I am most interested in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) when it comes to enhancing communication. We have been through some rudimentary training on this topic so ManageSmarter.com’s article - Rapid Rapport and Riches - piqued my interest.

The long article covers many details, but here is a general definition of NLP:

NLP is a behavioral technology created in the 1970s by Richard Brandler, a student of mathematics and Gestalt’s Therapy, and John Grinder, a professor of linguistics at the University of California Santa Cruz. Neuro refers to the nervous system, through which we experience the five senses: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory. Linguistic is language and non-verbal communication systems that give our thoughts and emotions meaning. These include pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, and smells. We experience situations and our environment through our senses, and then represent that experience through language. Programming refers to communication with yourself and others to achieve desired outcomes.

And the reason why this information is important in sales:

The core of NLP is building rapport, a skill critical to customer service and sales professionals. When you have rapport, you have a feeling of commonality, which gives people comfort because they feel understood.

Some of the training seems odd at times, but the real-world application of it is startling. We have developed a mild ability to use this training and it brings a heightened level of communication (emphasis mine):

In face-to-face salesmanship, a combination of voice tone and body language (body positioning, eye contact, and gestures) affects rapport. During live interactions, approximately 55 percent of information is gathered from the other person’s body language. If there is incongruence when someone’s body language is inconsistent with their words (i.e., appears angry yet says he or she is fine) people usually interpret the true meaning of the communication from the body language.

Now here is the part that we pay close attention to:

You also need to think about the language you use. We experience life through our senses, and some people have sensory preferences. They utilize some senses more heavily than others. The primary sensory preferences are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (touch). Most people favor their sense of vision, and use visual words to describe experiences. They might say something is “not clear,” or they “don’t see” where you’re coming from. A person with an auditory sensory preference might say, “That sounds good,” while a person with a kinesthetic preference would say, “This doesn’t feel like the right solution for me,” or “I don’t have a grasp on that yet.”

Good example of this: I have an auditory preference while Lee has a visual preference. However, we usually try to adapt to the other person’s preference (from our training). When we end a phone call, he will usually say “Sounds good.” while I will tend to say “See you later.”

If you're new here and like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Comments(0)

Ok, it is a cheeky title to this post, but I recently read this Inc.com article - Big Surprise: Most Workers Faking Sick Days (see, Inc.com started it).  In case you had any doubt:

…most workers who call in sick at the last minute aren’t really sick.

…

The real reasons for employee absenteeism range from family issues to personal needs and stress. Indeed, a majority of workers tend to call in “sick” on Mondays or Fridays, with similar patterns appearing around major holidays, the survey found.

So no surprises here but there is a very good point made towards the end of the article (emphasis mine):

Still, Wolf doesn’t blame people for taking the odd day off. She said most workers are forced to juggle increasing demands from the workplace, family, or other commitments, creating what she calls a “tug of war” for their time.

Wolf said employers stand to gain by building a better partnership with employees through work-life balance programs. According to the survey, the five most effective programs for reducing absenteeism were alternative work arrangements, telecommuting, a compressed work week, leave for school functions, and flu-shot programs.

There is a sea change occurring in these benefit areas, but we still see some hesitancy in the old guard when it comes to initiating these types of programs.

Comments(0)

We just lost a strong candidate at one of our customers this week because the company’s offer did not contain a well-defined benefits package.  That always hurts.  Now this morning I read the CareerJournal.com article titled Firms Increasingly Offer ‘Voluntary’ Benefits.  I haven’t heard of this trend, but it is most intriguing.

A growing number of businesses, large and small, are offering employees so-called voluntary benefits ranging from pet insurance to homeowners insurance to help with house closings and estate planning.

The signature character of these voluntary benefits is that employees pay for them, but at a discounted rate obtained by the employer.

Medical insurance will always be the top benefit for employees, but this offering is an excellent idea for creating a different package.  These items will stand out in a candidate’s mind even though they are employee paid benefits.

If I am already paying for some of these items and get get a better deal through my employer, I view that as a tangible, valuable asset.

Employees often don’t appreciate free benefits, Mr. Thompson said, especially if they are benefits they don’t use. However, workers “value having a whole shopping cart of benefits that they can select from,” he said.

I can foresee many small-sized companies taking advantage of this trend too.  In case you are looking for some ideas:

Some of the most popular benefits include supplemental life insurance, group homeowners insurance and auto insurance, and critical-illness insurance, which pays a lump sum when someone is diagnosed with a serious illness.

Comments(4)

This week’s sales management trait sports a word that I don’t particularly enjoy - “monitoring.” That isn’t a great description of this trait since it is far broader than that term. Nonetheless, in today’s world of remote salespeople, this trait will be in even greater demand in the near future.

Monitoring Others
This ability focuses on the actions and decisions of others in a practical, pragmatic way to identify both successes and mistakes. It is the ability to identify the causes of success and failure and to do so in an objective, accurate manner while not allowing personal feelings or biases to influence such decisions.

A sales manager with strength in this capacity will be able to accurately and effectively evaluate the performance of another. This objective evaluation is crucial in accurately leading, developing, and managing the salesperson being monitored.

A weakness in this area can indicate that the person does not place enough importance on systems and order. Therefore, they tend to discount the need to make systematic measurements in order to improve performance. They may allow too much subjectivity into their assessment and will instead tend to see what they €œthink€ the person is capable of as opposed to seeing how they are actually doing.

Comments(0)

I mentioned the new Salesopedia JobsCentral board earlier today. As part of that board’s launch, I had the chance to record a podcast with Clayton Shold from Salesopedia and Jeremy Miller from LEAPJob.com.

We talked about a handful of sales hiring trends, Generations X & Y and our predictions of where we see the market going in the next 5 years. It was a good, lively discussion and worth your time to listen.

Please click here to listen to the entire podcast.

Comments(0)

I came across this quick info from The Career News newsletter (sorry, no link):

Job site CareerBuilder.com recently asked pollsters Harris Interactive to survey hiring managers and find out the wackiest resume items they’ve seen lately. Out of 2,627 responses, here are the top ten resume blunders made by job candidates:

1. Attached a letter from her mother.
2. Used pale blue paper with teddy bears printed around the border.
3. Explained a three-month gap in employment by saying that he was getting over the death of his cat.
4. Specified that his availability to work Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays is limited because the weekends are “drinking time.”
5. Included a picture of herself in a cheerleading uniform.
6. Drew a picture of a car on the outside of the envelope and said the car would be a gift to the hiring manager.
7. Listed hobbies that included sitting on a levee at night watching alligators.
8. Mentioned the fact that her sister had once won a strawberry-eating contest.
9. Stated that he works well in the nude.
10. Explained an arrest record by stating, “We stole a pig, but it was a really small pig.”

Comments(0)

I’m a bit late in posting on this, but Salesopedia has launched a new job board dedicated to sales positions. The niche job board market is one we have been dabbling in for the past year and are finding it to be far more fruitful than the large boards.

I have no doubt that Salesopedia’s JobCentral will be a tremendous tool for sourcing top sales candidates. We have already signed up and have our first ad running on the board.

Check it out when you have a moment.

Comments(0)

Can I just say that automated truncating still requires an editor?  In case you doubt me, check out this title for a sales position:

Sales Administrator/Sales Ass

Honestly, no one at the newspaper caught this?

Comments(0)

We have been running into this topic of late with offers in different industries and it is a real stumbling block for some companies.  I have worked as a salesperson for both product sales and service sales with different commission plans.  The crux of the issue falls on margin.

We typically recommend commission plans based on margins instead of revenue.  Businesses grow by making money.  Yes, a simple statement, but one that can be undercut by a discount-oriented salesperson.

If you provide a percentage of revenue to a salesperson as their commission plan, they are not incented to maintain the price.  It is far more expedient for the salesperson to discount the price (at a small penalty to their wallet) to close the deal faster and move on.  The problem develops when the salesperson starts earning a commission check for a deal in which the company lost money.  That format is what we call upside-down.

Margin is a better incentive in that it does encourage the salesperson to maintain price rigidity in negotiations.  Granted, they can still discount, but it should have a more direct impact on their wallet.

Let’s flesh it out more - product sales tend - tend - to have more predictable costs.  That means gross margin commissions are more predictable.

Service sales, on the other hand, tend to have greater cost variance.  Much of the variance is dependent upon operation’s success.  I encountered this issue first hand when I was selling cabling infrastructures for computer networks.  My commission was based on the final gross margin.  If the installation crew made mistakes, I lost money.  If they took too many breaks, I lost money.  It was a bad situation that was exasperated by the fact that I had no control over the operations side of the business.

We prefer commission plans based on estimated gross margin.  The key is to secure agreement from the operations people no the proposal.  If they sign off on the proposal, it is they their responsibility to complete the job within the proposed framework.  If they fail to deliver, the salesperson is not personally penalized for operational inefficiencies.

Comments(0)

Tight employment markets require a successful hiring processes and strong retention programs.  Companies have to play good defense when it comes to the rainmakers within their sales department.  CareerJournal.com ’s Six Reasons Top Performers Seek Out Greener Pastures lays out a handful of clear pitfalls to avoid in this present market.

First off, number 1 is rudimentary…and, in our experience, the most abused of the list:

They receive few rewards for good behavior. If high performers receive no extra kudos or compensation for their extraordinary performance, they’ll begin to wonder whether it’s worth putting in the extra effort. It’s important to acknowledge those who work to promote the success of the whole company. If you can’t afford to reward them financially, find another way to recognize their contributions.

In sales, you have many different egos.  Part of the sales manager’s job is to sort out the right buttons for each individual.  That is an area in which we help managers.  The most common transgression we see is the sales manager who projects his or her reward pattern on to all of their salespeople.  They assume every is like them and responds to the same rewards.  Big mistake.

They feel underutilized or unchallenged. Because of their need for mastery, high performing employees can get easily frustrated and bored when their roles become too circumscribed or stagnant. The antidote: Feed them a steady diet of challenges.

Monotony drives change for many salespeople.  If they begin to view each day as the same day over and over (remember the movie Groundhog Day?), they will start to look for a new challenge.

Comments(1)