Allow me to indulge myself – I just read a fun, short post from Inc.com titled Spam, Where Art Thou? The author has some highly entertaining metaphors (and similes) in the post regarding her company’s new high-octane spam filter: This new filter, by contrast, is very efficient; cleansing my inbox of undesirables and dumping them all in spam ghetto, from whence I receive reports several times a week. Occasionally I find something like my CEO’s note has become accidentally trapped, and I release it like a dolphin from tuna nets. Generally, though, I just scan the subject lines. The sheer volume of coarse come-ons, unleavened by less-provocative missives from friends… Read More
Continue ReadingJurassic Marketing
I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard an ad for a company that mentioned their website. This company doesn’t sell anything over the web – this was simply a corporate website. Here is what caught my ear in the ad: “Our website is available 24×7.” We are not professional marketers here at Select Metrix, but I’m not sure that is a strong value proposition. In case it is, I am here to proudly announce that The Hire Sense is available 24×7.
Continue ReadingThe Laid-Off Salesperson Problem
When sourcing and phone screening, we tend to come across salespeople who have been laid off from a previous position. Layoffs are obviously a common occurrence in business, but they are problematic in sales. Most companies do not lay off salespeople who are closing profitable business. Granted, some companies view salespeople as an expense and assume the customer relationship will remain – big mistake. Some smaller companies are family owned and keep the family members employed as the business contracts. There are always exceptions, but they are not the rule. When we encounter a salesperson who has been laid off, we immediately look for logical specifics regarding their shortened tenure. The… Read More
Continue ReadingWork/Life Balance Has Reached Executives
BusinessWeek.com offers up a good summation of today’s hiring market in terms of executive recruitment. We could have wrote this article – it describes exactly what we are encountering in a couple of executive searches. Let’s unpack a couple points from the article: This new environment requires that executive headhunters and companies’ human resources and business leaders delve deeper into what’s really important to senior-management candidates and calibrate the recruitment process accordingly. Very true. Part of this understanding comes from assessing their motivations and rewards, the other part from interaction. Yesterday I posted on the need for flexibility when hiring since candidates desire work/life balance far more than in previous… Read More
Continue ReadingTechniques To Foster Confusion
From ManageSmarter.com: • Blended jobs. These are jobs where the salesperson is doing two or more dissimilar selling tasks. Sales specialization improves performance. • Corrupted jobs. Decontaminate jobs that are degraded with non-selling tasks such as “fetch and get” after-the-sale customer service duties. • Account ownership confusion. While necessary, the effective use of global account managers, national account managers and overlay specialists requires explicit account ownership protocols. The ownership confusion bullet catches my eye in that we have a customer that is working through this problem. They have a major account manager who has a tendency to swoop into territories covered by local sales reps. The major account manager often… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Value Of Flexibility
We’ve been focusing on retention recently as the present job market has forced this issue. One point to note is that retention topics show up during the offer stage of hiring new salespeople. The items the candidate values are often the ones in which they engage the hiring company. Forbes.com’s How To Keep Your Employees Happy offers this: Interestingly, throwing money at staffers isn’t always the answer. Neither is throwing a party every few months. Having fun at work and creating a cohesive team is just one element. The most successful companies also realize flexibility, values, career development and providing meaningful experiences are also important elements to minimizing turnover. The… Read More
Continue ReadingInformation Is Money
One thing that consistently stands out in sales is the ability to gather information. I’m not talking about personal information like family, home, education and the rest. That information is important for building rapport, but many salespeople (i.e. schmoozers) never move past that level. The national sales team with whom we work has a strong sales manager who is constantly beating this drum. He implores his team to go beyond the excitement of a potential deal and start asking the straight questions about competition and pain. The sales manager’s approach is excellent in that they sell in a competitive market where customer loyalty is almost lacking. The service is viewed… Read More
Continue Reading"We’d Rather Miss A Good One Than Hire A Bad One"
Interesting story today from the AP – Employers study applicants’ personalities – that discusses hiring processes designed to see if a candidate is the right fit. These processes are a good start, but much of what they are trying to accomplish could be done through assessments. Despite a labor shortage in many sectors, some employers are pickier than ever about whom they hire. Businesses in fields where jobs are highly coveted — or just sound like fun — are stepping up efforts to weed out people who might have the right credentials but the wrong personality. But if you would rather take the longer route, there is this approach: Rackspace… Read More
Continue ReadingYou Can’t Get "A" Players With A "B" Company
This truth is one that we cannot utter to our customers, but it is critical in assisting a company to upgrade their sales team. Implicit in this statement is the fact that some companies, when it comes to sales, do not provide an “A” level opportunity. The reasons companies do not fit the A level often revolves around a handful of lesser items and one big item. First the lesser items: Compensation.A players expect A-level compensation. Many hiring companies believe they can offer A-level compensation through their commission structure. While this may be possible, it is often unattainable. A commission plan in which the salesperson must triple the company’s revenue… Read More
Continue ReadingMovin On Up – Take Two
We’re having some fun with the website as we move it to a new web host. There was a post about the move, and now there isn’t a post about it. The joys of transferring a site! Anyway, the new provider will allow for our site to load faster and perform better. We will also unveil a new look for The Hire Sense in the near future. In the meantime, please bear with us as we get back online blogging shortly.
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