Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2011 as an opinion piece during the economic crisis in Spain; its description of job offers, interview practices and sales reps working at a loss reflects the Spanish labour market at that time.
I’ve come to the conclusion that if I were unemployed tomorrow, I would hardly fit any company profile. I’ve had the feeling that rather than looking for professionals, companies are trying to rule them out. Have human resources departments gone mad?
Where this hiring chaos is most noticeable is in sales, perhaps the most important part of a company.
I happened to look at the job offers on an employment website, and I was left speechless.
Probably the offer that struck me most was one asking for a sales rep with five years’ experience in active selling, under 25, with a university degree related to the same sector. Languages, advanced computer skills, own car, and the successful candidate will be given a commercial contract (in Spain, a non-employment contract under which the rep works as a self-employed agent). Obviously the offer doesn’t add up, and that company probably hasn’t the faintest idea what it’s looking for.
It’s more than obvious that fluent spoken and written English is in fashion, even for companies that never deal with foreigners, so the sales rep will probably use the language twice a year. I’m sure other, better-prepared sales reps were rejected because they didn’t speak English.
Not to mention that the American-style interview has now taken hold in Spain, where the interviewer asks ambiguous questions to try to analyse the personality of their future salesperson. It’s the best way to end up hiring someone very unprofessional but very «smart», because they’ll know exactly what to say so as not to slip up in their answers. The idea is good, but there are already forums where people discuss the questions companies ask in their job interviews, so the strategy only worked as long as candidates didn’t know the questions.
I agree that people should be well prepared, but when you’re looking for a salesperson or sales rep, you need to look for a salesperson by vocation, never someone who sells for lack of other options until, as the saying goes, something comes up «in their own field».
In the past, when companies looked for a medical sales rep, the candidate had to have at least a three-year university diploma in some field related to medicine. When competition got tougher and generic drugs arrived, selling in this sector became harder, and companies had to turn to sales professionals who in most cases had no university degree or, if they had one, not in medicine. Yet they proved they could sell just as well as their predecessors or even better, because they came from tough sales sectors.
In times of crisis, companies try to save on hiring staff, but they know they need sales reps out on the street. Nowadays, though, they look for the «cheap» professional, and if it can be on a commercial contract or freelance, so much the better.
The problem with this kind of hiring is that in some cases the product they’re trying to sell is new, or the market is very saturated, so introducing it takes time. If the freelance rep doesn’t make money in the first month, they’ll probably quit on the 1st of the following month.
For the first time, we’re seeing sales reps who spend all day out on the street and, instead of earning money, literally lose it. Companies don’t cover their initial expenses. They want a sales presence but don’t want to invest in a sales rep, so they ask the rep to take the risk; and since it costs the company nothing, as soon as one cog fails, they simply swap it for another and start all over again.
That saving backfires when three different sales reps call on the same customers in less than a year: it makes the company look «unreliable», and in the end the customer punishes it.
I myself deal with companies through their sales reps, and if I had to see a new face every three months, I’d reconsider working with that company, because I like to know the person I’m dealing with.
So, to sum up: a company that asks for a graduate with sales experience, puts them on a commercial contract and makes the «supposed expert» cover their own expenses should start cutting heads until it finds whoever suggested that kind of hiring. Even in times of crisis, a sales professional doesn’t sell themselves on such terms, and I’m sure someone who studied for a degree never dreamed of working conditions like these back in their student days.
That leaves us with the sales rep who is desperate to find work and who, as soon as they have to cover their own expenses and don’t see immediate sales, will quit before losing any more money.
Not to mention the degradation of this profession in Spain when it is offered such conditions. Let’s not kid ourselves: it’s a way for the company to give it a try without risking capital, and in many cases, without risk there’s no return.
And to the new human resources professionals who import strategies established in other countries, I’ll just say this: in Spain, when you go looking for something «on sale», it ends up costing you dearly in the long run. That’s probably why companies in Spain have the worst sales departments and, without doubt, the least motivated sales reps. Is it time to rethink how we hire? We’ll leave that as an open question.
Further reading
- Common mistakes made by Hispanic business owners
- Differences between Hispanic and American business owners
- The keys to being a good leader
- Hiring a leader for your company or business
Featured image: Jes, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
