Business Systems and Knowledge Modelling Lab

Media Release

Software helps sales staff recruitment

A software package which aims to take the pain out of recruiting and training sales and customer service staff has been developed by a La Trobe Universiry academic, Dr Rajiv Khosla.

He believes his Sales Management System not only helps employers to identify the behavioral characteristics of sales professionals but to benchmark job applicants against a preferred model.

Mr Khosla says the system has been tried by several manufacturing and sales organisations and is now being assessed by a large management consultancy.

"Organisations need to get as much information as possible on salespeople and customer service personnel before making an investment in them in terms of salary, training and management time.." he says.

"Turnover among sales professionals is high... There are always more job ads for sales than for other professions. This indicates that there is a problem.

Dr Khosla believes sales managers rarely have adequate time at interview to realistically assess the selling behavior of job applicants. Resumes and experience may not be an accurate guide.
"Different people are successful in different organisations. Because someone is successful as a sales person in one organisation it is not necessarily true that they will be successful in another. Organisational structures, company policies and people are different...

"Recruiting is very stressful for sales managers. Sales is a profession where performance is tangible: if you make a mistake by hiring the wrong person you can't hide it," he says.

Another problem is ensuring that training meets needs. Too often, Dr Khosla believes organisations offer staff generic training programs rather than finding out areas of individual weakness and addressing them.

His own knowledge of sales and customer service is first hand. Trained as an electrical engineer, he worked in marketing roles with private sector manufacturing and service organisations before moving into academia.

- Carolyn Rance, The Age, August 31 1996