According to Forbes.com’s article Near The Head Of The Salary Class, one of the “surprising” 6 figure jobs is that of a sales representative. Surprising? As most of you know, a strong salesperson can easily make 6 figures in most industries. The main point regarding sales (and many other positions) is that you have to pay your dues. Nonetheless, Forbes listed this information in their slide show regarding the sales rep position: Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products Sell goods, for wholesalers or manufacturers, to businesses or groups of individuals. Work requires substantial knowledge of items sold. Top 10% Wage: $101,030Median Wage: $49,610Total No. Of Jobs:… Read More
Continue ReadingShow Up And Throw Up
As a continuation of my post from earlier this morning, I came across another Selling Power article that complements the point about the importance of asking the right questions. The Sales Intelligence Imperative provides detailed statistics regarding the point at which many sales stall. Interestingly enough, the researchers found that prospects were dropping out at a surprising time: New research from CSO Insights shows an €œalarming erosion€ in sales reps€™ ability to move the sale forward from that initial conversation. Specifically, 57.6 percent of companies in 2005 said more than half of their initial conversations progressed further into the sell cycle. There will always be salespeople who approach the wrong… Read More
Continue ReadingCompensating Mileage
Simple thought here for anyone who hires or manages salespeople. We always recommend reimbursing outside salespeople through mileage as opposed to a monthly allowance. Simple psychology here: Allowance Reimbursement – you are paying the salesperson a set amount of money every month regardless of their travels. Now the salesperson may look at travel as an expense the dilutes their personal profit margin. They make more money by traveling less which is anathema to selling. Yes, it is good to encourage them to be frugal in their travel so they don’t go on a shake-and-howdy bender – better to qualify prospects thoroughly before scheduling a visit. I don’t like the subtle reinforcement… Read More
Continue ReadingIt’s All In The Questions
Selling Power provides an excellent article regarding a sales ability that is often overlooked – The Art of Asking Great Questions. Listening is an important sales skill that leads to qualifying success. But as the article points out, listening ability it not worth much if you cannot ask the right question. You can€™t simply walk in a prospect€™s door and say, €œWhat are the issues you are struggling with?€ or €œWhat keeps you up at night?€ Today, you€™d be jettisoned out of the office by savvy executives who demand more researched, intelligent, and thought-provoking questions. This approach is true no matter what you sell. The ability to ask good questions… Read More
Continue ReadingWords That Make You Wince
Ok, as a blogger I find this Yahoo story downright insulting. From ‘Most Hated Internet Words’ Revealed: “Blog”, “netiquette”, “cookie” and “wiki” have been voted among the most irritating words spawned by the Internet, according to the results of a poll published Thursday. Topping the list of words most likely to make web users “wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard” was folksonomy, a term for a web classification system. “Blogosphere”, the collective name for blogs or online journals, was second; “blog” itself was third; “netiquette”, or Internet etiquette, came fourth and “blook”, a book based on a blog, was fifth. They have got to be… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Decision Making
This week we look at an insightful trait that has become more important for salespeople in today’s market. Sales requires a certain “feel” for a situation even though all of the data is not obvious. You could call this trait sales intuition. Decision MakingThe ability to accurately compile intuitive perceptions about a situation into a decision or action. This ability allows one to be €œintuitional€ as opposed to intellectual (requiring data and logical reasoning) in effective decision making. This capacity requires a good deal of understanding of people, the outside world and the ability to visualize the whole picture in a mental scenario. A salesperson with strength in this trait will… Read More
Continue ReadingTips For Extending Job Offers
I am going to chime in here a bit on the Velvet Hammer’s post from below regarding the 1 week window for making offers to candidates. Last week, Selling Power had an excellent article in their newsletter that contained some great tips. Dan Miller, vice president of Talent Acquisition and Retention at Monster.com made this smart suggestion (my emphasis): “Don’t just talk about the base salary; talk about the ability the candidates will have to achieve the upside,” says Miller. “Candidates may take a lower offer on the base salary if they feel that they have the tools and opportunities to exceed quota. If you’re trying to build a world-class… Read More
Continue ReadingA Lack Of Productivity Overseas
We don’t work in the international hiring arena so this may be old news to some of you. I just read the latest Herman Group enewsletter regarding the Global War for Talent (sorry, no link). Apparently productivity is a real problem overseas (emphasis mine): In some countries, notably Mexico and China, the productivity simply isn€™t there. According to fellow futurist Edward Gordon, €œthe productivity of China€™s workers is only 14 percent of their United States counterparts.€ When Joyce spoke at the first Human Capital Conference in Japan, back in 2000, the VP HR for Intel Asia complained that his productivity was one-third that of their US operations. … Advancing technologies… Read More
Continue ReadingSelling Value Over Price
Many salespeople choke on money discussions when qualifying price with prospects. The easy move is to simply discount the price, but this is a slippery slope. The inherent perception of straight discounting is that your product or service is over priced to start. This perception metastasizes into a consistent challenging of any and all future prices. JustSell.com offers a couple of excellent points in their current newsletter to counteract this desire to discount: Here are the hard-dollar points to better negotiating… Remember that negotiation success depends more on the work you do early in the sales process than on the negotiation moment itself. It’s all about the perceived value of… Read More
Continue ReadingThe 1 Week Window
There is a subtle psychology to working with sales candidates in a hiring process when you get to the offer stage. The ideal time frame for an offer is approximately one week after the final interview. This 1 week window provides enough time for both sides to contemplate the position and the salesperson’s fit to it. Now understand, I’m talking about a hiring process where a phone screen, assessment and multiple interviews have occurred. This candidate has been fully vetted and found to be a strong fit to the position’s requirements. Unfortunately, we have seen a couple of clients work past this ideal window into an extended time period after… Read More
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