Dr. Obaid Saad Alabdali

Profiling and recruiting sales people

Selecting applicant

Hiring and Socializing New sales people

Developing and conducting a sales training program

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

advertising

Sales promotion

Public relation

Sales people are born-not made

Sales people must be good talkers

Selling is a matter of knowing the right techniques or tricks

A good sales person can sell anything

A good sales person can sell ice to an Eskimo

People do not want to buy

Cigar-smoking

back-slapping

joke-telling

You can take a way my money and take a way my factories, but leave me my sales staff and I will be back where I was in two years.

Order taker

Order getter

Support sales people

missionary

technical

Select the sales people

Right people is the key to successes

Sales group directly bring money

Marketing strategy implementation

( considerable services)

It addresses the problem of getting good people

It improves sales force performance

It promotes cost saving

It eases other managerial tasks

Sales managers are no better than their sales force

Saudiazation

Nondiscrimination and affirmative action

nondiscrimination-requires elimination of all existing discriminatory conditions.

affirmative action-requires the employer to do more than ensure neutrality in regard to race, sex, and national origin. It require additional effort to recruit, qualified members of group formerly excluded.

Establish responsibility for recruiting and selection ( top sales executive, field sales manger, human resource department, or combination)

Determine the number and type of sales people

This involve the analysis of market and job ( write job description)

Establish the qualification for that job.

Identify sources of recruits

Select the source to be used

Contact the recruits

Design a system for measuring applicants

Measure applicants against hiring qualifications

Make decisions

Those people who have been selected (convince people)

Management must decide who will be responsible for recruiting and selection decisions and who must be responsible for assimilating the new hires into the organization.

That will depends on size of the company and nature of the job

Right number

Good faith in their selection system.

Good forecasting

Study your marketing plan (expansion)

Factors affecting size of sales force

promotion

retirements

termination, and resignation

Three tasks associated with determining the type of people

Job analysis

Job description

Job qualifications

Is the actual task of determining what constitute a given job

study every aspect of the position (by any member of the sales force, human resource or by an outsider)

requires observation and interviewing with sales rep, customers, other sales reps

Once job is analyzed, the resultant description should be put in writing

must be done in great details

It is not enough to say that a sales person is supposed to sell the product, call on customers, or build goodwill toward the company

Title of job

Organizational relationship (to whom do the sales person report)

Types of products and services sold

Types of customers called on

Duties and responsibilities related

Job demand (mental and physical i.e.. Travel)

Use of job description

Job analysis and job description must be used as strategic guidelines for interview, application blanks, psychological test and others selection tools

It can be a foundation for sales force training program

used foe compensation structure

Establish Work load

The most difficult part of the entire selection process.

Demographic characteristics, Education and experience, do little to explain person performance

Personal history may be better indicator for performance

Mental capacities (planning and problem solving)

Physical (appearance and age)

Experience (sales and other business experience)

Education (no. of years, degree, major)

Personality

Skills communication

Knowledgeable

Organization

Follow-through

Punctuality

Energy

Promptness

Problem solver

Willing to work hard and Honesty

There is no satisfactory methods to use

Some methods can be used

study of job description (technical, supervision)

Analysis of personal histories

It include all activities involved in securing individuals who will apply for the job.

Recruiting should not be done haphazardly (overlooking good sources/ cost)

Get enough qualified applicants to maximize the chance of getting good one

Many sources

Determine the best sources

Find out from where the best sales people came from

Maintain good relationships with good source

Within the company

Other companies (competitors,customers, noncompetitors)

Educational institutions

Advertisement

Job centers

Voluntary applicants

Part-timer workers

Attract attention and have credibility

Company name

Product

Territory

Hiring qualification

Compensation etc..

How to contact the employer

A company should continually evaluate the effectiveness of its recruiting program

In the selection, the number and type of sales people are determined and applicant have been recruited.

Now management should be ready for developing a system for matching the applicants with the predetermined requirements and the actual use of this system to select the sales people.

If it handled effectively, it can help ensure successful sales performance

A poor job in processing applicants can hinder implementation

Matching company needs and applicants potential is very important

Do not ask: (job relevant)

age

How many children (age, many, who cares)

Applicant height or weight

Citizenship

Was arrested

Marital status

Name and address of any relatives

personal-history record

Company uses two blanks, a short one and a longer one, more details

Short one used as an initial screening device.

Company asks only for information it intends to use now or later

No sales person is ever hired without personal interview

Knowing the applicant personally

Personal fitness for a job

Conversational ability

Speaking voice, social intelligence

Appearance

Interpret and get further information about facts stated on the application blank.

Fundamentally, all the questions asked during an interview aimed at learning the:

Is the person qualified for the job

How badly does he want the job

Will the job help him to achieve his goals

Will this applicant work to his fullest ability

Situation/behavioral type of interview for sale position is good.

It heavily dependent on the behavior of the interviewer.

Gut reaction

Interviewers talk too much listen to little

They ask the wrong questions

Have more than one interview with each candidate

Use standardized rating form that they fill

Review these information to make ranking

Train interviewers

Interviews can be differ (extent of Qs)

Totally structure

all interviewers use the same guide sheet containing a series of questions

Ask these questions in order listed

Inflexible

Informal-ask few question to get applicant talking, interview does little talking

Is a type of unstructured interview in which the interviewer intentionally places the applicant under stress.

Rude, silent, or aggressive in questions

give you a pen and ask you to sell it.

Asking the applicant to spend a day observing one of the company current sales rep

Ask the applicant to make a presentation to customer

Executive valuable time

Initial stages (15-20 minutes)

Later stage, the more time talking with the applicant the better

A company uses a battery of these tests rather than one single test.

It is complex and controversy

Mental intelligence test

intended to measures native intelligence

Aptitude tests

tests a person aptitude for selling

Interest tests

Personality tests

Testing may eliminate truly creative person, who might not fall in the average or normal rang in testing

The applicant furnishes the leads; a reference

Company get information on its own initiative, credit, insurance report, school record, and motor vehicle.

Reference check made by letter, telephone, or personal visit (advantage, disadvantage of each methods)

Assessment center technique is a centralized, comprehensive evaluation procedures involve testing, interviews, and simulation exercises such as business game, discussion group, and individual testing

Very expensive

Takes one to three days to evaluate applicants and their performance

A company must decide whether to make a job offer based on the information they get.

Do not leave any applicant dangling

If you decide not to hire him, tell him gently, but clearly

If you decide to hire him, make a formal offer and persuade him to accept it.

Selection and hiring is not synonymous

Acceptance rate is low

Generate large number of acceptable recruits

Efficiency in recruiting (fast/slow decision)

Everyone wants to feel important

Thought should be given to the offer process before actual recruit contact begin.

To do this we need to:

The acceptable recruits should be ranked

How the offer (s) will be extended

Two lists should be developed

What about when the person the firm wants most is not interested? (shall we spend time)

Compensation (type and amount)

Employment package

insurance,

retirement

vacation pay

educational benefit

Profit sharing

Company car

Relocation expenses

Who will make the offer (top manager, Human resource, sale manger)

Most of job offers are initially made over the telephone

how much time will be allowed for acceptance and what concessions will be made if the recruit want to negotiate some of the term of the deal.

A formal letter follows if offer is accepted (this letter needs carefully wording/ contract)

Many small, but important, details must be anticipated in making the offer.

Review the job

ask for questions

determine interest (trail close) do you want the job. If we made an offer will you accept it.

If he reject it accept it with grace

Keep good relations, it help

Is the process through which the new recruits take on the values and attitudes of the people who are already working for the firm.

Preemployment socialization (publication, visit)

Assimilation- when he accept the offer

familiar with the environment and their job tasks

The paycheck

The expense account

Office practices

Dining facilities

What is going to happen next?

Be part of the team

Know the supporting staff

Introduction to business

Need for effective communication

People are social animals

He should be socially integrated into new environment

Social need may be overrule their economic need

Leaving home, family, friend, strange in new city, etc?

Cultural diversity

A mentor is someone with knowledge, experience, position, or power who provides personal counseling and career guidance for younger employee

Three types of mentoring programs

a senior manager is a assigned for each sales rep

informal process, a senior executive select a younger sales rep and help him climb the ladder

The training program is a link in the process of converting the recruit into a productive sales rep

Training was ranked as second important factor in sale person success

Good/positive attitude

Proper training

Good work habits/hard work

Motivation/self-motivation

Knowledge (customer,market, competition, product)

Training Assessment

Program Design

Evaluation

What are our training need?

What are the objectives of the training?

Who should be trained?

How much training is needed?

Start with sophisticated need analysis that include interviewing customers about their needs

Find weaknesses in selling skills and design a training program to eliminate them.

Sources to gather these information are many such as management and training department judgement

Increasing sales productivity

Lower turnover (good people less to fail)

Better moral

Control

Improved customer relations

Lower selling cost

Better use of time

Newly hired sales reps

Existing sales reps

who struggling to achieve their objectives

when new products introduced, market shifts, buyer change

Depends on the training objectives

half a day training may be enough introducing sales rep to promotional program

2-3 days for introducing him to new feature in the product

Customer relations may needs 3-4 days

Teaching basic selling skills to inexperienced recruits needs 3- 6 months

In the program design phase, the following question must be answered:

Who should do the training?

When should the training take place?

Where it should be done?

What should the content of the training be?

What teaching methods should be used?

Three basic sources of trainers are:

regular line executive (senior sales representative, field supervisor, territorial manager or sales managers).

Staff trainers-can be hired to conduct training

Outside training specialist

Each one has advantages and disadvantages

Two basic attitude

no one should be placed in the field who is not fully trained

other attitude is the recruit should sell before investing in training in that person. This philosophy has merits that it is much easier to train people who have some field experience than those who have none.

Decentralized Training

Field sales office instruction

use of senior sales people

on-the-job tutoring

local sales schools

local sales seminar

Centralized Training

at central location/ it is very expensive

Attitude toward selling

Knowledge about the company

Product knowledge and application

Knowledge of competitive products

Knowledge of customers

Time management skills

Legal constraints on selling

Selling skills

Lectures- ineffective for teaching sales

Discussion

Demonstration

Role playing

Audio cassettes-when sales rep drive

Video-enhanced training

Computer-assisted training

Business TV- broadcast live via satellite

On-the-job training

We must assess the effectiveness of our training programs, we must decide on:

what outcomes will be evaluated?

How will these outcomes be measured?

Reactions-subjective manner

Learning-how much information they get-test before and after

Result-increased sales and productivity