This may be a topic that only interests me, but here is the link to the annual Fortune 500 list (h/t JustSell.com).  You can sort the list on a myriad of criteria.  I sorted the data by state and found that Minnesota came in with a respectable 20 F500 companies with an impressive 5 companies in the F100 (based on revenue):

21. UnitedHealth Group

33. Target

72. Best Buy

89. Travelers Cos.

97. 3M

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I wanted to just post a quick shout-out to Paul DeBettignies at MN Headhunter who organized one of the most impressive, impromptu conferences I have ever attended.  Paul is a genuinely humble guy but he did yeoman’s duty as the driving force behind the conference.  He has a post summarizing the event that you can read here.  John Sumser has pictures here.

110+ people attended the event at Best Buy corporate headquarters yesterday and the feedback has been amazing.  The discussions I had afterwards were all highly complimentary and those attendees were hoping for a continuation of the conference.  That discussion has already started so I will pass on information on the next Twin Cities’ conference as it becomes available (here is the information pertaining to yesterday’s conference).

The next traveling roadshow will be in Atlanta in Sept. in case you are in the area and would like to attend.  I’ll post the details when they are available.

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Here is a typical article about interview technique titled How to Keep Your Cool In the Interview Hot Seat from CareerJournal.com. The article promotes common advice regarding how to keep your nerves during an interview.

Personally, I appreciate a candidate who has some nervousness in an interview. Granted, I don’t want them to curl up in the fetal position on the floor, but a bit of nervousness tells me that they have a desire to do well. Implicitly I then believe they are most interested in the position (not always true but a good way to hedge your bets).

Now, here is the advice in the article that we derail in our interview process:

Since you tend to panic during interviews, running through the basic questions a couple of times before turning on the television is not good enough. You need to be prepared to the point where you can list your best qualities in staggering detail while parallel parking a Cadillac in a tight spot.

That approach may work in other positions, but not sales. Salespeople who come to an interview with a pre-canned shtick are most annoying . . . and appear phony. Imagine this salesperson representing your company in the market and sitting before your best prospect. What if he or she simply runs their pre-canned presentation whether it resonates with the prospect or not? You’ll be able to remove that prospect from your forecast. That day.

The better approach for sales interviews is to keep the candidate off guard. Don’t ask common questions. Don’t ask leading questions. Ask questions that require specific answers and then drill down on their answers to get the unvarnished truth. You can even gently interrupt them to keep them on topic.

Sales is a tough position that requires people with a unique and rare skill set. Your best bet for making the best hire is to see the salesperson in action during your hiring process.

If you need assistance with this process, we can help.

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SellingPower.com offers an excellent article titled End Those Last-Minute Negotiations.  The article quotes one of our favorite trainer/authors – Jeff Thull.  Thull rightly ties together two critical pieces of closing a sale – value proposition and money.

Many salespeople are clumsy with putting the right value proposition in play.  If the salesperson is not asking the right questions, he or she will not know whether the value they offer through their solution is valuable to the prospect.  To make matters worse, many salespeople struggle with the need to discuss budgets (money) with the prospect.  Combine these two weaknesses and you have trouble.

Thull€™s team conducted informal research of about 10,000 sales and found buyers consistently paid a premium when the rep selling the product provided a clear definition of the problem and its cost, and provided a very clear plan for success. In these situations, says Thull, buyers had no motivation or desire to negotiate down the price because the value they were receiving was so crystal clear. The only way to get to this point is to shift your selling emphasis to diagnosing problems rather than presenting solutions.

Exactly.  Salespeople who are able to diagnose first are able then to present the right value.  One aspect of this approach that isn’t addressed in this article is the fact that you may not have a viable, valuable solution.  Every salesperson must be willing to walk away from the “bad” deals – especially if uncontrolled discounting is the end result.

As Thull puts it, €œAlways be leaving.€ Always be ready to walk away from a deal. When that€™s your mindset and the customer says, €œIf we can€™t get another 5 percent we may not be able to go forward with this,€ you€™ll be ready to calmly reply, €œWell, that would be disappointing. But if that€™s the decision you need to make, let me know.€

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A common myth – the best salespeople are great talkers first and foremost.  Most people have heard that one yet it is simply not true.  The ability to communicate effectively involves speaking and listening – it is difficult to find strength in both of these abilities.

ManageSmarter.com offers The Power of Questions which is on topic for this discussion with a good analogy:

The most effective way to control the sale is to ask more questions.

Selling is like driving a car: The person who asks the questions sits in the driver’s seat and controls the direction of the sale, while the passenger€”the person who answers the questions€”goes along for the ride. Unfortunately, many sales people feel that they are selling when they respond to their prospect’s questions. They mistakenly believe this will demonstrate how smart or knowledgeable they are and will help their prospect make a buying decision.

Objective listening ability is one of the most important skills for any sales position.  Beyond that ability, asking the right question is just as important.  The ability to listen is of little value if the question did not prompt the right information from the prospect.

Instead, your reps need to ask high-quality questions that will make your prospect think and will demonstrate your company’s knowledge and expertise.

…

Here are three tips to developing good sales questions to pass on to your team:

1. Determine your key objective.

2. Consider the person you will be speaking with.

3. Use “what” questions.

You can read the article for the author’s specific suggestions for each tip (especially point #3).  It is well worth the read.

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This week we focus on a thorn in many sales manager’s sides but this trait is one where strength may not actually be beneficial to success in sales.

Respect For Policies
The ability of a salesperson to see and appreciate the value of conducting business affairs according to the defined intent of company policies and standards.

A salesperson with strength in this trait generally understands the philosophies of the corporate structure and will strive to conduct business according to those standards. They will honor the concept of doing things according to the rules and regulations of the company.

A weakness in this area indicates a salesperson who does not have a clear picture or concept of the function of rules and regulations. They may feel that a company policy is only to be utilized when they are practical and functional. The policy can be broken whenever it hinders the effective and practical execution of their job. This does not mean that they actively seek to violate company policy for the sake of breaking rules. Instead, they may honestly feel that the policies are only guidelines to be used in the execution of their responsibilities (not laws always to be obeyed).

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I don’t know if there is a worst place to have a spelling error than in the title of an online ad. The title from an ad I read this morning:

Inside Sales- Excellent Growth Opprotunity

My thought that it was an oversight ended when I opened the ad – the first line of the ad:

Inside Sales- Excellent Growth Opprotunities

We posted last year about resume errors and the effect it has on a candidate’s opportunities. Well, obvious errors in the ad can stifle responses. My initial thought was that this company lacks detail – probably a loosely-run ship. The irony here is that the company provides a service that requires a strong attention to detail.

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We are experiencing a seismic shift of the sales process as it moves from a single salesperson calling on prospects to to a team-based approach. A recent article at Selling Power lays out the roles the varies team members should play. The article comes from The Fisherman’s Guide to Selling: Reel in the Sale €“ Hook, Line and Sinker, authored by Joe DiMisa. Here are the 6 basic roles as defined by him:

1. The Leader: This ONE person pilots the meeting or discussions.
2. Color commentator: This person will add “color” or important facts or statistics relevant to key issues.
3. Note taker: This person records comments, decisions, agreements, needs, and action steps.
4. Bagman: This person brings all the materials for your presentation including handouts, copies, collateral, and equipment.
5. Name taker: This person records meeting participants and collects their contact information such as business cards.
6. Coordinator: This person makes sure everyone has a role and understands that role and its importance to the meeting, typically the account person.

DiMisa adds that one person can assume more than one role. For example, the note taker can also be the name taker and the bagman. He also suggests you take the cue from our customer and don’t bring in your entire team to meet with one person – you don’t want to overwhelm them.

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From a resume cover letter I found online:

I have been sending emails to job postings to customer service/sales positions on <job board> now for awhile and I cant figure out why it is that I dont get any replies back. Im colleges educated from a 4 year liberal arts institution…

As a fellow liberal arts-educated person, I do have sympathy for this person’s plight.  I think a good first step would be punctuation and proof-reading.

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We are strong proponents of candidate assessments as you know from reading our blog.  There is another aspect of successful hiring that we advocate and that is thorough background verifications.  We have numerous customers who conduct employment, education, credit and drug verifications.

In case you wondered why, Foxnews.com offers this statistic-driven headline – 1 in 12 Workers in U.S. Admit Using Drugs in Past Month:

Nineteen percent of workers age 18 to 25 said they used illegal drugs during the past month, compared with 10.3 percent among those age 26 to 34; 7 percent among those age 35 to 49; and 2.6 percent among those age 50 to 64.

That stat alone should be enough to start you down the verification trail.

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