A thought I had about sales approaches based on economic conditions: Booming Economy – Salespeople should focus their message (value proposition) on efficiency and velocity. Their solution should essentially provide an improvement in productivity. Recessionary Economy – Salespeople should focus their message on reducing waste/improving profits. Their solution should provide a method for getting more out of what the customer has today. Perhaps I am oversimplifying things, but I think this approach has merit.
Continue ReadingThe Group Effect
My wife was at an interview last week for a medical position that is similar to her most current role. She walked into the lobby to find 4 other candidates there. They were all called in to a conference room by the HR person. They were then asked questions individually and asked to answer in front of the other candidates! The 5 of them were then asked to role play certain situations while the rest observed. Finally, they were given a tour of the clinic and then had to provide their own tour to a staff person. The point, I guess, was to see how they handled prospective patient visits.… Read More
Continue ReadingSkills Pay The Bills
I am slowly coming to the realization that many (most?) sales hiring managers are drawn to hiring experience like a moth is drawn to light. I am seeing it play out again at one of our assessment customers. The allure is to hire a salesperson with industry experience before properly assessing their sales skills. Here are some of the common statements I hear from these hiring managers: -They will pick up on our sale quickly -They know the competition -They know the nuances of our market -They know the competition -They will step in and start selling All of these beliefs stem from the hope that the hiring manager will… Read More
Continue ReadingHypnotizing The Hiring Manager
I just caught up to this email from CareerBuilder.com regarding anecdotal stories from hiring managers. These types of stories come out frequently and, honestly, I never get tired of them. Here is the bulleted list: When asked for the most memorable missteps they encountered when going through resumes, human resource managers and hiring managers reported the following: • Candidate put God down as a reference (no phone number). • Candidate listed her hobby as alligator watching. • Candidate claimed to be a direct descendant of the Vikings. • Candidate’s email address had “lovesbeer” in it. • Candidate listed “Master of Time and Universe” under his experience. • Candidate started off… Read More
Continue ReadingStrongest Performing Cities
I’m not sure what to make of this, but it caught my eye: Overall, the reading on local economies is still grim though, as home prices continue to fall and unemployment rates remain historically high, the report said. The list of strongest-performing areas included several middle American cities that were boosted by an uptick in manufacturing jobs and home price declines that were more modest than in other parts of the nation. The weakest performers were mostly sunbelt cities which saw some of the largest declines in home prices and continue to lag behind the rest of the country. Honolulu just jumps off the page for me.
Continue ReadingTexting And Lightning
The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. -Mark Twain If you would, allow me to speculate a bit. I’ve been involved in volunteer activities with high school students over the past 2 years so I have become a reluctant texter (is that a word?). I learned quickly that their preferred method of communication is texting. I didn’t even have texting on my cell service when I started. I now have unlimited texting out of necessity. I tell you this in regards to a concern I see in this younger generation. I’ve read… Read More
Continue ReadingNews From The Twilight Zone
From CNNMoney.com: A jobless recovery? Hardly. By historical standards, the labor market is recovering nicely — job growth has started earlier than in past recessions. I guess I was unaware of how good it is out there. I think this article comes with a large serving of Kool-Aid also.
Continue ReadingJob Progress
I’m beginning to think we are becoming immune to employment reporting. A sentence from the beginning and end of a CNNMoney.com article (emphasis mine): The good news: Overall employers announced fewer planned job cuts. … Economists are expecting the report to show there were 120,000 jobs lost in August, an improvement over July’s 131,000 job loss. In a prolonged recession, I guess these pieces of information are uplifting.
Continue ReadingWhat Employees Want
I am usually a bit cynical regarding these types of articles. My reasoning is this – each individual is unique in their motivations and rewards. Attempting to place employees into set categories regarding global characterizations is a stretch. Nonetheless, this article from Inc.com presents some excellent points and advice for employee engagement. I do not believe you can overstate this one: 5. Employees want flexibility. In addition to deciding how they work, the experts say employees also appreciate having a say over when they work. Gunther has, of course, set up a radically flexible schedule for his employees that might not work for every office. But, he says, it has… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Stalled Economic Engine
You know this entire GDP reporting process is an absolute joke. This AP article indicates that the Q2 GDP is going to be revised down…a LOT: The government is about to confirm what many people have felt for some time: The economy barely has a pulse. The Commerce Department on Friday will revise its estimate for economic growth in the April-to-June period and Wall Street economists forecast it will be cut almost in half, to a 1.4 percent annual rate from 2.4 percent Honestly, if a publicly-traded company were to do this, executives would be incarcerated. How the government gets away with this propaganda is beyond me. But if you… Read More
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