From the Pioneer Press’ Buffett too hard on director pay: The media, he says, have scrutinized “CEOs who have received astronomical compensation for mediocre results.” At Berkshire Hathaway Inc., where the famously successful investor has long been chairman, things are different. Pay can be high, but only when there are results. “When we use incentives €” and these can be large €” they are always tied to the operating results for which a given CEO has authority,” Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders, released Thursday. We’ve posted on CEO compensation before (here, here and here) since it is a topic at the forefront of today’s business news. Warren… Read More
Continue ReadingBetter Than I Expected
We’ve been working as or with sales for over 20 years and have to deal with many discussions involving candidate’s resumes. The bias that occurs is that hiring managers make broad, sweeping generalizations based on what they think they see in the resume. This anomaly occurs even after we have screened and assessed strong candidates. After discussing the possibilities of what may be wrong with the candidate, we usually get to a point where the hiring manager agrees to to the interview based on our recommendation. After the interview, we hear something to this effect: “He was much better than I expected.” Strangely, I suspect we will still be hearing… Read More
Continue ReadingCoffee and Blizzards
As a proud coffee addict, I am please to see this Managesmarter.com article titled Coffee, Please. For the past 2 days, we’ve been dealing with blizzard conditions, thunder snow (seriously – there is such a thing), well over a foot of snow and closed interstate highways. Yet it is all quite tolerable as long as I have good coffee. I think these people share that perspective with me: What would you give up to hold on to your morning cup of coffee? * 42 percent would forgo AM radio, television or newspaper. * One-fifth said they’d be willing to skip lunch. * 12 percent said they’d trade three hours of… Read More
Continue ReadingTattoos and Piercings – Part 2
I posted on this subject last December, but a recent article in SHRM’s newsletter touched on this subject and got my attention. Here are a few interesting stats: Dr. Anne E. Laumann, associate professor of dermatology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-researcher Dr. Amy Derick, of the University of Chicago, found that tattoos were more common among younger individuals: 36 percent of people aged 18 to 29 had tattoos, while only 24 percent of those aged 30 to 40 and 15 percent of those aged 40 to 50 reported body art. Tattoos were seen in all ethnic groups studied but were more common among those with Hispanic ancestry… Read More
Continue ReadingCommunicating Your Sales Strategy
From Managesmarter.com’s Crystal Clear Communication: To hear Scott Glatstein tell it, as much as three quarters of American companies “do not broadly communicate their sales strategy” to their sales teams. The result, not surprisingly, is a breakdown in the sales process. Aligning the sales compensation plan with the desired business outcome is a critical component of sales management. One constant with salespeople – they will work the compensation plan to maximize their reward. The article contains a great example: One giant food company Glatstein worked with had lost $20 million in a year because of out-of-date products. The solution from corporate executives was to motivate sellers to avoid food spoilage… Read More
Continue ReadingWork Commute Or Telecommute
This is a timely topic considering we are in the midst of a blizzard up here in the Twin Cities. I personally have a short commute, but this topic is a big deal for the thousands on the road this morning stuck in stop and go traffic. The 2006 Commuter Impact Survey from the TransitCenter, Inc. looks at commuting issues from both an employer and employee viewpoint. We have touched on this topic in previous posts (Energy Prices And Recruitment, Telecommuting Town?). There were some interesting findings in this survey that I wanted to pass along form this 18 page white paper. First, 76% of the employers who responded think… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Personal Accountability
This week we look at an age-old sales trait that, unfortunately, is common to many salespeople. Personal responsibility in sales involves being responsible for results. Holding salespeople accountable for their results is part of the sales manager’s job. If you are experiencing a problem in this area, as a sales manager, your first task is to stop the salesperson’s excuse making. That move is the first step to accountability for the salesperson. Personal AccountabilityThis is the ability to be responsible for the consequences of one€™s own decisions and actions. It involves taking responsibility for these decisions and not shifting the focus of blame or poor performance somewhere else (i.e. others). A salesperson… Read More
Continue ReadingMythical Top Performers
From Dave Kurlan’s Myths About Top Performing Salespeople: Most companies have “them”. Most managers brag about “them”. Most of “them” toot their own horns. Most are their company’s role models. Most companies would love to have more like “them”. They masquerade as the top salespeople in their companies, a claim supported by data, spreadsheets, commission statements, awards and accolades. But who are they really? Most of them are sales frauds. Most of them have everyone fooled. Most of them, if you took their cushy, big accounts away and asked them to go out and find some new business would fail. Most of them aren’t very strong salespeople. Most of them don’t possess… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Allure Of Someone Better
From Seth Godin’s Marketing your job post: This is part of a larger trend, which is realizing that an amazing hire is worth far more than a mediocre one, or even a very good one. My take? There’s a difference between being noticed and succeeding. Sometimes you need to be noticed far and wide in order to succeed. That’s why some TV ads for low-involvement products are noisy or funny or over the top. Often though, especially for something like a job, I think that sacrificing your message in order to get noticed is a mistake. Making a video that tries to be funny in order to spread doesn’t necessarily get… Read More
Continue ReadingFeeling Minnesota
Great story from Foxnews.com – Nesting at Work: What Does Your Office Say About You? Recently, a friend forwarded me an e-mail exchange that had kicked off a brief, surreal dustup at Natural Resource Group, a small environmental consulting company in Minneapolis. Here’s how it began: “Rich, I noticed that there is a deer head in the office next to you. Is it yours? If not, do you know whose it is? If it is yours, I will need you to keep the light off in that office and close the door as we have auditors touring the offices today. Also, if it is yours, you will be taking it… Read More
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