Good article here from CareerJournal written as a “How To” for young workers entering the workforce. A good tip for any candidate from the article: Try not to play hardball at this level,” warns Mr. Gordon. But you don’t have to be a pushover either. Once you’ve got a number, remain positive about the position. Ask, don’t demand. No one wants to hear you need more money to take vacations in Cancun, but you might have a case for a higher salary if you have to move to a new city. Ask for a day or so to think it over. Another topic to be aware of is the fact… Read More
Continue ReadingInterview Blunders
CareerJournal.com references a survey from Korn/Ferry that identifies the most common interview blunders: Talking too much Lack of knowledge about company or position Over-inflated ego Appearing overly confident Inquiring about compensation too early in the process Unkempt appearance When selecting salespeople, an overly strong ego combined with a Dominant selling style is a recipe for disaster. These salespeople, at their worst, turn into a walking flamethrower. Their approach will aggravate most who come in contact with them – coworkers, customers and prospects. In case you were wondering (I was): unkempt = 1: not combed 2: deficient in order or neatness
Continue ReadingTermination Tips
Firing an employee is usually a difficult task unless things have degraded to a point where you are eager to terminate them. Nonetheless, there are some tips available for doing it the “right” way. CareerBuilder has a solid, basic article that hits the high points of terminating an employee – What to Know About Letting an Employee Go. Here’s a good tip from the article: It’s About Time It used to be the general consensus that late Friday afternoon was considered the ideal time to drop the hammer on an employee. But experts in the Human Resources industry now believe that earlier in the day, or even the week, is… Read More
Continue ReadingThe 6 Hour Workday
Price Tag for Lost Productivity: $544 Billion. I’m always intrigued about how these calculations are made through a simple survey. How about some stats from the article? Employees spend an average of 1.86 hours per eight-hour workday on something other than their jobs, not including lunch and scheduled breaks, the survey found. More than half (52%) of the 2,706 people surveyed admitted that their biggest distraction during work hours is surfing the Internet for personal use. Other distractions cited by respondents included socializing with co-workers (26.3%), running errands outside the office (7.6%) and spacing out (6.6%). I remember seeing something about this survey since “spacing out” made me laugh. I’ve… Read More
Continue ReadingHow to Explain Natural Talents
Let’s keep this talent vs. experience riff rolling into a Monday. This battle is near and dear to our hearts, as you know. Here is an experience we had recently involving a final candidate who had a strong networking ability. He has the ability to network within his industry effectively. He even networked with people incidentally – at a restaurant, in retail environment, etc. This ability was revealed throughout his assessments. He was a strong people reader, had high empathy, was people-oriented, etc. Unfortunately during the in-person interview, the candidate wasn’t able to tactically explain his networking ability. The ability came naturally to him so he was not overtly aware… Read More
Continue ReadingKnow Your Competition
Just over 10 years ago, I was a Regional Sales Manager for a high-tech company in a competitive market. There were 5 major players in this market and each of us incorporated different technology in our capital equipment. The Internet was a fledgling concept in the business world at the time. We needed to know what our competition was developing since they all had different technology. We had admin people call in to our competitors, pretend that they were prospects and request information packets. Our competitors obliged. We then passed the information around to the team and filed it in a huge lateral file for future reference. Outside of trade… Read More
Continue ReadingA Hiring Riddle
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein Here is a riddle we constantly encounter yet have difficulty solving. Let’s say you are the sales manager for a somewhat complex product sale and you have an underperforming salesperson. The salesperson is well below quota, has an ethereal forecast and is not making enough prospect connects to turn it around. What do you do as a sales manager? My solution – pull them from their territory for 1 week of intense product training. I’m talking deep training down to the part production, software coding, product assembly nether regions of operations. If you can pump… Read More
Continue ReadingClosing a Candidate
The job market is tight and sourcing periods are extended due to the scarcity of strong candidates. Articles abound on the Internet about this topic. We have a saying we tell our clients – “If we know they are a strong salesperson, other companies with other opportunities know it too.” In the current hiring environment, it is mission critical to keep a hiring process moving. Once a strong candidate is identified, time is of the essence. The longer you wait, the more competition you invite. We are moving on top candidates within 24 hours of the interview stage. Some of our customers are scheduling second interviews at the conclusion of… Read More
Continue ReadingHow Important is Customer Service?
Extremely important. I bet you knew that. Yet, it seems that many companies do not realize what type of customer experience they are providing through their customer service dept. Inc.com’s article – Companies Receive Poor Grades for Customer Service – is one of these annual surveys measuring customer perceptions. This following piece of information seems obvious, but…: The study also found that new technology is no substitute for helpful agents. Six out of 10 respondents said automated phone services, live online chat, and other customer-service technologies had not improved service quality. In fact, automated phone services received the lowest level of satisfaction among all customer service channels, while in-person services… Read More
Continue ReadingFantasy Football and Productivity
No, Fantasy Football does not improve workplace productivity. From the article: During the National Football League regular season, nearly 37 million people spend an average of 50 minutes a week at work managing their fantasy teams comprised of real-life players tallying points based on statistical performance, according to outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Fantasy sports ranks with shopping on eBay Inc.’s Web auction site and online poker as the biggest waste of productivity at the workplace, said John Challenger, CEO of the consulting firm. As an avid Fantasy Football player, if they are spending only 50 minutes a week on their team, they are not going to win… Read More
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