I have had the opportunity to work for many different sales managers over my career. I’ve seen many styles, but I think this article in SalesHQ.com hits upon the most dangerous style: The Good Buddy is everyone’s friend. Managing is a popularity contest that he intends to win. He’ll be a great drinking buddy, a top notch shoulder to cry on, a guy you can trust to cover for you. He’ll make sure the office atmosphere is loose, that everyone feels welcome, that the office is a fun place to be. Discipline? Well, that’s not something you’ll find in his office. An insistence on hitting quota? Something else that isn’t… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat Is Gen U?
“Generation Unretired” according to this BusinessWeek.com article. That is a new term to me. According to the article: The AARP says that 8 out of 10 baby boomers will work part- or full-time past retirement age. That’s 64 million unretiring Americans, the biggest demographic shift in the American workforce since WWII—and 93% of the growth in the American labor market from now until 2016, according to the Pew Research Center. This trend is one that has been in the making for some time. The current recession and housing bubble burst has only exacerbated the trend. Clearly there will be new management techniques needed to handle the Gen U employees. The… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen Will It End?
The Great Recession roars on during this holiday season. Our company is focused on sales hiring, both assessing candidates for our customers and running full recruiting processes. The hiring outlook is of great importance to us and a topic I try to track closely. That being said, this abcnews.com article provides a mixed bag (emphasis mine): The November outlook by the National Association for Business Economics, which is set to be released Monday, shows economists expect net employment losses to bottom out in the first quarter of next year. Employers are seen starting to add to their payrolls after that. I would be more comforted by these economists if I… Read More
Continue ReadingStates With Low Unemployment
From ABCnews.com: The 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates, by percentage, are: 1. North Dakota 4.2 2. Nebraska 4.9 3. South Dakota 5.0 4. Montana 6.4 5. Vermont 6.5 6. Utah 6.5 7. Virginia 6.6 8. Iowa 6.7 9. New Hampshire 6.8 10. Kansas 6.8 I’m guessing many of these states are dominated by agricultural professions which are obviously less effected by corporate employment.
Continue ReadingThe Non-Employed
Every week more numbers come out to reveal another level of ugliness in this economy. Today comes this article from CNNMoney.com. The state that speaks volumes: Every state had an unemployment rate in October that was higher than a year ago, and every state has lost jobs over the course of the year. The recovery from this recession is going to take a long time as the hole keeps getting deeper. I think it is safe to say that the unemployment rate is higher then what is being reported: Unemployment rates, which are taken from a separate survey, tend to rise even as the employers start hiring again, because the… Read More
Continue ReadingSubtle Morons…I Mean Oxymorons
I have seen versions of this statement appearing in quite a few sales ads: The ability to work well independently and within a collaborative environment I think I understand what they are saying, but it is a poorly constructed bullet point. Independent salespeople tend not to work well in collaborative cultures. The same is true of collaborative salespeople, they tend to struggle in an independent role. For me, this type of writing is either lazy, unfocused and/or wishful. The better approach here is to define what a typical sale looks like in your company. Use that information to determine if you need a salesperson with an independent mindset or a… Read More
Continue ReadingA Hazy Shade Of Forecasting
The stresses of this economy are affecting entire sales departments from the leadership down to the trenches. One piece I have noticed is a distinct aversion towards customer relationship management software. Interestingly, the resistance is coming from sales managers. What I believe I am seeing are sales managers with less than solid forecasts…and they know it. However, one of the oldest games in sales is fudging the forecast. Sales managers typically inflate the forecast to buy time. They know certain deals are soft, to say the least, but they are hopeful they can cover those loses with new, undiscovered opportunities. It is some twisted logic for sure. I once worked… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Blunder-They’re Worse
Part of what I do in our company is ride around with sales reps on sales calls. The goal is to get market information that isn’t easily discovered – how the prospects view the solution, what degree of buzz words are incorporated, what stalls and objections occur most frequently, etc. You never learn more about a sales position than when you are in the trenches with the salespeople. That being said, I came across this article in SalesHQ.com. The format is a theoretical construction of a mistake-ridden sales call. The article is a bit exaggerated, but not by much. The concluding exchange is priceless: “Well,” Arnie responded, “I understand that… Read More
Continue ReadingTrends From The Tech Support Line
Everything is so serious these days that it is nice to find some levity. This is good – a company recently tracked aspects of 75,000 tech support calls. They have some gender-related data (emphasis mine): Male callers: 64% didn’t bother to read the instruction manual before calling for help. Female callers: 24% didn’t bother to read the instruction manual before calling for help. Male callers: 12% just needed to plug in their gear to “resolve their issue”. Female callers: 7% ditto! Female callers stayed on the phone with tech support 32% longer than male callers. 66% of tech support operators said they preferred dealing with female clients, anyway. So according… Read More
Continue Reading‘Help Wanted’ Has Become Obsolete
Isn’t that the truth? Here are some sobering points from a CNNMoney.com article: Businesses with fewer than 50 employees cut another 75,000 workers in October, according to estimates released Wednesday from payroll processor ADP. … A telephone survey of 830 small business owners conducted by management consulting firm George S. May International from Oct. 28-30 found that 74% of the owners polled do not plan to increase their staff headcount in the next 90 days. It has been our experience that sales hiring typically slows down during the holiday season, but companies often discuss their Q1 hiring plans with the intention of a fast start to the new year. Unfortunately… Read More
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