Tory Johnson from abcnews.com has a helpful article titled Turn the Tables in a Job Interview. She discusses what candidates should ask in an interview when the interviewer asks, “What questions do you have?” I’m always perplexed by candidates who simply state “None.” That response is always a red flag.

Volumes of information are readily available with the Internet. Today’s candidate should have a general understanding of the hiring company’s business model, markets and corporate structure (privately held, subsidiary, etc.). Due diligence is easily completed with today’s technological tools.

Back to the article – this question can and should be asked by every serious candidate:

What are the biggest challenges you see in this position?
This shows an interviewer that you’re interested in going beyond the basics and that you are inquisitive and thoughtful. It also shows that you’re not adverse to overcoming challenges and tackling them with gusto.

This question does show a desire to understand the position at a deeper level and implies that the candidate is consciously determining if their skills are enough to overcome the typical challenges in the position.

The question we always like to hear from a strong sales candidate:

What are the next steps in the hiring process?

This question is important for sales candidates since it shows us a qualifying mindset. In our hiring process, we indirectly mimic sales situations as much as possible. We want to see the candidates in action. Sales candidates who attempt to qualify the next step in the process are showing skills (qualifying the decision-making process) that are needed once they are on your payroll and selling your product or service.

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Monster.com has an entertaining article about interviewer styles. We’ve seen this “version” more times than we can count:

The Unskilled Interviewer
Problem: This is an interviewer who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Maybe the person was “roped into being there,” says Meehl. “Maybe they just don’t know what to do.” In a way, it is you who is teaching them how to be an interviewer, she explains.

The article is a quick read and does provide some good pointers to interviewees when trapped in a poor interview.

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I decided to mark these general resume emails as anecdotes also. I found this one entertaining:

I’m looking for work that doesn’t involve customer service. Also work that is relatively healthy in that there are no poisonous gasses or fumes in the workplace … I have had around 30 jobs in the past 10 years. I quit jobs because I either get sick of the people I work with, bored with the job, or a little of both.

I took the liberty of shortening the cover letter – it didn’t change the context. You know, we sometimes harpoon websites that ghost write cover letters and resumes. In this instance, investing in those sites’ services would be wise.

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A quick blurb of a story from TechWeb about Monster.com’s numbers released for June. 24 of the 28 major markets showed lower online recruitment activity. They do mention that Minneapolis and St. Louis actually saw an increase in online activity for the month. We can attest to that fact in our local sourcing campaigns.

I think this excerpt cuts to the quick of the entire story:

“Broader business expansion activities slowed with the start of the summer vacation season.”

We see this trend every year – July and August are truly hit-or-miss months of the year. Vacation schedules play a major part in it. One anomaly, traditionally we have had much success sourcing during these 2 months.

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I’ve never seen counteroffers get rectified. Countering Counteroffers sheds light on this difficult topic.

Once a salesperson, or any employee, receives an offer from another company, a level of trust (or commitment) has been compromised. This salesperson obviously had an in-depth discussion about another opportunity and pursued it to the offer level. Now the manager is left to question the salesperson’s commitment to success at the current company.

Here is the takeaway quote from the article (emphasis mine):

Its poll found that 75 percent of employees who accepted a counteroffer voluntarily left their employer within six months because of promises not kept. Further, the majority of the ones who didn’t leave were laid off or fired within a year.

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Sales&Marketing Magazine briefly approaches one of sales most taboo topics – Cutting Your Losses. Sometimes customers that you worked so hard to close are simply not a good fit for your business and you have to end the relationship.

Tricky stuff but there are some good suggestions in this short article.

We had a client 4 years ago who had just purchased her technology company and needed to hire a salesperson. She hired us to find their first outside salesperson but we never completed the search. We presented one strong candidate after another, but she couldn’t pull the trigger. It finally got to the point where we had to end the relationship.

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The latest jobs report for our home state shows that Minnesota added the most jobs in a quarter since 1984. Of course, the journalist strangely felt obligated to follow that impressive fact with multiple paragraphs downplaying the incredible growth.

Our state unemployment is now down to 3.6% which has affected our local sourcing activities. 4 years ago we would post 1 ad on monster and receive 50-60 calls and/or emails within a week. Not so today.

We have adjusted accordingly by posting a position on 3 job boards simultaneously. The pattern that is working is to still use one of the major job boards (monster, careerbuilder or hotjobs), one niche board (specifically focused in an industry or on a position) and then one or two free job boards (these are hit-or-miss).

Exposure is everything. We have seen our response totals increase dramatically even in the tight local market. We have incorporated a similar pattern for our national searches with the same success.

Sourcing is going to continue to tighten with the boomer exit and new methods will be required. I read an interesting post regarding cell phone employment ads. They are written like a print ad (say in a newspaper) and pushed out to cell phone subscribers. We are destined to see more of those methods as the younger, wired generations enter the workforce.

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Jeff Thull is a successful sales trainer in the Twin Cities who works extensively with companies that have a complex sale. I just read this article – How to Prevent “Unpaid Consulting” – and found it full of tactical advice for salespeople. A few gems from the piece (emphasis mine):

Unpaid consulting starts when sales professionals cross the line between diagnosing the problem and explaining the solution. When they start designing solutions, they start acting as unpaid consultants. In past decades, this was not a monumental issue. Generally, there was limited competition in complex sales. If the salesperson figured out the problem and designed a unique and valuable solution for a customer, the sale was almost guaranteed and the salesperson was rewarded for his consulting effort.

We have seen this behavior firsthand, even in sales that were more transactional in nature.

A great tip for sales managers (emphasis mine):

Go For The No. A key to your sales team’s productivity and success is helping them understand that a thorough diagnosis allows them to quickly identify the 20-30% of their prospects who have the immediate reason and resources to make a change. The traditional salesperson wastes time arm-wrestling with a prospect that has no pain and hopes to win the sale by sheer tenacity. This has its roots in the theory that the good salesperson never takes no for an answer and the salesperson’s view that no equates to personal failure. Help them recognize that a qualified No can increase their productivity and success.

Most sales managers have difficulty with this concept. It is critical to successful managing. You have to be willing to walk away from marginal at best prospects to focus on the 20-30% who are a strong fit for your solution.

Many sales managers cannot implement this truth and end up with less efficient sales teams.

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I just read CBS to Launch Offbeat Promotion on Eggs. CBS is going to advertise on eggs that you purchase in the supermarket. At first I was taken aback by the entire ubiquitous marketing approach of our society.

Then I thought I would probably be intrigued if I opened the carton of eggs and saw the CBS eye logo on it.

It goes deeper. I googled the company that places the ad on to the eggshell. Eggfusion’s site revealed this:

Without affecting the contents or durability of an egg, Eggfusion’s proprietary laser-etching technology safely places tamperproof marks directly into the eggshell as it passes through the packaging process.

Apparently, it started as a safety feature for indelibly marking freshness dates on the egg itself instead of the carton. Someone saw a marketing opportunity and decided to put advertising on the egg also.

Now that is capitalism at its finest.

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We constantly debate when is the best time to place an employment ad online. Lately we have been receiving mixed signals from other articles, our job board reps and our own experience. There certainly is not a consensus opinion on this topic.

When I was younger, we used to go to beach parties where everyone would bring a liquor, a juice and a fruit. We would throw everyone’s “donation” into a large vat, mix it up and call it a Wapatui. For years I had no idea what that meant, but I think employment ads often resemble a Wapatui. A little of this, something from there and we’ll post it whenever.

No more Wapatui ads. Strong sales candidates are out there, but there is a definite scarcity to ad responses. We run many ads every month and continue to tweak them to see what is working.

We have been posting mainly on Tuesdays for the past few months with decent responses. However, we have read that Sunday is still a strong day for posting. We are running a test this week with 3 different sales ads – first one posted yesterday (Sun.), next one posts today (Mon.) and the last one posts on Tuesday. They are 3 different ads for 3 different sales positions, but they are all relatively similar in ideal candidate experience. It won’t be a controlled scientific experiment, but we will post our results and general impressions later this week or early next week.

Oh, and I did Google Wapatui. The things you learn on the web.

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