Question

Johan Yee has been a sales representative at a medium-sized textbook publishing house for five years. He has just been promoted by the sales director of his company to sales manager of a new territory. As sales manager, he is tasked with hiring and training three new sales representatives for his team.

a. Write a suitable job description and personnel specification for sales representatives.

b. Johan crafts a descriptive ad and receives hundreds of resumes in response.

He reads through them and chooses the 20 best candidates. To further screen candidates, he invites those 20 to take a test that profiles their skills. Which techniques can Johan use to interview with the candidates? Explain each. This Lesson: Sales Management.

Answer 1

(a) Job Responsibilities:

• Promote and increase sales of textbooks to existing customers and generate new customers
• Carry a need-based analysis of customers to understand their requirements
• Maintain good relations with existing customers and follow up with them on a regular basis
• Lead Generation using methods like mass email, cold calling etc.
• Enhance customer satisfaction by reaching out and helping with queries
• Achieve a discussed Sales Target and give a plan for the next quarter
• Do a territory analysis and keep a track of sales, demand etc
• Take feedback from customers.
• Coordinate with other departments and let them know about the latest trends and feedback

Personnel Specification

• Prior work experience in Sales Domain
• Good Knowledge of Sales, Distribution, and Excel
• Knowledge of CRM software
• Highly enthusiastic and motivated
• Good communication and writing skills
• Good Negotiation Skills
• Undergraduate Degree is a must

Ans b. The different ways in which candidates can be evaluated is-

1. Personal Interview-  This is one of the proven techniques to filter candidates based on the skills. This helps to have a one on one interaction and helps to evaluate knowledge, thought process, leadership skills, pressure handling skills, etc, of a candidate and is a good way to measure.

2. Role Play- This means the person is given a situation and assigned a role and that person has to play the role and handle the situation as per the scenario. It is a great way to evaluate sales guys as it shows their skills and how they handle various situations.

3. Group Interview- If there is a time constraint, group interviews can also be conducted. It involves interviewing a group of people together. It makes comparison amongst candidates easy based on their answers.