The recent murder at the Olympics hit home for me this past weekend.  The family is from my hometown of Lakeville, MN.  I was in Lakeville this weekend for my 20th anniversary high school class reunion.  Needless to say, this tragedy was the topic of the weekend.

I think most people are aware of the story, but you can get the details here.

Suffice to say, I am still stunned by the senselessness of it all.

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CNNMoney.com reports on a specific area that is experiencing a hiring problem – lack of candidates:

Despite the slump at lowlier levels of the job market, there’s currently a war for senior management talent. In fact, 70% of executive recruiters surveyed by networking organization ExecuNet (www.execunet.com), say there’s a shortage of people who can step in and run things.

We’ve seen this shortage first-hand in the sales arena.  Strong sales leaders are in demand right now, especially in one corporate segment (emphasis mine):

Companies doing the most executive hiring aren’t necessarily the biggest, the ExecuNet study found. Employers with revenues between $51 million and $200 million are expanding their senior-level management teams by almost 30% this year, for instance. By contrast, companies with sales of $1 billion or more plan to hire only 12% more executives.

I wonder how much of this shortage is due to the numbers of baby boomers moving out of the workforce and the lack suitably-experienced Gen X managers to replace them.

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I currently reading Jason Seiden’s new book How To Self-Destruct Making The Least Of What’s Left Of Your Career.  You may have guessed from the title that part of the book is written tongue-in-cheek.  In fact, it is quite entertaining and a fast read.

I’ll provide a full review once I complete the book, but I had to share this insightful commentary for all sales managers.  When it comes to excuse-making, one of the favorite topics is time.

“I didn’t have time.”
“I ran out of time.”
“There wasn’t time to ask that question.”

These are excuses that need to be corrected.  I realize time constraints do occur, but I am speaking more to the chronic excuse-makers.  The next time you hear one of these lines from one of your salespeople remember this:

Never blame time for your problems:  time is the one constant that is absolutely the same for everybody.  Time may be the only thing in the whole wide world that never discriminates.

Well said.

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I don’t think this is a big surprise, but in-person networking is the most important.  From the Career News newsletter (sorry, no link):

While the execs expected the importance of online networking to grow from 24% now to 38% in two years’ time, that’s still less important than developing personal contacts (81%), contacting recruiters (63%) or using job boards (51%). Some 93% of the senior executives surveyed said putting time into developing their ‘personal brand’ was a wise career move. While some three-quarters said this was best done offline, two-thirds said they do use social networking sites to look good.

Commenting on the findings, Carol Rosati, director at Harvey Nash, said: “While online networking does not replace human interaction, it does provide candidates with an additional set of resources to create and maintain a personal brand and complement the profile they build through ‘real world’ networking.” The top social networking sites for senior execs looking for career progression were LinkedIn (57%), Plaxo (16%), and Facebook took just 6% of the vote (ed.-my emphasis).

In a way, it seems that the gist of this survey misses the point of social network sites.  They are a tool to improved networking, but I don’t think people view them as a replacement to in-person or phone call networking.  I could be wrong here as I suspect there are people who just connect with others just for the sake of connecting.  Maybe that should be called social connecting as opposed to networking?

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I just read a sales ad with this position title:

Disposable Sales Representative

The context of the position makes sense when you read the entire ad (food service industry), but I would think the title could some serious tweaking.

Can you imagine handing a business card to a prospect that listed that title?  They may decide to “dispose” of you right there.

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I’m not well-versed in the rapport-building technique (my phrase) known as Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  In fact, I’m not certain that is the correct definition of the acronym NLP.  But it is fascinating information.  Geoffrey James discusses this topic in his blog post Ten Seconds to Better Rapport:

This method based upon the scientific observation that people have what are sometimes called “thought modalities” or, more colloquially, “have their brain wired different ways.” Research has shown that most people favor one of the three different modalities:

1. Visual. The person values and responds to what he or she SEES. A visual person will tend to dress flashy, talk quickly, and use plenty of broad hand gestures.
2. Auditory. The person values and responds to what he or she HEARS. An auditory person will tend to dress conservatively, talk in an even tone, and use subtle hand gestures, usually synchronized with what’s being said.
3. Kinesthetic. The person values and responds to what he or she FEELS. A kinesthetic person will tend to dress casually, talk quite slowly, and make many “checking” gestures, like touching their chin while thinking.

I’ve had some exposure to this training and it is highly effective.  It isn’t going to close sales for you or trick a prospect into buying.  The thought modalities simply allow you to access the prospect’s preferred communication channel.  If you combine this knowledge with an understanding of DISC profiles, you have a highly skilled communicator who can establish rapport quickly.

If they can qualify too, you have a superstar salesperson.

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I would not hire a single salesperson without first seeing a writing sample of some sort from them.  The information age has made writing a priority skill in communicating with prospects.

This cover letter sentence makes me lose my faith in proofreading:

I relocated down south due to my wifes job and the maeket for my construction managment was not very good so I ventured in to new firlds.

There are different levels of errors within cover letters and resumes.  This example would fall in the “very bad” error pile.

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I’m all for standing out, but this line at the beginning of a cover letter is a swing and a miss.

If you can get me excited about your business, I’ll bring the magic.

I’d settle for a sales rep who brings the qualifying.

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I’m a fan of the video resume concept for sales positions.  Salespeople have to interact with clients in a manner that best represents your company.  The video resume provides a glimpse into this presentation ability.

Yet, according to RecruitingTrends.com, the majority of companies are not accepting these forms of resumes (emphasis mine):

Indeed, just one in four (24%) senior executives polled claim that their companies accept video resumes from candidates reveals the survey, developed by Robert Half International, a staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance and conducted by an independent research firm. When asked whether their company accepts video resumes from job seekers, 58% of responding executives state no, 24% say yes, and 18% claim they do not know. Although video resumes have become more common, many employers are still reluctant to accept them for fear of bias claims from applicants.

That is a legitimate concern from employers and on that does not have any easy solutions.  Unfortunately, there are unintended consequences to government legislation.  A solution to this problem would help both sales candidates and employers over the long term, but my suspicion is that video resumes will disappear instead.

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This excerpt is from a cover letter:

If you think there might be a fit. Please send me a brief overview of your project or company.  Let me know how I could help you if there’s a fit.

If there’s any interest or a fit on my side I’ll drop you a note.

Fair enough?

You know, some times you do not need an assessment.  I am quite certain this individual has a strong sense of self.  His overuse of “fit” is only eclipsed by his cocky closing.

I’m all for confidence, but I would have serious concerns about this approach.

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