Selling Power provides another good article – Expert Advice for 2009 – that makes 4 relevant suggestions for this year. Clearly the economy is foremost on everyone’s mind and is affecting sales in a negative way. As they say, the show must go on. You can read the article for the 4 suggestions from 4 different sales trainers, but I especially noted these two: Shift to opportunity mode. Are you in survival mode or opportunity mode? A survival response to the economy is rooted in the “we just need to stay afloat” mentality. Leaders in this mode react by reducing head count, decreasing employee development, and controlling expenses, resulting in… Read More
Continue ReadingAvoid Posting Job Descriptions
Part of what I do every day is hunt through the local sales position ads. There are always some ads that contain more words than a doctoral thesis. Posting an internal job description for a sales position is the wrong move. One aspect of sourcing that we observer is the salesperson’s ability to qualify, in this case, the opportunity. If we post all the information about the position, the salesperson doesn’t have to work to find specific information. I’ve said this before, it is amazing how much you can learn during an initial 10 min. phone screen. An overwritten ad negates this fact to some extent. One other item we… Read More
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