CareerJournal.com provides an interesting look at one Minnesota company in Manager Shortage Spurs Firms to Grow Their Own. Schwan found itself with a significant shortage of leadership talent that is symptomatic of the national hiring landscape. The tight labor market puts a premium on retaining top talent and raises the cost of outside hires. And leaner corporate structures make it harder for managers to naturally hone their skills through incremental steps up the ladder; companies must instead formally teach them. Demographics play a role, too: The looming retirement of baby boomers is forcing companies to think about replacements. Schwan has developed an internal solution to combat this problem: Schwan is… Read More
Continue ReadingDealing With The Insufferably Arrogant
No, I’m not talking about Trump. Selling Power has an article titled How to Handle the Devil without Getting Burned. We’ve blogged often about the most insufferable salesperson we have encountered in our years of working with sales departments. Now that I have read this quick article, I have found the perfect description of him. Often there’s a rep who is good, who knows he is good, and who repeatedly lets others know about it. This is a person who is arrogant, abrasive, and obnoxious with co-workers, and who sometimes bullies those beneath him or her on the totem pole, says Graham Scott. Yet when the person is a top… Read More
Continue ReadingA New Sales Title
Here is a sales position title from an employment ad: Inside-Outside Sales Representative I have never seen that one before. I would suggest picking the more appropriate distinction, inside or outside, and sticking solely with that title.
Continue ReadingBusiness Reputation Rankings
The Justsell.com guys lead us to an interesting link from The Wall Street Journal – Reputation Rankings. The list consists of the eighth annual survey of U.S. corporations with the best and worst reputations. The top 10: Microsoft Johnson & Johnson 3M Google Coca-Cola General Mills United Parcel Service Sony Toyota Motor Procter & Gamble
Continue ReadingEngaging Gen Y Employees
BusinessWeek.com’s How to Keep Your Team Talking is a bit of a how-to guide on running a brainstorming meeting. That, to me, is not as intriguing as looking at the management implications of properly handling Gen Y workers. The younger generations crave involvement in their work roles. They crave a purpose, a meaning, a mission more so than any generation before them. This mission goes beyond monetary rewards. They long to make a difference in the world through their work. This distinction is important because it points to the fact that they long to be engaged (to borrow a buzzword from the article). The idea behind engagement-mania is that when… Read More
Continue ReadingSelling Credibility
Marketingprofs.com offers up an insightful article from Jeff Thull that deals with one of the most important aspects of selling – credibility. Here is the setup (emphasis mine): Now the sobering question, “How different are your two best competitors’ credibility stories from your own company’s credibility story?” Unfortunately, other than a few minor elements, they are likely to sound quite similar. Therefore, telling the credibility story suggests that you and your competitors are more equal than you are different. This type of credibility is what we refer to as “expected credibility.” In other words, people expect you wouldn’t be in business if you couldn’t provide the above credibility story. They… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Phone Screening Essentials
I have read numerous article over the past few weeks about phone interviewing or screening sales candidates and every one of them miss the mark. Instead of going at what is wrong with each of these articles, I will give you some essentials that make this an effective step in our hiring process. These are the steps we incorporate into each recruitment process we run for our clients. These techniques have been developed through conducting thousands of sales interviews and phone screens over the past few years. What are the main requirements of the job? I am not talking about the job description. Instead, think about a wish list, so… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Recover From A Big Mistake
Yahoo Hot Jobs offers Bounce Back After A Big Mistake. The article provides 6 steps for recovering from a significant error. This topic is of great importance in hiring strong salespeople. Sales requires people who have a unique ability to handle rejection and move on without flinching. Similarly, strong salespeople take responsibility for their actions, including failures. And let’s add one more – strong sales managers hold their salespeople accountable and do not accept excuses. You can see how interrelated all of these topics are to sales success. This article offers straight-forward advice for dealing with a big mistake. Here is the one that caught my attention: 1. Own it.… Read More
Continue ReadingTime To Source Salespeople
There are certain windows for sourcing salespeople that are better than other times of the year. Right now we are in the best window for sourcing salespeople for the entire year. The reason is that many salespeople are on commission plans that pay out the highest total after the year is completed. In many instances, that commission payout occurs towards the end of January. I spent many years selling on these types of plans and can tell you that I would not leave in January since I was waiting for my largest commission check of the year. The different variations of commission plans I sold under usually had some accelerated… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Emotional Ad
I just read a sales ad this morning that opens: Wouldn’t you like to be in the Caribbean right now, relaxing by the ocean, with palm trees all around you? Well, next year you might be able to…if you work with us! I guess that is some form of an emotional word picture. I think it is lame – the reward speaks to not working (a Caribbean vacation). Believe me, I’m sitting here in the Twin Cities where we haven’t been above 0 degrees for 4 days. A tropical beach sounds inviting. Yet, if you are looking for a new salesperson, I believe the approach this ad takes will draw… Read More
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