First we posted on the 7 Deadly Sins of Salespeople over a year ago.  Now comes the follow up – leaders, or sales managers.  Each item has a full paragraph explanation to it which I have removed for space.  However, 3 of them warranted the full paragraph:

1. Passiveness

2. Unaccountability

3. Thoughtlessness
Leaders think. They acknowledge they are making assumptions when they make them and that they are considering opinion rather than dress it up as a fact. They do not apply business models from other industries or businesses without considering whether their external operating environment, strengths and weaknesses are or can be made to be similar. They do not use buzzwords without knowing what they mean. They do not use buzzwords without how implementing them will affect their operation, in detail.

4. Affectation

5. Greed
Leaders share. Leaders share the glory of success. They see equity, not as a democratic ideal, but as part of what it means to be fair. They recognise that people need to feel valued to be motivated. They also share the workload and authority, understanding that independence and achievement is a strong reward.

6. Laziness

7. Inconsistency
Leaders are persistent and resilient. They set a goal, devise a strategy and execute the strategy. The strategy is changed consciously. The strategy is not changed unconsciously by reactive decisions. They do not allow their mood or the mood of their subordinates to change what they assert.

Number 7 resonates with me.  I have worked for more than one sales manager who changed courses on almost a daily basis.  I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating that was.  Not only would he change direction, he would change the entire focus (markets, products, marketing, target companies, etc.).

We were selling a high-end software package which exasperated the problem.  It took time to develop suspects into prospects (demonstration-intensive sale) and our market was fairly horizontal (which allowed him to jump into any area).  It is still frustrating to me as I write this almost 10 years after the fact!

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From the outstanding resume file – a resume I received yesterday for a Project Manager position:

Personal Attributes
I am highly enthusiastic, hard working, opinionated and motivated to work under my own initiative or as part of a team.

1. I have extensive practical experience of fault-finding…

Which explains why his team wants him to work on his own initiative. In all fairness, the candidate goes on to finish item #1 with:

…and problem solving systematically.

Certainly  a lot easier to do once you’ve established blame.

There’s a sentence later in the letter that suggests English isn’t a strong suit –

My team were involved in maintenance, repairing and servicing of general electronic equipment down to component level, I was responsible for a team of ten technical staffs, managing them on a day to day basis, and helping them with any problems, and ensuring the team achieved their targets within set deadlines and planning work for staff and monitoring the progress, defining where appropriate, providing regular reports to my company board and conveying practical solution on designing systems to my R&D department and risk assessment of my work.

Well if that doesn’t get him an interview, perhaps his response to the ‘Are you willing to relocate?’ question will:

Yes, London 100% and Minneapolis 50%

That’s a shame, because our position requires 100% attendance, which might be tough if the candidate is always in England, but maybe it’s like that old Superman episode (and I mean Steve Reeves, not the guy from Smallville) where Superman splits himself in two through force of will.

The kicker is probably not as funny as the writing – the position the candidate is responding to has not been on an active job board for at least a week. But with credentials like that, who cares if you take your time responding to the opportunity?

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