Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 14/e

Select the Best-Qualified Applicant

Once you have identified qualified applicants, the next step is to select the best person. This is becoming more difficult as products become more complex, customers become more sophisticated, and competitors become more aggressive. Selecting the best-qualified applicant is never easy, but there are some qualifications and characteristics that all sales managers should look for. Along with general mental ability, one of the most important qualities is a high level of interest and enthusiasm for the job and high degree of self-motivation.20 Salespeople have to be self-starters.

Another very important quality is integrity. Dana Telford and Adrian Gostick, authors of Integrity Works, say that managers spend about ...