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Archive for March 13th, 2008

Satisfied Salespeople

Clayton Shold over at Saleopedia offers up some stunning survey results from a recent SalesDog.com survey.  Check this out (my emphasis):

Despite the job pressure, 70 percent of respondents reported being happy with their management, while 64 percent of those taking the survey said they felt adequately recognized for their achievements. A surprising 75 percent of respondents believe their management’s sales expectations or quotas are realistic.

I’m sitting here cruising at 70mph in Northern Minnesota as I write.  I should clarify that Lee is driving, I am geeking it up in the passenger seat.  We have been talking about these results for miles.

We often hear of how discontented workers are with their current roles and managers.  I suspect the fact that we are recruiters that we spend much of our time dealing with discontented salespeople looking for a new opportunity.  That fact skews our perspective.

These results are encouraging for the majority of sales managers who may have shared our perspective.

Prime Your Customer References

Lee Salz offers an article on ManageSmarter.com about reference checks performed by prospects at the final stage of a sale.  We go back and forth on this topic often at Select Metrix.  Many times prospects want references, but often they do not follow up on them.

However, when they do contact references, this is what occurs:

Many buyers look at the reference step of the buying process as their opportunity to validate the potential supplier’s message. In essence, prospects are searching to ascertain whether a supplier can deliver on the promises made during the buying process. Can the supplier really handle this size account? Are they really that fast or that accurate? Is the service as good as they described?

Salz is exactly correct in that paragraph.  The prospects are confirming what they hope will happen if they enter into an agreement with your company.  He provides 4 points in approaching these reference checks and how to ensure a good reference call occurs.

You will have to read the article to see his points, but this one is most important:

3. Give more and you’ll get more.
To take it a step further, don’t just send your prospect contact names and phone numbers. Provide a brief narrative explaining to what purpose each client serves as a reference. How many sales people are doing that?

We always do this task when we send out our references and it is most effective.  References without context are difficult for the prospect to complete.  The danger here is that your prospect will not get to the questions that will help them finalize their decision.  A short narrative is the catalyst to an efficient call that puts your topics in play.

A Soft Hiring Trend

Manpower’s quarterly survey is often considered a bellwether of the upcoming labor market.  The Wall Street Journal reports on this trend in Hiring Plans Soften Across Industries.

The title sounds a dire alarm, but there  is an interesting quote within the article:

Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America, characterized employers’ hiring plans for the upcoming quarter as “softening.” He noted the decline is less sharp than the steep drops seen at the beginning of the decade. In some quarters of 2000, up to 25% of employers planned to hire, but then employers’ hiring plans declined sharply, and the portion planning to hire hit about 5% by early 2002.

“This curve doesn’t look anything like the curves that we have seen when things have gone into recession,” Mr. Prising said. “Some [employers] have decided to stop hiring, but you’re not seeing a massive shift, you’re not seeing a huge jump. Some are more cautious and that’s why you get a softer declining trend and not such a dramatic fall-off.”

Interesting, don’t you think?  The economy has certainly slowed down, but the howls of recession seem to be more than premature.