There seems to be some ethereal ad writing of late that I am not certain I understand.  I read a sales manager ad this morning that was written by a recruiting company for their client.  Here is the “Job Requirements” section:

All sales will be direct at this time.

What?  I have no idea what that means in context of the requirements.  The simple, best approach to writing sales ads is to use descriptive language that allows the reader to see themselves in the position.  Our goal is always to write ads that make the right candidate know that we are describing their abilities.

This ad falls far short of that approach.

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Don’t do this:

If you have the contacts in these areas with such customers, let us know!

That line is from a sales employment ad I read this morning and it is a tremendous red flag to savvy salespeople.  The ad is also from a recruiter and not the hiring company which makes it worse.

It is this approach that makes sales recruiting so difficult.  Clearly this recruiter is less interested in ability and more interested in an existing network.  Fair enough, but having a network is one thing, getting customers to walk over to a new company is another.  It rarely works in spite of what the salesperson thinks or says.

The better approach here is to identify what skills, talents and experiences will lead to success in the position.

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I read this line from an sales employment ad this morning:

Reps are NOT restricted by territory.

The unrestricted territory seems innocuous enough…maybe even valuable.  It usually isn’t.  As a salesperson, I would read this ad with some skepticism in that the company may be trying to add salespeople without a cogent management plan.

Back in my early years I took a job with a company that had no territories.  There were approximately 15 salespeople in there serving the local market.  What I learned is that the “old-timers” had effectively squatted on all of the accounts, whether they had an active relationship or not.  Since there were no defined territories (geographic, market, size, etc.) and weak sales management (completely hands-off), I was left to scavenging like a meerkat to find any lead.

The aforementioned line from the ad may seem like a benefit, but I would suggest that most savvy sales candidates will drill down on that topic for absolute clarity.

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I have a new favorite title for a sales ad:

Territory Manager, Swine-Minnesota

I’m not making that up, it is an actual title.  This seems remedial, but employment ad titles do matter.  Most of us remember the days of looking at ads in a paper where space was limited and costly.  Titles were less important then because the ad was still displayed.  Not today – I only see the title of the ad and the company in the electronic format.  The title has to be strong enough to elicit the click.

I think there are many companies that still miss that critical point.  And the major culprits are companies with substantial market share.  Apparently they are relying on their name to carry through the click.  Perhaps it works?  I’m not certain and neither are they based on their title writing.

One simply suggestion – don’t use “swine” in your title.

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I was shocked today when I read this sentence in a sales ad”:

Please note that at this time this posting is for purposes of building our talent pool only and there are no current available positions.

That was the 2nd sentence in the ad.  This is an interesting approach in this market – the company appears to be building their bench which is an important task.  What type of response they receive…well, that I wonder.  Nonetheless, I like the approach.

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Proofread your ads – a simple, simple task that seems to be ignored by some companies.  From an ad I read this morning (my editing):

A fast growing ______________ is seeking one great sales person to take the Minneapolis/St. Paul market to the next level.

Innocuous enough, but when you read through the ad you find this requirement:

Organization, computer proficiency, a valid Massachusetts driver’s license and proof of insurance required.

That is going to drastically reduce their candidate pool in the Twin Cities.  I wouldn’t recommend writing the entire ad in bold font either, but that seems minor compared to the Massachusetts license requirement.

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This is leverage:

Financial Advisor for FORTUNE magazine’s No. 2 “Best Company To Work For“

Financial advisor in this day and age = tough sell.  Fortune’s no. 2 company to work for = compelling.  Kudos to Edward Jones for a well-titled employment ad.

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I’m perusing the employment ads again and came across one for a position in North Dakota.  The company is using a large, national recruiting firm which is clear from the ad.  One problem, the city listing for the ad:

Bismarck, MN

Since I know we have readers from around the country, Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota…there is no such town in our home state of Minnesota.  Could be an oversight, but my guess is the recruiting firm passed on the chance to visit their North Dakota customer in winter.

I’ve said it before – some errors simply cannot be made in an ad.  This would be one of them.

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This shouldn’t be surprising, but abcnews.com has a story regarding all of the work-at-home job postings on the Internet right now.  As you can imagine, this type of economy breeds these types of “jobs.”  I’ve always found them to be borderline ridiculous…like the email spam that says you have inherited millions from a deceased Kenyan official.

“Currently there’s a 54-to-1 scam ratio among work-at-home job leads on the Internet,” said Staffcentrix co-founder, Christine Durst, who screens up to 5,000 online job offers every week and rates them on her Web site. “That means that for every 55 [work-at-home] job leads that you find on the Internet, 54 of them are going to be outright scams or downright suspicious.”

Yes, I know that last work is fuzzy, but you get the point.  It would seem that these job postings are somewhat effective at their scam:

O’Neal said the ad lead her to believe she’d earn “anywhere between $300 and $800 a week,” considerably more that what O’Neal was making outside the home, working a 9-to-5 job. She also hoped it would bring in enough money to help get her family out of debt.

After carefully reading the Web site that listed the job opportunity, O’Neal sent in $37.94 for a starter kit. She waited for weeks, but nothing ever arrived.

That is embarrassing, isn’t it?  Again, effective:

Braband’s investigation focused on 27-year-old Matthew Whitley. After screening Whitley’s bank records, Braband determined the envelope stuffing business had brought in $120,000 for Whitley in just nine months — his only source of income.

Too good to be true is not some flippant saying.

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Another example of proof-reading being foolishly replaced by an automated spell check:

Lead the development, scheduling and distribution of market/sales client tough points (new product launches, enhancement announcements, holiday cards, etc.)

That is from an employment ad that, despite using lots of words, does not identify the industry beyond - manufacturing.  Maybe Mickey Rourke will apply.

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