Since I suspect many of you will be hopping on an airplane within the next few days, here is an article from Yahoo Finance titled 10 Biggest Bonehead Moves at Airport Security. It is a funny article especially if you have been caught in one of these scenarios. I usually cause one of these scenarios: 4.) Sporting Lace-Ups When Loafers Will Do You don’t need to wear your father’s slippers, but you shouldn’t wear his army boots either. Nowadays, everyone — and that means you, Your Honor — has to take off their shoes for X-ray inspection. So wear shoes that can be easily put on and taken off. And… Read More
Continue ReadingManaging A Remote Salesforce
We talk about this topic at length because it is more than a trend. ManageSmarter.com’s Long-Distance Teambuilding addresses this topic in a real-world manner: “Sellers by nature like to be in a team environment—they want a high-five and a talk around the water cooler,” says Cowitt, vice president of national advertising sales for Freedom Interactive, the Internet division of Freedom Communications, a media company in Irvine, Calif. So Cowitt implemented a daily phone call, which lasts about 15 minutes, to allow salespeople to exchange ideas, successes and challenges. That is the right approach. We initiated a weekly conference call earlier this year with one of our customers with whom we… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Hottest Gift This Christmas…
is a GPS receiver. I get lost in my driveway and yet I still do not own one of these things. In case you were wondering (you probably weren’t wondering, but I was), here is how the thing works: When people talk about “a GPS,” they usually mean a GPS receiver. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is actually a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites (24 in operation and three extras in case one fails). The U.S. military developed and implemented this satellite network as a military navigation system, but soon opened it up to everybody else. Each of these 3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered satellites circles the globe at about 12,000… Read More
Continue ReadingMotivating Salespeople
Sales managers have to be part-time psychologists in their leadership position. The best salespeople have an internal motivation that drives them to succeed. Yet, a strong sales manager still has to know each salesperson’s drivers and how to access them when needed. Selling Power offers a short article titled Internalizing Motivation that discusses this topic: Sales trainer Don Hutson recounts the story about a sales manager who approached him at one of his seminars and said, “I don’t believe in motivation because it doesn’t last.” Hutson replied, “A bath doesn’t either, but it’s a good idea to take one once in a while.” Hutson says sales managers can’t directly motivate… Read More
Continue ReadingMy Gift For Lee
He’s old. And he rarely reads my posts so this gift will still be a surprise to him.
Continue ReadingWhat All Top Salespeople Possess
The ability to ask the right question. From Colleen Francis’ blog: Over 20 years ago, Neil Rackham concluded a 12- year study analyzing some 35,000 sales calls conducted by 22 companies in 23 countries. The objective of the study was to determine the precise behaviors of successful sales people. What did he find? That mediocre sales people make statements. The best ask questions. That is absolutely true and we see it in spades on a daily basis. Have you ever noticed how people assume someone who is talkative is often told they should go into sales? I think this conventional wisdom is the reason why there are so many overbearing… Read More
Continue ReadingGreen Monday – Better Than Cyber Monday
I didn’t know this: FORGET CYBER MONDAY. NIELSEN ONLINE has confirmed that Monday, December 10th was the biggest online shopping day this season, based on its Holiday eShopping Index. The index comprises data from more than 120 online retailers across 12 categories. The Index showed 34.9 million at home and work unique visitors on “Green Monday”–a term recently coined by eBay to describe the second Monday in December as the heaviest online shopping day of the season. Spending hit $881 million on Dec. 10, according to comScore, up 33% from last year. (From Online Media Daily)
Continue ReadingRecruitingBlogs.com Best Blog Awards 2007
We were pleased to learn that The Hire Sense has been nominated for the Best Blogs Awards 2007. The fact that we were nominated is an honor in itself as there are many tremendous blogs up for the award. If you enjoy The Hire Sense and would like to vote for us, you can simply follow this link to cast your vote in the survey or click on the image above. You can vote for this blog in the Best Overall category and the Best HR Blog category. Many thanks to RecruitingBlogs.com and to Zoom Info for running and sponsoring the annual awards and for considering our blog.
Continue ReadingBusting A Sales Slump
In all honesty, I am a streaky salesperson (at best). I have always been prone to peaks and valleys in my sales which speaks more to my abilities. Nonetheless, this ManageSmarter.com article addresses this problem with tips for breaking out of a slump. First, a great point: Besides, prospects can smell desperation in sales people. If you panic, your prospects will sense that you’re desperate, and they’ll avoid you. Oh that is so true. Prospects have an innate ability to detect a salesperson working a deal out of desperation. And, of course, that desperation typically plays out as a sizeable discount in the sale price. Then there is this: Third,… Read More
Continue ReadingGooglepedia
It already seems like a holiday week, but we’ll keep things moving this week as best we can. The first interesting item I found this morning is a story stating that Google is looking to develop a competitor to Wikipedia. From MediaPost: LOOK OUT, WIKIPEDIA. GOOGLE IS soliciting entries for a new Internet encyclopedia that will consist of material submitted by people who want to be identified as experts. The concept, revealed in a posting on Google’s Web site, poses a challenge to the nonprofit Wikipedia, whose entries are generated by unpaid, anonymous contributors. Google is calling its alternative “knol”–the company’s shorthand for a “unit of knowledge.” Submissions are currently… Read More
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