From CollegeRecruiter.com’s Sample Interview Questions for Those Hiring Millennials:

William recommends that interviewers “incorporate more personal questions that expose a candidate’s personality, work ethic, and personal motivations” because “how a person approaches life is often indicative of how they’d approach work.” He therefore recommends rephrasing typical interview questions in a way that they better apply to the personal lives of your candidates. Sample interview questions in this area include:

• How do you primarily communicate with friends? How often?
• When you have a dilemma to solve, how do you approach it?
• How do you spend your free time? (Do you prefer doing activities solo, with friends, or in groups?)

Excellent advice for interviewing a Gen Y candidate.  The questions will lead to revealing insight into the candidate.  The secondary benefit that now you appear to be speaking their language which is valuable in itself.

If you were to tie these questions to an assessment, you would have an in-depth view of this candidate like you have never seen.

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I’ve been working with a handful of sales managers recently as they onramp new salespeople and I have seen a stumbling block occur more than once.  The issue has to do with the sales manager’s perception of the typical sale.

Sales managers, in most instances, work primarily with large, high-visibility accounts as they should.  The issue that occurs is that the manager starts to view these marquee accounts as the model, or even norm, for all other accounts.  What happens is that the manager loses sight of the history of activities that went into earning that customer’s business.

Rarely do new salespeople fly out of the gate and close a marquee account.  In most cases, they start with “mundane” accounts – typically they are smaller opportunities or smaller companies.  Some will grow into marquee accounts, but most will not.  The advantage is that the salesperson learns about the sale, what objections they will face and how an order moves internally through the company.  These are all valuable experiences for the day they latch on to a large deal.

As sales managers, it is important to realize that the marquee accounts are not the standard for a new salesperson.  This means the salesperson probably does not have an established relationship to leverage.  They do not have familiarity with the customer’s decision-making team.  They are not going to have numerous topics to qualify for many different orders.

Simply put, these salespeople are going to be working less efficiently to earn a smaller deal than the power plays occurring at the marquee account.  I’ve seen sales managers get frustrated over this fact.  Frustration should wait until an adequate period of time has passed.  If the salesperson is still at the same level, then it is time to dig in deeper and attempt to kick-start their efforts.

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BusinessWeek.com discusses recruiting strategies based on who you are trying to attract in Recruiting Today: What Are You Promising?  There are some excellent examples of different programs initiated by different companies.  However, this one jumped off the screen:

In some cases, offering young employees a unique opportunity can have special appeal. DHL, which used to hire only experienced salespeople, offered nine recent college grads a shot at sales last year (and a comprehensive training program to support the move). The company, which is expanding the program this year, says the program not only attracted nine top candidates, but the new hires generated more revenue and more shipments per sale.

Many hiring managers wouldn’t expect that result, would they?  The conventional wisdom in sales hiring is that experience is what matters most.  This is a bad assumption.  Skills, motivations and aptitudes are a much better predictor of success.

The ideal hire is usually a salesperson who has the right blend of these traits for your specific sale, has a presence about them on the phone and has some industry experience.  But I would put them in that order of priority when hiring salespeople.

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The Northwest-Delta airlines merger is the talk of this town as you might expect.  There has been much posturing up here as people and politicians realize that Northwest will probably leave this town as Atlanta becomes the new company’s headquarters.

I was reading an article on the merger in our local St. Paul Pioneer Press when I came across this quote (my highlighting):

As for the covenants Northwest signed with the state in 1991 on maintaining a certain number of jobs, the airport hub and Northwest’s Eagan headquarters, Anderson said “we think we can get to the spirit of the original covenants that were struck.”

That is a fat-worded, or fuzzy-worded, phrase of the highest order.  Somehow I don’t think they are thoroughly committed to the original covenants.

If this was a sales qualifying situation, the sales rep would have to ask Anderson what he means by the phrase “get to the spirit.”

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Another good article here from WSJ titled New Career, Same Employer.  The gist of the article:

Ernst & Young LLP last year named Nancy Harley director of career mobility for the Americas, a new position designed to help employees of the accounting firm move into new roles. “The longer someone stays intrigued and challenged, the longer they’re going stay with the firm,” Ms. Harley says.

Observers say employers are creating or expanding these programs to improve retention rates in a competitive job market, particularly as Baby Boomers begin to retire.

The initiatives typically include Web-based programs for evaluating employees’ career goals and suggesting relevant paths.

Interesting title – director of career mobility.  That position, or some form of it, may become quite common in the next 5 years.  Evaluating skills, talents and motivations is already a common tool used today by companies in both hiring, evaluating and promoting.

Here is an example from the article of how a large company handles this topic:

Accenture’s career-change initiative includes resources such as an online skills-assessment tool and a Web page featuring video clips of workers who have changed careers at the company. Every Accenture employee has an internal career counselor. Employees are urged to work with these counselors to develop a plan, including searching the company’s internal online job board.

I like the idea of an internal career counselor.  Obviously, Accenture is large so they have the ability to offer these resources.  However, managers can still be tuned into these topics with their employees.  This management skill will surely become more important as Gen Y increasingly becomes the largest generation in the workforce.

On a related note, I wrote an article a couple years ago that talked about Gen X and Y desiring a skills path for their personal development.  You can read it here.

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This Wall Street Journal quick-hit article is shocking:

Companies are rolling out software that allows them to mine their employees’ emails and electronic address books for contact information, in a bid to make it easier to establish relationships with potential clients and others. But the tools also raise privacy concerns, and have been met with resistance at some firms.

“Raises privacy concerns”…that is an understatement.  There has to be more to this story, but I can’t imagine companies using these tools.  If they do, I suspect the natural reaction will be for employees to carry around their contact info on their cell phone and not place it on their company computer.

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Tomorrow my friends at Golden Compass will be hosing a sales teleseminar that will discuss techniques for navigating to the information you need to be successful in sales.

Michael and Sheryl have the gift of making learning fun.  Here are the details:

Information Overload is Killing You: Bullet Proof Your Sales Team with 5 Secret Strategies the other Yahoos Don’t Even Know

Wednesday, April 23rd 2008
2:00pm Eastern / 1:00pm Central / 12:00pm Mountain / 11:00am Pacific

Michael Benidt and Sheryl Kay, Golden Compass

Every sales professional knows how essential it is to be prepared, but who has the time?! According to a recent LexisNexis survey, information overload is driving workers to the brink—and driving sales professionals to drink!

Don’t drown in a sea of information (or alcohol). Instead, join us to:

· Get the skinny on your prospects instantly and with pinpoint precision

· Stay up-to-date without even trying

· Scoop your competition in ways they won’t even see coming

· Find the answers to even your toughest questions

If you are available, you can join us by registering here.  I hope to hear you on the line!

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The Killian Newsletter is out which means another fabulous installment of Cover Letters From Hell.  This edition features some dandies:

…take this full of life, creative, fun, hardworking, quick learner, hands-on, intelligent, good looking, individually and help him by giving him the best possible experience, so he can continue the legacy of provided high level, knock your socks off advertising.

That’s why one should have important letters read – out loud – by someone else.

We’ve always had food-industry clients, and yes, we talk about food a lot, but we’ve never before been ordered to actually be food:

… being a member of the (name withheld) Organization, and, braise yourselves, even participating in a folk dance ensemble for the last 14 years.

Please except this statement and resume as a good sign that I am interested.

Therefore, making it easy to decide on whether or not to meet with me. Given that I will go on…

Oh, you’ve made it easy.

You guys are different. You guys small.

I am an “out of the box” thinker.

… who avoids clichés?

Read the entire thing.

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Yahoo HotJobs offers up a fairly simple article titled 6 Signs Your Job May Be in Jeopardy.  I don’t think there is any revelation within the article.  I also find this revealing:

More than 2 of 3 respondents to a recent Yahoo! poll believe their job is in jeopardy due to the current economic slowdown.

You would think this country has never seen a slowdown before.  Anyway, one of the 6 signs jumps off the page:

Where Have All the Clients Gone?

If the new business team seems to be spinning its wheels, as major clients jump ship and they are not replaced, your job could be on the hit list.

“There is only so long that your boss can be giving you busy work,” says Roberta Chinsky Matuson, president of Northampton, Massachusetts-based Human Resource Solutions. “Eventually, his boss will catch on, and it will be time to go.”

Sales is the lifeblood of any company, isn’t it?  An economic slowdown is a good time to upgrade your sales team since there will be strong salespeople on the street.  Many companies cut their salesforce during economic slowdowns.  Each company’s situation is different, but we always see talented salespeople looking for opportunities during these times.

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I abhor office politics which hasn’t really helped me in my work career.  This Wall Street Journal article starts out supporting this fact:

Some people prefer not to get involved in politics at work, but most career experts argue that playing the game is crucial to your career success. By avoiding it, you may find your talents ignored and your success limited, and you may feel left out of the loop, says Louellen Essex, co-author of “Manager’s Desktop Consultant: Just-in-Time Solutions to the Top People Problems That Keep You Up at Night.”

I agree – I have experienced that fact first-hand.  So, you have to play the game at some level.  Here are 6 tips from the author:

Observe how things get done in your organization.

Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn.

Determine strategic initiatives in the company.

Don’t align too strongly with one group.

Learn to communicate persuasively.

Be true to yourself..

Those are all good tips with more information contained with each point in the article.  But allow me to quote the final point in full:

Be true to yourself. After analyzing the political landscape in your company, if you decide the game is one you can’t play, prepare to move on. It’s not typical, but some companies actually condone — even promote — dishonest, ruthless or unethical behavior. The game of office politics in this situation is not one worth winning.

This is the area that tweaks me.  I was in a culture that did promote unethical behavior and I did not subscribe to it.  I was fired.  However, I did feel slightly vindicated years later when the CEO went to jail based on his transgressions.

Nonetheless, the points are all worth reading in detail.

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