It’s a Friday before a long weekend so let’s go with an anecdote.

Just to give you a little background – I had previously talked with this applicant and allowed him to set the time for our phone screen (2 days later). I called him at the set time, reintroduced myself and reminded him of the reason for our call. He quickly cut me off with this comment:

Can you call back in an hour or two because I am busy at the moment?

He then said thank you and hung up before I could respond.

To top it off, this sales position was for a long sales cycle, relationship sale. Needless to say, that was not the type of approach we desired for this position. However, my curiosity for this train wreck was piqued so I called the candidate about 2 hours later to see if he was available.

I received the same response from him that he was busy and again asked that I call him back at another time. I didn’t call him back.

Absolutely true – a few days later I received an email from him asking why I did not call him back.

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More from the What Not To Do file – this email resume came over the transom this morning and it isn’t pretty:

I’m a very motivated guy. i have an IQ of 130. Unbelievably, I cannot get a job…

In all honesty, I have a resume agent that pushes any and all resumes through which leads to some interesting reads.

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Let me piggyback on the previous post and boldly state this – your salespeople (and other positions) are looking at other career opportunities. From the weddle.com website:

Recently we tallied job seeker responses to this question: “How many times per month do you visit an online employment site?” The results provide some interesting insight into the best strategy for online recruitment advertising.

WEDDLE’s Findings

• Almost three-quarters of the respondents (72%) visited 2-8 sites per month;
• Just 4% visited only 1 site per month; and
• One-in-ten visited 16 or more sites per month.

82% of employees visit an online employment site more than twice per month. From our article Hiring Adjustments for Generations X and Y:

These generations are plugged-in to technology from Bluetooth to Blackberries. They have spent much of their working careers, even entire lives for some, having Internet information available to them at a moment€™s notice. This fact can work against employers in that these younger candidates are savvy about Internet job boards and have a tendency to always have an eye out for new opportunities.

Turnover will continue to plague companies that do not adjust for the younger generations. There is more to successful sales management than carrot-stick motivation and monetary rewards. We can help.

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There was a good article in SalesForceXP’s recent newsletter (sorry no link) that quotes 2 recent surveys conducted by Miller Heiman and the Hay Group specifically looking at turnover amongst salespeople. The research concluded that not only is finding good salespeople tough (knew that), but keeping them is equally as difficult.

Nearly one-fourth of the 2,176 sales executives who participated in Miller Heiman’s 2006 Sales Performance Study reported that turnover had increased during the previous year. That mirrors similar findings from the Hay Group, a Philadelphia-based management consulting company, which surveyed about 1 million employees at 330 companies in 50 countries. The least committed to a company are its salespeople, 38 percent of whom planned to leave within two years.

As we have mentioned in previous posts, good salespeople are wired to be looking for the next big deal. This drive includes keeping an eye open for a better opportunity for themselves. You can decrease the chance of losing good salespeople by first understanding their motivations and rewards and then ensuring that your compensation plan satisfies their motivation/reward pattern. Remember, this motivation/reward pattern is more than just money.

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We do not recommend hiring solely on communication style, but if you are in a industry that deals with SOX, HIPPA or some other draconian paperwork, you would be wise to hire a High C style with a strong Attention to Detail aptitude. These areas can all be accurately and objectively measured before hiring them.

I bring this up since one person at our company is meeting with his insurance agent for a 3rd time in a year (this time to straighten out the insurance on his sons’ automobile). The troubles have started since the agent hired an assistant who has an innate ability to jumble paperwork in the worst possible manner.

A bad hire has a ripple effect unlike any other in a company. This example is a microcosm of a large principle.

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We see many sales teams that have a handful of under performing salespeople on the team. Often, the sales manager rationalizes something to the effect of a warm body is better than no body.

I don’t subscribe to that thinking and neither does Jack Welch as you can see in this CareerBuilder article – Terminate 10% of Your Employees Each Year. I haven’t worked in a company as large as GE, but I think this approach works well in that environment. Obviously, GE has been on a tremendous tear for quite some time.

Under performing salespeople drag a team down. I think many sales managers are reluctant to train in new salespeople since they know it will require more effort than they are exerting today. The under performing salespeople usually attempt to delay their fate by inflating their forecast. The sales manager sees the large amounts of potential business, thinks about the effort to ramp a new sales hire and pauses.

It is a vicious cycle that delays the inevitable. Granted, some salespeople get it turned around. Most do not. There are talented salespeople out there and you can identify them before making the offer. Follow through and you won’t be disappointed.

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The abcnews.com Working Wounded Blog is always reliable for a different take on things. The post from last night, Chaos 1, Order 0, weaves together airplane boarding procedures, elementary school and 3M in one short post. Impressive.

Bob Rosner’s point – sometimes a little bit of chaos can increase productivity and creativity. In regards to Northwest Airlines scrapping its “by row” boarding procedure and opening it up:

This announcement reminds us that sometimes a little chaos can get us all where we need to go faster. Significantly faster.

He then provides this statement:

Ironically, I’m going to accuse you the corporate people reading this blog of doing the very same thing. Stop embracing command and control at the expense of allowing pockets of chaos to thrive throughout your organization.

He closes with a reference to another Minnesota-based company:

3M, widely seen as the corporation that consistently generates the most revenue from new products, allows all of its employees time to work on their pet projects during working hours. Sure, they have to finish their regular assignments, but they are given a little bit of leash to do something outside the scope of their jobs.

Anyone who has managed salespeople for more than a day knows that it is like herding cats. The best approach is to be a coach, not a crutch (close for them) or a combatant (dictate to them). The most effective sales managers we work with are the ones who empower their team. Develop the individual and allow “pockets of chaos” for them to be creative and incorporate their own style.

I remember an old sales manager’s statement – “If you’re above quota, you’re an entrepreneur. If you’re below quota, your butt is mine.”

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Salary.com provides a list for our reading consumption – the Salary Value Index. The explanation:

The compensation experts at Salary.com uncovered the top (and bottom) US metros for building personal net worth, taking into account local salaries, cost of living, and unemployment relative to the national average.

The results are in and the number 1 city is…Huntsville, AL. Now I have been to Huntsville many times and it is a great little city. Number 1 is surprising, but still a nice town. You’ll have to read the rest of the article for the overall rankings.

FYI – New York City was last.

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I just read an ad for a sales-related position – it is in the sales category but it is so vaguely written that I cannot decipher what the position entails. The ad discusses what the person will be responsible for managing and some of what they will be doing. It then flows into a bulleted list of requirements that include:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Minimum of 12-15 years of business experience
• Minimum of 5-7 years specific experience
• Previous management experience
• A specific certification

I edited out the specific experience in the bullets above. The next piece of the ad is the closing information in great detail. Nothing in the ad describes the company’s view of success in the position or what specific skills lead to that success.

Don’t do this with your employment ads. This ad is the epitome of experience-only hiring. Successful hiring does not have to rely so heavily on chance. There is a process for finding the top candidates.

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Strangely, I have come across a couple different articles on PowerPoint etiquette this afternoon. I’m an auditory person so I prefer talking, listening and reading for communication. However, I realize that the majority of people are visual so PowerPoint is an important tool for selling (and training).

Selling Power chimes in with How to Speak Visually which caught my attention because, first off, I can’t speak well to visuals and second, it is a bit of an oxymoron. The article is a tactical advice column with this interesting tidbit:

Open your palms. Open palms represent truth. Practice saying phrases like, Whats in it for you? and What does all this mean for you? while opening your palms toward the audience. You’ll appear far more honest and approachable than if your hands remain closed.

I didn’t know that, but it seems to make some sense (I have no idea why). I am sitting here trying to figure out how one would naturally show their palms during a presentation. Perhaps a lot of “this or that” commentary with matching hand motions?

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