Great article here from SellingPower.com – The Best Ways to Turn Off a Star. I am a big fan of showing people how not to do something. That is a powerful format for teaching. In that light, here are 6 tips from the article (in a “what not to do” vein): Talk about yourself and your company. You really don’t need any information about the candidates; it’s all on their resumes anyway. Wait for them to call you. Make them wait. Hey, if they really want to work for your company, it’s worth waiting through your 40-minute phone call to your old college roommate. Bribe them. Offer a free microwave… Read More
Continue Reading8 Things Not To Do On A Sales Call
I read this post on Bnet and got a chuckle out of a couple of the points and thought I would share this article by Geoffrey James with you. I especially laughed when I read don’t flirt with the admin…who does that?! Anyway, here are the 8 things not to do: Flirt with the admin. It may seem tempting, but unless you’ve got soap-opera-quality looks, chances are you’re only going to annoy (or even alarm) the admin, who will tell the boss. Fix: Stay polite, friendly and respectful. Talk more than you listen. Initial sales calls are all about relationship building and gathering information, which you can’t do if your… Read More
Continue ReadingStupid Candidate Tricks
This post from Steven Rothberg over at CollegeRecruiter.com had me laughing. Isn’t it amazing how out-of-touch some candidates can be during a phone screen or interview? From Steven’s post: Candidate asked the interviewer for a ride home after the interview. Candidate smelled his armpits on the way to the interview room. Candidate said she could not provide a writing sample because all of her writing had been for the CIA and it was “classified.” You have to read the other 7 mistakes in the list. Unbelievable…and entertaining.
Continue ReadingMediocrity In The Hiring Process
Hiring salespeople is the difficult combination of science and art weighted perfectly to select the right person for the position’s requirements. Obviously, knowing the position’s requirements is the preeminent step. Many sales managers believe they know what it takes to be successful in the position and they do to a certain extent. Yet, their knowledge often consists of themes as opposed to specifics. This reason drives us to profile the sale as the very first step in our sales hiring process. ManageSmarter.com’s Is Hiring Mediocre Good Enough? approaches a hiring process with some valuable insight and other items I wouldn’t recommend. First, the reason astute hiring is mission-critical to corporate… Read More
Continue ReadingTalent Scarcity, But Plenty Of Grill Time
The recruiters conference I attended last Friday started off on the right foot – we calculated the cost of a bad hire (even for a $6 an hour employee, it can run $2400 or more), interacted with the moderator about CEOs’ perception of candidates brought in by an outside agency (79% unfavorable) and even discussed the challenge of finding “A” players in a tight talent market. But when the speaker explained their approach of grilling a candidate on each and every job back to high school (Tell me your bosses name. Spell it. Tell me your closest peer’s name at that job. Spell it.) during a 3 to 4 hour long third interview,… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat You Can Ask In An Interview
This article on HR World – 30 Interview Questions You Can’t Ask and 30 Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info – is making quite a splash on the web today. I think it is an interesting read with some excellent suggestions regarding how to phrase interview questions. To give you a sample: 12. What you can’t ask: Do you have kids? This one is for positions in which the candidate may work with children. The added experience of children at home may be a bonus for you, but it’s not an employer’s place to ask about this. Rather, inquire about the candidate’s experience, and they may volunteer this information to… Read More
Continue ReadingThe No-Show Trend
We haven’t seen this trend yet, but I suspect it may show up on our front stoop at some point. From The Career News (sorry, no link) comes this abridged story from MSNBC.com: The first step to acing the interview: Show up! I know this sounds obvious, but apparently not to everyone. “It happens all the time lately,” says Emmanuel Conde, director of recruitment for Alliant Technologies, an information-technology staffing firm that estimates about 50 percent of entry-level IT professionals they try to place don’t show up for interviews. Among senior level folks, about 20 percent skip it. The no-show phenomenon is a growing problem for many recruiters and hiring… Read More
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