I have been used as a reference and I have called to talk to references - at times it can be awkward.  I am extremely careful with what I say when I am the reference as I sense legal danger everywhere.  When I am calling a reference, I truly enjoy the people who just roll and I only have to direct them a bit.

Now our local paper runs this short Q&A article about a liability waiver.  I have never encountered such a document:

Q: One company I interviewed with asked me to sign a waiver saying my former supervisor would not be liable for anything he said about me. Is that legal?

A: Yes, the waiver is legal. But with or without the waiver, your former supervisor is free to talk about you and your performance. “Legally, an ex-employer or representative of an ex-employer can say anything about the employee as long as it’s truthful and isn’t confidential, like medication information,” said Bill Egan, an employment attorney at Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly in Minneapolis who advises companies. “Nothing prohibits them from providing truthful information about a former employee.”

Despite this fact, many references are still reluctant to speak openly about a former employee.  Over time, you learn to hear the things they don’t say.  In the end, that becomes the basis for learning the most information on the call.  Perhaps it doesn’t have to be that way?

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This abcnews.com article will tweak every Utilitarian out there (my editing):

The federal government has 2.6 million civilian workers, making it the nation’s largest employer. But, it turns out a growing number of these workers are not working.

Coburn commissioned the report “Missing in Action: AWOL in the Federal Government,” which tracked the number of absent workers without leave, AWOL workers, across 18 government agencies from 2001 to 2007.

It found that federal workers missed nearly 20 million hours of work in the last six years, not including vacation time or sick leave. On average, 2.8 million hours of work are lost per year because of AWOL absences.

Can you imagine this trend in a private-sector business?  Me either.  Then comes this howler:

The union that represents many federal employees doesn’t blame its workers, but rather the Bush administration.

“To me it’s a scathing indictment of the Bush administration, their total incompetence and mismanagement and disdain for government and running government,” said Mark Roth, general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees/AFL-CIO. “Apparently, they are so asleep at the wheel that they’re letting people go for months without any consequences.”

Right.

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From Inc.com:

During 2007, 5,488 people died from job-related injuries, a 6 percent decrease from 2006. However, workplace murders increased 13 percent to 610 homicides.

I find that stat a bit remarkable.  I’m not sure what would drive the workplace murder rate up, but that is a disturbing trend.

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Dave Stein has a provocative post regarding some recent poll data about sales executives.  This is excellent:

Top Five Reasons Executives Are Unhappy At Work

1. Limited advancement opportunities (12.8%)
2. Lack of challenge/personal growth (12.3%)
3. Compensation (11.7%)
4. Stress Level (7.7%)
5. Job Security (7.7%)

For sales executives, I believe there is another reason for unhappiness in their jobs: many don’t have the capabilities to perform successfully.  It’s too much of a challenge rather than lack of a challenge (indicated in number 2 above).

Here are two indicators that this is true:  First, tenure of sales executives is getting shorter year after year.   These sales executives aren’t leaving their jobs in less than two years because they’ve been wildly successful.  Second is the overall lack of performance of the sales people that work for these sales executives.

I couldn’t agree more with his analysis.  We see this fact everyday in our business as we encounter sales managers who are ill-prepared for hiring and onramping new salespeople.

Sales management is one of the most difficult positions in any company.  Salespeople, in very general terms, tend to be independent and noncompliant.  They also carry the future of the company which makes their success mission critical.  Talk about pressure on the manager.

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A few months ago I posted on the rising trend of telecommuting.  The percent of companies that allow working from home has gone up dramatically over the past few years.  From our experience, that trend has been accelerating in just the past few months.  More companies are offering salespeople the option to work form home a few days a month once they are through their on-ramping process.  We are also being asked by sales candidates early in the process if telecommuting is an option.

Not all companies and positions have that flexibility, but that shouldn’t preclude you from looking for alternatives.  A recent article from the Workforce Management newsletter lists 7 companies that have done something about the concern of rising costs of transportation by offering help to their employees.  From giving them bus passes to cash rebates for buying hybrid vehicles to running shuttle services, these are just a few of the examples of what some companies are doing.  Some of the companies are large, like Microsoft, but here is what one small, 75 employee company is doing:

STS Telecom: The Cooper City, Florida-based provider of conventional and hosted Voice over Internet Protocol phone service reimburses employees for a portion of their daily commute—about $2 for each gallon of gas they use. In addition, the 75-employee company offers $250 toward the lease or purchase of a gas-electric hybrid car.

Let me give another example of a local, mid-sized company located here in Minnesota.  My sons bought a Mazda RX7 earlier this summer from a friend that lives in Southern Minnesota.  The previous owner decided to get rid of the car for several reasons.  First he & his wife were expecting their first child and a 2-seat sports car is not ideal for a family of 3.  The second reason was that the car only gets around 20 to 25 miles per gallon which isn’t bad, but there are a lot of cars available with better gas mileage.  But the final reason that motivated him to sell the car was the fact that his company was giving rebates to employees that bought hybrid or high miles per gallon vehicles.

You probably know that we are big proponents of telecommuting options for salespeople.  We speak to companies regularly that have not made any changes to help out with this hot topic.  Some of the questions to consider:

What jobs can you have telecommute on a full or part-time basis?
What is keeping you from allowing employees to telecommute?
What can you do to help out those that cannot telecommute?

This topic is going to become more prevalent, not less, in the near future.  If you plan to hire any salespeople in the near future, be prepared to discuss this topic.

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From an ad for a National Sales Manager:

Required Skills:

1. Product knowledge.

The ad lists 3 other “non-sales” skills.  Sales is that strange position where many hiring managers focus on skills other than selling.  Is it any wonder there are so many sales hiring horror stories?

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Persuasion is a key ability of any successful salespeople.  Think of the worst car salesperson or door-to-door salesperson you have encountered and you will know why this ability is so critical to success.  CNNMoney.com’s article - How persuasive are you? - interviews an individual who runs the Persuasion Institute who brought up this fine point:

Let’s take, for instance, how we handle objections, whether from a customer or some other audience, such as a boss we’re asking for a raise. Early on in life, we learn to perceive objections as opposition, so we get defensive. An unskilled persuader, often without realizing it, will show tension, uneasiness, or irritation when someone raises an objection, usually because the objection or concern stirs up the persuader’s own insecurities: “Aren’t I doing a good enough job explaining this? Didn’t I go over that already?” This way of thinking will only make matters worse.

By contrast, great persuaders who have learned new persuasion skills know how to welcome objections. Instead of seeing them as opposition, these persuaders see objections as a natural, and valuable, part of the process. They use their audience’s concerns as a way to open a dialogue, a chance to exchange ideas and discover new areas of common ground. Truly great persuaders may cut to the chase by addressing an objection before it’s even been voiced, just to get that communications ball rolling.

I say that is a fine point in that how salespeople handle rejection is key to their success.  We often discuss what traits are most important in sales and I think I would vote for handling rejection.  I think it is, in simple terms, the key differentiator between high-performance sales and mediocrity.

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Selling Power’s Hiring Newsletter takes a look at assessments used in the hiring process.  This is a topic near and dear to our hearts in that we assess sales candidates with online tests.  One paragraph jumped out (emphasis mine):

According to Whittle, the average test runs around $200, but there were some tests that tacked on extra costs for interpretation up to $600 to $900 extra. Her company usually conducts the tests after at least two behavioral interviews to save time and costs. However, Whittle reminds us - the cost of testing is nothing compared to the cost of a bad hire. “We conduct the tests to validate what we’ve seen during the interview process,” explains Whittle.

I understand this approach, but I don’t agree with it.  Here has been my experience - hiring managers will doubt the test results as opposed to their “gut instinct.”  If you are two interviews into the process with a candidate, I guarantee someone has bonded with the candidate.  This is not a bad thing, but what if the assessment comes back with information that indicates the candidate would be a risky, or even bad hire?

This is the problem - the hiring manager has committed to the candidate at some level.  If the hiring manager has enough power, they will still hire the candidate in spite of the assessment results.

We assess candidates after a successful phone interview.  This provides a detailed view of the candidate’s abilities, motivations, drive and so forth.  The results also provide the topics for discussion during the initial in-person interview.  This data makes that first interview far more revealing than simply probing for unknown weaknesses with generic questions.

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Red flags should go up if those words appear in a cover letter.  These sentences are from a recent graduate’s cover letter for a sales position:

Please do not contact me if the position is commission based, or involves cold-calling. Also your company must have a valid website that can help me to identify what your company does.

I will be following his clear orders and not contacting him.

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I had to share this one:

Offshore Employee - No Accent.

Excellent.  Memorable.

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