Earlier this year I was conducting phone screens for a client whose service was always changing and evolving. Essentially, we knew a major key leading to success in the role was to find candidates with a Theoretical motivation. One of my screening questions was “What have you done in the last 3 years to further develop your sales skills?” A response from one of the applicants: “I have taken a bunch of Microsoft classes, from PowerPoint to Excel to Word to Access. If you name it, I’ve taken it.” Sounds right. Shows a desire to learn. But notice my question – develop your sales skills. Did these courses afford them… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Aggressive Cover Letters
Its Monday and it seems like we need a bit of levity to ease back in to the work week. Nothing like general resume cover letters to lighten the mood. I actually enjoyed this person’s resume – it was eye-catching in its uniqueness. Then I read this: If your company isn’t willing to offer a job with a BASE salary of at least $30,000 then please do not consider me a candidate. I searched the job market 2 years ago for a brief time before I began running my own business on a full time basis and discovered there are a lot of “Bull Crap” jobs out there (i.e. selling… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Anecdotal Encounters
I decided to mark these general resume emails as anecdotes also. I found this one entertaining: I’m looking for work that doesn’t involve customer service. Also work that is relatively healthy in that there are no poisonous gasses or fumes in the workplace … I have had around 30 jobs in the past 10 years. I quit jobs because I either get sick of the people I work with, bored with the job, or a little of both. I took the liberty of shortening the cover letter – it didn’t change the context. You know, we sometimes harpoon websites that ghost write cover letters and resumes. In this instance, investing… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Work at Home
Friday sourcing anecdote time so let’s go. This one was an email response that I need to give you just a little background information. First, the company we were running this hiring process for had a few open positions on their website. Second, we were in different stages of the hiring process on several positions with several customers. I received this email with “work at home” for a subject: hi ijohna ilooking to work this at home can you call me asap 4561230978cst johna@email.com call me monday at 2;00pmcst I am always baffled by responses like this to employment ads. This guy obviously has some communication issues with email. Yet,… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – I Need a Job!
During a recent salesperson search involving a long, complex, technical sale, we posted a clearly written ad that asked candidates to either email their resumes or to call. I received a voicemail from a candidate who actually picked up the phone to call (something we always like to see in salespeople). However, here was his messagel: “I seen your ad and am currently in route sales. I need to get out of this position and make a change now. Please call me today so I can find out how soon I would be able to start.” He then left me his first name and his pager number. Desperation is rarely… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Comic Relief
It is Friday once again and time for another anecdote. In case you haven’t noticed, the phone screen is the source for most of these humorous encounters. I was recently conducting a phone screen for a high tech company with a complex sale. I asked the candidate what products and services he had sold and how this experience fit the requirements of the position listed in the ad. He replied with: That’s easy – my background fits very well. I’ve been a comic for over 10 years, an agent, sold cars at a dealership and car washes to gas stations. He never tied these experiences nor the skills he gained… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – I’m Busy
It’s a Friday before a long weekend so let’s go with an anecdote. Just to give you a little background – I had previously talked with this applicant and allowed him to set the time for our phone screen (2 days later). I called him at the set time, reintroduced myself and reminded him of the reason for our call. He quickly cut me off with this comment: Can you call back in an hour or two because I am busy at the moment? He then said thank you and hung up before I could respond. To top it off, this sales position was for a long sales cycle, relationship… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Proof is in the Clothes
It is Friday so let’s go to another anecdote: I was involved in a face-to-face interview with a very confident candidate at one of our customer’s offices. We were trying to determine if the candidate was as good at developing new business as he was claiming to be. He had a strong “D” factor so we knew we could ask him very direct questions. So our customer asked the candidate, “How can you prove to us that you are as good at developing new business as you say you are? In your sales process, what type of close do typically like to use?” The candidate responded: “Usually business casual unless… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Biggest Sales Contribution
It’s Friday so let’s go with another anecdote. During a phone screen, I asked a candidate a fairly innocuous sales interview question, “What is the biggest contribution you made in your last job?” He took several moments to gather his thoughts and then offered this: Good question. I would have to say hands down that the greatest contribution thus far with my current company is the fact that I have increased RFQ’s (request for quote) by over 200%. RFQ’s? Obviously, I was hoping to hear something about increasing sales, improving the closing ratio or turning around an underperforming territory. Nope, it was far worse. Generating a quote with his employer… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – You still like me, don’t you?
It’s Friday so let’s lighten up with another anecdote. Here is an incident that I ran into during a panel interview. I would like to add this was the first time we met the candidate. The candidate repeatedly asked for permission to start up his computer and run us through a PowerPoint presentation. We denied his requests, but he kept asking. Finally, we relented and allowed him to do it. The problem he had, unbeknownst to him, was that this interview occurred in the middle of winter and his laptop was extremely cold from being in his car. After several embarrassing attempts to start his computer, he finally gave up.… Read More
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