The online job posting statistics provide a look at general hiring trends…I think.  My question is always in regards to which online boards are being tracked.  We are seeing a marked migration away from the big boards to the still-developing niche boards.

That migration may be skewing the data from this Inc.com article – I’m not certain.  Nonetheless, the year-over-year tracking of the big boards is still noteworthy (emphasis mine):

The number of online job postings last month declined 16.4 percent from a year ago, the Conference Board reported Friday.

In total, there were 2,591,500 new jobs posted online in April, with healthcare and management accounting for more than 450,000.

Alaska continued to lead the online job market last month, followed by Nevada and Massachusetts, while the sharpest declines were reported in Maryland, Vermont, and Connecticut.

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This tip comes from the Selling Power archives:

Never ask a question without first explaining why you’re asking.

Nirenberg says, “Just asking a question puts the listener on the spot. However, if you let him know why you’re asking, it makes him a partner,” Nirenberg goes on to explain, “People with sales backgrounds often avoid asking questions because they think that the talker controls the conversation. That’s not true because the listener can always tune you out. In fact, you’d be surprised how often you’re talking to yourself during a sales call.”

That is a good tip.  Asking good qualifying questions is crucial for successful selling.  However, most people have experienced a salesperson who takes this approach to an obnoxious extreme.  I have seen them rattle off question after question like a machine gun.  You could just see the prospect shutting down.

The key is to soften the questions before asking them.

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In case you ever wondered why your marketing campaigns were not working:

(h/t Seth Godin)

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I haven’t heard this term before, but I absolutely love it.  From the Wall Street Journal’s How Stay-at-Home Moms Are Filling an Executive Niche:

The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy “SWAT team.” The acronym, for “smart women with available time,” is one mother’s label for all-mom teams assembled quickly through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects. Employers get lots of voltage, cheap, while the women get a skills update and a taste of the professional challenges they miss.

What a fantastic idea.  The differentiation:

Skilled workers taking temp projects isn’t new, of course. What’s different about these teams is that they’re available on short notice because the women are usually at home; they tend to work cheap because their main motive is to keep their skills fresh; and they’re often extraordinarily well-qualified, having left the work force voluntarily when their careers were on the ascent.

The work world becomes more flexible every day.

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Isn’t that the truth?  Entrepreneur.com has an excellent archived article (from 2002) titled Hire and Hire that discusses hiring salespeople during a recession (no, we’re not in a recession).  The point is valid – economic downturns are the best time to upgrade and/or expand your sales team.

Pick the right talent, and your new salesperson will pay for himself or herself many times over. After all, Buckley points out, because your ability to make sales is the “engine that drives growth,” salespeople are “pay-for-themselves-type expenditures.”

That “pick the right talent” piece is not so easy, but it is the keystone of the approach.  Run a hiring process and make sure you use objective assessments.  This thinking does run against conventional wisdom, but it is an opportunity that many companies simply miss.

“If you can add to revenues, then there’s no need to cut costs,” he explains. “Companies that perform well in down markets, like outplacement firms, hire salespeople in recessions all the time.” Even if your company isn’t one of the few directly benefiting from the slowed economy, hiring new salespeople may still be a good way to boost revenues.

You can read the short article to see some of the qualifiers for this approach, but generally speaking, adding revenue through strong sales hires is the ideal way to handle an economic downturn.

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Interesting history lesson in a short Inc.com post:

William Wrigley, Jr. arrived in Chicago in 1891 with just $32 to his name. The 29-year-old entrepreneur began manufacturing soap, first enticing customers by offering free baking soda with every purchase. He later tried offering customers free chewing gum. The gum soon became more popular – and profitable – than his soap venture. Like many of the famous companies which have sprung up during recessions, Wrigley sold inexpensive goods that could be easily mass produced. Now, I’m not saying that chewing gum actually served as a distraction from the strife of the times, but what kind of startup do you think fairs particularly well during a recession? Do consumers need distraction during downturns? If you have a great business idea, does it even matter when you launch your business?

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Even bad salespeople can appear to be strong in a face-to-face interview situation.  This reason is why sales recruiting is truly different than any other form of recruiting.  Reviewing resumes and assuming abilities is is a fool’s errand.  Yet, there are certain aspects of general recruiting that can that hinder effective sales recruiting.

The Resumes.
Yes, resumes.  I have sat through far too many discussions where hiring managers or recruiters attempted to divine incredible insight from a sheet of paper.  Granted, you can probably eliminate the retail salespeople from your B2B Sales manager process.  Sales is still a people-oriented profession so overanalyzing a document is not the most effective technique for filtering applicants.

Here is the issue – sales skills are not easily quantifiable.  They certainly cannot be determined from a resume.  They must be experienced, interviewed and questioned.

A salesperson’s most valuable tool is his or her qualifying ability.  Can they ask the tough questions?  Can they handle the rejection?  Can they drill down on fuzzy-worded responses?  This ability is the foundation of strong salespeople and it is most prominently displayed in the candidate’s questions.  This fact requires hiring managers or recruiters to have a discussion with the candidate.

The Questions.
This is a strange phenomenon – the strong candidate provides good answers in the interview but asks even better questions.  The hiring manager afterwards focuses solely on the candidate’s answers.  Obviously answers are important, but the questions are what point you towards a strong salesperson.

No, I’m not talking about standard interview questions.  I’m talking about questions that display their qualifying approach.  In your next sales interview, pay specific attention to the candidate’s questions and the order in which they ask them.  Trust me on this – you will learn more about their sales ability from that information than you will from their answers to standard interview questions.

The Recruiters.
Recruiting is a difficult undertaking.  Sales recruiting is brutal.  I know this will get flamed but I am a strong proponent of recruiters who specialize in sales only.  General recruiters who dabble in sales have a tendency to get schmoozed by slick salespeople who talk more than they sell.

I have talked to quite a few recruiters who believe that good talking equates to good selling.  It doesn’t.  This stereotype permeates sales hiring to this day.

Sales is filled with nuances that have to be identified by the recruiter and examined in the candidate.  Sales cycle, average order size, market position, selling system, competitive pressure, territory pressure…I could go on, but you get the picture.  Each position requires an understanding of these subtle points of information and what salesperson will best fit this criteria.  For this reason a sales recruiter is needed.

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From RecruitingTrends.com (my emphasis):

Manpower Inc. releases the results of its third annual talent shortage survey, revealing that 31% of employers globally are finding it increasingly more difficult to fill jobs. The top three candidates most in-demand are skilled manual trades, sales representatives and technicians (technical workers in the areas of production/operations, engineering and maintenance).

What would it be if they put a qualifier on finding the right salesperson?  I keep saying this – a strong salesperson is always in demand no matter what the economy is doing.

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