I interviewed a customer service manager candidate this past week who had a good approach to her job. I asked her as a manager how she wants her reps to handle customers. Her response, “Like eggs.” She went on to explain how she would personally handle the difficult customer situations and so forth, but I thought that initial, quick response was quite good. And obviously memorable.
Continue ReadingSales Managers Must Set Expectations
I had a sales manager many years ago whom I really disliked. We had little in common, he went out of his way to annoy and he was cheap. I mean really cheap. Anyway, he did one thing that changed me as a salesperson – he asked me for qualified information on any prospect I put on my forecast. It sounds simple, but trust me, it was effective. He wanted to know why they were on the forecast, who was the decision maker, what was their budget, what was their time-frame and who was our competition. I was selling high-tech, capital equipment so this information was crucial to advancing a… Read More
Continue ReadingYou Need To Know Skills
The resume discussion rages on. Today’s ERE article by Dr. Williams is an excellent discussion about why skills are important in hiring. Resumes cannot clearly display a candidate’s skills so you have to do more digging. Here are a couple of excellent excerpts from the article (emphasis mine): Once you get past an executive’s glowing resume, dig for details. Most important, try to understand the skills and motivations he or she will bring to the job. Often these will not be evident in the resume, nor will they be evident in the interview. Both usually address results, but “results” are often not the same as skills. Think of results as… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat Can You Learn From A Resume?
I’ve run into this resume issue many times and have realized I may be missing the boat here. When I look at a resume, here is what I believe I can learn: -Work History – Obviously, where they have worked, positions they have held, successes they have achieved, how long they have earned a paycheck in an industry. Oh, and it is probably embellished. And next-to-impossible to completely verify. -Education – I can find out where they attended college, what degrees they earned and whether they graduated magna or summa cum laude. And this is the section that contains the most falsehoods on any given resume. The information must be… Read More
Continue ReadingMS Facebook
From the rumor mill: Setting the stage for a possible bidding battle, Microsoft Corp. is mulling an investment in Facebook Inc. that would value the rapidly growing online hangout at $10 billion or more, according to a report published Monday. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal said Microsoft is holding preliminary discussions that could culminate in a $300 million to $500 million in Facebook, a Palo Alto social-networking site founded just 3 1/2 years ago. Interesting, but here is the information that caught my attention: An outright sale of Facebook is considered unlikely. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 23-year-old co-founder and chief executive, has repeatedly expressed his… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Way That Seems Right In An Ad
There are many methods for writing sales employment ads, but many companies seem to fall into the trap of wanting their ads to fit a predefined mold. I think this is a mistake. Certainly there are key points of information that much be placed in the ad. But how you frame the information can be the difference between attracting strong candidates vs. wasting money. I recently read an ad posted by a recruiting company looking for a VP of Sales. I realize there are certain criteria they are looking to fill. But look at these bullet points: 4-year BS degree in engineering (preferably mechanical or chemical) with an MBA being… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Lefty Rebound
From the “this may only interest me” file – Yahoo offers Number of Lefties Bounces Back: While lefties currently make up about 11 percent of the population, earlier studies found only 3 percent of those born in 1900 were left-handed. … “Left-handedness is important because more than 10 percent of people have their brains organized in a qualitatively different way to other people,” McManus said. Half my family is left-handed so I am always keen to these articles. And I can confirm that left-handers have a completely different way of thinking. I often tease my left-handed wife that she has laid out a left-handed kitchen since I often get confused about where… Read More
Continue ReadingHow Lawyers Earn Their Reputation
I hadn’t heard about this case until reading the short Inc.com article. Unbelievable: The owners of a dry-cleaning shop that successfully fended off a $54 million lawsuit over a pair of pants are being forced to sell their business as a result of costly legal fees. Soo Chung and Jin Nam Chung, the owners of Washington-based Custom Cleaners, were sued earlier this year by a customer for allegedly losing his pants. While the case was eventually dismissed, the heavy legal expenses have since forced the Chungs out of business, according to the couple’s lawyer. It is embarrassing to have a legal system where a $54 million lawsuit can be litigated… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Web Is Watching You
I’m a big fan of online purchases mainly because I can get exactly what I want, click to order and forget about it. I’m not a big tracking guy either – I pick the slowest, cheapest method for shipping and the stuff usually arrives within 1 week. Fire and forget. Now Inc.com offers up Ever Wish You Could Read Your Customers’ Minds? Get a load of this new software: Proclivity is a consumer predictive engine technology that is able to analyze a customer’s online activity and identify their interest in certain types of merchandise. … For example, if an online clothing retailer wants to launch a campaign around jeans, Proclivity… Read More
Continue ReadingTough Hiring Data To Spin
Time to suspend the recession talk for one more week. From CNNMoney.com’s Unemployment claims down: WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in seven weeks, an unexpected sign of improvement for the job market. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications for unemployment benefits totaled 311,000 last week, a drop of 9,000 from the previous week. It marked the lowest level for jobless claims since July 28. The decline came as a surprise to economists, who had been forecasting a rise in claims of about 6,000. As I have said before, our day-to-day activities at Select Metrix are… Read More
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