I am a member of an online recruiter’s group and have a mild interest in their topics. What we do at Select Metrix is far from recruiting, but we often get lumped in with recruiters so I figure it is good to know the topics that interest them. One myth I keep encountering is this Jurassic-era myth that good salespeople do not look at employment ads. Only the “unhappy” salespeople look at ads. Here is a direct quote from one of the recruiters: People only look on job boards if they are unhappy with their job / boss / company. To recruit the happy people (happy typically equals good)…you need… Read More
Continue ReadingName vs. No-name
In one of my previous sales lives, I worked for 2 different companies in a highly specialized, technical field. The companies were competitors – I worked for the larger company first that had a highly recognized name in the market. The company was approximately 200 employees strong with worldwide sales. I worked for the smaller company about 2 years after resigning from the first company. The smaller company was family owned and had . . . how do I say it? . . . no name recognition. The company had 7 employees and 3 of them were related. I describe these 2 settings for you to make a point about… Read More
Continue ReadingEmbellished Resumes
“We know what employers want” Yet another reason to read resumes with a grain of salt. Especially sales resumes.
Continue ReadingTop 10 Sales Traits
We assess sales candidates on over 60 different Aptitudes in our assessment stage which provides some fine detail about their natural talents. We adjust our focus on these aptitudes based on what the position requires. However, there are a certain group of aptitudes that are consistently critical in any sales position. Hence, I give you our top 10 list (we love lists): Handling Rejection Results Orientation Influencing Others Goal Achievement Personal Accountability Persistence Objective Listening Empathetic Outlook Initiative Emotional Control If you visit our web page, you will see the definition for each aptitude along with the reasoning behind its inclusion in our list. I realize there are many other… Read More
Continue ReadingExperience – Fact or Fiction?
In this article from the Minneapolis StarTribune.com, the author discusses the growing demand for salespeople in the medical industry. One quote in particular jumps out: Medical salespeople often tell me it is rewarding to sell things that help people. I bring this topic up because it is of interest in that we have measured this reward in the medical and health insurance industries. There is a statistical significance among these salespeople to be rewarded by a higher Sense of Mission (purpose). The article continues: Medical salespeople are experienced, persistent and smart, do their homework and have an understanding of the audience they are selling to. I would agree with all… Read More
Continue ReadingInterview Tips – Part 3
The online training of candidates continues. This time, monster.com offers up Interview Prep Tips which provides a general overview of strategy for a successful interview (from the candidate’s side). If you follow the link for Closing the Interview you will end up here. This complementary article is excellent advice for sales candidates to close an interview strongly. One approach we value is found in bullet #4: Ask about the next step in the process. It’s important for you to know the next step so you can follow up. Ask for the decision date. Sound advice…and you would be shocked how infrequently this question occurs among sales candidates.
Continue ReadingMore from monster.com – Interview Cheat Sheet
A cheat sheet from monster.com that is fairly comprehensive. These tips and prep questions are all excellent from the candidate side of the equation. These items become more troublesome when hiring salespeople. Even bad salespeople have some rapport-building ability that they incorporate into the interview process. There isn’t a hiring manager alive who doesn’t have a sales hiring mistake. We hear story after story about how good a candidate looked in the interview. The story continues with unique stories of different baggage. Some examples: salesperson wouldn’t make calls in their cubicle – they had to go in the conference room salesperson thought the support staff was completely dedicated to them… Read More
Continue Reading“A weakness is just the flip side of a strength taken too far”
Good article from vault.com titled Answering the Weaknesses Question. I want to take a different tact on this article’s main point. First, if you are using interviews as a second step qualifier in your hiring process, an article like this one ought to give you pause. The article is a deep analysis of strategies to answering an interview question many companies use today. But back to the point – Jerry Houser illuminates a great truth which is the title of this post. His further comment is just as insightful, “Strengths and weakness are situational. You have to know how to read your environment and use or moderate your skills in… Read More
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