From Poynteronline blog (hat tip to Michael Benidt):

The Roanoke (VA) Times is looking for a new executive editor — and it looks like they’re serious about recruiting someone fun, creative, and online savvy. They’ve published an extensive and impressive multimedia recruitment ad.

This ad is quite creative and obviously an attempt at creating a viral ad campaign and one that I suspect will be successful.  I was commenting on this ad with Michael in regards to one of our previous posts and  I think this viral approach is a strong play by a newspaper.  The newspaper industry, as a whole, has been behind the curve when it comes to the changing world of technology and reader’s habits.  If there is any doubt, simply look at their subscriptions which are sharply declining.

My first impression of the Roanoke Times is that they are not the stereotypical newspaper – they appear to be far more modern.  Well done and entertaining.

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From the Pioneer Press’ Buffett too hard on director pay:

The media, he says, have scrutinized “CEOs who have received astronomical compensation for mediocre results.” At Berkshire Hathaway Inc., where the famously successful investor has long been chairman, things are different. Pay can be high, but only when there are results.

“When we use incentives €” and these can be large €” they are always tied to the operating results for which a given CEO has authority,” Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders, released Thursday.

We’ve posted on CEO compensation before (here, here and here) since it is a topic at the forefront of today’s business news.  Warren Buffett takes the right approach to the CEO compensation package in that he ties it to results (similar to a sales commission structure).

He mentions something for which I was not familiar:

But there’s one area where Buffett seems not to believe in pay for strong performance, an area where he seems to think any significant compensation can be corrupting. That area is compensation for independent directors.

“Many directors who are now deemed independent by various authorities and observers are far from that, relying heavily as they do on directors’ fees to maintain their standard of living,” Buffett wrote. “These payments, which come in many forms, often range between $150,000 and $250,000 annually.”

Buffett is obviously a smart businessman and he seems to be on the right path here.  The incentive for these independent directors is not aligned with bringing maximum shareholder value.  You would think the media would be interested in this storyline as opposed to just carping about CEO compensation.

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We’ve been working as or with sales for over 20 years and have to deal with many discussions involving candidate’s resumes.  The bias that occurs is that hiring managers make broad, sweeping generalizations based on what they think they see in the resume.  This anomaly occurs even after we have screened and assessed strong candidates.

After discussing the possibilities of what may be wrong with the candidate, we usually get to a point where the hiring manager agrees to to the interview based on our recommendation.

After the interview, we hear something to this effect:

“He was much better than I expected.”

Strangely, I suspect we will still be hearing that line years from now.  The point is simple, resumes should only be a small part of a hiring decision.  A process-oriented approach to hiring limits generalizations and assumptions.  Gut-level decisions lead to passing on potentially strong sales candidates if they don’t match preconceived assumptions.

We can help turn your sales hiring process into one that limits surprises and reveals strong salespeople.

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As a proud coffee addict, I am please to see this Managesmarter.com article titled Coffee, Please.  For the past 2 days, we’ve been dealing with blizzard conditions, thunder snow (seriously – there is such a thing), well over a foot of snow and closed interstate highways.  Yet it is all quite tolerable as long as I have good coffee.  I think these people share that perspective with me:

What would you give up to hold on to your morning cup of coffee?
* 42 percent would forgo AM radio, television or newspaper.
* One-fifth said they’d be willing to skip lunch.
* 12 percent said they’d trade three hours of sleep.
* 10 percent would give up brushing their teeth.

Ok, that last bullet point is quite disgusting – I hope none of the respondents act out on that survey response.  I don’t know if this is surprising, but the survey found that men drink more coffee than women (1.6 cups per day for men to 1.2 for women).  For me, nothing beats an extra large skim latte with 1 packet of raw sugar.  And if I can have 2 of them in a day, all the better.

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I posted on this subject last December, but a recent article in SHRM’s newsletter touched on this subject and got my attention. Here are a few interesting stats:

Dr. Anne E. Laumann, associate professor of dermatology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-researcher Dr. Amy Derick, of the University of Chicago, found that tattoos were more common among younger individuals: 36 percent of people aged 18 to 29 had tattoos, while only 24 percent of those aged 30 to 40 and 15 percent of those aged 40 to 50 reported body art.

Tattoos were seen in all ethnic groups studied but were more common among those with Hispanic ancestry than among all other ethnic groups combined.The researchers found that women accounted for almost three-fourths of people with body piercings other than earlobes.

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From Managesmarter.com’s Crystal Clear Communication:

To hear Scott Glatstein tell it, as much as three quarters of American companies “do not broadly communicate their sales strategy” to their sales teams. The result, not surprisingly, is a breakdown in the sales process.

Aligning the sales compensation plan with the desired business outcome is a critical component of sales management.  One constant with salespeople – they will work the compensation plan to maximize their reward.  The article contains a great example:

One giant food company Glatstein worked with had lost $20 million in a year because of out-of-date products. The solution from corporate executives was to motivate sellers to avoid food spoilage by pinning 40 percent of their bonuses on keeping food fresh. But that tactic compensated salespeople for a market condition, not their work. The result? The reps sold less product to make sure no food spoiled on the shelves, and the company’s revenue dropped 20 percent in the first four months after the plan was initiated.

Ouch – talk about misaligning your comp plan with your business goals.  In a previous sales management role, I worked with an older plant manager who helped me out immensely.  One of the nuggets of wisdom he shared with me – whenever he had a new job come into the shop, he put his laziest machinist on it.  I asked him why and he told me that the lazy machinist would find the most efficient process for making the part (he wanted to do the least amount of work).

It would appear the salespeople in the above example made the most beneficial adjustment for the revised comp plan.  You can’t blame them, they simply reacted to the reward structure that was placed before them.  Select Metrix will be expanding our service offering soon to assist you in this endeavor.  Look for more news about this topic in the next few weeks.

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This is a timely topic considering we are in the midst of a blizzard up here in the Twin Cities. I personally have a short commute, but this topic is a big deal for the thousands on the road this morning stuck in stop and go traffic. The 2006 Commuter Impact Survey from the TransitCenter, Inc. looks at commuting issues from both an employer and employee viewpoint. We have touched on this topic in previous posts (Energy Prices And Recruitment, Telecommuting Town?).

There were some interesting findings in this survey that I wanted to pass along form this 18 page white paper. First, 76% of the employers who responded think their employees are either very or extremely concerned with the rising fuel and commuting costs. Second, only 43% of the employers offer flex time and 27% offer telecommuting as a means to offset these rising costs. I am still amazed at how few companies provide their employees with a telecommuting option. Many surveys reveal that companies are concerned with the effect commuting costs will have on their recruiting efforts. Yet, only 20% of the companies surveyed are planning any initiatives to impact these issues.

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This week we look at an age-old sales trait that, unfortunately, is common to many salespeople.  Personal responsibility in sales involves being responsible for results.  Holding salespeople accountable for their results is part of the sales manager’s job.  If you are experiencing a problem in this area, as a sales manager, your first task is to stop the salesperson’s excuse making.  That move is the first step to accountability for the salesperson.

Personal Accountability
This is the ability to be responsible for the consequences of one€™s own decisions and actions.  It involves taking responsibility for these decisions and not shifting the focus of blame or poor performance somewhere else (i.e. others).

A salesperson with strength in this trait will not try to make excuses for a bad decision. He or she will normally make every effort to try and identify the cause of that bad decision. Their focus will be more on correcting the problem to ensure future success than on protecting themselves.

A weakness in this area indicates a salesperson is more concerned with appearance and image than with results and success. They will seek to place blame for a bad decision on any factor which does not lie solely with them – doing so would detract from their abilities in the public image. Although achieving goals and success can be important to this person, their self-image is often fragile and protecting it is far more important.

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