“The biggest challenge employers face in recruiting new hires is the competition between companies for talent” notes Worldwide ERC, the association for global workforce mobility management. According to an article on their website, more than 90% of the companies surveyed are having problems recruiting the right people and more than 20% consider the problem severe. They were asked to give the reasons why they have been running into difficulties in hiring talented people – here are their responses (including percentages from the 2002 survey):

2002 2006

Competition with other companies 47% 59%

Lack of qualified candidates 48% 50%

Cost of living/housing issues 26% 38%

Undesirable areas 22% 32%

Dual career/family issues 28% 27%

Inadequate compensation/benefits 7% 16%

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Just read this title for a sales position:

Major Regional Account Sales Representative

That almost reads like the author was attempting to stuff keywords into the position’s title. As you know, I am finicky about titles since they are so important for online ads. Here is my first impression of this wordy title:

Major = big accounts
Regional = I’ll have a geographic territory
Account = B2B, no consumer sales
Sales = understood
Representative = warning – mouse nuts position

Now when I reread the title, I suspect that they were using “Sales Representative” which didn’t generate much interest. Their solution was to add title words that carry more clout. I could be completely wrong, but that is the impression I get as a candidate.

I tend to stay away from “Representative” in titles unless it truly is an entry-level sales position. Companies that have strong name recognition or market leadership positions seem to be the only ones that can successfully use that title.

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Complex sales require complex skills and traits to be successful. This week we look at a somewhat abstract capacity that pays tremendous dividends in long, complex sales cycles.

Concrete Organization
This capacity deals primarily with the salesperson€™s ability to properly allocate resources to accomplish a goal or plan. It includes the ability to understand the immediate, concrete needs of a situation and to establish an effective action plan for meeting those needs. These resources are not limited to only physical components. This capacity takes into account a person€™s ability to evaluate and utilize both human and physical resources.

A salesperson with strength in this trait will be able to systematically and logically evaluate the components of a situation and then utilize them effectively to produce the desired result.

A salesperson with a weakness in this capacity may have difficulty in identifying the separate components of a situation, and therefore, have difficulty in deciding what steps to take to meet a goal.

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