From Sales & Marketing Management: Of the 1,275 companies surveyed nationwide recently, less than half have a formal sales process; of the 45 percent that do, only 45 percent of those actually monitor the processes in place to make sure they are helping the company sell better. Our first step in running a sales hiring process is to have our customer fill in this graph: This information tells us 2 things – the basic level of prospecting activity required and the company’s grasp of their current sales process. If a company cannot define what it takes to close one deal, how can they expect a new salesperson to do it… Read More
Continue ReadingIncentives vs. Motivation
Rewarding salespeople is a tricky endeavor. Yes, most salespeople are motivated by money, but what rewards do they seek? This seems like a fine point, but motivations are different than rewards. This Selling Power article provides some examples of misaligned rewards, or incentives, that companies have thrust upon their sales force. An example: One high achieving rep at an insurance company, who had won every award the company had to offer, including salesperson of the year, eventually stopped bothering to attend the annual award ceremony. Noting the rep’s absence, one manager decided to find out what was truly important to this particular salesperson. The manager discovered that the rep centered… Read More
Continue ReadingQuestions When Hiring
Jill Konrath has a great post about salespeople who come on “like a bull in a china shop” when trying to sell to prospects. Her cure for these salespeople: You need to create conversations with decision makers. And, there’s only one way to do this. You need to ask questions to engage prospects in a dialogue, then shut up and listen. I couldn’t agree more. I want to take that point and apply them to sales hiring. We use the entire hiring process to observe the salesperson in action. We particularly observe their question pattern – are they trying to determine how they would sell the company’s value proposition if… Read More
Continue ReadingReading the (Non-Verbal) Signs
How to Read Your Prospect Like a Book! by John Boe is a quick read article from Sales Vault with some great tips on understanding the nonverbal cues a prospect/client is sending you. He states: …that one of the easiest and most effective ways to close sales is to be aware of the prospect’s “buy signals.” The article gives clues to look for in reading body language, mainly head and facial gestures. For an example: Head Gestures Tilted back = Superior attitude Tilted down = Negative and judgmental attitude Tilted to one side = Interest For those of you that know this information already, it is a nice 5 minute… Read More
Continue ReadingHow to Win the Talent Wars
From Sales & Marketing Management’s e-newsletter (sorry, no link available): How to win the talent war: * Assess current strengths and gaps. Review the talent on hand and what your future needs will be. * Create a vision and strategy. Identify the tools, processes, and technology you will need to fill your talent gaps. Create a vision that can be embraced by a those who will be asked to do the recruiting work. * Complete a readiness assessment. Is your organization ready to jump into the talent wars? Is the culture prepared to support the impact of a new talent vision? * Build the business case. Identify the benefits to… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen to Follow Up
Application Etiquette from Sales & Marketing Management briefly provides some stats about when applicants should follow up after submitting their resume. How long should a job applicant wait to follow up with the hiring manager after submitting a resume? * 37 percent said one week or less * 45 percent said one to two weeks * 9 percent said two to three weeks * 3 percent said three weeks or more * 5 percent said don’t follow up at all * 1 percent said they didn’t know What’s the best way to follow up? E-mail is the preferred follow up method, followed by telephone, and a handwritten note. We see… Read More
Continue ReadingUpdated RSS Feed Information
2 pages have been added to The Hire Sense to assist readers who prefer to use an RSS feed. We have explained the 2 most popular options for receiving our postings. What is RSS? – provides an explanation of an RSS feed and provides you with some software options. What is FeedBurner? – explains the email RSS option we also offer on our site if you would prefer receiving 1 email a day with all of our previous day’s postings. I hope that information provides a couple of good formats in which to receive our postings. Of course, you can always choose to simply visit our site via your web… Read More
Continue ReadingEmbellished Resumes
“We know what employers want” Yet another reason to read resumes with a grain of salt. Especially sales resumes.
Continue ReadingHow To Answer Any Interview Question
Well, so much for focusing on the interviewer-side of face-to-face interviews. CareerJournal has come out with a new article that is the title of this post. There is nothing groundbreaking in the approach outlined in the article. Yet, I did enjoy this bit of cryptic strategy: He suggests when answering job-interview queries applying the formula Q = A + 1: Q is the question; A is the answer; + is the bridge to the message you want to deliver; and 1 is the point you want to make. “If you take the ‘+ 1’ off the formula, then the interviewer is controlling the session,” says Mr. Braun. I’m not sure… Read More
Continue ReadingMotivating a Sales Force
I’m catching up to some older articles in my RSS feeder and came across this AllBusiness.com article – Managing and Motivating Salespeople. We have an appreciation for tactical management articles. What I mean is articles that take a “how to” approach to management. There are plenty of strategic, mile-high articles out there so we enjoy a good hands-on read. First off, all sales managers need to motivate their sales force in some manner. Even the most self-starting salesperson will need an occassional injection of external motivation from their sales manager. Many sales managers tend to ignore or deny this fact at their own peril. Next, the author’s suggestions are spot… Read More
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