3. STAFFING
This consists of 5 major stages
1. Planning the recruitment & selection process.
2. Recruiting sufficient number of applicants.
3. Selecting the most suitable applicants.
4. Hiring those candidates who have been
selected.
5. Socialization & assimilation of the new recruits
into the firms.
4. THE PLANNING STAGE.
(a) Establish responsibility.
(b) Decide the number of salespeople needed.
(c) Outline the type of salespeople needed
5. DECIDING THE NUMBER OF SALESPEOPLE
NEEDED.
The decision on how many salespeople are needed
by the company is an important part of planning. It
forces the regional & branch sales managers to plan
their manpower requirements well in
advance, before the beginning of new financial year.
This helps the HR department to program the
various stages of staffing process.
For calculating the number of salespeople
needed, each territory sales manager should
consider the following points.
1. Decide the optimum sales force size by using one
or (preferably) more of the three (workload, sales
potential, & incremental) methods, discussed earlier.
2. Add number of promotions
, retirements, transfers
out, terminations, resignations expected from
6. 3. Subtract expected transfers into the branch &
existing sales force.
4. Make a total of the sales force needed &
submit it to the senior sales manager.
After receiving the number of salespersons
needed from each territory sales manager, the
national sales manager calculates the total
number of new salespersons to be hired.
7. OUTLINE THE TYPE OF SALES PEOPLE NEEDED
. As a part of planning stage, a company should
prepare a detailed description & specifications
of the salespeople needed. This will be useful
at the time of selecting the salespeople.
Otherwise, it will not be clear what to look for.
The steps involved in the process of developing
a profile or outline of the type of salespeople
are shown:
1. Conduct Job Analysis - > 2. Prepare job
description - > 3. Develop Job
8. Conducting a job analysis.
Before the company goes to the selection stage
it should conduct a job analysis. The analysis
should identify job duties & responsibilities as
well as critical activities to be performed for the
job success.
10. PREPARING A JOB DESCRIPTION.
Companies use job analysis to develop job descriptions. Job descriptions
are formal, written statements describing detailed account of the job. Most
well prepared job descriptions generally cover the following points.
Title of job:
Reporting relationship
Types of products & services sold.
Types of customers called on.
Duties & responsibilities
Job demands. Mental & physical
Technical requirement.
Location & geographical area
A job description is almost certainly the most important tool that is
used in managing the sales force – for instance in
recruiting, selecting, training, compensating & evaluating the
salespeople. It is therefore, important that the job description should be
in writing & in great detail.
11. RECRUITING SALES FORCE.
This stage includes
(a) Finding or identifying the sources of sales
recruits,
(b) evaluating & selecting the recruiting sources,
(c) contacting candidates through the selected
source.
12. FINDING OR IDENTIFYING THE SOURCES OF
SALES RECRUITS,
For identifying or locating prospecting candidates, companies use
internal & external sources. Internal recruitment sources come
from inside the company. They include
(a) employee referral programs,
(b) current employees, &
(c) promotions & transfers.
The external sources of recruitment include
(a) advertisements,
(b) the internet,
(c) educational institutions
(d) employment agencies,
(e) other companies (competitors, customers), non-competitors, &
(f) job fairs.
13. EVALUATION OF RECRUITING SOURCES
After identifying the sources of recruiting
salespeople, a company selects those sources
tat are effective based on the past database.
This data base is built over a number of
years, as per the evaluation format.
However, for a new company, selection of the
recruiting source depends on its cost. Once the
source is selected, contacting the candidates is
a normal practice of implementation, which is
done by HRD.
14. SELECTING SALES FORCE.
The selection stage consists of the following 2 steps.
(a) Developing the selection process consisting of tools & procedure to
measure the applicants against the job specifications or qualifications, &
(b) selecting the salespeople.
In other words, there are two activities in the selection stage. First the
company should develop a system or process of tools & procedure for
measuring applicants against the job specifications or qualifications that
was developed in the planning stage. The second activity is to make the
decision on selection.
We shall first identify the major selection tools, which are used by companies
for selecting salespeople.
15. THE SELECTION PROCESS.
This process consists of a number of steps. These steps
are like filters, at any of these steps, an applicant may be
dropped from further consideration.
The major steps in the selection process are:
STEP 1. Screen resumes. - >
STEP 2. Application blank - >
STEP 3. Initial Interview - >
STEP 4 Intensive interview ->
STEP 5 Testing - >
STEP 6. Reference check - >
STEP 7. Physical examination.
16. SELECTION DECISION
. When all the steps of the selection process have been completed, one
thing is yet to be completed that is selection decision – which
applicants are to be selected? For making a selection decision, the
sales manager should decide the important selection criteria, which are
necessary for performing the duties of the sales job.
When selecting the salespersons for rural markets in India, the
company should decide the selection criteria, such as willingness to
work in rural areas, knowledge of local language & cultural congruence
to adapt to rural environment & ethos.
The sales manager should then evaluate each applicant’s
qualifications & potential in relation to the selection criteria. Sometimes
the sales manager has to decide whether an applicant’s strength in one
selection criterion can compensate for a weakness in another
criterion, whether the applicant should meet certain minimum levels
against each criteria, so as to be successful. After evaluating the
available candidates, the company makes a list of candidates according
to preference.
18. HIRING STAGE.
The hiring process should be implemented
properly so as to give a positive impression of the
company to the candidates, who look for good
work environment, where people are made to feel
important.
There are 2 activities in the hiring stage:
(a) the company making the job offer, &
(b) acceptance of the job offer by the applicant.
19. MOTIVATIONAL AND COMPENSATION
PROCEDURES FOR SALES FORCE
Motivational tools are usually divided into two
broad categories
1) Financial rewards/Compensation
2) Non-financial compensation.
20. FINANCIAL REWARDS/COMPENSATION
which includes
(a) Direct payment of money such as
salary, commission, & bonus.
(b) Indirect payment, which includes fringe
benefits or perquisites, such as retirement
plans, medical reimbursement, & leave travel
assistance (LTA).
It also includes various insurance plans.
21. NON-FINANCIAL COMPENSATION.
These rewards include the following
a) Promotion
Change in titles or promotions are ranked high
among younger and better educated salesperson
Salesperson – Senior Salesperson – Key Account
Executive
22. b) Sense of accomplishment
An awareness that something has been achieved
successfully
It is an intrinsic motivation and a firm can only facilitate
c) Personal growth opportunities
Many salespeople rank opportunities for personal
growth high in the list of sales force rewards
d) Recognition
Most sales managers realize that they must pay more
attention to the individual salesperson’s higher order
needs, such as recognition, appreciation, and
admiration.
Formal and Informal recognition
23. e) Job Security
It is valued highly by older salespeople who are
nearing retirement age, but is least valued
reward among younger salespeople.
25. OBJECTIVES OF A COMPENSATION PLAN.
A good compensation plan should consider objectives from the company’s view
point & also the salesperson view point.
Sales managers should recognize that some of the management objectives may
conflict with the salesperson’s objective.
The company viewpoint. The company wants to attract, retain & motivate
competent salespeople. A good compensation plan should attract & keep top
quality salespeople. It should also motivate sales people to reach & exceed their
sales goals.
To control salespeople’s activities. The compensation plan should offer
incentives to control several key activities of sales force, such as
selling, prospecting, payment collection, & customer relationship building. Of
course these key tasks will vary from company to company. For
instance, Compaq computer’s sales managers use 20-40% of their
salespeople’s compensation on individualized sales objectives & goals, like
improving specific customers’ relationship or introducing a new product.
To be competitive, yet economical. Most companies want to keep their
salespeople’s expenses at the same level as those of the competitors. At the
same time, the company wants its compensation plan economical. It is difficult
to balance these two objectives.
26. To be flexible. A good compensation plan should be flexible to adapt to new
products, volatile markets, & differing territory sales potential. Some
companies use individualized compensation plans, in which each
salesperson is allowed to choose what percentage of his or her
compensation is fixed (that is, straight salary) & what percentage should be
variable (that is, commission based).
27. THE SALESPERSON’S VIEWPOINT.
To have regular & incentive income. The salesperson wants the
compensation plan to provide a regular income every month that is
fixed & secured against any problems or emergencies. If the
salesperson is sick & cannot work for a period of time, or if the sales
are down due to various factors, he/she should get some fixed salary to
take care of living expenses. An extra reward, in addition to fixed
income, should be included in the compensation plan to produce above
average performance.
To have a simple plan. The compensation plan should be simple for the
salespeople to understand easily. Even most company management
prefer to have a simple compensation plan. This objective may be in
conflict with the objective of flexibility.
To have a fair payment plan. The compensation plan should ensure fair
or just payment to all salespeople. This can be done by selecting those
factors which can be measured & controlled by salespeople.
28. DESIGNING AN EFFECTIVE SALES
COMPENSATION PLAN.
Designing or developing a new compensation plan, or revising an existing plan
consists of a number of steps which is considered as the framework.
Step1.Examine job descriptions.
Every positions needs a separate job description, with detailed job
responsibilities & key performance standards, to decide how much the company
should pay.
Step 2. Set up specific objectives
These sales force objectives should be derived from the company’s sales &
marketing objectives. Also, sales managers should include those specific objectives
over which salespeople have maximum control, such as number of sales call made
to ’A’ &’B’ class customers, selling expenses, & new customers developed.
29. Step 3.Decides level of pay/compensation
. It is an important task to decide levels of pay for various sales
positions, A level of pay means the average pay or money earned by the
sales people per year or per month. The level of compensation or pay
should be competitive to attract & retain good quality salespeople.
Step 4. Develop the compensation mix.
One of the key tasks in designing an effective sales compensation plan
is to develop the compensation mix or the method by which the
salespeople will be paid. The most widely used elements of
compensation mix are salaries, commissions, bonuses, & benefits or
indirect monetary benefits, such as paid vacation (or leave travel
assistance), sickness (or medical reimbursement) , pensions, accident
& life insurance, which are also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or
perks.
30. Step 5. Decide indirect payment plan.
Indirect payment plan, which is also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or
perks, range from 25 to 40 percent of the total sales compensation package.
These are medical reimbursements& payments, group life insurance, travel
insurance, accident insurance, pension plan, social security (or provident
fund), profit sharing, paid vacations (or leave travel allowance), & so on. Fringe
benefits helps satisfy safety & security needs, although some (such as payment
of social club fees & automobile) contribute to fulfillment of higher order needs
like esteem needs.
Step 6. Pretest, administer, & evaluate the plan. .
Before a new or proposed compensation plan is adopted, the company
should pretest & evaluate it. . After the new plan is established, it should be
evaluated on quarterly, half yearly or yearly basis. Whether the objectives of the
compensation plan have been achieved or not is the main question to be
answered.