I never had any doubts, but Yahoo offers this story regarding coffee: What restored coffee’s reputation? Caffeine. After years of being viewed with suspicion, caffeine has pulled a scientific switcheroo. Besides helping students pull all-nighters and weekend warriors jumpstart their jump shots, there’s now evidence that it defends against diabetes, Parkinson’s, asthma symptoms, post-workout soreness, and even hunger pangs. I’m purposely omitting the rest of the article regarding moderation. Those lines are nothing more than pure sophistry…now on to my second extra large latte.
Continue ReadingReasons You Are Not Selling
This article is from the Salesopedia website. The article is excellent and rather amusing to read (probably since I am guilty of many of the author’s items). For instance: If you’re a professional salesperson and you’re not selling, it could be because: • You are boring. Do customers cut you off in mid-sentence, or jump in when you pause for breath? Chances are, you’re boring them. Paint a vivid picture and put them in it; use an example or interesting case history to illustrate your point. Whip out some visuals to show them how much they will save. I love it. When is the last time your read something that… Read More
Continue ReadingInternet By 2 To 1
Podcasting news offers us an article with some amazing statistics about Internet usage: The Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours). People spend twice as much time on the Internet as they spend watching television (16.4 hours). People spend eight times as much time on the Internet as they spentd (sic) reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours). Clearly there is convergence occurring between television and the Internet to the point where they will be fully integrated. Still, I’m surprised that today there is a 2… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Cost Of Underperforming Salespeople
Here’s an interesting little article I stumbled across this morning from Seacoastonline.com titled Get the most out of your sales team. The premise is simple and accurate – nonproductive salespeople are the bane of any small (or large) business. A nonproductive sales team is among the top common dangers that cause many small businesses to fail. Analyzed studies reveal that a large percentage of small businesses are unsuccessful because of underperforming sales people who bring in, at a minimum, 50 percent less revenue than top performers, according to researcher Dr. John Sullivan, professor of Economics at San Francisco State University. … Studies indicate that a common reason for poor performance… Read More
Continue ReadingTrends Salespeople Must Know
Here is an interesting article from our friends to the north (Canada is the only thing north of us here in Minnesota) titled Six Business Trends Every Salesperson Must Know. All 6 of the trends are interesting and worth the read, but this one caught my attention: Trend #4: We are shifting from the Information Age to the Communication Age. (Communicating is more valuable than informing.) Many salespeople rely on such marketing tools as a company web site, flyers, and sales letters. But all these things are static, meaning they are merely informing people. You hope your sales messages will entice the prospect to call, but it’s still a one-way… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Do Salespeople Quit?
I’ve read in many articles, blog posts and white papers that people take a job because of the company and quit because of a manager. I have talked to many salespeople about why they are looking for a new opportunity and the vast majority do come down to their manager. But there is an specific reason that we have been encountering of late when it comes to salespeople. Companies desire to seek out and hire strong salespeople and expect that these new salespeople will be strong for them without extensive direction or guidance from them. This lack of involvement is a pet peeve of mine. Do the salespeople want to be hand held? No, but… Read More
Continue ReadingPersonality Assessments And Stereotypes
Personality assessments, or “communication style” as I prefer, are highly valuable in the hiring process for one important aspect – communication. How many office conflicts have you seen where poor communication was adding oxygen to the fire? We see it in almost every office conflict. One way to diffuse these situations is to assess candidates before they join your team. Doing so allows the manager to know the preferred communication style of the new employee. This knowledge can also predict potential conflict areas between two employees before any conflict develops. However, there are still companies out there who harbor concerns about assessments. One common concern is mentioned in this BusinessWeek.com… Read More
Continue Reading50,000 Job Boards
Honestly, that is the number of online job boards according to Peter Weddle in this Wall Street Journal article. I had no idea. Some perspective from the article: About 2,000 new job boards have launched annually since 2000, and there are currently about 50,000, says Peter Weddle, chief executive officer of Weddle’s, a publisher of guides to job boards. Of these, about 30% are general job sites while 70% specialize in a particular niche, he adds. And the two big boards: Still, the nation’s largest job boards saw fluctuations in traffic over the past year. For example, Monster.com had 11,317,000 unique visitors last month, about 9% less than for the… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring For Style
Selling Style is one area we assess in our process. Some people refer to it as personality which I don’t believe is particularly accurate. Nonetheless, style is an important assessment for managing the salesperson but too many hiring managers assume certain skills based on a candidate’s style. When we refer to “gut-level decisions,” often those decisions are made based upon a candidate’s style. That method leads to hiring mistakes. One of our newer customers offered an interesting take on this style issue yesterday after a couple of candidate interviews. The candidates were markedly different in their styles, but their aptitudes, skills and motivations were relatively similar. Our customer’s comment: “I’m… Read More
Continue ReadingFast Facts About Telecommuting
Seems like our small-sized companies are catching on to the telecommuting option this year which is a bit of a change. I think a good post would be one that lays out a salesperson’s tools of the trade for today. Included in that list would be a web-based CRM and a VPN connection for telecommuting. No? Check these stats out from a recent Wall Street Journal article (h/t to Lee): Seventy percent of Cisco Systems employees regularly work from home at least 20% of the time. So do 34% of workers at Booz Allen Hamilton and 32% at S.C. Johnson & Sons. Those stats, from a recent Fortune companies survey… Read More
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