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Most sales managers agree that they cannot afford even one non-productive team member, yet most managers have their own 'horror' stories regarding troublesome or struggling employees. This highlights the importance of recruitment and selection of sales people. Various practices can and should be applied to best avoid the unenviable situation of having hired the wrong person for the job (Billikopf 2003, p21). Effective recruitment processes are crucial in attracting and retaining high quality staff.

In recruiting and selecting the right salesperson, managers must ensure that the person chosen has the matching ability and talents to sales jobs. They can be things such as communication skills, management skills, ability to work in a team, technical qualifications, knowledge of the company's products or experiences in the working area, etc. In addition factors such as personality, respects and honesty are also important.

Finding the right person for the right job is very critical for all managers. By employing the right person, a company will gain the benefits of saving time and money by reducing turnover. Whereas employing the wrong person can be one of the most expensive decision managers have made. It would definitely costs lots of time and money to locate, possibly relocate and train a person that does not have the matching ability and talents to sales jobs. Selecting the wrong person for the job may cause problems such as followed:

- inadequate sales coverage and lack of customer follow up

- higher turnover rates

- increased training costs to overcome deficiencies

- difficulty in establishing enduring relationships with customers

- suboptimal total sales force performance

- more supervisory problems such as frustration for sales managers and the rest of the sales team