Here is an interesting article from our friends to the north (Canada is the only thing north of us here in Minnesota) titled Six Business Trends Every Salesperson Must Know. All 6 of the trends are interesting and worth the read, but this one caught my attention: Trend #4: We are shifting from the Information Age to the Communication Age. (Communicating is more valuable than informing.) Many salespeople rely on such marketing tools as a company web site, flyers, and sales letters. But all these things are static, meaning they are merely informing people. You hope your sales messages will entice the prospect to call, but it’s still a one-way… Read More
Continue ReadingPersonality Assessments And Stereotypes
Personality assessments, or “communication style” as I prefer, are highly valuable in the hiring process for one important aspect – communication. How many office conflicts have you seen where poor communication was adding oxygen to the fire? We see it in almost every office conflict. One way to diffuse these situations is to assess candidates before they join your team. Doing so allows the manager to know the preferred communication style of the new employee. This knowledge can also predict potential conflict areas between two employees before any conflict develops. However, there are still companies out there who harbor concerns about assessments. One common concern is mentioned in this BusinessWeek.com… Read More
Continue Reading50,000 Job Boards
Honestly, that is the number of online job boards according to Peter Weddle in this Wall Street Journal article. I had no idea. Some perspective from the article: About 2,000 new job boards have launched annually since 2000, and there are currently about 50,000, says Peter Weddle, chief executive officer of Weddle’s, a publisher of guides to job boards. Of these, about 30% are general job sites while 70% specialize in a particular niche, he adds. And the two big boards: Still, the nation’s largest job boards saw fluctuations in traffic over the past year. For example, Monster.com had 11,317,000 unique visitors last month, about 9% less than for the… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring For Style
Selling Style is one area we assess in our process. Some people refer to it as personality which I don’t believe is particularly accurate. Nonetheless, style is an important assessment for managing the salesperson but too many hiring managers assume certain skills based on a candidate’s style. When we refer to “gut-level decisions,” often those decisions are made based upon a candidate’s style. That method leads to hiring mistakes. One of our newer customers offered an interesting take on this style issue yesterday after a couple of candidate interviews. The candidates were markedly different in their styles, but their aptitudes, skills and motivations were relatively similar. Our customer’s comment: “I’m… Read More
Continue ReadingFast Facts About Telecommuting
Seems like our small-sized companies are catching on to the telecommuting option this year which is a bit of a change. I think a good post would be one that lays out a salesperson’s tools of the trade for today. Included in that list would be a web-based CRM and a VPN connection for telecommuting. No? Check these stats out from a recent Wall Street Journal article (h/t to Lee): Seventy percent of Cisco Systems employees regularly work from home at least 20% of the time. So do 34% of workers at Booz Allen Hamilton and 32% at S.C. Johnson & Sons. Those stats, from a recent Fortune companies survey… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen Prospecting, Be Real
I received an unsolicited email this morning from a niche job board that is really lame. The remarkable offer: I spoke with my Manager specifically about your company. I asked him to help me put together a cost effective trial package that would need to give you a good feel for how effective our service can be. I was able to create a private promotion that my Manager has authorized until the end of February. Since this is a private special, it is not available online. If you want to take advantage of it, you must call me. And of course the offer appears to be a 70% discount. Please. … Read More
Continue ReadingCandidate Requirements
Might be a good idea to leave this bit of data out of the cover email: Position must be daytime hours and reachable BY THE BUS SYSTEM. I am without a vehicle and License at this time, this is only temporary until I pay a fine.
Continue ReadingCompensation In A Task-Based Economy
Now this is a provocative article from BusinessWeek.com titled Defining A Job. The article is quite thorough in it’s reasoning and well worth the read. But let’s start with this explanation: In a nutshell: how do you define a job? For most organizations today, it’s based on the unit of time—40 hours week, for example—but I believe that definition is rapidly reaching the end of its useful life. Going forward, many jobs in our economy will be better defined by and compensated according to the task performed, regardless of the time spent achieving the desired outcome. Ironically, the switch from time to task takes us back to the way most… Read More
Continue Reading7 Saving Graces Of Managers
This is an interesting article from BusinessWeek.com – a ranked order of saving graces which are essentially counterpoints to the typically hard-charging approach of managers. The 7: 1. Listening: Taking the time to listen can get you out of more jams than the rest of the saving graces combined. It is the ultimate way of demonstrating that it is not all about you and your agenda, and it is an excellent tool for breaking down barriers and getting more out of what you do with others. Few executives are good listeners. 2. Approachability: The best executives need to be early knowers, especially when it comes to negative information. The best… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Negative Effect
We’ve been working through a fair amount of initial sourcing activities the past week or so and I’ve come across something that catches my attention. I’m seeing more and more posted resume/cover letters that state what a candidate is not looking for in their next position. No telemarketing positions. No work-at-home schemes. Not interested in travel. Must have benefit plan or not interested. I understand the desire to be focused in a job search, but I notice a negative effect when I read through these types of statements. Immediately, I start thinking about what other restrictions may be part of this candidate’s baggage. I suspect there are many companies out… Read More
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