A quick blurb of a story from TechWeb about Monster.com’s numbers released for June. 24 of the 28 major markets showed lower online recruitment activity. They do mention that Minneapolis and St. Louis actually saw an increase in online activity for the month. We can attest to that fact in our local sourcing campaigns.

I think this excerpt cuts to the quick of the entire story:

“Broader business expansion activities slowed with the start of the summer vacation season.”

We see this trend every year - July and August are truly hit-or-miss months of the year. Vacation schedules play a major part in it. One anomaly, traditionally we have had much success sourcing during these 2 months.

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I just caught up to some reading on Workforce Management’s website. Ready for the Big Time captivated my attention. The author references a company where candidates are hired similar to an NFL-style draft. You have to register at the site but it is free.

The article is quite long but I’ll give you the high points. The article is written about what National Oilwell Varco’s (NOV) chief executive did in response to seeing that most of his executives and upper managment positions were being held by baby boomers. He put his Senior VP of Sales and Director of Employee Development on the task to develop a system to recruit their next generation of company leaders. At the time, the VP of Sales was asked to spearhead this initiative and he was reading Patriot Reign - a book about the New England Patriots. He pulled a few points from the book which included business units competing for candidates based on the NFL draft.

A couple of points jumped out at me. Obviously, NOV made a conscious decision to shift their existing hiring paradigms. First, they stopped looking just in their backyard and started recruiting beyond the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Second, they actually started looking to recruit directly from colleges, picking 30-40 students from 10 different colleges for interviews. In interviewing these students, they looked for specifc competencies: communication, ability to deal with ambiguity, perseverance, strategic ability, a drive for results and political savvy. They stopped prioritizing a recruiting paradigm that focused on hiring from their competitors for industry experience.

There are a number of interesting points thoughout this article but I would like to focus on hiring competency over experience. As we meet with clients and prospects, we consistently uncover that their top priority is to hire someone with direct industry experience. Their logic is that this approach will certainly lead to success. As with NOV, we recommend first to understand what competencies will lead to success in the role and then worry about the experience piece. In sales, some times experience helps, but all to often it is grossly overrated. Even though a salesperson may have sold a similiar product, how they went to market and competed is far different than any other company . . . including our customer. The only possible exception I can think of is when a company sells a commodity, leads with price and has no value add.

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I’ve never seen counteroffers get rectified. Countering Counteroffers sheds light on this difficult topic.

Once a salesperson, or any employee, receives an offer from another company, a level of trust (or commitment) has been compromised. This salesperson obviously had an in-depth discussion about another opportunity and pursued it to the offer level. Now the manager is left to question the salesperson’s commitment to success at the current company.

Here is the takeaway quote from the article (emphasis mine):

Its poll found that 75 percent of employees who accepted a counteroffer voluntarily left their employer within six months because of promises not kept. Further, the majority of the ones who didn’t leave were laid off or fired within a year.

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Sales&Marketing Magazine briefly approaches one of sales most taboo topics - Cutting Your Losses. Sometimes customers that you worked so hard to close are simply not a good fit for your business and you have to end the relationship.

Tricky stuff but there are some good suggestions in this short article.

We had a client 4 years ago who had just purchased her technology company and needed to hire a salesperson. She hired us to find their first outside salesperson but we never completed the search. We presented one strong candidate after another, but she couldn’t pull the trigger. It finally got to the point where we had to end the relationship.

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The latest jobs report for our home state shows that Minnesota added the most jobs in a quarter since 1984. Of course, the journalist strangely felt obligated to follow that impressive fact with multiple paragraphs downplaying the incredible growth.

Our state unemployment is now down to 3.6% which has affected our local sourcing activities. 4 years ago we would post 1 ad on monster and receive 50-60 calls and/or emails within a week. Not so today.

We have adjusted accordingly by posting a position on 3 job boards simultaneously. The pattern that is working is to still use one of the major job boards (monster, careerbuilder or hotjobs), one niche board (specifically focused in an industry or on a position) and then one or two free job boards (these are hit-or-miss).

Exposure is everything. We have seen our response totals increase dramatically even in the tight local market. We have incorporated a similar pattern for our national searches with the same success.

Sourcing is going to continue to tighten with the boomer exit and new methods will be required. I read an interesting post regarding cell phone employment ads. They are written like a print ad (say in a newspaper) and pushed out to cell phone subscribers. We are destined to see more of those methods as the younger, wired generations enter the workforce.

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Jeff Thull is a successful sales trainer in the Twin Cities who works extensively with companies that have a complex sale. I just read this article - How to Prevent “Unpaid Consulting” - and found it full of tactical advice for salespeople. A few gems from the piece (emphasis mine):

Unpaid consulting starts when sales professionals cross the line between diagnosing the problem and explaining the solution. When they start designing solutions, they start acting as unpaid consultants. In past decades, this was not a monumental issue. Generally, there was limited competition in complex sales. If the salesperson figured out the problem and designed a unique and valuable solution for a customer, the sale was almost guaranteed and the salesperson was rewarded for his consulting effort.

We have seen this behavior firsthand, even in sales that were more transactional in nature.

A great tip for sales managers (emphasis mine):

Go For The No. A key to your sales team’s productivity and success is helping them understand that a thorough diagnosis allows them to quickly identify the 20-30% of their prospects who have the immediate reason and resources to make a change. The traditional salesperson wastes time arm-wrestling with a prospect that has no pain and hopes to win the sale by sheer tenacity. This has its roots in the theory that the good salesperson never takes no for an answer and the salesperson’s view that no equates to personal failure. Help them recognize that a qualified No can increase their productivity and success.

Most sales managers have difficulty with this concept. It is critical to successful managing. You have to be willing to walk away from marginal at best prospects to focus on the 20-30% who are a strong fit for your solution.

Many sales managers cannot implement this truth and end up with less efficient sales teams.

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I just read CBS to Launch Offbeat Promotion on Eggs. CBS is going to advertise on eggs that you purchase in the supermarket. At first I was taken aback by the entire ubiquitous marketing approach of our society.

Then I thought I would probably be intrigued if I opened the carton of eggs and saw the CBS eye logo on it.

It goes deeper. I googled the company that places the ad on to the eggshell. Eggfusion’s site revealed this:

Without affecting the contents or durability of an egg, Eggfusion’s proprietary laser-etching technology safely places tamperproof marks directly into the eggshell as it passes through the packaging process.

Apparently, it started as a safety feature for indelibly marking freshness dates on the egg itself instead of the carton. Someone saw a marketing opportunity and decided to put advertising on the egg also.

Now that is capitalism at its finest.

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We constantly debate when is the best time to place an employment ad online. Lately we have been receiving mixed signals from other articles, our job board reps and our own experience. There certainly is not a consensus opinion on this topic.

When I was younger, we used to go to beach parties where everyone would bring a liquor, a juice and a fruit. We would throw everyone’s “donation” into a large vat, mix it up and call it a Wapatui. For years I had no idea what that meant, but I think employment ads often resemble a Wapatui. A little of this, something from there and we’ll post it whenever.

No more Wapatui ads. Strong sales candidates are out there, but there is a definite scarcity to ad responses. We run many ads every month and continue to tweak them to see what is working.

We have been posting mainly on Tuesdays for the past few months with decent responses. However, we have read that Sunday is still a strong day for posting. We are running a test this week with 3 different sales ads - first one posted yesterday (Sun.), next one posts today (Mon.) and the last one posts on Tuesday. They are 3 different ads for 3 different sales positions, but they are all relatively similar in ideal candidate experience. It won’t be a controlled scientific experiment, but we will post our results and general impressions later this week or early next week.

Oh, and I did Google Wapatui. The things you learn on the web.

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This might be a stretch (maybe not for a Monday morning), but Staging a Sale is an article about companies that “stage” homes that are for sale. For some reason, I am intrigued by this whole premise. My wife watches a show on HGTV or A&E that is list large guy who stages a home for sale. I get drawn in to the show everytime she watches it. From what they reveal in the episode, the staging appears to make a tremendous difference (my wife informs me of this fact).

So I am drawn in to this article and I read this line:

A key part of their sales pitch: They say the average days on market of homes they’ve staged is 35 days, compared with the Twin Cities average of more than 60.

That is a robust value proposition.

And then comes the hook:

“When you’re a stager you’re a solution,” she said. “When you’re a Realtor you’re just a salesman.”

The stager certainly falls into the solution selling category if for nothing else, they provide a unique proposition every time. My experience is that most realtors want to take photos, measure rooms and upload everything to MLS. Hard not to be commoditized in that world. Stagers, however, work with your home’s colors, arrange your furniture, supply specific filler pieces, etc.

The real estate market is slowing down and I think it is safe to say the stager’s value proposition will become even stronger as supply increases (homes on the market) and demand decreases (active buyers).

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I literally read this Selling Power article - Twin Cities Bring Twice the Fun - this morning while the temperature skyrocketed up into the 90s. The Twin Cities are a wonderful area and the winter does get a bad rap. It’s cold, but people know how to handle it well.

Today, we are heading towards 100 degrees in the Twin Cities. Winter seems a distant memory.

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