The formal application form serves as a central record for all pertinent information collected during the selection process. A formal application is filled out after a preliminary interview indicates that a job candidate has promise as a company salesperson. The application form may be filled out by the applicant personally or by an interviewer who records the applicant’s responses. In either case the completed formal application amounts to a standardized written interview, since most of the information that it contains could be obtained through personal interviews. Sometimes, sections are reserved for later recording of the results of such selection steps as reference and credit checks, testing, and physical examination. Ideally each company should prepare its own formal application form, since no two companies have the same information requirements information significant for one may be useless for another. But if a company has only a small sales force, and recruits few people, the time and cost of preparing its own application form may warrant the choice of a standard form. Companies using standard forms ignore items inappropriate for them and obtain through interviewing needed additional information.
Certain items of information are always relevant to selection decisions, and these are assembled on the application form. Included are present job, dependents, education, employment status, time with last employer, membership in organizations, previous positions, records of earnings, reasons for leaving last job, net worth, living expenses, and length of job hunting period.
Final decisions as to the items to include on the form should be based upon analysis of the existing sales force. The names of sales personnel should be arranged along a continuum, the best performer at one end and the worst performer at the other.
This list is then divided into three or more parts, for example, good, average, and poor; if the sales force is large, finer subdivisions are justified. In measuring current qualifications, data are collected from sales records, supervisors’ evaluations, and similar sources. The next step is to compare good and poor performers according to qualifications possessed by each at the time of hiring. This reveals any factors that differentiate the two groups, and these items should be included on the application form. The validity of this basis of evaluation depends upon the size of the individual groups, and no group should be smaller than thirty.
Objective Scoring of Personal History Items
The total profile, rather than any single item, determines the predictive value of personal history items. Considered singly, few items have value as selection factors, but individuals possessing all the personal history requirements are those most likely to succeed. However, many potentially successful sales- people do not possess all the requirements. One company found that most of its best salespeople were hired between the ages of thirty and thirty-five years, ‘yet there were some as young as nineteen and as old as fifty-two. The significance of each personal factor is relative, not absolute. Although thirty to thirty-five may be the preferred age range, applicants outside this age range should receive consideration (since other factors may more than offset the fact that they are outside the desired age range).
Some firms with large sales forces establish objective measures for personal history items. A maximum possible score is assigned for each item, and the points assigned to a particular individual depend upon proximity to the ideal. In one firm fifteen personal history items are used as selection factors, at a maximum value of 10 points each. The maximum score is 150 points, and the cutoff is 100. Successful salespersons in this company all scored over 100 when hired, and the company automatically disqualifies all applicants with scores under 100.
