Our friends over at Hidden Business Treasures have paid us a nice compliment by posting about The Hire Sense last week. They allowed us to be a guest writer on their blog and we offered up this post – Searching for the Sale. The topic of our post is the importance of finding sales candidates who possess the web-searching skills needed to prospect today. We provide 3 techniques for determining a candidate’s information literacy. If you are interested, please follow the link and leave a comment for them if you are so inclined. While there, take a look at their consistently thoughtful posts.
Continue ReadingMedian Hiring Time Shortens Slightly
3.7 months. According to this CNNMoney.com article, that was the median time it took to hire in the fourth quarter. As long as that may seem, it trended down from third quarter which is a good sign. U.S. workers needed less time to land a new job in the fourth quarter of 2006 than they did in the prior quarter, according to a survey released Thursday.After hitting the highest level in more than three years in the third quarter, the median job search time fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter to 3.7 months, according to the survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. While fourth-quarter job search times improved, they… Read More
Continue ReadingThe New RSS Feed
Welcome to our new RSS feed. If you receive this post in your reader, you have successfully updated the new link. If you haven’t considered an RSS reader… What the Heck is RSS? And why should I care? Good questions. First, here’s why you should care. Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation. You don’t have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be ‘taken off the list.’ One click, and poof the subscription is gone. Plus, since there’s no email address involved, there’s no way a… Read More
Continue ReadingReminder – New RSS Feed
Last reminder – our new RSS feed will be up before 10:00am CST this morning. You will need to paste the new feed link into your RSS reader if you use RSS to subscribe to The Hire Sense. The new feed link is http://feeds.feedburner.com/selectmetrix/gZUw Please contact us directly – info@selectmetrix.com – if you have any difficulties.
Continue ReadingImportant – Updating Our RSS Feed
We will be upgrading to FeedBurner over the next day or so. What this means is if you subscribe to our website via RSS, you will need to reestablish the feed by plugging the new feed address into your RSS reader. We expect this change to occur some time this evening or Friday morning. Thank you for you patience and we hope you enjoy the improved delivery of The Hire Sense.
Continue ReadingPresenteeism and Flexible Hours
I had never heard of “presenteeism” up until a couple of months ago as I mentioned in this post. Now I encountered this SM&M article – Working While Sick. Top reasons for schlepping in when sick: I feel guilty for calling in; my workload is too heavy; I save my sick time for personal reasons like family emergencies, sick children, parent care issues and other unexpected events; and I try to have perfect attendance. “Schlepping in…?” Another new phrase for me. No real surprises in the reasons for coming to work sick. I did find this paragraph insightful: The study suggests bosses could do more to stem the trend. “Employees… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Using Common Sense
Today we tackle a tough trait that is in short supply according to Mark Twain. The Using Common Sense trait provides for us some insight into a salesperson’s ability to think on their feet. This trait is most important for effectively dealing with a prospect’s objections. Using Common Sense This capacity is determined by the persons focus on practical thinking, their ability to see the world clearly and their general intelligence. A salesperson with strength in this capacity will have use of everyday, informal knowledge that has not been formally evaluated and placed in the decision-making process. The utilization of common sense in the decision-making process appears to be more… Read More
Continue ReadingFlying The Friendly Skies
Bob Rosner has a great riff on security at airports in his Working Wounded blog – Biz Travel Safety. To be clear, he is all for safe airline travel and even goes so far as to thank the screeners when he gets plucked from the line for an additional screening. I laughed at that line since I am invariably plucked from the line no matter what airport I am at (my wife laughs every time). An excerpt: For example, on my most recent flight I had my baggie full of gels and liquids out and ready to show anyone who wanted to know the secret for my youthful appearance. A… Read More
Continue ReadingAccountability
Sales & Marketing Management offers this quick article – Avoiding Accountability Talks. First, the context of the article is the reluctance of employees (and managers) to engage in holding other employee’s accountable. A couple of survey stats: 50 percent say they are afraid of negative outcomes. 16 percent say they don’t know how to start, hold or finish such a conversation. Sales managers take note – this activity is one of the most important components to effective sales management. We encounter this reluctance often. Salespeople need to be held accountable to their activities, their behaviors and ultimately, their results. You don’t even have to be good at it. But you… Read More
Continue ReadingMechanistic vs. Humanistic
Let’s keep this ad riff going. From another sales ad (I removed the city name from the ad): About this Career Opportunity: We are currently seeking an experienced Sales Professional to work at our showroom store location in the TH-CitySSP to help accelerate our growth further! A large company posted this ad and they serve the B2C (business-to-consumer) market. I am guessing from the frequency of their ads that they have consistently high turnover. However, when I read such obvious boilerplate ads, I get the impression that this company’s culture is mechanistic. Might not be fair, but impressions are the subjective interpretation of the person. The poorly-spaced, strangely-coded city field… Read More
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