CareerBuilder offers up the 5 most common candidate lies in this article. They bring up a good point in that 85% of all companies perform some type of candidate verification. Surprisingly, candidates continue to embellish or falsify their information. The top 5 lies: Exaggerating Dates of Past Employment…as many as 35 percent of all resumes include discrepancies related to previous employment Falsifying the Degree or Credential EarnedWith roughly a 20 percent discrepancy rate in information provided by candidates regarding their education qualifications, it’s important that companies understand the variety of ways applicants lie to claim unearned degrees.Even if a candidate has earned a legitimate degree, the applicant may lie about… Read More
Continue ReadingAre You Using Assessments?
Most people are, according to a Workforce Management Quick Take titled Organizations Look to Get Personal in €™07. Statistics from the short article (my emphasis): Organizations in 2007 will increasingly turn to personality tests when recruiting and hiring, according to Birkman International in Houston. Birkman, citing research from New Orleans-based Rocket-Hire Inc. (a Dear Workforce contributor), says 65 percent of companies used them in 2006, up from 34 percent a year earlier. That is a noticeable increase in one year. If you are not using assessments today in your hiring process, we can help.
Continue ReadingCustomers Don’t Walk
Here is an urban legend we encounter frequently in our sales hiring activities – customers don’t walk with the salesperson. What I mean is customers rarely follow a salesperson to a new company. If the salesperson quits one company and goes to a competitor, it is a rare occurrence in which the customers move their business with the salesperson. Yes, everyone can provide an example of when it happened, but we deal with many salespeople in many industries and it just is not common. Sales candidates, on the other hand, will go out of their way claiming that they can bring the business with them. Unfortunately, many companies who do… Read More
Continue ReadingValue Is More Than Price
I had an revealing discussion with one of our client’s this morning. This gentleman is the President of his company and we are running our process for a second sales position (selected 1 salesperson already). The conversation centered on the problems he had with a previous salesperson who has since been let go. This salesperson was completely reactive – he possessed no selling system whatsoever. His process was to take a call and fish for a request for proposal (RFP). He would respond to the RFP and hopefully get the business. Sad, but that was his process. The President was hesitant to let this sales guy go because he thought… Read More
Continue ReadingDealing With Dealbreakers
ManageSmarter.com offers a well-timed article titled Top Ten Ways to Kill a Deal. I say this is timely in that we have been dealing with multiple employment offers over the past week. These discussions are similar to salespeople closing a deal and, in fact, we like to observe the salesperson’s technique in handling these topics. The first point in the article is the most critical to success in negotiating: 1. Don’t show emotions Emotion€”such as neediness, desperation, or excitement€”are immediate turn-offs. Keep your body language and style of speaking emotionally neutral. Prepare your state of mind ahead of time. Repeat the mantra, “I don’t need this, I don’t need this,”… Read More
Continue ReadingA Surprising 6 Figure Job?
According to Forbes.com’s article Near The Head Of The Salary Class, one of the “surprising” 6 figure jobs is that of a sales representative. Surprising? As most of you know, a strong salesperson can easily make 6 figures in most industries. The main point regarding sales (and many other positions) is that you have to pay your dues. Nonetheless, Forbes listed this information in their slide show regarding the sales rep position: Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products Sell goods, for wholesalers or manufacturers, to businesses or groups of individuals. Work requires substantial knowledge of items sold. Top 10% Wage: $101,030Median Wage: $49,610Total No. Of Jobs:… Read More
Continue ReadingShow Up And Throw Up
As a continuation of my post from earlier this morning, I came across another Selling Power article that complements the point about the importance of asking the right questions. The Sales Intelligence Imperative provides detailed statistics regarding the point at which many sales stall. Interestingly enough, the researchers found that prospects were dropping out at a surprising time: New research from CSO Insights shows an €œalarming erosion€ in sales reps€™ ability to move the sale forward from that initial conversation. Specifically, 57.6 percent of companies in 2005 said more than half of their initial conversations progressed further into the sell cycle. There will always be salespeople who approach the wrong… Read More
Continue ReadingCompensating Mileage
Simple thought here for anyone who hires or manages salespeople. We always recommend reimbursing outside salespeople through mileage as opposed to a monthly allowance. Simple psychology here: Allowance Reimbursement – you are paying the salesperson a set amount of money every month regardless of their travels. Now the salesperson may look at travel as an expense the dilutes their personal profit margin. They make more money by traveling less which is anathema to selling. Yes, it is good to encourage them to be frugal in their travel so they don’t go on a shake-and-howdy bender – better to qualify prospects thoroughly before scheduling a visit. I don’t like the subtle reinforcement… Read More
Continue ReadingIt’s All In The Questions
Selling Power provides an excellent article regarding a sales ability that is often overlooked – The Art of Asking Great Questions. Listening is an important sales skill that leads to qualifying success. But as the article points out, listening ability it not worth much if you cannot ask the right question. You can€™t simply walk in a prospect€™s door and say, €œWhat are the issues you are struggling with?€ or €œWhat keeps you up at night?€ Today, you€™d be jettisoned out of the office by savvy executives who demand more researched, intelligent, and thought-provoking questions. This approach is true no matter what you sell. The ability to ask good questions… Read More
Continue ReadingWords That Make You Wince
Ok, as a blogger I find this Yahoo story downright insulting. From ‘Most Hated Internet Words’ Revealed: “Blog”, “netiquette”, “cookie” and “wiki” have been voted among the most irritating words spawned by the Internet, according to the results of a poll published Thursday. Topping the list of words most likely to make web users “wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard” was folksonomy, a term for a web classification system. “Blogosphere”, the collective name for blogs or online journals, was second; “blog” itself was third; “netiquette”, or Internet etiquette, came fourth and “blook”, a book based on a blog, was fifth. They have got to be… Read More
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