Sales and

v
Distribution
Management
Tapan K. Panda | Sunil Sahadev
Recruitment and Selection
of the Sales Force
Chapter 9

© Oxford University Press 2019. All rights reserved.

 Learning Objectives

• Discuss the hiring and planning process

• Understand the recruitment, selection, and socialization processes

• Explain the concepts of job description and man specifications

• Know the sources and methods of recruitment

• Examine the methods of interview and apply these techniques in different

situations
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 Roles of a Sales Manager

• Performs sales management +HR management

• Recruits, selects, trains, motivates, leads, controls, and compensates sales
teams
• Selection and recruitment of efficient salespeople is always a process of
building competitive advantage for an organization

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 The Hiring Process

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 Planning for Recruitment

• Strategic position analysis

• Turnover
• Job analysis
 gathering and organization of

information
 concerning the tasks, duties and

responsibilities of a specific job

• Task inventory analysis and Knowledge Skills
Abilities (KSA) matrix
 job qualification

 job description

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 Sales Force Recruitment

• Recruitment is an act of inducing qualified and appropriate people to get

interested in and apply for a salesperson’s position within a sales organization

• Internal sources
 Existing employees
 Lateral and upward moves
 Interns and cooperative students
 Employee referral programmes
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 Sales Force Recruitment

• External sources
 industry sources  walk in interviews
 educational institutions and campus  networking referrals
 recruitments  web consultants
 employment exchanges  responses to direct open
 placement consultants advertisements

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 Sales Force Recruitment

• Selection procedure
 inviting application forms  personality
 personal interviews  aptitude and skills
 reference checks  determination of terms of service
 physical examinations
 appointment
 psychological tests
 initial orientation
 intelligence

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 Challenges in Sales Force Selection

• Personality types matching to job profiles

• One of the measures that the organization looks in an employee is:
- the ability to perform by an employee
= ability x motivation
• Level of motivation

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 Socialization Process

• Process of orienting a new salesperson to the sales organization,

territory, or division in which he or she will be working.

• Three stages of Socialization

• Anticipatory stage: An individual employee comes to an
organization with certain values, attitudes and expectations.
• Encounter stage: Perceptions earlier generated by an individual,
are reaffirmed through a well-planned induction programme
• Setting in: Employees understand the organization and identify
themselves with it. Employees develop a sense of belongingness
and become contributors to achieving organizational goals and
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objectives.
 Thank You!

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 Sales and
v
Distribution
Management
Tapan K. Panda | Sunil Sahadev
Training the Sales Force
Chapter 10

© Oxford University Press 2019. All rights reserved.

 Learning Objectives

• Understand the meaning of training and development

• Appreciate the challenges in developing a training programme
• Examine the training process in sales organizations
• Comprehend various methods of training
• Know the various methods of evaluating the effectiveness of training
programmes
• Examine the process of designing a sales training programme
• Understand the socialization process in organizations
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 Sales Training

• Objectives:
 Improves the performance of the salespeople
 Leads to a better performance

• Challenges:
 Will the training programme be effective in solving a problem?
 Will the investment in it be justified?
 Will it produce the desired or intended results?
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 Theories and Principles of Sales Training

• Training is based on the process of learning a sequence of programmed

behavior and the appreciation of this knowledge to the work environment for
the smooth conduct of the desired activity in the context of the sales
organization.
• It is a process of making people aware about the desired way of functioning in
organizations
• Improves performance in the current job and prepared for an intended job
responsibility in the future.
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 Theories and Principles of Sales Training

• Helps employees in personal growth and prevents human obsolescence.

• Helps to develop a correct response reinforcement. The drive that maintains

this process is motivation.

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 Role of the trainer, Training Process and Levels of Analysis

• The success of the training programme depends on the ability, skill, and
motivation of the sales trainer

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 Training Needs

• Identification of the specific problems

• Anticipating impending and future problems
• Management requests
• Interviewing and observing the personnel on the job
• Performance appraisal
• Questionnaire survey
• Checklist
• Attitude survey
• Interpersonal skill test

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 Designing and Conduct Phase

• Location – branch office, headquarters, trainer’s site, etc

• Job Instruction Training (JIT) is a step-by-step, relatively simple
technique used to train employees on the job. It is especially
suitable for teaching manual skills or procedures; the trainer is
usually an employee's supervisor but can be a co-worker.
• Presentation options – audio, video, classroom, self-learning, etc

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 Types of Training

• Cross-functional training is an approach to talent development that places employees in a

position to learn skills and abilities that are not exercised in their current roles.

• Team training can be defined as training in which teams are used to increase individual
procedural knowledge and proficiency in doing a job (taskwork), individual procedural
knowledge and proficiency in functioning as part of a team (teamwork), and overall team
performance.

• Creativity training can be defined as instruction to develop an individual's capability to

generate novel and potentially useful solutions to (often complex and ill-defined) problems

• Literacy training means basic, job-related skills including math, reading, and language skills
necessary for the trainee's job performance and employment retention in a job with definite
career potential and long-term job security.
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 Training Method

• Didactic method
 Structure the lecture
 Reinforce the Message
 Aid concentration
 Material used for the lecture
 Make it memorable for the participants
 Deliver with dynamism
 Use questions

• Visual support
• Participative
• Conferences

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 More Training Methods and Evaluation Phase

• Seminars
• Discussions
• Role play
• Case study
• Fishbowl (a strategy for organizing medium- to large-group discussions. Students are
separated into an inner and outer circle. In the inner circle, or fishbowl, students have a
discussion; students in the outer circle listen to the discussion and take notes.)
• Workshops
• Sensitivity training (psychological technique in which intensive group discussion and
interaction are used to increase individual awareness of self and others)
• Transaction analysis
• In-tray exercises (a test of your ability to deal with a real work scenario: )
• Transcendental meditation

Evaluation phase is the last stage in the training process where the effectiveness of the training
programme is assessed. © Oxford University Press 2019. All rights reserved. 24
 Deciding a Sales Training Programme

• Five key decisions:

 Deciding on the training objective
 Deciding on the content of the training programme
 Deciding on the method of training
 Deciding on the arrangements made for the execution of the training
programme
 Deciding on the procedures to evaluate the training programme

Popularly known as the aim-content-method-execution-evaluation (A-C-M-E-

E) decision
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 Process of Sales Force Socialization

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Process of Sales Force Socialization
Anticipatory socialization stage

• Realism: responsibility of both the organization and the individual

• Organization: present the positive and negative sides of working for the company
• Potential employee: present an accurate picture of self

• Congruence of self and organization

• Are your skills and abilities congruent with the needs of the organization?
• Can the organization satisfy your needs and offer you a congruent set of values?

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Process of Sales Force Socialization
Accommodation stage
1.Initiation to Task: This initiation to the task helps individuals develop a clear understanding of their
responsibilities and enables them to contribute effectively to the group or organization.
2.Role Definition: This includes understanding the scope of their authority, reporting relationships,
and interactions with other members or departments. Clarifying role definitions helps individuals
understand how their contributions align with the overall objectives of the group or organization.
3.Congruence of Evaluation: It involves understanding how one's performance is evaluated and how
it aligns with their own perception of their skills and abilities. Congruence of evaluation helps
individuals assess their progress, identify areas for improvement, and adjust their behaviors
accordingly.
4.Initiation to Group: Initiation to the group involves understanding the informal aspects of the
group, such as communication styles, decision-making processes, and social interactions. This
integration helps individuals feel a sense of belonging and fosters collaboration and cooperation
within the group.

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Process of Sales Force Socialization
Outcome stage
1. Overall Satisfaction: In the outcome stage, individuals experience a sense of overall satisfaction
with their work and their membership in the group or organization. They have developed a
positive perception of their role, the work environment, and the relationships they have formed.
2. Mutual Influence: It involves the exchange of ideas, opinions, and feedback, as well as
collaborative decision-making and problem-solving. Mutual influence fosters a sense of
teamwork, cooperation, and collective efficacy, where individuals feel empowered to contribute
to the group's goals and influence its outcomes.
3. Internal Work Motivation: Individuals experience a higher level of internal work motivation.
They have developed a strong intrinsic drive to perform well and achieve their goals. Individuals
in this stage are self-driven, take initiative, and demonstrate a proactive approach to their tasks
and responsibilities. They are motivated to continuously improve and excel in their work.
4. Job Involvement: Job involvement refers to the extent to which individuals are psychologically
engaged and invested in their work. In the outcome stage, individuals exhibit high levels of job
involvement, feeling a strong connection to their roles and responsibilities.
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 Thank You!

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