I kid you not, today is National Left-Handers Day. In case you are interested in learning way more than you care to, check out www.lefthandersday.com.

I write about this because my wife and my son are both left-handed so this topic is of interest to me. And maybe only me.

Some quick trivia:

• Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right
• There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed
• Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater
• 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed

And lastly, famous left-handers:

• Nicole Kidman
• Oprah Winfrey
• Jerry Seinfeld
• Angelina Jolie
• Tom Cruise
• Bob Dylan
• Keanu Reeves
• Goldie Hawn
• Robert DeNiro
• Julia Roberts
• Bruce Willis
• Paul McCartney
• Will Ferrell
• Tim Allen

Ok, I’ll stop.

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I read a recent newsletter article from Ragan’s Management Resources titled “Use job titles to attract and reward workers” (sorry, no link available). The president of a service company ran an experiement. He offered job candidates a choice between having the title of “sales manager” or the title of “salesperson” with an additional $2,000 added to their salary. Interesting enough, most of the candidates took the “manager” title over the pay.

I would have liked this article to go a little deeper by sharing the ad or providing their insight into why they thought the title was chosen over the pay. I would venture a guess that the ad unintentionally revealed what the reward structure was for this position. Titles are usually preferred over money when a person has a status and recognition reward and an individualistic motivation (common in leadership positions). And I would guess that the ad was written to attract this type of person. If the ad was written to attract someone with a monetary possessions reward and a utilitarian motivation, you would have seen the opposite results of the experiment.

The article closed with:

Think of ways you can attract or reward employees with prestigious-sounding titles.

I would recommend that you think of ways to reward your employees. Take a look at how your company reward the individual in that role and then tie that data into your recruitment process.

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This is the creepiest anecdote I have posted, but I think you will laugh. Recent responses to an ad led to 4 email from the same person. So being the inquisitive person that I am, I opened the emails and read through them. What I read was shocking to say the least – I will share with you what I can. The first email read:

I am a plump sweatie . . . sorry . . . but working on that . .I used to be just tall and burly

I am 6’1

I cannot share the last line. Then the second email came in just 1 minute later and read:

THIS WAS SENT IN ERROR BY MY NEPHEW
SORRY. . . IT WAS INTENDED FOR ANOTHER

Then 30 minutes later another email came in from the same individual:

Lee. . .I have proven experience in sale . . .and dealing with corporations, CEOs and HR Units. I have the ability to travel and look forward to that aspect.

I have been working from a home-offce for a decade..and have always reported directly to VPs of Sales.

Please contact me!

Then 4 minutes later the last of the emails came in:

Someone has stolen my laptop and sending out strange e-mails form it.
I left it at a public place…a coffee shop. They are not from me! I have reported it already.

Please disregard anything that might come under my name or CPC, ok?

Take Care

PS- I am copying others who may have received e-mails with my name on it

Unbelievable. And no, I didn’t contact him.

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I haven’t heard of the phrase “The Creative Class” but I think I will have to read the book. This BusinessWeek article – The Easiest Commute of All – ties in to the previous post regarding telecommuters. This is fascinating:

Mesa del Sol, designed by New Urbanism guru Peter Calthorpe, will be the first place of its kind built from scratch and targeted at the creative class. A big marketing push will be made to coastal knowledge workers looking to cash out of their million-dollar split levels, move inland, and work remotely for their companies. Mansionettes will carry price tags of up to $400,000, about the same as the average Manhattan studio. They’ll feature home offices sequestered from family foot traffic and fully wired for transnational connections. Business centers strewn throughout the community — all within a short walk or electric-cart ride — will offer rent-by-the-hour support staff plus state-of-the-art meeting rooms and seamless videoconference hookups to China and India.

Apparently the guy behind this community, Albert Ratner, is quite the future-oriented developer of this communities. His comment about the future workforce is prescient:

Ratner believes that the future of work belongs to those who will log their hours when they want, how they want, and, most important, where they want. Companies will hire brains, not bodies.

I think he is absolutely correct. Specialization is already rampant. It seems more than plausible that skill-based workers will sell their services on contract in the future (much like what is already occurring in the IT world).

If you are skeptical about telecommuting, check out some of these facts from the article:

Currently, about 12% of the U.S. workforce qualifies as distributed, estimates Charles Grantham and James Ware, executive producers of Work Design Collaborative LLC in Prescott, Ariz. But in urban areas, they figure the number is closer to 15%. “Anytime 15% of any population is doing new behavior, you know it’s going to take off,” says Grantham, who predicts that 40% of the workforce will be distributed by 2012. “We’re at a tipping point.”

Many technology companies are already there. At IBM, 40% of the workforce has no office at the company; at AT&T, a third of managers are now post-geographic.

At Sun Microsystems Inc., nearly 50% of employees can work from home, cafes, drop-in centers, a company office, or some combination thereof…

Today, 70% of Agilent’s workforce is connected remotely either some or all of the time. The company estimates that these virtual workers cost 60% less.

I could keep going but you get the picture. This is more than passing fancy, telecommuting, or distributed workforces, are the rising trend of the near future.

Please read the entire article – it is well worth the time.

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We have discussed telecommuting on many occassions and this morning’s JustSell.com email referenced this survey. Some points of data to consider:

While only 23 percent of U.S. employees work from home or are given that option, most of the work force (59 percent) believes that telecommuting at least part-time is the ideal work situation. This includes the 38 percent who think a mix of coming into the office and working from home is preferable and the 21 percent who say working at home is the best.

We are seeing this play out in our current sourcing activities. The younger generations are highly receptive to telecommuting and view it as a strong benefit of a position.

From a productivity side, consider this finding:

Despite technologies that allow employees to put in time while heading to and from work, three-quarters (73 percent) rarely or never get work done during their commute.

Gas prices will come in to play on this topic also. As will workers moving to the outer rings (exurbs) of metropolitan areas. One hour, one way commutes are global time wasters when compared to telecommuting.

One last point from the survey that reinforces our previous statements:

“As competition for talent heats up, employers will be forced to consider alternative retention tactics such as permitting telecommuting,” according to Peg Buchenroth, managing director, compensation and benefits, Hudson Highland Group. “While this is not feasible in all situations, most employees want the flexibility to be able to get work done without going into the office at least every once in a while.”

There is a stigma about telecommuting that is prevalent amongst the Baby Boomers. If you are not at the office, you are not working. Gen X and certainly Gen Y are wired for communication via email, BlackBerries, cell phones and text messaging. Most of them are just as productive away from the office as they are in the office.

There is a control factor that plays in to this stigma also. Most boomer managers started their careers in a hierarchal workplace years ago that is, in today’s environment, flattening out to a more horizontal chain-of-command. The boomers may feel they give up some control if they cannot monitor their employees. This is true to some extent, but there has to be a trust level given to the employee. If they are unable to handle telecommuting, the results will be observable. We often encourage companies to step out of the box and give this trend a try.

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Dan Tudor has a great post on his Landing the Deal blog – “The Takeaway Close”. The takeaway close is a powerful tool for a salesperson when used properly. I used to work for a sales trainer who taught this technique and it is most effective. Here is the gist of why it works:

Human psychology is funny: The more you tell somebody they can’t or shouldn’t have something, the more they want it.

As powerful as it is, let me explain when it doesn’t work. I’ve gone on sales calls with many salespeople to observe their techniques. The takeaway close is an embarrassingly clumsy technique if there has not been enough discussion about the opportunity. Salespeople who meet a prospect for the first time, talk about their needs for 30 minutes and then launch some version of “Maybe this isn’t right for you” will see the prospect agree and show them to the door. That’s a tough position from which to recover.

This technique works best when the salesperson has had an extended discussion with the prospect (probably more than 1 meeting) and has attempted to move towards a solution. The prospect’s own objections and stalls are the factors that give this technique its strength.

Most objections and stalls are basic prospect moves to negotiate a better deal. Their power resides in the ability to say no to your solution . . . and they know it. Hence, they use stalls even when they are most interested much like a bluff in poker. The power of the takeaway close is the salesperson’s ability to call their bluff.

The psychology behind the takeaway close is that the salesperson is stating to the prospect that it is ok if we do not do business. That move is utterly disarming to a prospect who truly is interested. It is at this point that the deal will normally move quickly to the closing stage. If it doesn’t, the salesperson has qualified the prospect for a no and can move on to a better prospect.

One rub here is that most sales managers are hesitant to allow a salesperson to potentially lose a piece of business. This move appears to be high risk to the sales manager. It is not risky when it is used effectively. Far worse for the sales manager to force the salesperson to continue the pursuit of a prospect who may simply be bluffing.

I speak from experience on this topic. I used the takeaway close back in the late ’90s when I was selling CRM software. I closed a large deal that was stalled until I used this technique. Long after the deal was closed, I was called into the VP of Sales office and reprimanded for using this technique (they read my notes in the CRM software that we used internally). I explained that we closed the deal because of the technique. His response, “Yes, but we could have lost the deal.”

I resigned not long after that meeting.

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I understand the younger generations are voracious consumers of text messaging. This fact became clear to me when I tagged along to pick up a new Treo phone. The phone has an Internet connection almost everywhere so you can receive email at any time. The sales rep was pushing an add-on package for unlimited text messaging. Our question back to him – Why do we need text messaging when we have email?

We must of looked like dinosaurs to the young sales rep.

At any rate, here is an article about text messaging that is out of control. I think you will see what I mean:

She turned on her cell phone the next day to discover she’d been terminated from her sales position.”We’ve reviewed your sales figures and they’re not really up to the level we need,” shop manager Alex Barlett wrote in the message. “As a result, we will not require your services any more. Thank you for your time with us.”

Oh, that is bad. Any book on successful employee management should include this story in the chapter involving what not to do. In all fairness to the company, they could not get the employee on the phone after numerous calls. And the company is a body piercing shop. Nonetheless, here is the logic from a director at the company:

“We are a youth business and our staff are all part of the youth culture that uses [text] messaging as a major means of communication,” Bisbie said in a statement e-mailed to the South Wales Echo newspaper. “Therefore, as we wished to spare Miss Tanner the embarrassment and expense of coming into the store only to be sent straight home again, it was decided this was the best course of action to take.”

Call me old fashioned, but I can’t imagine firing someone via email, text message or even via a phone call. Face-to-face is the only respectful way to handle a difficult business action. I can speak to that topic from both sides of the decision.

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Forbes.com has an article out on Surprising Six Figure Jobs. Surprising indeed. I’ll pull some professions from the article:

• Typist/Court Reporter (not kidding)
• Mine Manager
• Printing Plant Operator
• Professional Coach

The things you learn here at The Hire Sense. I particularly enjoyed professional life coach. The butt of many jokes, but apparently a well-paid gig if you can get it.

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We have added a new page in regards to our recently released Sales Development Plan. Some specific questions have arisen so we put together a FAQ page to address the most common questions. We’ll expand the page as we encounter more questions.

Please click here to go to the FAQ page now

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Who wouldn’t read this monster.com article – 5 Habits of Millionaires? I suppose millionaires. Yesterday, I posted on the cars CEOs drive. I suspected that they drive “common” cars but may live in nicer homes.

From today’s article:

Many wealthy people live quite simply, he points out, choosing less pretentious homes than they could theoretically afford and opting for financial independence over material showmanship.

There you go – their Utilitarianism is stronger than even I expected.

I was pleased to see that I shared this aspect with millionaires:

One interesting study found a majority of male millionaire entrepreneurs had been in trouble with school authorities or the police during their adolescence.

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