We have caught up to the numerous 5 year anniversary (is that the right term?) items in the news today. We are located in Minneapolis-St. Paul and do not have a direct story of the attacks that happened that day. We have friends who work in Manhattan who were able to get out on the last subway that day. We also have friends who were there for a convention and ended up being trapped there for a couple days and eventually rented a car and drove it back to the Twin Cities.

Beyond that, we do not know of anyone who died that day. I’m sure that is not true of all people who read this blog. Out of respect for those who lost so much that day, we’ll refrain from posting anything else today.

I know it is not much, but it is our way to pay tribute to those Americans who gave all that fateful day.

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Inc.com posted this howler today – Fearing Economic Uncertainty, Companies Put Spending Plans on Hold. Obviously, this type of story sounds like it will have an impact on our business for the remainder of the year.

The opening sentence:

Gloomy economic reports in recent months have many small and midsize businesses rethinking spending plans, a pair of new surveys show.

Most of the stories I have read have mentioned how strong the economy is right now so I was taken aback by this revelation. The rest of the article speaks to CEO’s slowing everything down this year. I went back and clicked on the link found in that first sentence that takes you to the “gloomy economic reports.”

Some of the “gloomy” economic data from those reports:

• Year-to-date small business hiring is down .3% (not great, but it does not discuss large company or government hiring for the year)
• Incomes are up 7.1% from July 2005
• In July, personal consumption expenditures increased 0.8%…This represents the sharpest increase in consumer spending since January.
• U.S. chain stores reported sales 3.6% higher than during the same week in 2005. In July, U.S. chain stores reported sales 3.5% greater than the previous July.

I freely admit that I am a psych major so economics is a foreign language to me. This data all looks like extremely positive news and would seem to be supportive of an expanding economy. I expect hiring will continue at a strong pace for the remainder of 2006 in spite of these contradictory survey results.

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Diggings has a post that is a microcosm of the impending shortage in the hiring market:

In the last 6 years, the number of welders has dropped 10% to 576,000 people and the American Welding Society predicts that by 2010, the demand for welders will outstrip supply by 200,000 workers.

We are involved in some highly specific searches right now and are encountering similar supply-demand issues. One search I am working through has led to two different final candidates that parlayed an offer into a better package from their current employers. As demand increases and supply diminishes, I am certain we will see similar behaviors.

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Friday anecdotes and the saga continues. This week I thought I would bring you up to speed on this post – Anecdote – Online Dating? I have received the following 2 emails from him since the first post. Please take note of the very similar writing styles in all 6 of the emails.

I received this email just a week after the first one.

I have procen track record in sales to C-level, HR Managers, VP, etc

Proven track record in extended sales cycles

Please contact me! Travel is not a problem.

Best Regards

I then received this one over the Labor Day Weekend.

Lee…I have proven experience in sales…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!

Best Regards

I must also add that I have yet to receive a resume or any compeling reason to call and talk with this person about this opportunity.

I tremble to think why he is so gung ho to travel.

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An article on Six Sigma in Selling Power’s newsletter caught my interest. We are all quite familiar with Six Sigma in manufacturing and engineering, but Six Sigma and sales? It seems a little far fetched. The article is based on Michael Webb’s (founder of Sales Performance Consultants) sales process which is broken down into 5 steps. Webb contends that Six Sigma “applies science to the art of sales to consistently improve results.”

The 5 steps are:
Step #1: Define
Step #2: Measure
Step #3: Analyze
Step #4: Improve
Step #5: Control

Interesting. There was a link to his website so naturally I clicked on it and poked around a bit. I came across an article titled What’s Wrong with Six Sigma? in which Webb discusses why Six Sigma is an effective method for impacting sales & marketing. He makes some great points that I would like to share with you.

First, Six Sigma characterizes business problems through precise identification of data and facts. It translates these measurements into mathematical, cause-and-effect relationships. This drive for hard facts ties every project to a measurable result, ideally on the financial statements. He goes on to say that the Six Sigma tool kit is not yet complete. Because it is rooted in manufacturing, Six Sigma’s tool kit is heavily weighted toward statistical validation of sampling techniques and design of manufacturing experiments. Where as in sales and marketing, the core process involves intangibles and transforming people’s behavior.

Webb gave this example which I thought illustrated his point nicely:

Suppose the belief that “sales is a numbers game” drives a sales office to generate a large number of quotes, which end up not closing. An inexperienced team might jump too quickly into process definition and measurement work. However, lean techniques (which focus on work flow and value to the customer) might lead the team to ask why the process is set up that way in the first place and ask these questions:
What value is a quote to a customer who is not likely to buy anyway?
How might we find more likely prospects before we go through the effort of generating quotes?

If any area in business needs a scientific method to improve operations and results, sales and marketing needs to be put at the top of the list. He contends not only will you be able to ask the following questions about your organization, but have a measurable answer for each one.

1. Don’t know which 50% of your marketing expense is generating a return? Now you have a way of finding out whether you are getting bilked.
2. Can’t tell which prospects have the best chance of leading to sales, and which ones are probably giving you a ride? You can learn the characteristics of each set of prospects, and have salespeople spend more time with the former and less with the latter.
3. Is your sales force blocking attempts to measure activities and results? If so, they are protecting something. You might not know what, but now you have a way to find out.

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We can’t stress this enough, if your first pass on applicants is to sort resumes, you are making a big mistake. Granted, you have to look at their history, but odds are you are looking at an embellished document.

From workforce.com:

ResumeDoctor.com says nearly 43 percent of people in a new study fibbed about their qualifications. The South Burlington, Vermont-based company scoured 1,000 résumés for factual errors on seemingly insignificant items such as dates of employment, educational and professional credentials, and job titles. The résumé-counseling company found that many people intentionally misstate or exaggerate these details in an effort to get better jobs–a tactic it says usually backfires. The study discovered one or more “significant inaccuracies” in 42.7 percent of the résumés, while 12.6 percent of résumés contained at least two or more inaccuracies.

As if that news isn’t disturbing enough, a Web site is offering to help job seekers intentionally distort their work history–for a price. For $19.95, job hunters can purchase The Fake Resume Guide, billed as an “underground guide (that) will teach you how to take your real-life experience and embellish it so that you get the job you want.”

I had to unleash my Google-Fu to find out if this was real. You don’t have to be a Google ninja to find this guide – it showed up as the first item.

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Selling Power’s September issue has a compilation of the Top 50 Sales Websites. They have it broken down into the following categories; Sales Training, Lead Management, Sales Meetings, CRM, Sales Technology and Hiring & Testing. It’s a great resource for anyone in sales to add to their tool box. Selling Power provides the website, a link to get to their site and a quick summary of the service they provide.

However, the thoroughness of their list must be called into question. Select Metrix did not make the list. Hopefully they will have this oversight corrected by next year.

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This article – MORE AMERICANS FED UP AT WORK (you have to love the capitalization) – is a throw away propaganda piece but it does contain an interesting set of statistics:

Fifty-eight percent of workers may leave their employer if the economy continues to improve that’s up 12 percentage points from the 2005 study. Meanwhile, 74 percent say they are actively or passively looking for a new job, and 41 percent of those fessed up to looking for a new job while at work, up from 39 percent last year.

We have beat this drum for some time but it is always worth revisiting. The modern worker is easily connected to job opportunities without much effort. Worker mobility is simply increasing every year as the economy expands dramatically.

Another interesting statistic from the survey:

Itkin said employees believe they are working hard but are under appreciated. Eighty percent of respondents indicated they wanted to be appreciated, yet only 36 percent thought their employers appreciated them.

Underappreciation is the main item that drives employees to other opportunities. Interestingly, it is also the number 1 reason why companies lose customers – the customer no longer feels appreciated.

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From this week’s SHRM Newsletter: EEOC Backs Targeted Recruitment of Older Workers. We have written several posts related to this subject (Marketing to Baby-Boomers, 76 and 44). The article contains several points of valuable information.

EEOC’s Aug. 11 proposed rule change is in response to a Supreme Court decision two years ago (General Dynamics Land Systems Inc. v. Cline, 540 U.S. 581 (2004)), which concluded that there is no such thing under the ADEA as reverse age discrimination. While the current rule prohibits job advertisements favoring older persons, the proposed rule would make it permissible to encourage older people to apply. Employers may post help wanted notices or advertisements expressing a preference for older individuals with terms such as over age 60, retirees or supplement your pension.

So what are effective strategies for recruiting the older workers? Posting positions that target this age group, i.e. target mediums and areas that they will see, hear or read. Posting positions in 55 and older communities, bingo halls, clubs that are frequented by them. Also using newspapers, radio and TV advertising. Although expensive, these mediums are effective in reaching this audience because they are typically home during the day.

Also understand that they are looking for a different life balance. If you enquire as to what they want, they will tell you. Examples may be job sharing, adjusting schedules to miss rush hour traffic, a reduced work schedule or more vacation. The point is to ask and then listen. What you will gain from these concessions is a more stable, experienced work force. And they can be a great resource for relieving labor shortages.

Remember, shortages will continue to increase as the 76 million baby-boomers retire within the next 10 years. Beyond that fact, employers will hire more workers for work flows that vary during the day – this too will create added shortages. Here are some examples were employers took advantage of older workers to reduce their worker shortage.

A large bank targeted seniors to fill part-time positions when demand surges during the lunch hours. And a call center with 24/7 staffing was built across from a retirement community. Turnover is often high in call centers, so the call center allowed more flexible, two-hour scheduling. The call center also had an over-the-road bridge to make it easier for retirees to work and included insomniacs who might prefer working at night.

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Typically, I am not a fan of Newsweek but I was drawn to this story from the Drudge Report link – Intrigue In High Places. This long article discusses HP’s chairwoman Patricia Dunn’s use of data mining to catch a leaker from the HP board of directors. The whole sordid affair sounds like a movie plot.

According to an internal HP e-mail, Dunn then took the extraordinary step of authorizing a team of independent electronic-security experts to spy on the January 2006 communications of the other 10 directors – not the records of calls (or e-mails) from HP itself, but the records of phone calls made from personal accounts. That meant calls from the directors’ home and their private cell phones.

That’s my emphasis above and I am still shocked. Apparently the security company used “pretexting” to get the personal phone records of all of the board members. Remember, this isn’t their HP phones, this is there home phones and personal cell phones.

In case you were unaware of pretexting (I had never heard of it):

That practice, according to the Federal Trade Commission, involves using “false pretenses” to get another individual’s personal nonpublic information: telephone records, bank and credit-card account numbers, Social Security number and the like. Pretexting is heavily marketed on the Web.

Typically – say in the case of a phone company – pretexters call up and falsely represent themselves as the customer; since companies rarely require passwords, a pretexter may need no more than a home address, account number and heartfelt plea to get the details of an account.

Well, I would sure like to see the organizational development specialist who wants to tackle this company culture!

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