I came across this article in Monster’s resource for candidates – Work the Working Interview. The article has three main points: How the working interview helps employers evaluate you, Show your stuff and Ace the working interview. Basically, the article provides tips for candidates on how to perform well in a working interview. Stephen Morel, President & CEO of Pro Staff, is quoted: It helps employers evaluate soft skills, like commitment, loyalty and work ethic, plus it shows attitude and abilities in real time,” he explains. Employers can also evaluate whether a candidate’s personality will be a good fit with the staff. Monster provides a link for candidates to evaluate… Read More
Continue ReadingHire Great People: 10 Simple Rules
Monster has some great resources for candidates in preparing, practicing and improving not only their interviewing techniques, but their chances of receiving job offers. Unfortunately, their employer resources are somewhat limited. I did find a good article on hiring – it is a list of 10 simple rules to follow. Rule no. 1 is by far the best and one we preach here at The Hire Sense: Rule number one is clear, but very counterintuitive: Don’t ever, ever hire somebody just like yourself. Why not? Because from the beginning of time, executives have been unconsciously cloning themselves, stocking the shelves with vanilla young men from impressive schools. And what has… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Persistence
Hopefully you can see a pattern to the Aptitudes we are defining. We have progressed from Self-Starting Ability to Personal Drive to today’s installment – Persistence. Successful selling requires persistence whether it be calling through a list of names for a transactional sale to tracking a prospect over many months for a complex sale. We can measure this aptitude in salespeople. Persistence This is a person’s capacity to stay the course in times of difficulty. It is the ability to remain motivated to accomplish goals in the face of adversity or obstacles. A salesperson with a strong aptitude in this capacity will be able to remain motivated to achieve success… Read More
Continue ReadingWalking With Dinosaurs
Desperately Seeking Sales Stars is a long article from Sales & Marketing Management’s online edition. There is much in this article to dissect, but I will focus on some key points. First, don’t do this: “There are various [hiring and assessment] tools out there, but I still tend to be a seat-of-my-pants guy,” says Maher, now a speaker and sales consultant based in Helendale, Calif. “I’ve been hiring salespeople for over thirty-five years…and if they can sell me on their skills, that’s perhaps the most impressive thing.” And that is perhaps the only thing they can sell. These dinosaurs are still amongst us and still believe their intuition is more… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen Google Hires, People Interview
Google Adjusts Hiring Process As Need for New Talent Grows provides a glimpse of the extended hiring process of a suddenly large company. When I write suddenly, I mean this: During the quarter, the company brought in an average of 16 new employees daily, up from 13 the quarter before. Its breakneck hiring has boosted staff from 1,628 at the end of 2003 to 3,021 a year later and 5,680 at the end of 2005. The article illustrates the hiring challenges that occur when a company experiences explosive growth. The large company effects can be seen in that they have brought in a new, young VP of HR with new… Read More
Continue ReadingOpen-Minded Hiring
Another good article from the new Selling Power newsletter – Open Minds Open Doors. The topic here is Hiring Salespeople From Outside Your Industry. If you follow that link, you will see that this topic is of great importance in our world. From the article: “I believe the way the market is today, finding the perfect combination of industry knowledge and sales experience may not be possible for many companies,” says Hardin. “With the unemployment rate at an all-time low, candidates are not as abundant as they were three years ago. Companies will have the greatest long-term success by hiring candidates who possess the necessary sales skills and then training… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy We Do What We Do
Selling Power has a fantastic article about hiring salespeople – Avoid Hiring Mistakes. There are many truths in the article so I recommend you read the entire article. First, some compelling stats: A recent survey shows that 53 percent of all sales recruiting efforts lead to miss-hires. And according to a Miller Heiman white paper, The Three Top Challenges Facing Sales Leaders Today, only 28 percent of sales leaders believe they have an effective process for recruiting and hiring qualified salespeople. More than half of all sales recruiting efforts end up in mishires (my preferred spelling). Now try to tabulate the lost revenue in this futile approach and you realize… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Personal Drive
Last week we covered Self-Starting Ability. This week we look at a complementary aptitude – Personal Drive. Most salespeople work within the framework of a company but their actual performance takes place on a one-to-one level…salesperson to prospect. To be successful, salespeople have to have the internal drive to succeed without excessive, external, surrogate motivation from their manager. Personal Drive A gauge of personal motivation to achieve, accomplish or complete tasks, goals or missions. This drive can take many forms (e.g., tasks, knowledge, career, physical, etc.), but it involves the level of personal motivation a person is capable of bringing to bear on any given task which they feel is… Read More
Continue ReadingA Good Time To Be In Sales
This article – The Hottest Industries For Sales Jobs – comes from the daily SM&M Magazine enewsletter. The market demand for salespeople is strong right now (we can attest to that fact) and is going to remain high: The trend for hiring shows no signs of stopping, according to Cindy Hazen, the founder of Sales Executives, a recruiting firm based in Nashville, Tenn. “We have been booming for the last two years in sales and project to be booming for the next five,” she says. And now for the hottest topic in hiring: The aging U.S. workforce is also changing the sales profession. Companies soon will need to replace a… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Comp Potpourri – Part 2
A few days ago the Velvet Hammer provided some pointers on putting together offer letters and I wanted to chime in on the topic. I have just a couple of general reminders as you deliver the offers to your sales candidates: Your position is probably not the only opportunity they are looking at so keep the process moving along – timing is everything. Qualify the total compensation package with the candidate. Will the offer be in the candidate’s range or will it be out in left field? Expect to have some negotiation with the candidate on the offer. Again, this is probably not the only opportunity they are pursuing. Make… Read More
Continue Reading