We seem to have a theme today regarding underhanded hiring schemes. Now CareerJournal offers this beauty – When They Don’t Hire You, But Steal Your Ideas. Clearly this article focuses on marketing positions, but it does have a sales side to it also.
Why in the world would you do this?:
While jobless in spring 2004, the Cleveland resident pursued a middle-management position at an Ohio insurer. The concern asked him to create a marketing strategy focused on its independent field agents. He spent about 50 hours drafting a 25-page plan, then presented his detailed proposal to 20 officials over two days.He didn’t get the job. Mr. Gaglione soon found out the insurer was test marketing a key piece of his plan, even using the name he had given it. He left angry messages for two executives there. “I didn’t appreciate you guys taking up my time and taking my work,” his voicemail said. They never called back.
25 pages and two days of meetings? I think I understand what happened here – the candidate never qualified what happens next in the hiring process. Big oversight on his part.
We see this behavior in poorly-trained sales reps also. Many times they believe their job is to “show up and throw up.” They skip the most important sales step – qualifying – and leap directly into the demonstration. Their demonstration usually includes solutions for the prospect’s pressing business problems.
We subscribe to an old sales saying – Don’t spill your candy in the lobby. It’s true. If salespeople provide all of their solutions without first qualifying the prospect’s needs, timing, budget, decision process, competitors and deal-breakers, they run a good chance of becoming the worst-paying form of salespeople in the market.
Free consultants.