Hiring and Recruiting Salespeople - Essay Example

Answer 2: Recruitment and Selection is the most important process conducted by HR mangers in a particular organization. Indeed, the HR personnel areconcerned with hiring and induction of most appropriate employees, who could meet all organisational, functional, societal and personal objectives. For instance, the hiring of right and dedicated employees increases organizational productivity, internal efficiency, effectiveness and performance. One of the most important jobs of HR managers, who also serve as employee advocates, is to hire right marketing and sales personnel. It is worthwhile to mention that sales’ people play their vital role in success and prosperity of an organisation because they are responsible for push marketing, direct selling, advertising and smooth distribution of goods and services. For instance, the capable, well – trained, educated and professional sales personnel with strong marketing skills could convince and persuade distribution channel members (such as dealers, partners, whole sellers and retailers) and end-users about the scope and profitability of business products. Therefore, the employment of dedicated, motivated, confident, enthusiastic and hard-working salesmen enable the company to increase short and long run sales, build cordial relationships with all distribution channel members, improve sales network and operations management, resolve customer issues and complaints, enhance customer satisfaction level and perceived loyalty. In short, all manufacturing and trading firms solely depend upon the performance and contribution of sales staff because they produce and sell want – satisfying goods in the market. However, today service organizations such as insurance firms, mutual firms and other financial businesses have also become reliant on contributions from sales people, because they persuade potential customers to benefit from goods and services of their respective business enterprise. Having explained the above, I would now like to discuss some of the major problems that I may encounter in selecting the wrong person for the job. The first major issue is the lack of appropriate skills, business expertise, personality traits and essential attributes in a salesman, which obviously impacts the performance of my firm in the short run. Indeed, hiring a worker who does not meet the selection criteria will obviously not showcase the optimal performance as well as could adjust in the organisational environment. Also, the costs incurred during selection process and on-the-job training will be wasted followed by significant loss of time. Second, the wrong person will be unable to contribute in sales unlike a right person, which may also lead to reduction in sales revenues and financial profits. The company’s reputation and goodwill among the distribution channel members will be sabotaged because the wrong person may not opt to build smooth relationships. Third, the wrong employee has to be dismissed and a new recruitment and selection process has to be initiated, which will again involve time and organisational resources. Consequently, the HR managers will have to divert their attention from more important tasks to re-recruitment and hiring that may cause delay in fulfillment of predefined business plans. Finally, a wrong salesperson will possibly fail to satisfy and delight customers and provide prom Answer 3: The importance of extrinsic financial rewards (such as pay – increase, bonuses, commissions, share ownership and promotions) could not be denied because they encourage and motivate workers to use their skills, knowledge and abilities in order to portray their optimal performance. Indeed, a large number of multinationals and international firms tend to offer higher salaries to their employed personnel in exchange of services so that these workers could focus on assigned business tasks / jobs and could accomplish them in a timely manner. The author, therefore, partially agrees with the statement that higher salaries and wages do motivate sales personnel and other employees. In simple words, a sales employee tends to compare its job responsibilities with compensation offered in exchange of the sales services rendered to the company. If, an employee judges that salary and benefits offered upon assigned tasks meets or exceeds the costs of hard – work, efforts and struggle that would be made during task completion, he or she will become mentally, physically and psychologically motivated to achieve the assigned business sales targets. On the other hand, if the compensation offered does not meet the costs, it will mentally discourage the worker to put effort for task accomplishment. Here, indeed, the Maslow’s needs theory could be applied, according to which a worker would advance if his or her all safety needs (including health, financial and personal) are met. For instance, the intrinsic drives after fulfillment of ‘safety needs’ will enhance a worker’s performance and efficiency. In addition, the higher salary also enables the salesperson to maximise monetary gains and spend that wealth to increase standard of living of his or her household. In this way, the workers are also psychologically motivated in anticipation of luxurious living and have inclination to further advance in the corporate world by showcasing optimal performance. Also, they develop an understanding that survival, growth and sustainability of a firm (that offers higher salaries) is essential for their growth and sustainability. Hence, they become proud to relate themselves with their organisation and work for its betterment and well-being for personal benefits and material gains. However, I partially disagree with the above mentioned statement because a worker will become truly motivated from higher salary or on-the-job payments only if he or she also receives appreciation and endorsement from top managers. Also, a worker who is offered higher salary but also faces work / life imbalance becomes dejected and may reject that monetary offer. In simple words, work / life imbalance is a grave issue because it causes mental distress and compels sales employees to forgo such jobs that adversely impact their social life. Indeed, a large number of high salary jobs also demand overtime duties, late night working hours and significant time for foreign business trips. In such cases, a salesperson’s social and household is negatively affected and often results in psychological problems. In short, it is justified to argue that high salary is not the only factor that motivate sales personnel but also work / life balance, internal culture and environment, job responsibilities etc. are major factors essential for motivation. References: Rosen, Keith (2008) “Hiring and Recruiting Salespeople: Find the Right Talent for Your Company” All Business [Online] Available at http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling-sales/7069027-1.html Mathews, Brian and Tom Redman (2001) “Recruiting the Wrong Salespeople: Are the Job Ads to Blame?” Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 30, Issue 7, Pp. 541-550 Boe, John (n.d) “How to recruit top notch sales people” EXSA.co.za [Online] Available at http://www.exsa.co.za/exsa/exhibitionarticle.aspx?rootid=4&subdirectoryid=1350 McMillan, Andrew (n.d) “Customer experience: the importance of recruiting the right staff” Marketing Donut [Online] Available at http://marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/customer-care/understanding-your-customers/customer-experience-the-importance-of-recruiting-the-right-staff Read More