Personal Characteristics and Sales Aptitude: Criteria for Selecting Salespeople

LECTURE 9

THE WAR FOR TALENT

• When organizations compete vigorously to attract and retain high performance individuals.

• One consequence of this war is that companies are substantially increasing their resources in both time and money to train, develop, and compensate their best employees.

3 CATEGORIES OF COST• Separation cost – exit interviews, separation pay,

increases in unemployment taxes, and administrative expenses.

• Replacement cost – consist of the funds a company commits for attracting new applicants to fill the vacancies, then interviewing, assessing, and checking backgrounds of the candidates.

• Training cost – typically, while new employees are being trained, they are not making direct contribution to the company’s business. However, during this time the companies pay the trainee’s full salaries and benefits, as well as those for any trainers who might be employed.

WINNING THE WAR

• To minimize high turnover costs, the first step is to evaluate hiring procedures.

• Many companies continue to use traditional interviewing in the sales for selection process, inviting candidates to meet with a sales manager as well as other members of the sales team.

Are Good Salespeople born or made?Traits for a Successful Salesperson

• Stable, self-sufficient, self-confident, goal-directed, decisive, intellectually curious and accurate

• Many sales executives have mixed feelings concerning what it takes to become a successful salesperson.

• A majority of managers indicated they believe good salespeople are made rather than born.

• Sales and marketing executives said training and supervision are more critical determinants of selling success than the inherent personal characteristics of the individual.

Variables Affecting Performance Management Actions

AptitudeNative abilities and enduring personal traits relevant to the performance of job activities

(e.g. mental abilities, personality traitsPersonal Characteristics

Physical traits, family background, education, work

and sales experience, lifestyle, and so forthSkill Levels

Learned proficiencies at performing job activities

Role PerceptionsPerceptions of job demands and

the expectations of role partners

MotivationDesire to expend effort on

specific job activitiesOrganizational and

Environmental FactorsSales potential of salesperson’s

territory, salesperson’s autonomy, company’s

competitive strength, and so forth

Recruitment and selection policies

Recruitment and selection polices

Training and supervision

Training and supervision;Account management policies

Compensation and reward systems

Sales force organization;Territory design; marketing

programs

The Determinants of Successful Sales Performance

Consist of Categories:

1. Aptitude ( skill/ talent)

2. Personal characteristics (qualities)

3. Skills

includes personal abilities that can change and improve as the salesperson gains knowledge and experience.

4. Role Perception

5. Motivation

6. Organizational Characteristics

• influenced by management through such means as supervision, compensation and reward systems, and other company policies and programs.

Characteristics of Successful Salespeople• Enthusiasm (eagerness or passion)

• Abilities ( capacity/power)

• Ambition ( desire/ drive)

• Persuasiveness ( convincing)

• Communication skill. ( interaction)

Research concerning the personal characteristics of successful

salespeople• A number of variables are related to salespeople’s psychological traits and abilities. The exhibit defines seven subcategories of personality traits, five groups of other enduring aptitude factors or mental abilities, and five groups of skills.

• Aptitude, personality, and skill variables must be measured explicitly during the selection process through the use of formal, scored tests or assessment techniques.

Overview of Findings

1.Demographic and Physical Variables

• Sex and age, and physical characteristics, such as height and appearance

2.Gender and Race

• B2B selling was predominantly a white male occupation for many decades and employment opportunities for women and racial minorities were severely limited.

3.Social Changes Have Improved Employment Opportunities

• Women and minorities are moving into senior positions and are demonstrating tremendous skill and ability in B2B selling.

4.Cultural Diversity and Changing Attitudes

• the growing number of successful minority salespeople and sales managers provides strong anecdotal evidence of their performance capabilities.

5.Physical Characteristics and Customer Similarity

• particular characteristics may enable a salesperson to deal more effectively with some types of customers than with other.

• Managers should hire salespeople with demographic and personality characteristics as similar as possible to those of the prospects upon whom they will be calling.

6.Background and Experience

• Personal history and family background variables are among the best predictors of sales success.

• information about whether a person held part-time jobs or had family responsibilities as a youngster provides an emotional maturity and motivation are important determinants of sales performance.

• Increasingly, it is also beneficial, if not essential, for salespeople to be multilingual.

7.Current Status and Lifestyle Variables

• As what the case with personal history and family background, a person’s current marital and family status, income level, and financial obligations are relatively good predictors of sales performance.

8.Aptitude Variables

Most tests of general mental aptitude:

• 1.General intelligence tests-measures of verbal ability and fluency;

• 2.Tests of math ability-are all relatively uncorrelated with sales performance;

• 3.Cognitive ability-a person’s ability to think logically and display flexibility in solving problems.

9.Personality Variables

• Personality test-to predict sales success is best achieved when the test is designed for a specific sales role.

• Cooperative behavior-is a key characteristic for success.

10.Skill Variables• 1. vocational skills- a salesperson’s acquired knowledge and

abilities directly related to the company, its products, and customers.

• 2. general management skills- such as organizational and leadership

abilities. most salespeople have the freedom to

manage their own time and to organize their efforts within their territories.

• 3.interpersonal skill- related to understanding and getting along

with people are not strongly related to ultimate sales performance.

Job-Specific Determinants of Good Sales Performance

• Different types of sales jobs require salespeople to perform different tasks and activities under different circumstances.

• To develop task-specific definitions of sales aptitude and ability.

• The sales managers should determine what traits and abilities to look for in new sales recruits.

• Personal characteristics are most important in enabling salespeople to perform well in specific types of sales jobs.

Different types of sales jobs

• 1.Trade selling

• 2.Missionary selling

• 3.Technical selling

• 4.New-business selling

Characteristics related to sales performance in different types of sales jobs

Types of sale job Relatively important characteristics

Relatively less important Characteristics

Trade selling

Age, maturity, empathy, knowledge

Of customer and business methods

Aggressiveness, technical ability, product knowledge,

persuasiveness

Missionary sellingYouth, high energy and

stamina, verbal skill, persuasiveness

Empathy, knowledge of customers, maturity, previous

sales experience

Technical selling

Education, product and customer knowledge usually

gained through training, intelligence

Empathy, persuasiveness, aggressiveness, age

New-business sellingExperience, age and maturity,

aggressiveness , persuasiveness, persistence

Customer knowledge, product knowledge, education,

empathy

Personal factors that affect salesperson’s ability to perform:

1. Demographic and Physical Characteristics –age, sex, and physical appearance.

2. Background and Experience Factors – person’s personal history and family background, educational attainment, and sales experience.

3. Current Status and Lifestyle Variables –a person’s marital and financial status and activities outside of the job.

4. Aptitude Variables – enduring mental characteristics such as intelligence, cognitive abilities, and sales aptitude.

5. Personality Traits – including such characteristics as sociability, dominance, and self-esteem.

6. Skill Levels – learned proficiencies, such as vocational skills, interpersonal skills, sales presentation skills, and general management skills.