Strategic Recruitment: Misconceptions And Skill Development In Hiring Sales Personnel

Discuss about the Principles of Management for Sales Force Management.

Human resource is one of the major aspects of success for a company and therefore it is important for an organisation to hire the right person at the right time in order to maximize the efficiency of the individual and improve the productivity of the company.  The case that is going to be studied in the assignment deals with the recruitment and hiring of two candidates in the position of a sales person.  Where one candidate has the support and confidence of the sales manager the other lacks it. But consequently the person who was supported by the manager end up losing the job and the person who did not have the confidence of the manager in the beginning prove to be the best for the job role. The case deals with the issues with misconception in recruiting people.  Furthermore, it highlights barriers in the process of teamwork and skill development. The purpose of the assignment is to understand strategic management decisions and policies undertaken by the company and how to avoid situations like the ones mentioned in the case[1].

The case analyses the situation of a new mortgage lending firm located in California. The territories of sale were divided in eight segments and accordingly sales people were hired by the company, the sales manager had the responsibility of choosing the people along with a hiring committee. The last two people were interviewed because of recommendations from existing sales people. Pete had an excellent background and experience. He had fulfilled all the criterions. While on the other hand, Carolyn was unlike anything that the manager was looking for, but she had communication skills and was confident which the major requirements of a sales person are. The founder of the company was in favor of Carolyn as he thought that because of lack of experience she would learn from the basics which can be important. The lady would be a good addition as there were no other women in the team. Therefore both the people were hired and were given territories of similar kind. The challenge was that none of these candidates have any contacts or experience in real estate.

Pete: Pete started generating sales and did not require much training he was confident and quickly learnt about the territory and the industry. He only took training in the real estate finance. But soon he started facing issues; there were complaints against him from the staff and clients. He also faced allegations for being unethical in the business. Pete was put in a development program for 60 days under the check of another sales person.  But the situation didn’t improve hence he was fired.

Pete vs Carolyn: A Comparison

Carolyn: Carolyn’s improvement was remarkable as she learnt from the basics her perspective f every aspect was fresh which made her one of the finest sales person in the company in only 18 months of recruitment. Wherever she lacked in expertise, she learnt from training and quickly incorporated the training in her.

In the future the company must focus on the training of the new recruits even if they had experience in the field in order to understand their style and improve and mould it according to the policies of the company. Another aspect that the business should learn from the experience that they should concentrate on the aspects of interview before any misperception is created[2].

Provide thorough and thoughtful answers to at least THREE of the questions below:

Appearance do play an important role for any person at any point of time as first impression is significant  and as sales deal with monetary transactions, people should appear to appropriate as the clients would trust the sales person with their money that they will invest[3]. Though it is one of the most important aspects it is not the only factor that should matter in the selection process as the grooming is in the process of training after the job is secured by a particular individual. In this case, the person who had the best appearance did not prove to be successful, whereas the person whose appearance was not that good proved to excel in the process. Thus, with training and grooming the company can develop the skill of an individual. Therefore, it can be concluded that appearance is important but it can be trained and improved[4].

In the process of recruitment job analysis is an important part the skill and quality that a person requires to fulfill the vacancy should be priority and how the individual can be trained to improve the efficiency is also one of the major criteria in the process of hiring[5]. In any case having a pre-conception and stereotyping a candidate can cloud the judgment of the committee and overlook the potential of the candidate in the case of Carolyn, without having any experience or proper appearance her skill of communication and confidence along with her urge to learn from the scratch helped her becoming successful in 18 months of joining the company. She also had one quality which is essential in sales is to build credible relations be it with the office staffs or with the clients. Perception and stereotyping can end up in choosing the wring person on the basis of the outer appearance. In order to minimize this misperception there has to be a detailed interview which will help the interviewer in identifying the qualities of the individual which can be useful for the company as well as can be improved by training[6].

Importance of Appearance in Hiring

Leadership quality in the managerial post is important, one of the most important roles of a leader is to inspire and motivate people to achieve the goals and objective. It is important for a leader to have an unbiased opinion about all the subordinates. A leader should not have preconception. As a sales manager it is important to have the following qualities: understanding, farsightedness, and creativity, intellect and motivation skills.

A sales leader should be able to change with the changes in the industry. The manager should be able to mitigate risk and solve problems in the field along with that the manager must have interpersonal persuasive and communication skills[7]. 

A sales manager should be always ready to face unforeseen circumstances, as the dynamics in a field work can change at any point of time. With the help of the above mentioned skills along with rationalization and ability to critically analyze the sales manager deals with situation[8].  The role of a sales manager is to look after a group of people working under him not only that it is his duty to see that these people are motivated and perform their tasks with efficiency[9]. In this case the issues were with the misperception that the manager had which lead to some disappointed clients as well as staff in the process. Therefore it can be said that the manger should also be visionary and farsighted in his or he judgment.

Conclusion

It can be concluded form the above discussion that in the process of hiring. Job analysis and right communication through the process of interview is most important while recruiting a person for a vacant position. People who come to interview write about their experience and skills in their CV but it is the role of the hiring committee to understand the potential of a person and proving the right person with the right job. In this case the issue of misconception and over confidence is highlighted the most. The person who seemed to be most promising was identified to have been employing unethical means of sales, whereas the person with least experience provided the job role with a fresh new perspective which added value to the role and led the person to success.

References

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Menguc B, Auh S, Uslu A, 'Customer knowledge creation capability and performance in sales teams', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(1), (2013), 19-39.

Ingram TN, LaForge RW, Williams MR, Schwepker Jr CH. Sales management: Analysis and decision making. (Routledge; 2015).

Ingram, T. N., LaForge, R. W., Williams, M. R., Schwepker Jr, C. H. , Sales management: Analysis and decision making ([n.p.]: Routledge, 2015).

Kesari B. Salesperson performance evaluation: A systematic approach to refining the sales force. EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies.;4(6), (2014), 49-66.

Shannahan KL, Shannahan RJ, Bush AJ. Salesperson coachability: what it is and why it matters. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.;28(5),(2013), 411-20.

Chaneta I. Recruitment and selection. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering.;4(2), (2014), 289.

Alan R. Hamlin, 'Pete and Carolyn: A Case of Costly Misperceptions',(2018).