I kid you not – I just read the employment ad for it. The ad does not describe the position in any way but it does mention that this opportunity is “legitimate.”

A good rule of thumb – if they have to say it is legitimate, it probably isn’t.

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Since assessments are a large part of our business, we are naturally drawn to these types of stories – from CareerJournal.com’s How Some Entrepreneurs Manage To Score Big Again and Again (emphasis mine):

In 2000, Mr. Stewart published a study with two other researchers looking for common traits among serial entrepreneurs — which he defined as those who had owned and operated three or more businesses. Of the 664 entrepreneurs studied, only 12% fit the bill. But those who did scored higher in all three categories examined: They had a higher propensity for risk, innovation and achievement. They were less scared of failure. And they were more able to recover when they did fail.

Beyond that, many serial-preneurs bring tactical advantages from their first venture to apply the second and third time around. For instance, they recruit top talent from their original companies to subsequent ventures. They double-dip financially, getting money — and connections — from people who backed their earlier brainstorms. Several lean heavily on a trusted partner for financial, professional and emotional support in whatever endeavor they undertake.

We deal with many entrepreneurs on a weekly basis and the 3 traits the authors described above are spot on. I am always amazed by their fearlessness in the face of potential failure. I think Seth Godin best described this ability:

That moment

When you are sitting right on the edge of something daring and scary and creative and powerful and perhaps wonderful… and you blink and take a step back.

That’s the moment. The moment between you and remarkable. Most people blink. Most people get stuck.

All the hard work and preparation and daring and luck is nothing compared with the ability to not blink.

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I was reading this article from BusinessWeek.com titled Gateway to Better Hiring and I enjoyed this test that the author incorporated into her employment ad.

Here is an example. I was hiring an editor, and so I included this instruction in the job ad: “If you are interested in this job, please write to me at this e-mail address with your comments on the most recent edition of our newsletter.” (I included the URL for the newsletter, of course.) That is a simple enough gate. Curious to know what percentage of candidates followed the instruction? Ten percent. The rest probably never saw the instruction at all, “buried” as it was in a 100-word job posting. They just spotted the job ad, read maybe the first line, and shot off a résumée. (sic)

That 90% aren’t in my pool. I saved time, and the best candidates rose right to the top.

She goes on to suggest a writing assignment for candidates to get a glimpse of their writing ability and grammar.  This task is one we use in our sourcing activities and it is quite effective.  One other piece of information you learn is their responsiveness to your request.  Some respond fairly quickly while others ignore the request all together.  Some respond poorly while others respond in thought-provoking ways.

On your next round of candidates, ask them to analyze part of your business, address a market question or explain a finely-worded topic.  You will be surprised at what you learn from such a simple exercise.

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This week we look at a trait that provides a measurement that is difficult for any interviewer to ascertain on their own.

Job Ethic
The capacity to fulfill the professional responsibilities with a strong sense of moral duty and obligation they have been given.

A salesperson with strength in this trait will have a positive self-direction, a realistic understanding of their role and a positive goal/direction focus.

A weakness in this area indicates a weakness in one of the above abilities which may lead the salesperson to have trouble applying his or her abilities to a given task.

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Steven Rothberg at CollegeRecruiter.com has an insightful post regarding the use of Facebook in recruiting Gen Y workers. His point:

But to Gen Y, the other employees can also be a powerful recruiting tool. They want to know who they’ll be working with because they’ve been raised to work effectively in teams. If their team members aren’t up to snuff, their work product will suffer and they’ll be unhappy and looking for a new gig.

He then provides an example of how Jennie-O (seriously, the turkey people) is leveraging their current employees to recruit. I must confess, I did not think of Jennie-O as a cutting-edge company in the social networking world. If they are at this level, where is your company?

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Here is an excellent reminder from the JustSell.com newsletter:

How long was your last presentation? What could be trimmed?

Over the next couple weeks (outside the money hours, of course), invest some time examining the brevity of your sales presentations (both your formal and informal versions). For every point ask, €œWhy is this needed for my presentation?€ If you’re unsure of the reason, cut it — lean and effective is your goal (review the presentation checklist here).

If you don’t have it written, planned, and practiced, commit to doing it within the month. The chances of rambling skyrocket without a formally developed presentation.

Time is money and decision makers who take action know it. Improve your results and respect the time€¦ their time and yours.

Tic toc€¦

(that was 212 words)

We see this time and again with respondents with whom we conduct a phone screen. We once asked a simple question asking for a 1 minute overview of a respondent’s resume. 15 minutes later, the guy finally reached the end of his 1 minute overview.

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We write often about the interview stage of a sales hiring process and how to use it effectively. One of the best uses of the interview is to determine the sales candidate’s fit to your company culture.

In that light, Selling Power offers an article with some good questions to ask during the interview. These questions start the culture discussion and will be helpful in your hiring determination:

€¢ What is your understanding of sales culture?
€¢ How would you describe the sales culture of your present employer?
€¢ Specifically, what do you like best about that sales culture? What do you like the least?
€¢ If it were up to you, what kind of sales culture would you develop for a company to be successful in this industry?
€¢ What type of behaviors do you exhibit that are exemplary of the sales culture you just described?
€¢ What do you know about our sales culture?
€¢ We pride ourselves in our sales culture. Why do you think you would fit into this culture?

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A press release from the Milken Institute’s annual Cost-of-Doing-Business Index lists the most expensive states for doing business and the least expensive.

First, the top of the list:

Ten Most Expensive
1 Hawaii
2 New York
3 Alaska
4 Massachusetts
5 Connecticut
6 California
7 New Jersey
8 Vermont
9 Delaware
10 Rhode Island

And then the inexpensive list:

Ten Least Expensive Rank
50 South Dakota
49 Iowa
48 North Dakota
47 Nebraska
46 Idaho
45 South Carolina
44 Montana
43 Missouri
42 Tennessee
41 Arkansas

I see lists like this and think one thing – taxes.

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Here is a good post from Ed McLean on his Sales Itch blog – Sales Dilemma No.1:

There€™s a story in sales job hunting folklore where the smugly smiling interviewer plucks out a pen from his jacket pocket and say, €œSell me this pen€. What would you say? Here are the options I came up with:

You will have to read the post to view Ed’s excellent options.

Believe it or not, I actually encountered this interview approach when I was a young sales rep. I sat in the office of a salty old sales manager who told me to look under the chair I was sitting in. There was a box with many little trinkets and I was told to pick an item and sell it to him.

I picked a pen and attempted to qualify him. He, of course, did me the favor of being the worst prospect ever (which means he wasn’t a prospect). I worked through the qualifying and determined he had no need for my unique pen and its qualities. I got to the end of the qualifying discussion and told him I had reached the conclusion that he was not a prospect and I was moving on. The sales manager was not impressed and my interview ended right there.

At that point, I was glad I didn’t have to waste any more time with him. And I suspect that was his view of me.

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Interesting story here from Inc.com – Small Businesses Responsible for Nearly All New Jobs – that has a surprising statistic:

Businesses with fewer than 20 employees account for 90 percent of all U.S. firms and are responsible for more than 97 percent of all new jobs, according to a new report by the Small Business Administration.

This is just one statistic from a recently published annual report by the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy based on Census data from 1988 to 2004, the most recent year available. The detailed figures quantify various indicators among small businesses, including job creation, business births and deaths, industry growth, and regional differences.

97% seems almost incredible.

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