SALES FORCE SELECTION

Sales force selection

• A selection system is a set of successive
screens at any of which an applicant may be
dropped from further consideration.
• Selection system for sales personnel simple
one-step system, consisting of nothing more
than informal personal interview
SELECTION SYSTEM
PRELIMINARY INTERVIEW

FORMAL APPLICATION

INTERVIEW

REFERENCE & CREDIT CHECK

TESTING

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION

EMPLOYMENT OFFER
 INTERVIEW(S)
 The interview is the most widely used
selection step and it comprises the entire
selection system
 Interview techniques
- Patterned interview
- Non directive interview
- Interaction (stress) interview
- Rating scales
 Patterned Interview
• The interviewer uses a prepared outline of
questions designed to elicit a basic core of
information.
• Widely used for a sales position
• Interviewer may work directly from the
outline, recording answers as they are given
• This may make conversation stilted and the
applicant nervous.
 Nondirective interview
• In this technique applicant is encouraged to
speak freely about his or her experience,
training & future plans.
• The interviewer asks few direct questions and,
it does not provide answers to standard
questions, much time spent on outwardly
irrelevant subjects.
• This is the best method for probing an
individuals personality in depth.
 Interaction (Stress) interview
• It stimulates the stresses the applicant would
meet in actual selling and provides a way to
observe the applicant’s reaction to them.
• Interviewing technique has long been used by
the sales executive
Ex: sales personnnel, hand the applicant an
ashtray and say “here, sell this to me.
• Objective is to see how the applicant reacts
the surprise situation and to size up the
selling ability.
 Rating scale
• Companies encouraging rating scale as a
technique to assess job suitability .
• One much-used form forces an interviewer to
choose one of five descriptive phrases:
very neat, nicely dressed, presentable, untidy,
slovenly.
• In accordance with guidelines issued by the EEOC
& OFCC-that they need empirical data to
demonstrate that the technique is predictive of
or significantly correlated with succesful job
performance
 REFERENCES
• Applicants tend to name as references those
on whom they can relay to speak in their
favor.
• These people often are excellent sources for
candid appraisals and fall into four
classification
- Present or former employeess
- Former customers
- Reputible citizens
- Mutual acquaintances
 CREDIT CHECKS
• Many company run credit checks on
applicants for sales position.
• Credit checks are compiled by local credit
bureaus, and special credit are provided by
organization.
• In analyzing the credit report, the executive
look for the danger signals-chronic lateness in
making payments, large debts outstanding for
long periods, or a bankruptcy history-any of
which signal the need for additional probing
 Contd..
• Financial irresponsibility may or may not be
indicative of irresponsibility in meeting job
obligation
• Information on all aspects of the applicant’s
behaviour, nonfinancial as well as financial,
needs considering.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST
• In recent years , companies have tended to
abandon or to rely less upon psychological
tests as an aid of making selecting decisions.
• Types of tests
- Tests of ability
- Test of habitual characteristics
- Interest tests
- Achievement test
 Test of ability
• Test of ability includes test of mental ability
are timed tests, they indicate an applicant’s
ability to learn quickly and to arrive at
accurate answers under pressure.
• It measures primarily ability that make for
success in educational or training situations,
namely, language comprehension, abstract
reasoning or problem solving ability.
 Test of habitual characteristics
• Attitude test are more appropriate as morale
measuring techniques than as selection aids.
• They ascertain employees’ feelings towards
working condition, pay, advancement
opportunities, and the like.
• Used as sales personnel selection devices, to
identify psychotic tendencies.
 Interest tests
• Interest tests is that a relationship exists
between interest and motivation, if two
persons have equal ability, the one with
greater interest in a particular job should be
successful in that job.
• It is useful for vocational guidance, device for
predicting selling success.
 Achievement tests
• To determine how much individuals know
about a subject
• In test for sales applicants achievement tests
can assess the knowledge applicants possess
in such areas as the product, marketing
channels and customer relations.
Legislation Impacting selection

Mark W. Johnston and Gary W. Marshall, Sales Force Management,

McGraw Hill, 2006
THANK YOU……