This is from an online job board: I live in _______. I have a lot of customer service experience, but I am willing to do just about anything. I am in a lot of debt and need a good solid job to help me get out of it. Not good. Apparently the appeal here is to have a company provide money to them to relieve their debt. I feel for them being in debt, but this type of positioning is terrible. Far better to articulate what the company receives for employing the candidate’s services.
Continue ReadingWhen Too Much Self-Esteem Is Good
Nary a day goes by that we are not assessing a salesperson for one of our clients. This activity gives us the opportunity to measure different traits in a wide variety of salespeople in many diverse markets. There is one trait pattern we always dissect and that is a salesperson’s self-esteem vs. their empathy towards others. At the risk of going too deep, the issue is how much does the salesperson value themselves vs. others. Here is why it is important – a salesperson who greatly overvalues himself will often appear condescending, or even cocky, to prospects when placed into a long sales cycle. But if you have a high-rejection,… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Skyrocketing Telecommuting Trend
According to a recent study by World at Work: The number of Americans whose employer allows them to work remotely at least one day per month increased 63 percent, from 7.6 million in 2004 to 12.4 million in 2006. Based on government estimates of 149.3 million workers in the U.S. labor force, the 2006 data means that roughly 8 percent of American workers have an employer that allows them to telecommute one day per month. The article goes on to say that this trend is a result of the proliferation of high speed broadband, wireless access and the willingness of more employers to embrace flexibility in regards to work-life balance.… Read More
Continue ReadingText Messaging In The Car
As in driving the car! From Yahoo News’ Shd u txt, chat n drive? Young drivers say OK (my emphasis): A survey by the Zogby International polling firm released on Wednesday found 66 percent of U.S. drivers aged between 18 and 24 send text messages while driving and 93 percent talk on their cell phone behind the wheel. I have no problems with people talking on their cell phone while driving, but text messaging? I may be too old to appreciate this ability, but I have a hard enough time text messaging on my phone when I am sitting in a restaurant undisturbed. Unbelievable.
Continue ReadingSalespeople On An "E-Leash"
It’s 91° here in the Twin Cities today so vacation is on the brain. CareerBuilder.com offers up some interesting survey results in Using or Losing Your Time Off? E-leashes and hectic schedules are cutting into vacation time as increasingly wired workers are finding it hard to leave the office at home. Although an improvement from 27 percent in 2006, 20 percent of workers say they plan to stay in touch with the office during their vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual vacation survey, conducted by Harris Interactive of more than 6,800 workers. Nearly 15 percent of workers say they gave up at least one of their vacation days in… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Sales Metric
We’ll keep our baseball theme going today by referencing a well-crafted post from Dave Kurlan – Baseball and Sales Management by the Numbers. He develops a good analogy between how a manager’s style affects his starting pitchers’ stats (ERA) and how different situational factors affect a salesperson’s revenue totals. Towards the end, you get the fastball right down the middle of the plate (my emphasis): Turning to sales, there are a number of statistics that are equally difficult to equate with performance, the most obvious being revenue. Many salespeople, considered top producers by their companies, top the charts for revenue but don’t perform in such a manner as to justify… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Sales Mindset
Yogi Berra once said, “Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.” Sales slumps are a fact of sales management life. I personally think most sales slumps occur because salespeople get complacent and out of the good behaviors that lead to closed deals. As a sales manager, it is important to stay engaged with your salespeople and hold them accountable for the activities that keep the pipeline fresh, not stagnant. If a slump does befall one of your salespeople, ManageSmarter.com offers a worthwhile article on this topic – How to Get Out of a Selling Rut and Regain Your Selling Spark. The second point in the article is… Read More
Continue ReadingChallenge Your Employees
Inc.com reports on a Korn/Ferry survey in Most Employees Believe They Can Outperform Their Bosses. I don’t think the results are all that surprising: Seventy-three percent of executive-level employees believe they would do a better job than their current boss, according to a new survey. … While a majority of executives admitted they would like to be at the top of the ladder, few indicated that they were actually dissatisfied with their boss. In fact, 42 percent of respondents rated their boss’s performance as either “excellent” or “above average,” while an additional 23 percent rated their boss as “average.” Only 11 percent of respondents rated their boss’s performance as “poor.”… Read More
Continue ReadingDisproving Gen Y Myths
Steven Rothberg at CollegeRecruiter.com knows about Gen Y hiring and managing so it is worth listening to him when he expounds on this topic. His post – Three Myths About Gen Y Employees – debunks 3 common myths about Gen Y. I have to admit, I believed all 3 of the myths . . . I don’t any more. Just to give you a taste: Gen Y’ers are disloyal. Myth. They’re loyal but not blindly loyal as were their Baby Boomer parents when their parents were in the twenties. Gen Y’ers are loyal but expect to be fairly compensated for the work they put in. If employers aren’t willing to… Read More
Continue ReadingCountries With The Longest Work Weeks
From CNNMoney.com’s They work harder for the money: The International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, conducted a study of more than 50 countries and found that 22 percent of the total workforce surveyed (614.2 million people) worked more than 48 hours a week, an amount the ILO defines as excessive. Among the developed nations covered in the report, ILO found that the countries with the highest percentage of workers putting in a longer than 48-hour workweek are: Japan: 39.3% United Kingdom: 25.7% Israel: 25.5% New Zealand: 23.6% Australia: 20.4% Switzerland: 19.2% United States: 18.1% First off, it is a UN agency so that must be considered. I must… Read More
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