ABSTRACT
As illustrated in the opening vignette, the recruitment and selection pro cess can be a comprehensive and time-consuming endeavor. However, investing the necessary resources to hire the right sales talent is essential. Recruiting and selecting those best qualifi ed for a position can make the difference between a fi rm’s long-run ultimate success and failure. Although many factors infl uence sales per for mance, sales managers cannot survive without doing a competent job in recruiting and selecting salespeople. The vital and complex nature of the job is summarized by Munson and Spivey:
The pro cess is complicated by various confl icting factors-the need to select applicants with characteristics related to job success, the diffi culty of determining these characteristics, inadequacies inherent in the various selection techniques themselves, and the need to simultaneously insure that the selection pro cess satisfi es existing governmental regulations pertaining to discrimination in hiring practices.1
