Selling has always been about relationships, but it is becoming more significant in today’s world.  According to a recent study referenced in this Selling Power.com article - The Relationship Imperative - product superiority is not as big a driver in customers’ decision-making process.

“Product superiority used to be a big advantage for companies,” says Jim Dickie, partner at CSO Insights. “But collapsing product lifecycles is changing that. If a competitor doesn’t have a feature or function today, they can catch up a lot faster than they could in the past.” The result: product superiority has dropped down to the number three reason companies win deals with just 35 percent of companies citing it versus 56 percent who say relationships drive their wins.

Isn’t that notable?  “Collapsing product lifecycles” is really behind this shift.  I just read an article about 5 new cell phones coming out to compete with the iPhone.  They are all touchscreen phones with many similar features.  Maybe we are trading imitation for innovation?  Whatever the reason, relationships drive sales.

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Clearly newspapers are the poster child for this topic.  ABCnews.com approaches this topic with research that forecasts industry changes over the next 5 years.  Some of their predictions and suggestions:

Another way to avoid disaster? Diversify. In response to decades of declining circulation and shaky print advertising numbers, newspaper publishers are expanding their holdings in non-traditional ways. The two largest, Gannett and Tribune, own a stake Careerbuilder.com, the online job search Web site. In 2005, The New York Times Co. bought About.com, a general information site. Will it work? The jury is out. Worth noting, though–the industry’s most successful transition is also its most radical. The Washington Post Co. secured their future by buying Kaplan Learning centers, morphing the company into an “information” firm and leaning on the new entity, rather than their news operations, to drive growth.

The Washington Post has done a good job of adapting ahead of the trend.  However, I wonder if it is simply too late for these other papers to make such a shift in their business model (I think it is).

Here is one I didn’t think about, but it is a certain trend based on Gen Y:

The most surprising find: While technology is changing the face of many industries, the firms within them are often doing quite well. One strategy for surviving a technological onslaught is to control the change itself. AT&T and Verizon, the largest wired telecommunications firms, are hardly worried that more than 1 million phone “land lines” are expected to be switched off each year between now and 2012. Both of those firms saw their wireless subscriber numbers surge in 2007.

True.  I suspect home phone lines will disappear in the very near future as cell phones eventually become the standard.  The article is a good read if you have the time.

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We have been sourcing for a handful of sales positions around the country this past weekend and we are starting to see some potential movement of strong candidates.  What I mean is that there is some contraction about to start among large sales forces.  Some strong salespeople will be pushed out in the contraction which makes for an excellent time to expand or upgrade your sales team.

Revenue-generating positions are always a priority no matter what the economy does.  A slowdown generally pushes companies towards cost-saving maneuvers which is good for sales hiring - some good salespeople are going to be squeezed out.

One example is a candidate we recently talked to who is starting to actively look for a new opportunity.  He works in the specific territory for a national company, but the company is going to eliminate some under-performing salespeople.  They are then going to combine territories and have fewer sales reps cover more territory.

This candidate is going to have his territory combined with a more tenured rep.  They are both selling at the same high level and are paid comparable salaries.  The candidate is going to be told he will take on a territory in another geographic location so he will have to move his young family.  He has no interest in that move and has no other options with his company.  Hence, he is looking.  Actively.

These types of situations are going to play out in greater frequency for the remainder of this year.  Good salespeople will become available.  Now is the time to upgrade or expand your sales team.

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That title is for John Sumser - one more colloquialism for the recruiting world.  The Wall Street Journal offers up this article to discuss mothers re-entering the workforce after taking extended time off (years) to raise their family.

I have a soft spot in my heart for this topic since my wife recently reentered the workforce after taking 8 years off.  It took her some time, but she landed an ideal position at a medical clinic.  That isn’t always the case:

Though 74% do find work, only 40% say they are gainfully employed in full-time, mainstream jobs. “There is still a tremendous amount of stigma and suspension when employers see a hole in a resume,” says Ms. Hewlett.

I would hope that hiring managers do not equate being a full-time mom with being unemployed.  I would argue that being a mom does not constitute a hole in one’s resume (but I am not objective on this topic).

And, to facilitate that transition, a whole new industry of coaching and staffing firms as well as corporate and educational programs have popped up. “This talent pool is more and more necessary” and there is a growing recruiting effort to target parents returning to work, says Meryle Mahrer Kaplan, vice president of advisory services at Catalyst.

This is a great talent pool that should be tapped as the boomers retire.  Finally, one piece of advice from the article that worked well for my wife:

In your resume and—and later in interviews—be sure to take the mystery out of the time away from work. If you’ve taken on projects at schools and charities and used some of the skills from your career, highlight those volunteer experiences and any bottom-line or eye-catching results from the projects.

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That title probably got your attention.  The economy is completely dynamic so things can change, but the quarterly CareerBuilder.com/Harris Interactive survey came back with some surprising results (my editing).

“The job loss reported in the first quarter signified a gradual deceleration in recruitment in the U.S. as the nation’s economy downshifted,” says CEO, Matt Ferguson. “In the next three months, employers anticipate marginal change in their hiring pace. While some industries are experiencing a contraction in employment levels, areas such as information technology, healthcare, professional and business services and sales continue to add full-time jobs.”

…29% of employers state plans to grow their number of full-time, permanent employees from April through June, while 59% anticipate no change, and 6% expect to decrease headcount.

Despite all of the “sky is falling” forecasts, we are blessed with a fairly robust economy, even when it is in a down cycle.

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Yesterday I posted on this “determine your own vacation time” approach to management.  It is totally foreign to me.  Today I come across another company with the same approach.  This HRE Online article - In Their Own Words - contains comments provided by Gen Y workers on a recent survey.

First the vacation comment (my empahsis):

CarMax

“Time away from work policy instead of vacation and sick days. There is not a set amount of time you can take, you just work it out with your manager. The office’s atmosphere is very bright and open. Management is very accessible and will answer any questions that you have. They encourage management throughout the company in order to give you a better overall understanding of the company.”

This one is rather astounding:

Quicken Loans

“When I was in training, it was mid-winter. On the first very cold day of the year, I had an amazing experience. I pulled into the very large parking lot and saw about eight people driving golf carts around, picking up employees. It was none other than the owner, CEO and president along with other executives of our company out there in the freezing cold picking us up and driving us to the front door. Upon walking in, there were donuts and warm apple cider waiting for us. If that’s not employee appreciation, I don’t know what is.”

We are up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota so I am rather appreciative of this effort.  Owners, CEOs and Presidents that are willing to actually give of their time and effort for their employees reap greater retention rewards than just monetary rewards.  Yes, I know money goes a long ways, but imagine combining a monetary reward with this effort.  If I were an employee at Quicken Loans, I would be blown away with this effort.

You know, sometimes the best retention efforts are not wrapped in strategy, planning committees and focus groups.  They are simply people serving their employees in an unexpected, thoughtful manner.

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I have a weakness for future predictions of jobs, markets, trends, etc.  This particular one is from the Job Market Weekly email (sorry, no link).

Technology will create new jobs as well. Out-of-work “top gun” pilots may find jobs captaining dirigibles, says Joel Barker, author of Five Regions of the Future. A relic from the 1920s and 1930s, these rigid blimps will revolutionize travel in the developing world, he adds.

Hollywood’s woes may be solved by holography. Since consumers are perfectly happy watching DVDs at home on big flat-screen televisions, box-office receipts have slipped and movie moguls are scrambling. But eventually, Barker says, film companies will start producing three-dimensional holographic movies that require equipment too expensive and complicated to set up at home.

It’s too early to declare the end of oil, but alternative energy will create dozens of new careers in the next two decades. Hydrogen fuel could be cost-competitive with gasoline if refueling stations were mass-produced, according to a study conducted by Ford. The hydrogen at these stations would be produced on-site, so managers would need an entirely different set of skills than those required in today’s gas stations, which are mainly retail operations.

Interesting, no?  Blimps in the developing world, holographic movies and hydrogen-manufacturing gas stations.  The gas station idea is an amazing idea and surely energy-industry jobs will be expanding in the future.

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The economy is slow, but this is a different economy than we have encountered before now.  I suppose this is always true since the economy is completely dynamic so no two points in time are ever the same.  Nonetheless, abcnews.com offers us this story - Job Winners and Losers in Hard Times - which has an excellent bit of information regarding this economy:

In an environment of a sluggish economy and rising unemployment, analysts said there will be some safe harbors where job demand will keep growing. First and foremost in this group will be health care, where the demographics of an aging population mean the demands for medical care will keep rising.

Also a bright spot in a generally bleak jobs picture will be education, again driven by the demographics of a rising population of school-age children and students attending colleges, community colleges and trade schools.

Outside of those areas, the falling value of the dollar against many foreign currencies is helping to power an export boom, which is benefiting farmers and some segments of manufacturing, particularly airplane makers and factories producing various types of heavy machinery where the United States enjoys a competitive edge.

Recessions, slow downs, whatever…the dynamic economy never stops.  There are always pockets to target so make the adjustments you need to make to keep closing deals.

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Here is an interesting article from Selling Power regarding predicting trends of the future.  Specifically, this one caught my eye:

We’ll return to real, thoughtful communications. In this era of text messaging, blogging, and email, we’ve become lazy in our communications. We tend to dash off notes without proofreading them. We tend to use generic catch phrases like “seamless solution” and “superior service” that sound good but don’t really mean anything. Why do we do it? Because it’s easier and quicker than taking the time to think, write, edit, and edit again until our message is clear, compelling, and precise. There’s going to be a backlash against today’s generic, rushed communications and it’s coming soon. The future of sales will demand that reps put thought, care, and creativity into every message they compose.

I think there is something to that prediction.  Resumes and cover emails are typically one of the most formal forms of writing in business.  The quality of writing I am encountering recently is borderline pathetic.  Informal, error-filled and cliche-driven documents are far too prevalent today.

I am convinced that editing is a lost art.  I hope the aforementioned prediction comes true.

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No question the economy is slowing down so this article from Forbes.com is not surprising:

The Conference Board found there was a total of 3,733,200 online-advertised job vacancies, a 0.6% decline from March 2007 and the first year-on-year fall in total numbers since the index began in 2005. The Board said the decline reflects a slowing in annual growth in 42 states, with 14 states showing negative growth.

Yes, I know, the index is only a few years old, but there is enough data to show the present-day trend.  Here is some anecdotal information from the survey:

The online-ad volume in California dropped 118,000, or 19%, below its March 2007 level. The volume of online-advertised vacancies in Florida (217,100) was 15% lower than the March 2007 level, while the volume in Texas (336,900) was up 8% and ads in New York (275,800) were up slightly (1.4%).

I would still caution against buying into the media hype about the “plummeting economy.”  The economy is dynamic so there are always going to be down cycles like the one we are in now.  However, some of the discussions are borderline ridiculous.  I read part of an article the other day stating that we are heading into another 1930’s era depression.  The hyperbole that surrounds economic reporting stills astounds me.

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