Anyone who has worked in a large company has encountered office grandstanders in great quantity. Every department has them. Now CareerJournal.com offers an entertaining article titled Not Even Politicians Can Outdo Office Grandstanders. Another tactic: Speak first, and often, in meetings, says Greg Milano, a sales and marketing veteran of 22 years, and act like the boss you aren’t — yet. One colleague he remembers would often distribute minutes of meetings that weren’t his, make the first toasts at parties he didn’t host and grill people with questions only he felt he was entitled to ask. “It became such an annoyance that people started to refer to that behavior by his… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Meeting Standards
Salespeople are the face of your company to the prospect world. The salesperson’s output (emails, proposals, information) also represents your company in the market. Have you ever managed a salesperson who simply didn’t focus on the quality of his or her output? Or how about the salesperson who places a perfectionist’s expectation on a simple item? They drag out a simple item to exacting levels – even to the point of missing the opportunity. This week we break down that trait. Meeting Standards The ability to see and understand the standard requirements established for a job and having the commitment to meet them. This is an internal motivation which combines… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Dawn Of Corporate Text Messaging
We are gradually moving towards instant messaging for our internal communications at Select Metrix and away from email. Speed is a big part of this move for us, but email spam is also driving the change. I have a difficult time imagining email disappearing all together, but this article from Inc.com provides some insight: Due to increasing levels of spam, companies may soon have to look beyond e-mail as the primary method of communicating with employees and customers, according to a new study. In 2007 alone, it is predicted that nearly 97 billion e-mails will be sent daily worldwide, 40 billion of which will be spam messages, the study found. In… Read More
Continue ReadingAn Indirect Cost Of Turnover
We at The Hire Sense have been focused on employee retention this year. Pretty smart of us, I know (especially when the national unemployment rate is 4.4%). Michael at Hidden Business Treasures pointed us towards the Herman Group’s Trend Alert e-newsletter and I received my first one this week. The topic – wellness programs and their impact on benefits. This shocked me: The financial impact of healthcare spending is indisputable. Starbucks spends more money in one year on health insurance for its employees than it spends on coffee for its customers. The US automakers will spend more money this year on health insurance than they will on the steel that… Read More
Continue ReadingEmail Names To Avoid
20 years ago we would not have been discussing this topic, but Foxnews.com posts this article: Quirky E-Mail Addresses Won’t Help in the Hunt for Jobs. I believe it was Mark Twain who said that common sense ain’t so common. You would think job candidates would be wary of using party-like names. Apparently not: E-mail names deemed unprofessional included: alliecat@, bacardigirl@, bighotdaddy@, drunkensquirl@, foxylady@, gigglez217@. “bighotdaddy” made me laugh. Just as surprising was the fact that someone conducted a study to find out if these email addresses would have an adverse effect on a job search.
Continue ReadingHow To Get Your Sales Copy Read
Writing effective sales copy is difficult, time-consuming and financially rewarding once you master it. We have not mastered it at Select Metrix. Earlier I posted on the effectiveness of using “P.S.” in your voicemails and written correspondence. Now MarketingProfs.com offers Want Better Sales Copy? Take a Tip From Zig Ziglar. There are many tips in this article, but I want to focus on one tip about what not to do: Want to set your sales copy and your business apart from the overwhelming majority of organizations you’re competing against? Here’s a simple but powerful strategy you can start implementing today. Specify exactly what you mean when you use such words… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Get Your Voicemails Returned
ManageSmarter.com offers some excellent suggestions for making your voicemails far more effective. Their 15 tips include a couple that I cannot stress enough: 11. If you can’t say it briefly, don€™t say it at all. Voicemail is not “story time.” Leaving a long message is an invitation to have the entire message skipped. The optimal voicemail message is between 8 and 14 seconds. Few things in life are more tiresome than a rambling voicemail. My view is if the topic required a call to discuss, then mention the topic in one sentence, leave your contact info and hang up. And this gem: 13. Leave a “P.S.” at the end of… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Need To Cross-Sell Accounts
Team-based selling has become a dominant trend in the sales world due in large part to the information flowing through the Internet. Prospects expect knowledgeable salespeople to call upon them – the basic information they can (and probably have) learn from your website. ManageSmarter.com offers this article – Cross-Selling Takes Teamwork – which discusses team-based cross-selling to your customer base. Some might suggest that customers are irritated by cross-selling and perceive it as an aggressive sales approach. Interestingly enough, consumer research indicates that the reverse is actually true. Most customers prefer a full spectrum of products and services and appreciate the convenience that is provided through a comprehensive cross-selling approach.… Read More
Continue ReadingSmoke Screen Objections
Smoke screens are moves prospects use on salespeople that appear to be reasons for not moving forward with a deal. Many times these smoke screens sound something like this: We’re going to take a look at all options. We need 3 quotes before deciding. We need to think it over. Smoke, nothing more. If you have salespeople believing these statements are a precursor to a close, take them out to the wood shed on their qualifying. These “prospects” are not qualified and should not be on any forecast. Justsell.com offers up a simple, yet powerful web page that addresses the real objection from the prospect. Their objection falls into 1… Read More
Continue ReadingA Strange Cover Email
I’ve never seen this statement in a cover email before: I’m well kept, dress business casual on most days, and mind my own business in the office. This statement comes from the cover letter of a salesperson. If you realize that you only have a small window to make an impression, I think there are far better topics to address in the cover letter. Maybe it’s just me.
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