Okay, as I have said before, I can’t help myself when it comes to lists and trivia. So when I heard on the news this morning that today was “Walk to School Day”, I started to pay closer attention. Interesting to note that this is an international awareness day to promote safe walking and driving habits and to provide safety for our children that need to walk to school each day. The awareness day started in Britain back in 1994 and became International Walk to School Day on October 4th, 2000 with Canada, Great Britain, United States, Ireland, Cyprus, Gibraltar and The Isle of Man participating. They even have a… Read More
Continue ReadingQuantity vs. Quality
We prefer quality. We often tell our prospects if we do our job perfectly, you will only interview one candidate. If you think about this approach, we are confident in our process and our tools to find the most skilled and talented candidate for the position. Some people are uncomfortable with this approach. They require interviews with multiple candidates before making a decision. But is this the best approach? If you are hiring for a specific position and the first candidate you interview is a strong fit for the position, is there any reason why you wouldn’t hire them? Most people prefer to have options so they seek interviews with… Read More
Continue ReadingWork-life Balance When Hiring
Anthony Meaney from Recruiting.com has a great post today unpacking a CareerJournal.com article titled Acing a Dicey Interview Question:Why Did You Leave Your Last Job? Straight from Anthony’s keyboard: Work-life balance has become a key issue for people these days with employees striving for it and employers gushing about how their company supports work life balance. Yet we are supposed to look askance at candidates who want to knock two hours of commute time off their day? The only person who can legitimately scoff at shorter commute as a reason for leaving is someone who is doing a longer commute. I couldn’t agree more. We are located in the Twin… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Use a Hiring Process?
We work with customers from around the country who sell in a myriad of markets. Some positions are far more difficult to fill than others. I am speaking in terms outside of the position itself. Some hiring managers provide difficult roadblocks to sales hiring success. One of the most important reasons for running a hiring process is to remove biases. Biases are the single largest detriment to successful hiring we encounter. We released an article last week that speaks to these gut-level decisions. There is no accounting for these biases. There is no repeatable measurement for these biases. We preach this approach constantly – run a hiring process that pushes… Read More
Continue ReadingDQ…and I Don’t Mean Dairy Queen
It is hard not to trust Dan Seidman when you learn his is the founder of SalesAutopsy.com. Selling Power has an article titled DQ and Move On which highlights some of Seidman’s approach. I am not familiar with his work, but his advice is spot on. If I could have only one skill in a salesperson, it would be qualifying. It is the backbone of sales success. Every other stage hinges upon strong qualifying. Seidman hits on an absolute truth (my emphasis): When reps don’t qualify well, they spend too much time in front of prospects who aren’t ready or able to buy and that has a direct effect on… Read More
Continue ReadingGimmicky?
From a cover email of a technical person looking for nights or weekend work: PLEASE – no recruiters, insurance agents, or other gimmicky type people. I’m gainfully employed and simply want to put my name out to keep my skills tuned. For some reason I get a kick out of edgy cover emails. I thought this one might be a funny way to start your Monday (was for me).
Continue ReadingAnecdote – REALLY Out of the Office
We send out a quarterly electronic newsletter regarding hiring topics and new products here at Select Metrix (click here if you would like to subscribe). This past Tuesday (Sept. 26) we sent out our Q3 newsletter. As always, I received many out of the office notifications. I usually breeze them but I did read this one and I am glad I did (changed the names and numbers): I will be out of the office starting 09/22/2006 and will not return until 09/28/2007. Jane Doe is no longer with XYZ Corporation. Please contact our main HR number at 1-111-555-1234 Apparently Jane’s absence will be a bit longer than she originally expected.… Read More
Continue ReadingNiche Job Boards
Google led me to this article from onrec.com – Niche Job Boards Provide the Best Value For Employers. The niche job board topic is one of great interest to us. We typically spread our ads around to different sites including the main boards that everyone knows. Our experience with niche boards has not been as productive. This article is an opinion piece from the founder of Niche Jobboards.com so consider that fact. Yet, this stat was a bit surprising: As an example, JobsInLogistics.com, which serves the transportation and logistics industries, attracts 80 visitors per job ad over the course of a month. In comparison, CareerBuilder draws only 15 visitors per… Read More
Continue ReadingTechnical Difficulties
Our apologies to our readers – we have been in the process of moving our website to an upgraded server this week. Unknown to us, we have had some delay issues with email and now our blog is going Hal9000 on us. Some posts are missing from Thursday but I think we can repost them. Thanks for hanging in there with us and we promise to have a faster website and blog. Soon.
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Evaluating What is Said
Many people believe the preeminent ability required to be successful in sales is a good speaking ability. Verbal graces are beneficial in selling, but the ability to listen will always be more effective. Good salespeople are good listeners. Evaluating What Is Said This capacity is based on a person’s openness to people and their willingness to hear what the other person is saying – not what they think they should say, or are going to say. A salesperson with a strong aptitude in this capacity will be able to objectively evaluate feedback and hear the concerns, intentions or opinions being stated as opposed to inserting their own feelings or opinions.… Read More
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