In talking with one of our customers, we heard this humorous story from the acting sales manager. This executive has been filling in the past month because her Sales Manager quit without notice and she was voicing her frustration at the lack of urgency on the part of the existing salespeople. Her story goes like: She asked one of her new salespeople for an update on her forecast and where things stood with a few specific prospects. The salesperson answered that everything was good and that in a year the two of them would be laughing about this discussion about where these deals stood. The salesperson mentioned that they would… Read More
Continue ReadingThe One Piece Of Advice You Can’t Sell Without
I came across a new sales blog, RainToday.com. They are offering a free e-book to download titled The One Piece Of Advice You Can’t Sell Without that caught my eye and I encourage you to go download it. Rain Today says this about the free e-book: We’ve read a lot of advice about selling professional services, and there are a lot of people who claim to know it all. But when you boil it all down what’s really important? What do you need to know? To answer this question, we asked 11 experts in selling professional services: What is the one piece of advice you simply cannot sell without? This… Read More
Continue ReadingADHD Awareness Day – Sept. 20
Today is the 3rd annual National Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Awareness Day. It is quite an impressive website and has tons of resources for those affected by this disorder. In fact, maybe they should have developed a shorter website with more bulleted information!
Continue ReadingWhy Salespeople Leave
An interesting article ran in last week’s Selling Power Newsletter for Hiring & Recruiting titled “Why Do Salespeople Leave?” According to Compensation Resources, Inc. (CRI), obtained turnover statistics and trends from a broad range of industries and company sizes. The results indicate that both voluntary turnover and overall turnover have slightly increased in 2006 over 2004 when the last data were collected. The report identified an important shift in the motivators for leaving noted by employees. In 2004, the top reasons for moving on were better pay and better benefits. In 2006, the top reasons for leaving an employer is the desire for better opportunities and increased responsibilities. “More and… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Aesthetics of Resumes
Resumes seem to be getting a lot of air time on the internet lately, including our blog. I just read an interesting article this morning and thought I would share a couple of points that the author brought to my attention. The article is written for the job seeker, but if you would like to read it, you can find it online at the Minneapolis StarTribune website. It is titled – Don’t Sell Yourself Short. One of the author’s sources gives these suggestions: I like to see key words (job titles, degrees) in bold – that way I can immediately see whether the work history and education matches the needs.… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – So What?
Let’s keep the “so what?” principle going before the weekend. Recently in a face-to-face interview for a business development role candidates were asked – “How have you developed territories in the past?” The question was purposely vague to see if they would ask for clarification to understand what we were specifically looking for before responding. Ideally, the candidates would not only explain how they went about developing a new territory, but the impact it had on their company (the so what? factor). One candidate stood out from the rest and not in a good way. He did not ask qualify the question nor did he give it much thought. In… Read More
Continue ReadingU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Website
I had some fun bouncing around the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Website yesterday. Pretty dangerous for a numbers geek like me. You can imagine that I soon found myself knee-deep into numbers. As you probably know, we are spellbound by lists here at The Hire Sense so this site was rich with stats, numbers and lists. Beautiful. Well anyway, here are some interesting numbers I found that I thought I would share with you. As I posted earlier this week, the United States unemployment rate is at 4.7%, but if we look at the number of job openings as a percent of total employment, 2.8%, we… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat Kids Bring Home from School
My kids returned to school this week. I know the Minnesota parents are saying, “This week? My kids have been going for a week or two.” Our district just built 2 new elementary schools this past year and summer break was extended to give more time in completing their construction. That mission was only accomplished for 1 of the 2 new schools (which my youngest attends). Anyway, back to the reason for the post – I just learned today that September is Head Lice Prevention Month. With school starting in September and knowing that most elementary kids don’t have a lot of sense about these things, I can understand the… Read More
Continue ReadingAttracting the Passive Candidate
In a recent article on Weddles.com (the website provides resources for employment, personal development and career success) titled The First Four Lines, the author discusses the importance of catching the candidates’ attention in ads. In their own survey Weddles has found most visitors to the online job boards are now spending more time on the online sites than in the past. They do provide some stats in the article, but unfortunately they do not provide a frame of reference as in per day, per week or per month or how much this has changed from past surveys. The article does give some great tips on attracting the passive candidates: Passive… Read More
Continue ReadingWho would you like to take to work?
On SHRM’s website (membership required) they have an article about a survey conducted by SnagAJob.com from August 9th to the 23rd asking more than 2,300 people who they would most like to take to work. SnagAJob.com thought it would be interesting with all the different “Take Your . . . to Work” to conduct a survey with respondents choosing from a list of 12 celebrities: Overall 1. Oprah with 26 percent 2. Angelina Jolie with 11 percent 3. Will Ferrell with 10 percent 4. Brad Pitt Age 17 and younger 1. Oprah with 18 percent 2. Jessica Alba with 15 percent 3. Paris Hilton with 14 percent Age 18 to… Read More
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