6 to 10 years of successful sales management experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nI always like to ask our clients what they are looking for in a candidate who has earned a degree versus one who has not. There should be a reasonable explanation for the requirement. If there isn’t one, remove it.<\/p>\n
I personally think one of the most dangerous words in writing an effective ad is the word “successful.” The description sounds descriptive but lacks definition. Notice how it is used in back-to-back bullet points. But what does it mean? There are no qualifiers to it. I am certain previous success is germane to this position, but a clear definition of that previous success<\/em> would help this ad to define the best candidates.<\/p>\nIn the end, your ad should define instead of describe. A distinction without a difference you say? Let’s take the final bullet point from above:<\/p>\n
6 to 10 years of successful sales management experience<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A description at best. If you asked 10 people to define what that line means, you would get 10 different answers. But what if it read this way:<\/p>\n
6+ years of managing a geographically-dispersed sales team focused on gaining market share in specific technical product niches<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Granted, that is a much finer net for sourcing, but we rarely use the “you must have” line in our ads. I prefer to define the achievements clearly rather than describe the experience ambiguously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many methods for writing sales employment ads, but many companies seem to fall into the trap of wanting their ads to fit a predefined mold. I think this is a mistake. Certainly there are key points of information that much be placed in the ad. But how you frame the information can be the difference between attracting strong candidates vs. wasting money. I recently read an ad posted by a recruiting company looking for a VP of Sales. I realize there are certain criteria they are looking to fill. But look at these bullet points: 4-year BS degree in engineering (preferably mechanical or chemical) with an MBA being… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment-ads"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-jl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2199,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/12\/swamped-by-applicants\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":0},"title":"Swamped By Applicants","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I am hearing more discussions about incredibly large responses to sales job postings in this present economy.\u00a0 Some of the companies I talk to are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of resumes they receive.\u00a0 I went back to look at an old article we wrote back in 2005 when the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/12\/employment-ads-what-not-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":1},"title":"Employment Ads – What Not To Do","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I just read a detailed employment ad for a sales position that made me cringe. The ad has 34 bullet points describing everything from the company culture to job responsibilities to candidate qualifications. Too much, too long, to detailed. I read it and thought how will they be able to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":925,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/05\/an-ad-without-clarity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":2},"title":"An Ad Without Clarity","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In reading through more sales ads this morning, I kicked up an example of an ad without clarity about the position. Here are the qualifications: -Hard working and dependable -Sales experience is necessary (____________ industry, preferred) -Must have no travel restrictions in covering assigned multi state territory -Must be computer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employment Ads"","block_context":{"text":"Employment Ads","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/employment-ads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1041,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/sales-ads-that-include-excel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":3},"title":"Sales Ads That Include Excel","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I wouldn't recommend this tact to a sales ad: Are you the candidate we are looking for? If you are very familiar with Excel, have good organizational skills along with verbal and written communication abilities, you may just be the future (salesperson) for our growing business. Leading with Excel and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employment Ads"","block_context":{"text":"Employment Ads","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/employment-ads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":141,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/how-not-to-write-a-sales-ad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":4},"title":"How Not to Write a Sales Ad","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I just read an ad for a sales-related position - it is in the sales category but it is so vaguely written that I cannot decipher what the position entails. The ad discusses what the person will be responsible for managing and some of what they will be doing. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1044,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/lazy-ad-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":5},"title":"Lazy Ad Writing","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"First let me say, I read through a business development job ad today that was fairly well-written.\u00a0 The ad did use many second person questions - Do you enjoy closing deals...?\u00a0 I'm not a huge fan of that approach, but I suspect it engages the readers at some level. 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