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 ReadingBest Buy’s Results-Only Work Environment
There has been a lot written on Best Buy’s Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) in articles and in the blogs. Everyone seems to have an opinion about this type of work environment and if it could work outside of Best Buy. One article specifically addresses the point of the adaptability of Best Buy’s culture in other companies. I found a couple of points of interest that I would like to share with you. “Best Buy’s culture is very young,” says Washington, D.C.-based flexibility consultant Paul Rupert of Rupert & Co., who has worked with clients ranging from Wal-Mart to Xerox. “They have a lot of significant managers who are still in… 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 ReadingSales Comp Potpourri
We are working through some offers for sales candidates with multiple clients this week and thought it would be helpful to discuss some general points. Salary – we’re big believers in a modest/decent salary. The best plans we see provide a salary to cover the basic needs of the salesperson. If they are worrying about basic bills, they are not as effective. I know there is an old school belief that commission-only plans are the best – purest form of selling, you eat what you kill. The largest drawback to this approach is that sales managers often leave the salesperson to their own devices. Their rationale – the salesperson will… Read More
Continue ReadingAnother Cover Email
First, a confession – I am a huge fan of Battelstar Galactica on the Sci-Fi Channel. I’m not talking about the old 1970’s version which is still entertaining. No, the modern version is quite gripping. Anyway, if you watch that show, you will chuckle at this email cover title: Do you need a frackin’ awesome worker? As much as I enjoy the show, I am not impressed by a candidate who uses the show’s f-bomb derivative in their cover email.
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Opening sentence of a cover email: I need work.
Continue ReadingThe Select Metrix Survey Says…
Ok, there isn’t a Select Metrix survey and Richard Dawson isn’t screaming “survey says” anymore. Nonetheless, most of the major job boards have a quarterly report that details the hiring landscape. Now this morning I see that some of the smaller boards are starting to release their own survey results. TheLadders.com released their Quarterly Executive Employment Outlook. We have minimal experience with TheLadders.com but I have read many good things about it. Their focus is on $100K+ jobs which puts a management-level focus on their results. From the press release: The survey also revealed a growing trend among senior level executives to search for new employment in order to accomplish… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – How Are You?
Ok, I thought I would offer an anecdote from earlier this week. One of our customers has an unrefined sales rep who works hard but lacks many skills. He had a customer make a design change to a part that was going to cause an 18% increase in the price of the salesperson’s service. His call to the customer to announce this news: “Hello customer, how are you today? Wait, I shouldn’t ask you that until I tell you that our price is going to increase 18%. I am sure our competitor will be able to be well under that price if you have them quote it. Now how are… Read More
Continue ReadingActivist Shareholders…
are two words you don’t want to hear if you are CEO of a publicly-traded company. From Inc.com: At public companies, this [turnover] is reflected in the rise of activist shareholders, Jacovitz said, seen most recently in the public ousting of top executives at Hewlett-Packard. I think there may be one other slightly significant item that had an impact on the HP ouster. The article focuses on C-level turnover, which is on the rise. But I found these graphs towards the end of the article to be more notable: Meanwhile at the lower rungs of the workforce, small employers are having trouble finding qualified workers, according to the National Federation… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Self-Starting Ability
There may be no more popular buzzword in employment articles today than “self starter.” The majority of ads list this trait as required for the position. We can objectively measure it. Self-Starting Ability A measure of a person’s ability to initiate tasks in order to fulfill responsibilities and commitments along with the degree to which a person will maintain that ability in the face of adversity. A salesperson with strength in this capacity is adept at synchronizing their internal drivers (e.g., level of initiative, persistence, goal focus, etc.) and directing these combined abilities toward a common goal or task. They are also capable of marshalling these strengths on their own… Read More
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