Desperately Seeking Sales Stars is a long article from Sales & Marketing Management’s online edition. There is much in this article to dissect, but I will focus on some key points. First, don’t do this: “There are various [hiring and assessment] tools out there, but I still tend to be a seat-of-my-pants guy,” says Maher, now a speaker and sales consultant based in Helendale, Calif. “I’ve been hiring salespeople for over thirty-five years…and if they can sell me on their skills, that’s perhaps the most impressive thing.” And that is perhaps the only thing they can sell. These dinosaurs are still amongst us and still believe their intuition is more… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Mobile Coffee Shop
I’m a coffee addict and I’m ok with that. I hand craft my own latte every morning to exacting standards. I consider myself a coffee snob. Until now. If you visit this page and look halfway down you will find a picture and description of a mobile espresso maker. For your car. I’m not kidding – part of the description: The heavy-duty plastic coffeemaker plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter and requires no additional cups or spoons. Add water and espresso-grind coffee to the pre-set markings inside the stainless steel inner core, screw on the top cap and plug it in. Six minutes later, two servings of espresso flow into… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen Google Hires, People Interview
Google Adjusts Hiring Process As Need for New Talent Grows provides a glimpse of the extended hiring process of a suddenly large company. When I write suddenly, I mean this: During the quarter, the company brought in an average of 16 new employees daily, up from 13 the quarter before. Its breakneck hiring has boosted staff from 1,628 at the end of 2003 to 3,021 a year later and 5,680 at the end of 2005. The article illustrates the hiring challenges that occur when a company experiences explosive growth. The large company effects can be seen in that they have brought in a new, young VP of HR with new… Read More
Continue ReadingGet your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Another embellished resume survey is out from CareerBuilder. I assumed educational background was the most common lie, but that is not so according to their survey. Stretched dates to cover up employment gaps is the most commonly-caught resume lie, with nearly one-in-five hiring managers saying they have found this on a candidates application. Other top resume lies include: Past employers (18%) Academic degrees and institutions (16%) Technical skills and certifications (15%) Accomplishments (8%) As naive as it sounds, it would be a pleasant surprise to see a downward trend in the percentage of resumes with distortions in them.
Continue ReadingThe Job-Hopping Path
CareerJournal.com has to be one of the best sources for hiring information on the web. Today is no exception as they release this article – Job-Hop to the Top Of the Corporate Ladder. To cut to the quick of the article: If you want to make it to the top of the corporate ladder, job-hopping may actually be the only way to get there… Yup, this is a common strategy amongst the younger generation. We wrote about it in this article from earlier this year. Our perspective focused on the manager’s viewpoint while the CareerJournal article focuses on the employee’s viewpoint. First, from the CareerJournal article: Identify what you want… Read More
Continue ReadingOpen-Minded Hiring
Another good article from the new Selling Power newsletter – Open Minds Open Doors. The topic here is Hiring Salespeople From Outside Your Industry. If you follow that link, you will see that this topic is of great importance in our world. From the article: “I believe the way the market is today, finding the perfect combination of industry knowledge and sales experience may not be possible for many companies,” says Hardin. “With the unemployment rate at an all-time low, candidates are not as abundant as they were three years ago. Companies will have the greatest long-term success by hiring candidates who possess the necessary sales skills and then training… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy We Do What We Do
Selling Power has a fantastic article about hiring salespeople – Avoid Hiring Mistakes. There are many truths in the article so I recommend you read the entire article. First, some compelling stats: A recent survey shows that 53 percent of all sales recruiting efforts lead to miss-hires. And according to a Miller Heiman white paper, The Three Top Challenges Facing Sales Leaders Today, only 28 percent of sales leaders believe they have an effective process for recruiting and hiring qualified salespeople. More than half of all sales recruiting efforts end up in mishires (my preferred spelling). Now try to tabulate the lost revenue in this futile approach and you realize… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Spiderman Interview
Ragan Jones writing about bizarre candidate interviews. Trust me, a great read to end the work week.
Continue ReadingAnecdote – The Bewildering Email (Round 2)
Just this week I received an all-too-familiar email response to a new ad we just posted. In fact, I originally posted on this strange email dialogue back in May. The hauntingly familiar, mangled syntax message arrived with little regard for my clear ad instructions – all applicants were asked to either email their resume or to call me directly. His one sentence email: is new business coming from advertising agencies also clients who use your services in the new york city marketplace important to you? Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to go down this path again. I responded with the exact same email that I sent him earlier… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Retain Employees
Earlier this week we posted on employee turnover via a survey that found 75% of jobseekers believe they will find greater career success elsewhere. As jobs become more plentiful and workers more scarce, employee retention is going to be a top 3 topic for most companies. Steve Rothberg posts on the CollegeRecruiter.com blog a handful of tips to increase your company’s employee retention rate. Please read them – he is spot on. The suggestion that stood out to me in terms of the younger generations: Keep it fresh. Create new ways to ensure your employees continue to learn and grow within their related field and your company.
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