Hiring Adjustments for Generations X & Y covers the changes we are seeing in the hiring process based on the up-and-coming generations. The main points in this article flow from our firsthand experience in the hiring process – especially over the past 2 years. An excerpt: “Gen X and Y candidates are looking for a “skills path.” They desire to understand what skills are needed to be successful in the position today. The long-term incentive is to understand what skills they will personally develop or acquire within the company. They prefer a horizontal management structure and respond to personal skill development. Titles are out. Responsibilities are in.”
Continue ReadingPassive Candidates
Will Passive Job Seekers Apply to Your Job? from CareerBuilder reads as an infomercial, but there are some usable data points in the first few paragraphs. Active vs. passive candidates is a subject that merits more discussion. The changing landscape of the 21st century is moving all candidates towards the active status. Job search agents, online boards, networking groups – all tools that make it simple for the most passive of candidates to be categorized as “active” in some vain. You might say that active categorizes someone who wants to make a change. True, but I’ve read articles that state 67% of today’s employees keep an eye on other employment… Read More
Continue ReadingHolding Sales Reps Accountable
One of the most important responsibilities for any sales manager is holding their salespeople accountable. Some sales manager only truly approach this topic at the end of the commission cycle when the rep is underperforming against quota. This approach is better than nothing (which I have personally experienced). This article from Selling Power provides a great process for holding salespeople accountable for consistent revenue production. The takeaway quote: “Just because reps know what they need to do doesn’t mean they’ll do it. It’s like going to the gym €“ you know you should go on your way home, but there are usually myriad reasons for not getting there. Thus once… Read More
Continue ReadingMore from monster.com – Interview Cheat Sheet
A cheat sheet from monster.com that is fairly comprehensive. These tips and prep questions are all excellent from the candidate side of the equation. These items become more troublesome when hiring salespeople. Even bad salespeople have some rapport-building ability that they incorporate into the interview process. There isn’t a hiring manager alive who doesn’t have a sales hiring mistake. We hear story after story about how good a candidate looked in the interview. The story continues with unique stories of different baggage. Some examples: salesperson wouldn’t make calls in their cubicle – they had to go in the conference room salesperson thought the support staff was completely dedicated to them… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Candidate Coaching from Monster
Any sales candidate could spend a solid day prepping themselves for any in-person interview and come across much stronger than they actually are. Unfortunately, this polished veneer is often good enough to land them on your payroll. The veneer is not peeled back until they have been with your company for a period of time. Monster.com offers Interview Questions, Part 3 in their effort to assist candidates. I am not against a candidate preparing for an interview, but companies that over rely on the interview for screening end up with flashy veneer, no substance salespeople. We can’t preach this topic enough – it is far more reliable to run a… Read More
Continue ReadingUpdated Pages on Sales Skills
We have updated the information on our Sales Skills page to be more explicit in describing the abilities we measure with that assessment. Part of our process is to analyze all of the reports in sum to identify what we call “threads” that run through them. The threads reveal call reluctance, hunting vs. farming, discounting and many other pieces of information that differentiate the best salesperson from the best interviewee. We will be adding a threads page at some point, but for now, check out the expanded detail of the Salles Skills section.
Continue ReadingMore Job Interviewing Tips
These articles are all over the web so again, if you are using the in-person interview as step 2 in your sales hiring process please stop. You are giving up information too easily for a savvy candidate. Better to withhold specific information and see what types of skills they have for extracting that information. They may search the web, ping their network or ask you direct questions. You learn far more with this approach. CareerJournal.com writes about candidates talking too much in an interview. Interviews are strange and stressful events. Most people do not sit in many meetings where they are interrogated and then judged regarding their own personal abilities.… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 10 Cities for Career Advancement
Readers of this blog know that we are suckers for lists. This one popped up today and had to be shared. One thought, the author mentions that the government’s OMB office has split up towns like Raleigh-Durham in to two separate towns. This seems strange – especially living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. At any rate, here are the top 10 with links to Forbes’ explanation for their ranking: 1. Albuquerque, NM 6. Phoenix, AZ 2. Raleigh, NC 7. Nashville, TN 3. Houston, TX 8. Durham, NC 4. Boise, ID 9. Fayetteville, AR 5. Knoxville, TN 10. Indianapolis, IN
Continue ReadingWhat is Mom’s Job Worth
This article is from Salary.com and the title of this post is from them and NOT from me. They came up with $134,121 for stay at home moms and $85,876 for working moms (the “mom” portion of their efforts). The breakdown of weekly jobs performed by mom are quite entertaining. I enjoyed the 3.5 hours per week of being a psychologist. Clever.
Continue Reading“A weakness is just the flip side of a strength taken too far”
Good article from vault.com titled Answering the Weaknesses Question. I want to take a different tact on this article’s main point. First, if you are using interviews as a second step qualifier in your hiring process, an article like this one ought to give you pause. The article is a deep analysis of strategies to answering an interview question many companies use today. But back to the point – Jerry Houser illuminates a great truth which is the title of this post. His further comment is just as insightful, “Strengths and weakness are situational. You have to know how to read your environment and use or moderate your skills in… Read More
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