From Sales&Marketing Management’s Performance newsletter (sorry, no link): An annual survey by consulting firm Accenture of 436 senior executives at major companies around the world have identified risk management as their top concern. This is a shift from the past three years, when workforce improvement issues topped the list. Here are the top 10 current business issues for senior executives: 1. Managing risk 2. Achieving growth while increasing profitability 3. Acquiring new customers 4. Using IT to reduce costs and create value 5. Changing organizational culture and employee attitudes 6. Increasing customer loyalty and retention 7. Improving workforce performance 8. Increasing shareholder value 9. Applying innovation to stay ahead of… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Sense of Timing
This week’s series stops on an important aptitude for success is selling. There is nothing more clumsy than a salesperson with bad timing. Sense Of Timing The ability to accurately evaluate what is happening in such way that their statements, decisions and actions are effective, accurate and timely. This capacity evaluates a persons ability to look at the whole picture and effectively evaluate how their immediate request or action fits into the current timeframe. A salesperson with a strong aptitude in this capacity will be able to effectively interact with others by adjusting the timing with which he/she presents ideas, suggestions, criticism or solutions. A salesperson with a weak aptitude… Read More
Continue ReadingAbsentee Sales Management
Imagine your goal is to lose weight so you sign up for a 1 year membership to one of the large health clubs in town. You pay the steep initial fee and the monthly amount. In the first 6 months, you go to the club and workout a total of 5 times for 30 minutes each time. Suffice to say, you have not lost the weight you expected to lose. In fact, you have actually put on 5 pounds in those 6 months. You could call the club and complain that you have not lost the weight you had intended to lose. They will probably pull up a record of… Read More
Continue ReadingGreat Sales Quote
It has been a hectic customer day with many things happening. I was a bit worn out and then I caught up to this great quote from the justsell.com newsletter: “Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses and some don’t turn up at all.” –Sam Ewing (1920-2001) American writer & humorist
Continue ReadingQuantity vs. Quality
We prefer quality. We often tell our prospects if we do our job perfectly, you will only interview one candidate. If you think about this approach, we are confident in our process and our tools to find the most skilled and talented candidate for the position. Some people are uncomfortable with this approach. They require interviews with multiple candidates before making a decision. But is this the best approach? If you are hiring for a specific position and the first candidate you interview is a strong fit for the position, is there any reason why you wouldn’t hire them? Most people prefer to have options so they seek interviews with… Read More
Continue ReadingWork-life Balance When Hiring
Anthony Meaney from Recruiting.com has a great post today unpacking a CareerJournal.com article titled Acing a Dicey Interview Question:Why Did You Leave Your Last Job? Straight from Anthony’s keyboard: Work-life balance has become a key issue for people these days with employees striving for it and employers gushing about how their company supports work life balance. Yet we are supposed to look askance at candidates who want to knock two hours of commute time off their day? The only person who can legitimately scoff at shorter commute as a reason for leaving is someone who is doing a longer commute. I couldn’t agree more. We are located in the Twin… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Use a Hiring Process?
We work with customers from around the country who sell in a myriad of markets. Some positions are far more difficult to fill than others. I am speaking in terms outside of the position itself. Some hiring managers provide difficult roadblocks to sales hiring success. One of the most important reasons for running a hiring process is to remove biases. Biases are the single largest detriment to successful hiring we encounter. We released an article last week that speaks to these gut-level decisions. There is no accounting for these biases. There is no repeatable measurement for these biases. We preach this approach constantly – run a hiring process that pushes… Read More
Continue ReadingDQ…and I Don’t Mean Dairy Queen
It is hard not to trust Dan Seidman when you learn his is the founder of SalesAutopsy.com. Selling Power has an article titled DQ and Move On which highlights some of Seidman’s approach. I am not familiar with his work, but his advice is spot on. If I could have only one skill in a salesperson, it would be qualifying. It is the backbone of sales success. Every other stage hinges upon strong qualifying. Seidman hits on an absolute truth (my emphasis): When reps don’t qualify well, they spend too much time in front of prospects who aren’t ready or able to buy and that has a direct effect on… Read More
Continue ReadingGimmicky?
From a cover email of a technical person looking for nights or weekend work: PLEASE – no recruiters, insurance agents, or other gimmicky type people. I’m gainfully employed and simply want to put my name out to keep my skills tuned. For some reason I get a kick out of edgy cover emails. I thought this one might be a funny way to start your Monday (was for me).
Continue ReadingNiche Job Boards
Google led me to this article from onrec.com – Niche Job Boards Provide the Best Value For Employers. The niche job board topic is one of great interest to us. We typically spread our ads around to different sites including the main boards that everyone knows. Our experience with niche boards has not been as productive. This article is an opinion piece from the founder of Niche Jobboards.com so consider that fact. Yet, this stat was a bit surprising: As an example, JobsInLogistics.com, which serves the transportation and logistics industries, attracts 80 visitors per job ad over the course of a month. In comparison, CareerBuilder draws only 15 visitors per… Read More
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