I am back after a refreshing break so now it is time for the home stretch of 2008.  I have to start with something light from JustSell.com – sales words: uh, verbal tics can be annoying, so…  The article is a provides a great insight into a common problem (my editing):

Verbal tics are words and phrases we use habitually, and sometimes, unconsciously. They’re the clutter in our speech that makes us sound less attentive, prepared, and intelligent than we want to sound.

JustSell’s top 7 most aggravating verbal tics…

• uh
• um
• like
• you know
• I mean
• so (especially when used at the end of an unfinished sentence)
• well

We want to use words and phrases that communicate how prepared, confident and capable we are.

Amen to that last sentence.  Unfortunately, these habits can be hard to break since many of them are induced by pressure.

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ManageSmarter has a great article titled, The Ideal Job Candidate: Myth or Reality? that touches on a subject that we have posted on many times.  I cannot begin to tell you how many conversations we have around this subject with clients and prospects.  Jeff Schmitt has 3 points he writes about when it comes to hiring.  As a a hiring manager, I would recommend that you keep these points in mind as you begin a hiring process:

1. Examine yourself. Look at your recruiting effort. Are you still reposting that same job description after another fruitless round of interviews?  Unfortunately, this doesn’t change one element: the problem is you haven’t adapted. You are still holding on to your unreasonable expectations.
2. Revise your expectations. Too often, we reduce candidates to cardboard cutouts. We specify predetermined years of experience in certain roles in certain industries. Maybe it is time to step back and examine those expectations.
3. Support new hires. To reap these rewards, you need a strategy. Pinpoint the learning curve and initial challenges this hire will face—and mitigate them. Provide ongoing training and mentoring for support. It was a grueling process to bring this hire into the fold—have a plan for developing and retaining this asset. Too often, we are looking for a right fit at the start. We don’t recognize that an employer-employee relationship is no different than marriage, requiring two committed partners willing to work, grow and persevere through adversity and disappointments.

Very seldom are you going to find the ideal candidate for the position so setting the expectations early in the process is a must.  Too many times experience working in the industry is viewed as the great differentiator in determining who is a good candidate and who is not.  Yes, candidates with experience will have all the right lingo for your industry, they will have an understanding of your product and of your customers/prospects, but this has to be weighed against the bad habits they may bring with them too. 

The author gives these suggestions when looking at your expectations:

• People Skills and Charisma
• Track Record of Success
• Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving
• God-Given Talent
• Enthusiasm and Energy
• Technical Knowledge
• Cultural Diversity
• Life-Long Learning

This is a great starting point, but in sales I recommend that you take this further by defining your sale.  Start by looking at how a typical sale goes down in your company.  Think of it this way – if you can’t understand how one sale is made, how can you expect a salesperson to do it repetitively.  Here is an article that will start you down the right path to understanding your sale and helping you set realistic expectations for your next salesperson.

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In catching up on some posts and articles from the weekend I came across a survey from CareerBuilder on Cheezhead.  The survey is looking to see how many hiring managers use social networking sites for conducting background checks.   Here are the findings:

Of those hiring managers who have screened job candidates via social networking profiles, one-third (34 percent) reported they found content that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration. Top areas for concern among these hiring managers included:

• 41% – candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs
• 40% – candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
• 29% – candidate had poor communication skills
• 28% – candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee
• 27% – candidate lied about qualifications
• 22% – candidate used discriminatory remarks related to race, gender, religion, etc.
• 22% – candidate’s screen name was unprofessional
• 21% – candidate was linked to criminal behavior
• 19% – candidate shared confidential information from previous employers

These results surprise me.  With so many articles about companies checking out networking sites, why are people still stupid enough to put this information on their sites?  You know it isn’t that tough to do a search on your own name to see what is out there.  If you find something that isn’t appropriate, let a prospective employer know what you found so they won’t be surprised.

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As you have probably ascertained, we are strong proponents of hiring for ability/potential that matches your sales as opposed to tenured experience in your industry.  Naturally, this article – The Myth of Experience – from Managesmarter.com is right up our alley.

Please allow me to reference an analogy from later in the article:

Don’t fall into the myth of relying upon experience. Instead look for potential. That’s why there is always an image of flowers on a package of seeds. We don’t really care what the seeds look like. We want to know what they will become.

I like that characterization even though I am not one to use “potential”…I prefer abilities and potential. 

The author jumps right into it with a paragraph we could have written:

The truth is, we all have a tendency to think of experience in a way that is entirely too limiting. What we should be looking for is not direct experience but transferable skills. It is not whether someone has sold the same product or service before, but what have they carried with them:

• Are they able to initiate relationships easily?
• Can they get a client to open up?
• Do they know how to identify and solve problems?

These are some of the transferable skills that can take an individual successfully from one position to another—and even from one career to another.

Transferable skills are the key to hiring salespeople.  The best way to spot these skills is to profile your sale first, then find salespeople with skills that match up well to your sale.

And finally, a suggestion that we support:

An in-depth personality profile can provide the insights you need into whether an applicant has the potential you are looking for. Is it their empathy? Their persuasiveness? Their perseverance? Their ability to connect with people in a very real way? The capacity to quickly analyze problems and arrive at solutions?
Discover that. Then look for applicants who have those same qualities. That’s the potential you’re looking for.

In sales, it is important to go into skills, motivations and abilities since personality is primarily a style issue.  Nonetheless, this is an excellent article and one I strongly recommend you read.

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I am not fan of features and benefits selling.  I don’t even think that approach belongs in a retail sales environment.  The better approach is to qualify the prospect for need – What are they looking for?  What is it they need to have/do?  What is their time frame?  You get the idea.

Unfortunately, many features/benefits salespeople exist in the marketplace and they seem to be everywhere.  This approach leads to the negative stereotype salespeople – pushy, talkative, bad listener, etc.

Managesmarter.com provides an excellent tip within an article titled Transcend the Negative Stereotypes of Sales:

Tip No. 3: Understand how your customers market services and generate profit.
Don’t assume your customers are all alike. You cannot truly help your customers until you understand their business models. Instead of selling the features and benefits of your product, ask questions and listen to discover ways your customer faces their competitive challenges. You will then distinguish yourself as a resource who can help them increase profits through better salesmanship.

Here’s what I like about that tip – it is hard to get caught in the features/benefits loop if you are attempting to understand how your prospect’s business model makes money.  The secondary effect is the fact that you do not appear to be the stereotypical salesperson…not small secondary effect!

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Good article here from Salesopedia.com titled Reject Me, Please.  Handling rejection just may be the most important trait of any strong salesperson.  Rejection is the key differentiation between sales and all other positions.  Salespeople have to be able to handle this topic well.

Excellent sales people realize it’s about the products and service, and not them. They may have represented the product poorly and answered questions about the services ineptly, but nonetheless, the opposition is about what’s being sold, not the seller. This ability to distinguish between the purveyor and the purveyed I call Separation Clarity.

Well stated and I am now a fan of the phrase “separation clarity.”  I tend to tell salespeople that sales is what you do, it is not who you are – almost like an actor in a play.

Here is the reason why this separation is difficult for many:

Successful salespeople have support networks. They do not rely on random others’ feedback, or approval, or validation, or even communication. They know who they are and are bolstered by their loved ones, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances.
      Personally, I’ve seen very few top salespeople who don’t have great loves in their life, or close friends, or family of some kind. Thus, this is the Appropriate Love Factor. You don’t need your prospect, client, or buyer to love you.

Exactly.  Too often salespeople confuse rapport with relationship.  The need is to establish rapport with the prospect and earn their respect.  It is not wise to target a personal relationship with a prospect since that approach is what leads to the difficulty in handling rejection.

Notice I wrote “prospect.”  Close relationships can develop with customers over time, but that should not be the salesperson’s motivation.

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Derrick wrote a series on sales traits last year which transcends sales and applies to everyone.  I was catching up on my RSS reader from the Labor Day weekend and came across this perfect example to illustrate the lack of Attention to Detail.  According to this post from US News & World Report, employees of media agency Carat learned about a planned layoff by management through an email.  Because someone did not have an abundance of the attention to detail trait, an email meant strictly for management accidentally went out to everyone in the company.

This is why we stress the use of assessments to “x-ray” a person’s hidden abilities and talents, or lack thereof.  Unfortunately these weaknesses often come to the surface in situations similar to the aforementioned example.  I’m sure that the Carat executives would like to have known if this employee had a natural trait for attention to detail before handing this task off to them.

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From Justsell.com’s daily newsletter:

Looking to build long-term wealth? According to a recent salary.com survey*, the best American cities in which to build wealth include:

• Plano, Texas
• Aurora, Colorado
• Omaha, Nebraska
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Albuquerque, New Mexico

I don’t know about that fourth one.  The way they tax up here makes me think otherwise.  New York City came in last place out of 69 major cities so maybe this information is accurate.

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Saleshq.com provides a simple list of suggestions for building rapport and connecting with others at networking events.  I’m not certain the list is all that remarkable, but I was struck by a couple of tips:

5. Show interest in your conversational partner by actively listening and giving verbal feedback. Maintain eye contact. Never glance around the room while they are talking to you.

6. Listen more than you talk.

Clearly you have to talk to build rapport, but the actual bonding occurs when your mouth is closed.  I especially enjoyed the suggestion to “never” look around the room when someone is speaking to you.  I have a friend who does this and I instantly know he has checked out of the conversation.

Why is it so hard to simply listen?  I know there are times when I struggle with it too.

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Justsell.com offers up a reminder about a critical sales skill that is often overlooked – attentiveness.  This skill is less frequent in salespeople who lack empathetic abilities or are overly task-oriented.  I have seen this first-hand on a number of occasions.

What happens is the salesperson tends to something else during a discussion.  Typically, the actions seems fairly innocuous – a cell phone alarm, looking through some notes, checking a text message, even adjusting the height of an office chair.  All of these tasks seem inconspicuous, but they are an immediate tell that you are not fully attentive to the speaker.  The better approach is to ignore the task if possible or, at a minimum, wait until it is your turn to speak and pardon yourself for attending to the task.

If I am starting to sound like Miss Manners, let me reference the Justsell.com article:

Anything less than your full attention sends a message of arrogance – a message of condescension – a message of which no one (including ourselves) enjoys being on the receiving end (and certainly not when we’re the prospect or customer).

Again, most salespeople are not consciously attempting to appear arrogant, but their actions belie their intent.

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