[Order] Frank Slade, sales manager for StopFast, a regional manufacturer of automotive brakes based out of Des Moines, Iowa, has been experiencing a difficult time filling an open sales rep position that was vacated by a rep who quickly left the company due to his spouse’s job transfer.

Frank Slade, sales manager for StopFast, a regional manufacturer of automotive brakes based out of Des Moines, Iowa, has been experiencing a difficult time filling an open sales rep position that was vacated by a rep who quickly left the company due to his spouse’s job transfer. As the weeks and months passed, Frank began to feel significant pressure and was becoming anxious about filling this position. Reps in his district were complaining that helping to service customers in the open territory was taking a toll on relationships with their existing customers. Consequently, Frank was concerned with the level of service current customers in the vacated territory were receiving. Moreover, no prospecting had been conducted in the territory since it was vacated, making it difficult to increase sales volume. To compound matters, Frank has been helping to cover the vacated territory and it was starting to detrimentally affect his ability to properly manage his salesforce. Frank realized that the longer the position was left vacant, the greater the chances for damaged customer relationships and the larger the lost sales opportunity. Frank’s boss, Sal Lavon, was a tolerant individual, but his patience was wearing thin. Frank knew that if he did not fill the position soon, not only would his personal income be hurt, but he risked receiving a poor performance appraisal. Given that his last appraisal was less than stellar he wanted to avoid this at all costs.

Frank has been undertaking an extensive search to fill the vacant position. He placed a classified ad in the local newspaper, the Des Moines Register. Additionally, he contacted the career placement offices of local colleges and universities to see whether they had any leads on potential candidates. This attracted a limited pool of candidates, several of whom were interviewed for the position. However, Frank was having a difficult time finding a proper fit. Some candidates were simply unqualified for the position. The qualified candidates seemed to lose interest upon learning more about what the position entailed.

The vacant position is demanding. It requires extensive overnight travel and some weekend travel. The job is also physically demanding, requiring lifting heavy product, assembling displays and spending grueling hours on the road driving from account to account. The salary is primarily commission-based, with the average salesperson earning about $45,000 his or her first year. Within five years, the average salesperson with the company makes about $90,000 a year. However, the earnings potential is great for star performers, with some earning $180,000 annually. Although there was money to be made as a salesperson, the company’s size limited the opportunities for promotion. The company offers little formal training. Salespeople are provided a training manual and most of the training occurs on the job.

Salespeople at StopFast are required to be very customer-oriented. In addition, they need good prospecting skills since the company is constantly trying to acquire new customers given its relatively high customer turnover rate. Furthermore, the person who fills this position must have outstanding planning and organizing skills, leadership skills, be persuasive, show initiative, and possess strong communication skills, including the ability to write, speak and listen.

Current Situation

Frank believes that his inability to fill the vacant position stems from not making the position look attractive enough to potential candidates. Thus, to increase the attractiveness of the position, he decided to rewrite his newspaper ad, neglecting to mention some of the responsibilities of the job. In particular, he downplayed the travel associated with the position and emphasized the high earnings potential. In doing so, he noticed an increase in job applications. Frank reasoned that if he could make the job sound attractive enough he could persuade someone to take it, who surely later would find it a rewarding opportunity.

What follows are some excerpts from a recent interview with Vince Pram, a candidate attracted by the new