We had a chance to contribute to an article that appears in Ragan’s Management Resource’s newsletter Employee Recruitment & Retention this month. The article is titled Experts explode the HR industry’s biggest myths and reads like a collection of short essays on many surprising HR/hiring topics. My contribution (I get the byline though Lee assisted me) involves debunking the conventional wisdom that all good salespeople are extroverts. Nope, that isn’t true. The tease: My advice would be to look at a salesperson’s qualifying skills in the hiring process as opposed to their linguistic mannerisms. Watch for their ability to ask pertinent questions regarding the opportunity. Some candidates will be outgoing,… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Problem Solving
We€™re looking at a €œbolt-on€ aptitude that is quite complementary to last week€™s trait – Practical Thinking. Problem Solving has become a much needed sales trait in that salespeople today need to be subject matter experts. Prospects expect salespeople to be able to diagnose the prospect€™s pain points. This trait also assists a salesperson in bringing back the needed information to formulate the best solution for his or her presentation. Problem Solving This is a salesperson€™s ability to identify alternative solutions to a problem and to select the best option. This basically means to be able to identify the system component that is causing the error as well as the… Read More
Continue Reading6 Sales Hiring Mistakes
Salesopedia has this article on their home page this week – Six Common Mistakes in the Sales Hiring Process. Obviously we are going to read that one. First off, great quote from Zig Ziglar in the article: “Sales people are really the only people in business who pay the bills!” That provides some perspective on the importance of strong sales hiring. Here are the 6 mistakes as outlined by the author: 1) Assuming the hiring manager knows how to qualify people 2) Not defining EXACTLY what you are looking for in a new hire 3) Assuming specific business functions know how to hire like talent 4) Over emphasizing a hire… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 10 Selling Mistakes
“Don’t Make These Top 10 Selling Mistakes!” Bet that got your attention. I found it on the Business Buyer Directory which provides a non-traditional means for business buyers to locate businesses for sale worldwide. The article is a couple of years old, but makes some excellent points, in fact ones that applicable to a hiring process. 4. NOT Looking the Part – Selling involves approaching strangers, people who have never met you before. People naturally base purchase decisions on first impressions. Look the part you are playing, or better yet, exceed the common image expectation in your industry. Always dress and groom one level above your targeted audience. It portrays… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Contradicting Ad
I read a short sales ad for a Sales Rep that was only 7 sentences long. But the brevity of the ad did not stop the author from being unconsciously contradicting. The open: Person must be an achiever, with excellent communication skills. Previous Marketing and Sales experience is a must with a proven track record and cold calling experience. Later is states a Bachelor’s degree is required. Why? If there was a Bachelor’s degree for selling, I would deem this requirement important. The contradiction comes in the last sentence: No phone calls please. I know I have mentioned this before but please don’t do this. The beginning of the ad… Read More
Continue ReadingSales OR Customer Service
An ad continues to run for a specific sales position in our backyard that defines the job as an outside sales person, Account Executive and requires 25% travel. Yet the title of the ad is Sales/Customer Service. These two positions are almost mutually exclusive of each other. There are few customer service people who develop into strong outside business development salespeople. The opposite is true too, most strong outside salespeople do not make effective customer service reps. The point here is that ad titles are incredibly important in today’s online world. The title is the gateway to garnering the click. Without the click, the ad does not get seen. I… Read More
Continue ReadingAssessing The Behavioral-Based Interview
Selling Power discusses behavioral-based interviewing in On Your Best Behavior. The article covers the main points of this interview approach and it is certainly an approach we incorporate – to some extent. First, if you are relying on the face-to-face interview to make a strong sales hire, you are taking unneeded risks. Even bad salespeople can be good at building rapport. Other salespeople may be silky smooth talkers but nothing more – they can shine in the interview but never close a deal once they make it on to your payroll. An over-reliance upon the interview is the number one reason for a bad sales hire. You must use a… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Practical Thinking
Sales requires the ability to balance time and quality in a practical manner. Sales also requires a person who knows how to get things done. This week we focus on a specific trait that measures this ability in a real-world manner. Practical Thinking The ability to make practical, common sense decisions; to see and understand what is happening in a common sense way. This trait realistically identifies problems and solutions in practical terms rather than in theoretical or conceptual terms. A salesperson with strength in this trait will be able to properly balance getting things done in a timely manner with getting things done in a quality manner. A weakness… Read More
Continue ReadingHow Many Jobs Is Too Many?
This week I have been reading a lot of different posts and articles that try to answer the question how many jobs is too much on an applicant’s resume? I run into this topic all the time with our clients. Some clients will even try to disqualify a candidate if they feel they have held too many jobs based on their resume. Let me be clear, I am not saying that you should ignore their work history, but don’t use it as the sole means for disqualifying. That statement usually leads me to answering this question from our clients — How many jobs is too many? I never really had… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Fog Of Job Ads
I attended a monster.com webinar today regarding sourcing from, interestingly enough, the job seeker’s perspective. I wanted to share an important finding from their survey. The number 1 job seeker complaint about finding new jobs (in sourcing terms) was vague job descriptions. I shudder as I write this because I envision companies writing even longer sales ads. The key word was vague, not short. The 3 negative outcomes job seekers perceive from a vague ad: Bait and switch – once into the process, the candidate learns that he or she is really being considered for a lesser position Misrepresentation – the ad doesn’t truly describe what the actual job entails… Read More
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