Our apologies to our readers – we have been in the process of moving our website to an upgraded server this week. Unknown to us, we have had some delay issues with email and now our blog is going Hal9000 on us. Some posts are missing from Thursday but I think we can repost them. Thanks for hanging in there with us and we promise to have a faster website and blog. Soon.
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Evaluating What is Said
Many people believe the preeminent ability required to be successful in sales is a good speaking ability. Verbal graces are beneficial in selling, but the ability to listen will always be more effective. Good salespeople are good listeners. Evaluating What Is Said This capacity is based on a person’s openness to people and their willingness to hear what the other person is saying – not what they think they should say, or are going to say. A salesperson with a strong aptitude in this capacity will be able to objectively evaluate feedback and hear the concerns, intentions or opinions being stated as opposed to inserting their own feelings or opinions.… Read More
Continue ReadingHow Managers Rate Themselves
From CareerJournal’s article Managers Rate Themselves High, But Employees Are Tough Critics: While 92% of managers say they are doing an “excellent” or “good” job managing employees, only 67% of workers agree. An additional 23% say their boss is doing a “fair” job, and 10% find their manager is doing a “poor” job, according to a survey of 1,854 U.S. workers by Rasmussen Reports LLC Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. I did so well at statistics in college that I got to take it twice. However, I believe a 25% spread is what statisticians term “statistically significant.” A solution later in the article: Let workers play a part… Read More
Continue ReadingAn Open Letter to Sales Managers
Time and time again we see a similar process play out to the detriment of a company. XYZ Company determines that they need to hire a new salesperson and the sales manager is going to spearhead the search. A problematic approach. The primary focus of most sales managers is to coach, motivate and hold the sales team accountable. Part of these responsibilities includes some direct selling and some organizational tasks (sales reports, meetings, etc.). Hiring is usually not a weekly sales manager activity unless there are larger issues inside the company. So where does this menu of responsibilities leave running a sales search? Larger companies have HR personnel to place… Read More
Continue ReadingResume Veracity
Adria offered an interesting comment on our post regarding Resume Enhancements. Here is her comment in whole: I currently teach a Resume class in a Texas Workforce Center. I tell my attendees to never lie on their resumes. I also try to emphasize they should never put something in print about themselves which they cannot prove, or for which they cannot provide a witness if necessary. Will recruiters simply dismiss the truth in the resume style Im teaching as more embelishments or is there a trustworthy means to note integrity on a resume? First off, good news that candidates are being taught a specific manner for maintaining the veracity of… Read More
Continue ReadingNew Article – Sales Hire Misfires
We have a new article that has been released today – Sales Hire Misfires. This short article covers 2 important process errors we often see in sales hiring. Eliminate these two errors and you greatly improve your chances of a successful hire.
Continue ReadingCover Email Attention Getter
I’m working through some resume tasks this Monday morning and noticed an amusing line from a cover email: I have excellent customer skills and great work ethic! I do more by 9:00 in the morning that (sic) the marines do all day!! I know, a grammatical error steals some of the thunder, but I still got a kick out of the line. Note: exclamation points should be avoided at all costs. However, it is always – always – valuable to stand out from the crowd in a pile of resumes. Assuming you stand out in a good way.
Continue ReadingOneWebDay is Today
Last week the Rock Star was commenting on Head Lice Prevention Month. Today I give you OneWebDay which is a celebration of the world wide web. The gist of it: Susan Crawford, the founder of OneWebDay, said she wanted people to reflect on how the web had changed their lives. Maybe we are getting too many of these special days?
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Handling Rejection
We’re going to start a short blog series on some specific sales aptitudes that predict success in a majority of sales roles. Our first one may be the most important aptitude – handling rejection. Sales is overflowing with rejection. I know because getting “no’s” was a hallmark of my sales career – nobody did it better. Getting the “yes” was my struggle (still is). Anyway, this aptitude is one we pay close attention to in all sales candidates. Sales that require many prospect contacts to reach 1 close require candidates with strong handling rejection aptitudes (an extreme example – telemarketing). Handling Rejection: The capacity to exhibit persistence and strong will… Read More
Continue ReadingResume Errors
Resumes have been a popular topic for us this week. Now I just caught up to this post from Anthony Meaney over at Recruiting.com from last week: Eighty-four percent of executives polled said it takes just one or two typographical errors in a resume to remove a candidate from consideration for a job opening; 47 percent said a single typo could be the deciding factor. First off, “typo” is a bit nondescript so I would argue some typos are worse offenses than others (“alot” instead of the proper “a lot” is forgivable in my opinion). However, one axiom we live by is that the interview process is the best the… Read More
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