I love that turn of phrase.  And here from Inc.com is another good example of how we have far too many surveys taking place in this country.  From When Warm Weather Arrives, More Employees Call in “Sick”:

Of 1,077 full-time employees polled, 39 percent said they’ve called in sick to take a day off in the past, and 30 percent said they planned to do so again this summer, according to the “Summer Absenteeism” survey conducted by Harris Interactive.

Among employees who faked sick days, most said they used their time off to go to the beach or go shopping. Not surprisingly, the most popular days to skip work were Monday and Friday, the survey found.

In addition to wanting to enjoy the weather, respondents also said they called in sick whenever they needed a mental-health day or had limited time off due to a demanding workload.

One third of the survey respondents have used a sick day to take a day off (I suspect the real number is far greater than 39%).  Employees tend to do this on Monday or Friday.  Employees tend to do this more in the summer.  Employees justify this action as a mental-health day.

Shocking.

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When you boil it down to the basics, sales departments are measured by profit increases. Simple, yes, but that is the crux of the goal. Operational efficiencies are part of the equation, but the focus here is on increasing profits via increased revenue. So how do companies go about achieving improvement in their sales-driven profits?

Profile Your Sale
Too often sales gets muddled by general tactics, inconsistent value propositions and rogue selling systems. Understanding your ideal sale is the first step to repeatable results. The output is a definition of what your ideal sale looks like from this day forward. This clarity provides direction and consistency to all sales efforts.

Evaluate What You Have
The next step is to measure your current team to assess group strengths and weaknesses especially in comparison to your ideal sale. This step usually leads to the realization that some salespeople on your team do not have the best skills for your department’s long-term goals. Yet, these salespeople still can contribute – the advantage is that you now know how to best utilize their abilities.

Manage To Their Strengths
Managers must manage to each individual’s strengths while neutralizing the salesperson’s weaknesses. This approach is the backbone of successful sales management. Our sales development plan provides a specific road map for the sales manager to follow with each individual.

Hire Stronger Salespeople
Nothing has a greater impact on increased sales profits and revenues than hiring stronger salespeople. Mediocrity is a degenerative disease within a company. Accepting mediocrity in your sales hiring is beyond dangerous (“warm body is better than no body,” “hire fast, fire fast,” etc.). Bad hires are worse (gut-level decisions, over-reliance upon resumes, etc.). Change your process, change your hires, change your revenue and profits.

You notice that we do not list 1 or 2 day sales motivation training. These programs are entertaining for annual sales meetings but are pointless for significantly changing a sales team. Habits do not change in 1, 3 or 10 days (I heard it takes 21 days to form a new habit). Enjoy these energetic speakers and perhaps take away a salient point or two. But do not expect a seismic shift in your sales team’s abilities.

This fact means that the sales manager must consistently guide the team to success. This goal is best accomplished by knowing each individual’s strengths, how best to coach them and ensuring that you put the strongest team into the marketplace.

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I’ve mentioned before that I have talked to prospective customers who are adamant that newspaper ads are the best media to place job ads. I couldn’t disagree more with them. Along comes this quick-hitting article from Inc.com:

The number of jobs posted online rose by 9,000 in May to 4,374,400, an increase of 0.2 percent from April, the Conference Board reported Wednesday.

Online job vacancies were up 29 percent from the same period last year, the New York-based private research group said.

I cannot understand why any company would choose to advertise in a printed newspaper.

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