a. Determine the number of salespeople needed (estimate a number and explain it).
The Company will employ 100 sales persons. Each group will contain 10 members and a supervisor making the team to have eleven members. The number will be that big because the company will focus on running market campaigns to ten districts. Ideally, this means that each sales team will be supposed to run its campaign about the new system in one district. Such division will ease the work for the company since each sales group will be liable to produce results for one district it is operating. The sales teams will target educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities in the assigned district.
b. Conduct job analysis and prepare job description (0.5 – 1 page).
Salespeople Job Description
Blackboard Inc. Company
General Summary: We are a company that develops learning management systems used in many educational institutions in the United States of America. We have developed a new system Tech-Book, which is a tablet-hybrid that incorporates various features into a single system to be used in school systems. We therefore take this opportunity to advertise a job for 100 salespeople who meet the qualifications listed below.
Duties and responsibilities
- Going to the field to create awareness about the new system Tech-Book.
- Helping customers to understand how the system works.
- Demonstrating to the customers how the system works.
- Gathering market and customer information.
- Reviewing own sales performance aiming to meet the target.
- Gaining a clear understanding of customer’s requirements as far as the new system is concerned.
- Attending team meetings and sharing the best practice with the other sales people.
- Making calls and arranging for meetings with customers.
- Making orders to the willing customers.
- Negotiating prices for the system with customers.
- Installing the system to new customers.
- Calculating the sales revenue from the sales made.
- Reporting to the team supervisor about the proceeds of the sales.
Qualifications
- Must have a degree in marketing or any other related field. MBA will be an added advantage.
- Must be computer literate especially prowess in using contact management software and Microsoft office suite applications
- Must possess three years’ experience in the same
- Must demonstrate aptitude for solving problems; ability to come up with solutions for customers
- Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Must be results oriented and able to work under minimal supervision
- Must be a team player and motivated to work in a team
- Must be self-motivated
- Must have a valid driver’s license.
c. determine sources for recruiting (where do you find them? Justify your choice)
The salespersons’ recruitment will be subject to various sources of recruitment. First, the company will use advertisement as a source of informing job seekers on available salespeople job opportunity in Blackboard Inc. The company is going to advertise the job vacancy on its website, television, social media such as Facebook and twitter, radio, and newspaper. Advertising will be used as the main source of recruiting since it as able to reach many people at once (Stinson 300).
Nevertheless, the company will also make use of campus placement. Since the company targets young and energetic salespeople, the company will focus on placing the job description within various campuses within its reach. Ideally, this source of recruitment will also be very helpful to the company since the students have a rough idea of what goes in their campus and therefore will be able to convince the management to adopt the new Tech-Book system.
Furthermore, the company will use other sources of recruitment such as employee referral. Employee referral will involve members of the sales and marketing team referring the company to utilize various people from a given institution. Moreover, the company will also post the job in signs and billboards in various towns and roads where they ought to catch a large population of people (Kotler 380).
Moreover, the company will use niche recruiters who are specialized recruiters with an experience in recruiting quality staff. They have a wide recruiting network where they can get the best salespeople for the company. Finally, Blackboard Inc. will use recruiting firms, other organizations, past employees, and retired employees among others to look for salespeople.
d. Choose appropriate selection tools (justify your choice).
Various selection tools will be applicable in the selection of the best salespeople for the job. First, the recruiting panel will focus on the qualification of the candidates. For this part, the panel is going restrict its selection on the qualifications listed in the job analysis part (Kamins 212). All the candidates who meet these qualifications will be shortlisted for next step. In addition, the selection panel will also consider experience very much. Highly experienced candidates will be given priority during selection. Candidates without experience will be withdrawn from the race immediately. During the interviews, the selection panel will focus on the identifying the best candidate as far as communication is concerned. Candidates with excellent verbal communication will be highly considered for the job.
Work Cited
Kamins, Michael A.. Sales & marketing: 25 keys to selling your products. New York: Lebhar-Friedman Books, 1999. Print.
Kotler, Philip. Marketing management. Millennium ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.
Stinson, Paul. Sales, marketing, business and finance. New York: Ferguson Pub., 2008. Print.
