CaseStudy – Sales

BUS 3302, Sales Management 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit III

Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

2. Describe methods to recruit, select, hire, and develop salespeople.
2.1 Explain approaches for locating prospective candidates.
2.2 Identify tools used to select candidates with the right profile.
2.3 Detail legal and ethical considerations in recruitment.

Required Unit Resources

Chapter 5: Acquiring Sales Talent: Recruitment and Selection

Unit Lesson

Previously in the course, we examined the strategic role of the salesforce in the marketing mix. We saw that
personal selling is just one of many tools used by marketing managers to communicate with individual and
business customers.

In this unit, we examine one of the first and most challenging decisions a sales manager has to make. How
does a firm recruit and then select the right people to comprise its sales staff? Of course, all areas of business
face recruiting and selection issues, but there are some elements of a sales position that enhance the
challenge.

Salespeople often make the first impression for their firm. They may work independently, thus determining
how they use their time. Today, they are considered advisors or consultants to their customers with a goal of
developing lasting relationships. They usually have the responsibility of prospecting for new customers as well
as maintaining relationships with existing customers.

The compensation of salespeople usually includes some commission, or it is totally commission-based. Sales
involves travel from client to client and may involve overnight travel. In many fields, salespeople regularly
attend trade shows. There may be limited promotion opportunities because there is generally one sales
manager for 10-12 salespeople.

Firms differ on how they approach hiring. Some firms prefer to hire new entrants to the field. They maintain
good relationships with colleges and universities. Their idea is to talk with new graduates who have studied
sales and to develop these new entrants to fit into their sales approach. They think this is more productive
than hiring experienced salespeople who have developed habits that may be hard to change.

This approach requires a robust training program to prepare the new employee to sell the firm’s way. This
takes time, which means the new salesperson will not be fully productive for a while. If the firm hires an
experienced salesperson, that person may have some different ways of doing the job but is usually ready to
be productive much sooner.

Another approach popular with some firms today is to bring people with technical skills into the salesforce. If a
company is selling technical products, some firms will hire engineers and develop their selling skills. This
provides salespeople who can speak the technical language of the client.

When making major purchases (e.g., large machinery, advanced technical products, or corporate jets), some
firms create a buying center with several specialists supporting the purchasing agent. In these situations, the
firm making the sale may create a selling center and bring together specialists (e.g., account managers,

UNIT III STUDY GUIDE
Staffing a Salesforce

BUS 3302, Sales Management 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title

financial and legal specialists, engineers, product designers) who can interact with their counterparts at the
buying center.

Companies use job descriptions when seeking candidates for vacant sales positions. This is the way to list job
qualifications and candidate characteristics. Because of the nature of the sales position, these characteristics
include factors that are hard to measure, such as the ability to overcome objections, persistence, and closing
skills.

Interviews are the tool of choice for many sales managers selecting new salespeople. It is not unusual for
candidates for sales positions to participate in six or more interviews; some are individual interviews, and
others are structured interviews with panels. Because salespeople develop long-term relationships with
clients, it is important to hire salespeople who demonstrate honesty and integrity. Some of the interviews
focus on past and current behaviors.

One of the challenges in selecting salespeople is to determine how subjective the process should be and how
to use objective criteria. Some sales managers believe the position is essentially subjective, so the selection
process should be largely subjective. Others rely on more objective measures, such as testing and
performance.

A common approach is to identify top-performing salespersons within the firm. The company asks those
people to take the tests it plans to use, and their test results are considered a benchmark. Candidates who
score high in the same areas as the top performers show potential as top performers. While this has worked
in some instances, there are so many factors that come into play with sales success that this is not always
successful.

There are basic legal and ethical guidelines that can come into play with all recruiting and hiring. However,
because of the nature of the sales function, there are additional sensitivities. There are more than a dozen
legislative acts that affect recruitment and selection and even more regulations that indicate how the
legislative acts should be interpreted and enforced.

Gift giving has been a practice in sales for some time. Since the goal was to build a relationship, many
salespeople would routinely invite customers to lunch or dinner, to attend sporting or arts events, or to play a
round of golf. Some of these invitations carried a pretty substantial price tag, such as being a guest at a
professional sporting event or spending a week at a golf resort. The ultimate gift, of course, was an event like
the Super Bowl.

Over time, there was growing concern that the gifts had an illegal influence on purchases, and new
regulations were put in place. Sales organizations developed and adopted a code of conduct to provide
ethical guidelines for their staff. While some firms put strict limits on gifts and invitations, other firms banned
them altogether.

This whole issue has become more complex as firms have expanded globally. For example, there are some
developing countries where it is the accepted business practice to pay a commission to a firm to enter into a
contract. That practice is banned in the United States by most companies because it can be considered as a
bribe. It creates a challenge for the salesperson though. If the salesperson follows the company’s code of
conduct and does not pay the “commission,” then the company will lose the sale. On the other hand, paying
the commission violates written ethical standards. American companies have struggled with how to respond
to this ethical dilemma.

A different example is found in some Asian countries. In Japan, for example, if a salesperson from the United
States goes to dinner with a client, they should not talk business. The intent of these events is to build a
relationship. Japanese businesspeople will not enter into a business relationship without first establishing a
relationship. Talking business at the first few social events is considered too direct.

In the United States, if a salesperson takes a client to lunch or dinner, the common practice is to complete a
reimbursement request that includes the business matters that were discussed.

These examples illustrate an increasing challenge to sales managers as the business environment becomes
more and more global. Companies from other countries are establishing branches in the United States, and

BUS 3302, Sales Management 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title

U.S. companies are expanding rapidly into other parts of the world. This trend means that a salesperson in
the United States may have several customers from other countries in their territory. A salesperson can
enhance a relationship with these branches by learning about how they do business and by being sensitive to
their culture and practices.

It also means that a sales manager may be given a developmental opportunity by being sent to another
country to lead the sales operation there. This is a substantial challenge since different cultural and business
conditions will affect the personal selling process.

One of the ways to prepare for increasing globalization is to use recruitment and hiring to increase the
diversity of the sales staff. That will prepare for an increasingly multicultural business climate in the United
States.

Suggested Unit Resources

In order to access the following resources, click the links below.

The following PowerPoint presentation corresponds to the material in your textbook:

Chapter 5 Presentation
PDF version of the Chapter 5 Presentation