The Bureau of Labor Statistics has put out their numbers for October and the unemployment rate rose to 6.5% and non-farm employment fell by 240,000.  The job losses occurred across all industries other than healthcare, which rose by 26,000 for the month.  Not surprising, the Healthcare industry has grown in employment by almost 350,000 in the past year alone.  Manufacturing took the biggest fall with over 90,000 losses (27,000 of them are the results of strikes in the aerospace sector) with construction employment second, falling by 49,000.

But reading a post from Liz Wolgemuth over at US News & World Report provided some interesting facts that I had not seen before.  The extension of unemployment benefits by 13 weeks is skewing the unemployment data.  Here is the quote out of Liz’ post:

In order to receive unemployment benefits, a person must be looking for work, so the extension of benefits is artificially coaxing many people who would no longer be in the workforce at all to say they are still looking for work, just so they can continue to collect benefits. The unintended consequence is that the unemployment rate is boosted faster and further than normal in a recession, making it more likely that policymakers further extend benefits, boosting the deficit and pushing up future tax payments.

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We are sourcing for a sales position and are running some ads in different locations.  I received an email from a candidate that listed the title of the ad in the subject line – good move.

But this is all that was in the body of the email:

Would like to learn more, thanx!

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The Career News newsletter has a short article about “job churn” that provides some good news for our present economic situation.

The immediate reaction of companies, in a slumping U.S. economy, is to pull back on hiring activity, declare hiring freezes and even make layoff announcements. But these are only short-lived strategies as employers soon realize that they are deficient on talent in a competitive job market. After a period of reactionary cutting and freezing, hiring activity will return to a level of normalcy.

Hiring is largely a function of ‘job churn’ and there is no evidence that churn will do anything but accelerate in the coming quarters. Churn is the result of continuous movement among workers. In other words: workers quit, retire, get fired, find new jobs, return to school, move to new locations, etc. – even during a recession. In fact, today’s professionals change jobs every three years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Churn can often accelerate during economic hardships. Like star athletes who don’t want to play for losing teams, top professionals seek out opportunities to play for more successful organizations. The downturn of 2001 is an important guide for what recruiters and job seekers can expect of the job market in the months ahead. There was a dramatic reduction in the number of online job listings in September 2001, on the heels of the tragic events of 9/11. But by the end of the year, job postings were at a record high.

I remember recruiting salespeople at the end of 2001 and there was much competition in the marketplace.  Believe it or not, I was actually recruiting for an IT position.  3-year job churn is a new trend that is probably here to stay with the younger generations.

Anyway, the media has a macabre fascination with negative news.  “If it bleeds it leads.”  Right or wrong, this is their approach that they believe sells.  Perhaps it does (though the latest round of decreasing newspaper circulation numbers is itself macabre).  As bad as the economy is right now, the cries of another great depression strike me as hyperbole of the highest order.

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Using email effectively is an absolute must in today’s business world.  It is surprising to me how much email has started to dominate the selling landscape over the past 5 years.  That being said, understanding email etiquette is vital to moving a deal through the pipeline.

Eyesonsales.com has an article that gives some good guidelines to follow in using email:

• View email as the new prospecting tool. After you leave a voicemail, follow-up with an email, giving prospects 2 easy ways to respond. Remember, your goal is to connect with the person. Even if they respond “no”, you’ve connected and can respond to try to generate an interest.
• Keep the sales process moving forward. Use emails to ask requirement gathering questions, get referrals, make recommendations, and provide updates.
• Respond to all emails with action items promptly. You return phone calls within 1-24 hours. The expectation now is that you’ll return emails within 30 minutes – 12 hours. If you can’t respond completely, send an email setting expectations about when you will send a full response.
• Think – and proof – before you send. Sometimes it’s best to draft a response, then wait 30 minutes before sending. You may choose to soften, shorten, or otherwise change your response.
• You may need a hand-held device such as a Blackberry to keep up. Consider what tools you need to stay on top of your emails.
• Schedule daily time on your calendar to respond to emails.

One tip I would add – Don’t treat email like a text message.  Email messages should be treated as a relatively formal means of communication – far more than a text message.  There is nothing as shockingly inappropriate as an email that reads like a text message.  Avoid this approach like the plague!

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Eyesonsales.com has a short article that lays out 14 steps in making successful cold calls.  With the lengthening of the sales cycle in regards to the economy, it is important to make sure that your salespeople stay on top of their pipelines.  This article has 14 points that can be used as a refresher for your experienced salespeople or as a starting point for your new salespeople.  

1. Have a dedicated time each day to prospect.
2. Know the reason for calling before you call: customer benefits, not product features.
3. Leave short voice mail messages.
4. Assume your voice mail messages will never be returned.
5. Always call one level higher in an organization than you believe is necessary.
6. Be confident and competent.
7. Phone calls placed before 8:30 AM are the most likely to be answered by the person you’re trying to reach.
8. Respect the gate-keeper by treating them in the same manner you would treat the prospect.
9. Prospecting calls on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons will have the worst results.
10. Prospecting on “semi-holidays” and inclement weather days will get a higher response.
11. Make it your goal to earn the right, privilege, and honor to talk to the person again.
12. Believe in what you’re selling and the benefits that the prospect will receive from your products/services.
13. Believe in yourself and your professionalism.
14. Anytime is a good time to make a call; don’t wait for the “perfect” time.

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Here is a terrific article from Selling Power titled Pare Down Your Pipeline.  Let me give you the opening paragraphs:

One key differentiator between your top 20 percent of performers and everyone else on your team is the way the superstars find and qualify leads. Let’s be honest: most of your reps – especially these days when business is agonizingly slow – are working feverishly to fill their pipelines. Their goal is to cram in as many leads as possible, knowing that a certain percentage of them are bound to come out the bottom as closed deals.

Top producers, on the other hand, “are more interested in disqualifying prospects than in generating leads,” says Mike Brooks in his new book, The Real Secrets of the Top 20% (Sales Gravy Press, 2008). “They don’t waste time and energy on questionable prospects, and they aren’t afraid to ask tough qualifying questions before engaging in the sales process. If a prospect is not qualified or does not have the ability to buy, they quickly move on.”

That is absolutely correct.  Please read the entire article.

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I run into this topic often and it is one worth defining.  Many companies value quotes as strong sales activity.  Now don’t get me wrong, quotes are a step in the sales process and typically one that occurs before a close.  However, companies that have under-defined sales processes often choose to substitute quotes for qualifying.

Here is what I mean – just because a suspect asks for a quote does not mean that they are a prospect.  This applies to customers too.  First, let’s define suspects and prospects.

A suspect is a company that shows some interest in your product or service but you are not sure of the level of their interest.  They could be tirekickers, competitive shoppers or legitimate prospects entering the sales process.

A prospect is a company that has a need/pain, budget for a solution, time-frame to buy/implement and a defined decision process.  The prospect is actively seeking a solution and will reach a decision.

Here is the problem when companies substitute quotes for qualifying – they do not invest the time or effort to determine if the quote-requesting company is a suspect or prospect.  In other words, they skip the qualifying step in the sales process.

This approach is dangerous in that the company invests resources in producing quotes.  It has been my observation that these companies almost never know how much a quote costs to produce.  Big red flag – you must know how much time, effort and resources are involved in generating a single quote.  You may be shocked.

Second, the suspect company may simply be probing your company for competitive information.  Is there anything more valuable than receiving your competition’s standard quote?

A sure sign of this quote approach is a close percentage well below 80%.  Quotes are the last step before closing so your closing percentage should be quite high – certainly over 75%.  If it isn’t, you have a qualifying problem amongst your sales team.

The first step to fixing this problem is to develop a form for the key information needed before issuing a quote.  May I be so bold as to suggest need, budget, decision process and timing as a good first step to this process?  If you implement a pre-quote structure, you will see a marked decrease in your quotes and a dramatic increase in your close percentage.

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