal operation of the enterprise. In the highly competitive society, if he doesn’t own an effective and high qualified team of sales people, one enterprise would be eliminated through fierce competition. This respect can be induced from the sale of products and the decisive force of the sale of product in the development of an enterprise. The profit of an enterprise is realized through successful sale of products, and the successful sale of products tends to achieve by sale people especially by high qualified sales people.

Second, recruitment and selection of sales people is the foundation that ensures high quality of sales people. Through recruitment and selection, an enterprise can find qualified and appropriate personnel to the sale position who can promote products better. The process of recruitment and selection involves many steps and every step has clear-cut criteria to go by. So by layers of the selection, the enterprise can choose and recruit employees that are suitable to the sale position and meet enterprise requirements.

Besides, sales people are the motive power and vigor of sales and marketing department. The development of an enterprise is the competition of talented persons from the other side. No matter how well an enterprise’s sales plan is, no matter how many the advertisements are, no matter how unhindered sales distribution channels are, the key to achieve the purpose of sale depends on the terminal sales people. So the sales sector performance relies on the sales people mostly.

At the same time, they are closely related to the publicity of enterprise’s culture and stand for an enterprise outer image and culture connotation. So the recruitment and selection of sales people is essential and cannot be ignored.

Introduction of the problems associated with selecting the wrong person for the job

The Sales Skills Test was developed by the Walden Personnel and Testing Company. It is designed to evaluate the suitability of candidates of all levels of experience for the position of sales representative. The test measures the following criteria:

• Knowledge of general sales principles.
• Knowledge of sales terms.
• Relevant vocabulary skills.
• Understanding of issues that can influence the sales process.
• Ability to deal with different sales situations.
• Basic mathematical and calculation skills, in addition to logic and attention to detail.

Walden Personnel and Testing grades the test and provides a personalized report on each person. This test can be used to prescreen job applicants and in-house personnel for the positions of sales clerk, sales representative, store manager, and district sales manager (The website of Walden Personnel and Testing Company).

The problems of selecting the wrong person for the job are serious and can not be ignored.

1 It will cause a bad impression on the customers and marketers. Selecting the wrong person for the job will ruin one enterprise’s image when their qualities don’t meet the requirements of the enterprise, and even cannot be up to the standard that a sales person should possess.

2 The wrong persons for the job will influence the normal operation of an enterprise, and even will hinder the development of enterprise. Selecting the wrong person for the job will affect the sale of manufactures and further cut the profit of the enterprise.

3 At a deep level, selecting the wrong person for the job is detrimental to both the enterprise and the sales person. Not only the enterprise but also the sales person should find match information in order to develop himself well. They can follow some criteria (Jochen Malinowski & Tobias Keim, 2006).

One of the greatest challenges for any company is to find the right workers to fill its needs, whether it’s someone who can sell the product (Lloyd L. Byars & Leslie W. Rue, 2005).

Conclusion

The recruitment and selection of sales people should follow some criteria in order to recruit and select appropriate and qualified sales people which are beneficial to the development and normal running of an enterprise.