It’s a Friday before a long weekend so let’s go with an anecdote. Just to give you a little background – I had previously talked with this applicant and allowed him to set the time for our phone screen (2 days later). I called him at the set time, reintroduced myself and reminded him of the reason for our call. He quickly cut me off with this comment: Can you call back in an hour or two because I am busy at the moment? He then said thank you and hung up before I could respond. To top it off, this sales position was for a long sales cycle, relationship… Read More
Continue ReadingTurnover Trouble
There was a good article in SalesForceXP’s recent newsletter (sorry no link) that quotes 2 recent surveys conducted by Miller Heiman and the Hay Group specifically looking at turnover amongst salespeople. The research concluded that not only is finding good salespeople tough (knew that), but keeping them is equally as difficult. Nearly one-fourth of the 2,176 sales executives who participated in Miller Heiman’s 2006 Sales Performance Study reported that turnover had increased during the previous year. That mirrors similar findings from the Hay Group, a Philadelphia-based management consulting company, which surveyed about 1 million employees at 330 companies in 50 countries. The least committed to a company are its salespeople,… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Proof is in the Clothes
It is Friday so let’s go to another anecdote: I was involved in a face-to-face interview with a very confident candidate at one of our customer’s offices. We were trying to determine if the candidate was as good at developing new business as he was claiming to be. He had a strong “D” factor so we knew we could ask him very direct questions. So our customer asked the candidate, “How can you prove to us that you are as good at developing new business as you say you are? In your sales process, what type of close do typically like to use?” The candidate responded: “Usually business casual unless… Read More
Continue ReadingJob Postings, Rewards & Databases
Careerbuilder.com in their Small Business Advisor Section has a great article that takes you step-by-step in posting an effective online ad. As is to be expected, the article is specifically written to CareerBuilder’s site specifications. The information is still valuable and can be used to effectively write an ad for any of the online job boards. One tip that I would add that the author does not address is describing how the position is rewarded. One attribute that seems to appear in most ads is the desire to find a “self-starting” salesperson. This aptitude can be measured by our assessments. However, in order to maintain a self-starting aptitude, the salesperson… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Biggest Sales Contribution
It’s Friday so let’s go with another anecdote. During a phone screen, I asked a candidate a fairly innocuous sales interview question, “What is the biggest contribution you made in your last job?” He took several moments to gather his thoughts and then offered this: Good question. I would have to say hands down that the greatest contribution thus far with my current company is the fact that I have increased RFQ’s (request for quote) by over 200%. RFQ’s? Obviously, I was hoping to hear something about increasing sales, improving the closing ratio or turning around an underperforming territory. Nope, it was far worse. Generating a quote with his employer… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – You still like me, don’t you?
It’s Friday so let’s lighten up with another anecdote. Here is an incident that I ran into during a panel interview. I would like to add this was the first time we met the candidate. The candidate repeatedly asked for permission to start up his computer and run us through a PowerPoint presentation. We denied his requests, but he kept asking. Finally, we relented and allowed him to do it. The problem he had, unbeknownst to him, was that this interview occurred in the middle of winter and his laptop was extremely cold from being in his car. After several embarrassing attempts to start his computer, he finally gave up.… Read More
Continue ReadingQuick Ad Tip – Part 2
Monster’s June Newsletter provides the latest trends for candidate traffic to their site. Monday and Tuesday’s are their busiest days. The traffic now starts to pick up on Sunday and starts to taper off on Wednesday with the lowest amount of traffic hitting the site on Saturdays. We have had much success with Tuesday postings and but I think we will test some Sunday and Monday postings to see what happens. I would continue to post your ads the beginning of the week to take advantage of this specific monster.com traffic pattern and we’ll post later on our results.
Continue ReadingThe Tightening Market-Part 2
In a recent article on the Tightening Labor Market from the SHRM website (membership required) 2 recent surveys go beyond the unemployment rates and the number of new jobs created to show the demand for talented workers is increasing. Both of the surveys were conducted by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The first one surveyed 3,000 job seekers and found that among those landing jobs in the first quarter, the median job search lasted just 2.7 months, more than a month shorter than the peak of 4.0 months reached in the third quarter of 2004. It was the lowest job-search time recorded since the second quarter of… Read More
Continue ReadingOutside of Their Comfort Zones
I came across an article on Comfort Zones from a couple of years ago that discusses motivating salespeople and well worth the read. The author has this to say why sales managers don€™t push their salespeople out of their comfort zone. Many managers who are in their own “comfort zone” will not challenge this situation even though they know that the person concerned could achieve a lot more. The manager’s “comfort zone” tells them that it is perhaps too time consuming or counter productive to upset the “apple cart” and that letting the status quo remain is the best option. He goes on to say that this happens for 2… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdotes – The 30 (or 10) Second Commercial
It is Friday therefore it is time for another hiring anecdote. I was phone screening sales candidates for a high-tech company and I asked a candidate to give me a quick 30-second commercial of the products and services he had sold. I asked him to frame his experience in the context of how it fit the requirements of the position. At least he was quick. His 10-second response was: “Well, I have sold everything from cow manure to satellite TV.” He never did answer the second part of the question about tying in his experience to the requirements of the position. I know – if he could have effectively tied… Read More
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