This week we focus on another important sales leadership trait.  We’ve seen this trait firsthand have the effect of holding a sales team together during turbulent times.

Conveying Role Value
This ability draws upon a variety of traits (empathetic, interpersonal and leadership) to instill in an employee a sense of value for the task at hand. It is the ability to convey to another the value and importance that a given role carries with it. This is not a measurement of a person€™s ability to understand a role€™s value, but to communicate that value to another or group of others.

A sales manager with strength in this capacity will be able to effectively instill in an employee, or employees, a belief that what they are doing has value. They will be able to paint a clear picture of how and why that role is important€¦to themselves, to the company or to others.

A weakness in this area can be indicative of two things: Either the manager attempting to convey this value does not adequately appreciate the value in a role, or their ability to communicate ideas and concepts to others in such a way that they are perceived as valuable is lacking.

Comments(0)

We’re working through some commission plans with our customers and one of the plans has a function to where the salesperson has to clear a certain quarterly revenue level before the commission plan kicks in.  This approach is somewhat common and has its merits.  Personally, I am not a fan of it for one reason.

Sandbagging.

I’m not talking about preparing for a flood (though there was plenty of that activity up here this summer).  I’m talking about getting a deal to the point where it can close today, but the salesperson holds it until the beginning of next quarter, month, week – whatever constitutes the commission time frame.

I know salespeople sandbag deals because I have done it plenty of times in my sales career.  And it only stands to reason – if I can frontload my commission plan at the beginning of the period, I have a better chance of exceeding my quota and accelerating my commission rate.

Keep that move in mind and you develop your sales commission plans. 

Comments(0)

Relying on the interview, benchmarking top performers, cloning yourself…these are all common mistakes that lead to bad sales hires.  These 9 mistakes are provided by ManageSmarter.com’s article:

Mistake 1:Relying only on interviews to evaluate a candidate

Mistake 2: Using successful people as models

Mistake 3: Too many criteria

Mistake 4: Evaluating “personality” instead of job skills

Mistake 5: Using yourself as an example

Mistake 6: Failure to use statistically validated testing to predict job skills most critical to success

Mistake 7: Not researching the reasons that people fail

Mistake 8: Relying on general “good guy” criteria

Mistake 9: Bypassing the reference check

That is a solid list of common mistakes.  You can learn more about each one by reading the entire article.  I want to zero in on Mistake 2.  From the article (emphasis mine):

Duplicating success may seem like a good idea, but the reasons people succeed are not clear from just measuring the characteristics of top performers. More important are the differences between top performers and low achievers. For example, a comprehensive study of more than 1,000 sales superstars from 70 companies showed that the top three characteristics shared by high achievers were (1) the belief that salesmanship required strong objection-answering skills, (2) good grooming habits, and (3) conservative dress€”especially black shoes. Oddly, a study of the weakest performers at those same companies revealed that the same three characteristics were their most common traits as well.

We ran a similar test on a large sales team years ago and found a similar result.  Another factor is a simple one – no two people are the same.  The better bet is to identify top traits, skills and motivations and then hire to those factors.  This means that the salesperson could have a completely different style, approach and experience.  They can still be successful, they will just go about it in a different manner.

Sometimes this difference is too much for hiring managers which leads to this mistake.  I have seen the hiring manager then reduce his or her decision to the salesperson’s style.  That could be Mistake 10 in this list.

Comments(0)

The Herman Group’s weekly newsletter (sorry, no link) covers what young jobseekers want and that is a specific urban area.

A just-released study from the Segmentation Company, a division of the market research firm Yankelovich reports that 65 percent of 1,000 respondents aged 24 to 35 said they preferred to “look for a job in the place that I would like to live,” rather than “look for the best job I can find; the place where it is located is secondary.”

The most popular qualities of a city (78 percent) were tidiness and attractiveness; the characteristic €œwill allow me to lead the life I want to lead€ was a close second (77 percent). Young jobseekers want the cities they live in to be safe, clean, and green.

Over the last 10 years, only 14 urban areas across the United States saw increases in this segment of workers.

Those cities are:

Las Vegas; NV
Austin, TX
Phoenix; AZ
Atlanta, GA
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Charlotte, NC
Salt Lake City, UT
Portland, OR
Denver, CO
Orlando, FL
Nashville, TN
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
Greensboro-Winston Salem, NC

Comments(0)

The hiring outlook for the remainder of the year is being bandied about by the media, but the latest Manpower survey paints a fairly clear picture of a strong market:

Of the 14,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 27% expect to increase their workforces during the fourth quarter of 2007, while 9% expect to trim their payrolls. Fifty-eight percent expect no change in the hiring pace, and 6% are undecided about their hiring plans.

The seasonally adjusted survey results show that in the majority of industry sectors the hiring pace is expected to remain steady during the final months of 2007. Employers in Construction, Durable and Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing, Wholesale/Retail Trade, Finance/Insurance/Real Estate, Education and Services foresee a hiring climate that is relatively unchanged from the third quarter forecast. Mining and Transportation/Public Utilities employers anticipate a slight downturn in hiring pace, while employers in the Public Administration sector foresee improved job prospects compared to the previous quarter.

Notice how 58% foresee “no change” in their hiring pace in Q4. That doesn’t mean they are slowing down, just sticking to their plan. No matter how the mainstream media attempts to frame the current economy, we are seeing an active sales hiring market.

Comments(3)

From my junk mail:

Stop writing cover letters the hard way. _____________ helps you quickly and easily crank out a killer cover letter that is guaranteed-to keep your phone ringing. With just a click-of-a-button, fill in the blanks and in just 3.5 minutes out pops a brilliantly worded and perfectly crafted cover letter – 100% customized for you.

I think “customized for you” needs further clarification. We are receiving a handful of cover letters with the exact same wording in each of them.

Comments(0)

This isn’t shocking news, but telecommuters are more satisfied with their work when compared to the traditional office worker.  CareerJournal.com’s Working From Home Fosters Job Satisfaction does provide some detail to this difference that I found noteworthy.  First the background stats:

Seventy-three percent of the remote and home-based workers surveyed said they are satisfied with their company as a place to work compared with 64% of office workers, according to the survey in June of about 10,000 U.S. workers.

But here is the section that points to retention (emphasis mine):

Some of the differences were striking, Wiley said, pointing to the 10 percentage point difference between the 54% of telecommuters who said there is “open, honest two-way communication” at their company versus 44% of the office workers who said that.

Fifty-three percent of the remote workers said they were not considering leaving the company within 12 months, while 46% of the office workers said leaving was not a consideration.

Fifty-eight percent of the telecommuters said “senior management demonstrates that employees are important to the success of the company,” versus 51% of the office workers who agreed, and 53% of the telecommuters said they believe senior management speaks honestly versus 44% of the office workers.

That is remarkable.  I seriously doubt there is a tremendous difference between the companies that allow telecommuting and those that do not.  But the employee’s perception is drastically different.

Telecommuting is a sea change that is occurring in the modern work environment.  If you are struggling with retention, telecommuting is an excellent option for changing the problem completely.  Yes, it requires a change in management approach.  Yes, you have to trust your salespeople to be self starters.  But it will pay dividends in your retention efforts.

Comments(0)

5-6 years ago sourcing was a much different market for sales candidates.  The economy had gone into recession and there were many talented salespeople looking for an opportunity.  We used to run ads that required candidates to call in on a certain day between certain hours.  We would then schedule them for a phone screen.

We didn’t even offer an email response option though some would still respond that way.  My how times have changed.

We used to get 50 to 75 call-in responses to our ad.  Today, we get 20 responses almost all via email.  Job postings used to be all that was needed to find numerous candidates.  Today, multiple channels are needed including extensive networking, active searches and alternate communication channels.

In this market, with the scarcity of strong candidates, you best have a dominant market position if your only sourcing channel is going to be a large job board ad.  Even then, success is not guaranteed.

We’ve met with a handful of companies recently who have been toiling away with this approach without success.  It takes a concerted effort with numerous approaches to find the candidates today.  If you are having trouble with your sales hiring in this market, we can help.

Comments(2)

We beat our heads against the wall sometimes when we have to remind our customers that hiring experience is not a strong hiring strategy.  More times than not, all you do is recycle mediocrity from within your industry.  What truly matters is to hire talent and skills.  Experience does not equal success.

For instance, pro football returns this weekend so can you tell me what these players all have in common:

Chad Pennington
Giovanni Carmazzi
Chris Redman
Tee Martin
Marc Bulger
Spergon Wynn

Still wondering?  All of these quarterbacks were selected in the 2000 draft ahead of Tom Brady.  Tom Brady has won 3 Super Bowls, 2 Super Bowl MVPs, invited  to 4 Pro Bowls and was Sports Illustrated’s 2005 Sportsman of the Year for 2005.

Brady obviously has extreme talent but he split time with another quarterback while in college at Michigan.  He did not have the typical experience that NFL teams look for so he ended up being the 199th pick in that draft.

Some day he will be in the Hall of Fame.

If you are hiring salespeople based on their experience, you are probably passing on the Bradys to select the Carmazzis.

Comments(0)

Cold calling is a disappearing art, but still a needed component of any sales position.  I have made my share of truly cold calls especially as a young salesperson.  I was awful (and still am today).  So any help in this area always catches my attention.

ManageSmarter.com has a terrific article that dissects a poorly executed call – How not to Handle a Cold Call.  I strongly recommend the article, but just to give you a taste of the tips:

Mistake 1: Forgetting to Prepare
The person who called me did absolutely no preparation before she dialed my number. A quick Internet search would have shown her that I have a website up and running so it’s unlikely that I’m looking for a designer or a domain host. Too many people who make cold calls do little or no research or preparation. However, the time invested up front can help you position your solution more effectively to your prospect.

To me, an unprepared cold call always sounds clumsy.  The sales rep could take a couple minutes on Google and learn something about the suspect.  Whenever I hear an unprepared cold caller, I envision them sitting in a cube somewhere simply punching a clock.

Mistake 2: Self-Focusing
She spent too much time talking about her company when she should have been asking questions to find out more about my business. To me, the obvious questions should have been:

€¢ “What I was doing to drive traffic to my site?”
€¢ “What results was I achieving?”
€¢ “How many visitors was I expecting to attract each month?” or “What results would I like to achieve?”

However, she did not ask any high-quality questions. Instead, she made the common mistake of trying to pitch her company. The shotgun approach of discussing everything your company has to offer with the hope of talking about one that appeals to your prospect is really a waste of your time and theirs. Plus, you cannot effectively position your goods or service without first knowing a thing or two about the company you are presenting to.

Don’t you hate having a stemwinder of a script read to you without the salesperson taking a breath?  I think this is one of, if not the, most annoying aspects of a poorly executed sales call.

Comments(0)