This may be an old one, but it is a good way to end the week:

A little field mouse was lost in a dense wood, unable to find his way out. He came upon a wise old owl sitting in a tree. “Please help me, wise old owl, how can I get out of this wood?” said the field mouse.

“Easy,” said the owl, “Grow wings and fly out, as I do.”

“But how can I grow wings?” asked the mouse.

The owl looked at him haughtily, sniffed disdainfully, and said, “Don’t bother me with the details, I only advise on strategy.”

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CNNMoney.com takes the today’s job report even further – Skilled worker shortage hurts U.S. The article’s opening sentence:

The biggest problem with job growth right now isn’t too few new jobs. It’s too few skilled workers.

And later:

“It’s down to the nub already,” he said. “Supply and demand is completely out of whack.”Some experts say part of the blame for the slowdown in the economy in last year’s second half can be laid on labor constraints – companies couldn’t expand as fast as they wanted due to a lack of workers with the right skills.

Notice that the comment is not a lack of skills, it is a lack of the right skills. We are releasing an article early next week on finding the right talent for your sales position. There are numerous sales candidates available and many actually look good on paper. However, there are 2 critical pieces of information you must possess to hire effectively in this evolving market. More on that next week. For now, it seems clear that we are on the cusp of a significant skilled-labor shortage – a shortage that will lead to many exasperated hiring companies.

And this is a good description of future sourcing activities:

“With this level of unemployment, the only way they can find the workers they need is to hire them away from someone else, hire them from someplace else, or hire someone without the necessary skills,” said Vitner. “All these things cut into productivity growth.”

And to close:

“When the economy hits some natural barriers, it slows it down, and one of those barriers is when the pool of workers begins to dry up,” he (John Challenger) said. “The lifeblood of the economy today is skilled workers.”

Dramatically stated but accurate nonetheless.

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In Selling Power’s latest Sales Manager’s Newsletter there is an article from Anthony Parinello, author of Selling to VITO and Think & Sell Like a CEO. As a sales manager who is working with a salesperson on their messaging, Anthony makes some great points about assumptions CEO’s hold about the business world. He provides seven assumptions – if your sales approach aligns with the CEO, he/she will not feel you are wasting his or her time:

1. Knowledge is power. CEO’s seek knowledge. They understand that the more they know, the better their decisions. Thus your message must expand his or her flow of critical information, not clutter that flow.
2. Passion and commitment make the difference. CEO’s typically are very passionate about what they do. Make sure your own enthusiasm for the topic under discussion complements the CEO’s enthusiasm.
3. What’s good for me is good for the company. CEO’s self-identify strongly with their organization and “tend to feel very good about both,” says Parinello. Ask yourself whether what you’re doing supports the CEO’s best view of him or herself and his or her company, says Parinello.
4. You can do, get, and be anything you want if you see a big enough picture. CEO’s don’t focus on tactics; they focus on strategies. They take “50,000-foot views” of the world, says Parinello, and tend not to get bogged down in details. Are you focusing on the big picture? Or are you stuck in selling features and benefits?
5. Good things happen when you get people to buy into your message. Every successful CEO knows the importance of communicating persuasively and effectively. If what you are doing will help the CEO get the message out and communicate effectively within his organization, you’ll have instant status with him.
6. You can never get enough good ideas to support your plan. “CEO’s love to consider ideas they can connect directly to the plan or vision that gets them up early in the morning and keeps them going late at night,” says Parinello. Ask yourself whether the ideas you’re presenting directly support the CEO’s plan.
7. Results are what count. CEO’s know they must deliver tangible and intangible results in their own markets and in the markets of their prospects and customers. It is essential that the issues you plan to talk about help the CEO create positive results for shareholders, customers, and prospects.

Some excellent points to remember if you are calling on CEO’s!

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From Foxnews.com – Economy Shrugs Off Weak Housing and Automotive Sectors As Employers Add 167,000 Jobs in December. We are encountering extended sourcing cycles right now due in no small part to compensation increases.

Employers stepped up hiring last month, boosting payrolls by a brisk 167,000 and keeping the unemployment rate steady at a still historically low 4.5 percent. Workers’ wages grew briskly.

The latest snapshot of the nation’s employment climate, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed that the jobs market ended 2006 on a strong note and provided fresh evidence that the troubled housing and automotive sectors aren’t dragging down employment across the country.

We have implemented numerous behind-the-scenes updates (technology, resource investment) to better attack the tight market. I posted earlier this week about a statistic from CareerBuilder regarding a 60% bump in job searches they encountered last January. This is a good time to be sourcing since many people use their vacation time around the holidays and then actively pursue a new opportunity after Jan. 1.

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