Many people believe the preeminent ability required to be successful in sales is a good speaking ability. Verbal graces are beneficial in selling, but the ability to listen will always be more effective. Good salespeople are good listeners. Evaluating What Is Said This capacity is based on a person’s openness to people and their willingness to hear what the other person is saying – not what they think they should say, or are going to say. A salesperson with a strong aptitude in this capacity will be able to objectively evaluate feedback and hear the concerns, intentions or opinions being stated as opposed to inserting their own feelings or opinions.… Read More
Continue ReadingAn Open Letter to Sales Managers
Time and time again we see a similar process play out to the detriment of a company. XYZ Company determines that they need to hire a new salesperson and the sales manager is going to spearhead the search. A problematic approach. The primary focus of most sales managers is to coach, motivate and hold the sales team accountable. Part of these responsibilities includes some direct selling and some organizational tasks (sales reports, meetings, etc.). Hiring is usually not a weekly sales manager activity unless there are larger issues inside the company. So where does this menu of responsibilities leave running a sales search? Larger companies have HR personnel to place… Read More
Continue ReadingJobseekers & Sites – Take Two
About a month ago I posted on an article from Weedle’s regarding job boards & recruiting. In their latest newsletter, they have surveyed 1,063 people on how many times per month they visit an employment site on the Internet. Here are their finding’s: 35% visited a job board 13+ times/month, 20% visited such sites 5-8 times/month, 18% visited them 2-4 times/month, 17% visited job boards 9-12 times/month, 8% visited these sites 1 time/month, and 2% said they visited job boards 0 times/month. As you can see about 72% visit job boards at least once per month, 55% visit them about twice a week and 35% visit the sites roughly three… Read More
Continue ReadingOlder Workers on the Way Out?
According to Management Issues Ltd., an online site devoted to management and leadership, 70 percent of bosses in the UK say in a survey that they see no value in employing experienced older workers. This seems to be the complete opposite of what we are seeing here in the US. Many companies have initiatives around hiring and retaining the baby-boomers looking at retirement in the next few years. Even though there is much evidence stating that their will be a workforce shortage in the next few years, more than half of the UK companies surveyed said that employing those 65 or older will trigger health-related issues. And even though 3/4… Read More
Continue ReadingTop Paid HR Leaders
The Workforce Management newsletter arrived this morning in my inbox and I came across a startling article. I was shocked at the compensation of the top 30 HR leaders in the US. The top 10 HR executives’ compensation is between $2.5 million to just over $6.6 million a year. If you are interested in viewing the list, here is the link: The 30 Highest-Paid HR Leaders.
Continue ReadingResume Veracity
Adria offered an interesting comment on our post regarding Resume Enhancements. Here is her comment in whole: I currently teach a Resume class in a Texas Workforce Center. I tell my attendees to never lie on their resumes. I also try to emphasize they should never put something in print about themselves which they cannot prove, or for which they cannot provide a witness if necessary. Will recruiters simply dismiss the truth in the resume style Im teaching as more embelishments or is there a trustworthy means to note integrity on a resume? First off, good news that candidates are being taught a specific manner for maintaining the veracity of… Read More
Continue ReadingCover Email Attention Getter
I’m working through some resume tasks this Monday morning and noticed an amusing line from a cover email: I have excellent customer skills and great work ethic! I do more by 9:00 in the morning that (sic) the marines do all day!! I know, a grammatical error steals some of the thunder, but I still got a kick out of the line. Note: exclamation points should be avoided at all costs. However, it is always – always – valuable to stand out from the crowd in a pile of resumes. Assuming you stand out in a good way.
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Pipeline or Pipe Dream
In talking with one of our customers, we heard this humorous story from the acting sales manager. This executive has been filling in the past month because her Sales Manager quit without notice and she was voicing her frustration at the lack of urgency on the part of the existing salespeople. Her story goes like: She asked one of her new salespeople for an update on her forecast and where things stood with a few specific prospects. The salesperson answered that everything was good and that in a year the two of them would be laughing about this discussion about where these deals stood. The salesperson mentioned that they would… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Handling Rejection
We’re going to start a short blog series on some specific sales aptitudes that predict success in a majority of sales roles. Our first one may be the most important aptitude – handling rejection. Sales is overflowing with rejection. I know because getting “no’s” was a hallmark of my sales career – nobody did it better. Getting the “yes” was my struggle (still is). Anyway, this aptitude is one we pay close attention to in all sales candidates. Sales that require many prospect contacts to reach 1 close require candidates with strong handling rejection aptitudes (an extreme example – telemarketing). Handling Rejection: The capacity to exhibit persistence and strong will… Read More
Continue ReadingResume Errors
Resumes have been a popular topic for us this week. Now I just caught up to this post from Anthony Meaney over at Recruiting.com from last week: Eighty-four percent of executives polled said it takes just one or two typographical errors in a resume to remove a candidate from consideration for a job opening; 47 percent said a single typo could be the deciding factor. First off, “typo” is a bit nondescript so I would argue some typos are worse offenses than others (“alot” instead of the proper “a lot” is forgivable in my opinion). However, one axiom we live by is that the interview process is the best the… Read More
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