{"id":1252,"date":"2007-10-23T14:52:20","date_gmt":"2007-10-23T19:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/10\/the-beginning-of-sales-mercenaries\/"},"modified":"2007-10-23T14:52:21","modified_gmt":"2007-10-23T19:52:21","slug":"the-beginning-of-sales-mercenaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/10\/the-beginning-of-sales-mercenaries\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginning Of Sales Mercenaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, this is more brainstorming than well-developed post (don&#8217;t touch that &#8211; they are all well-developed in my mind).&nbsp; Anyway, I read through an interesting piece on BusinessWeek.com titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/smallbiz\/content\/nov2006\/sb20061114_538248.htm?campaign_id=rss_null\" target=\"_blank\">Coping With the Talent Crunch<\/a>.&nbsp; The article is from last year, but the author hits on a couple interesting points.<\/p>\n<p>First, this (my editing and emphasis):<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It may be that employers (especially large ones) are increasingly out of touch. True, for most of the past two decades employees have consistently said there are reasons more important than money that make a job attractive. The problem is, most of those reasons to stick around have gone the way of the manual typewriter.<\/p>\n<p>Employees used to be willing to trade a few dollars today for the promise of things that were really important to them: Job security, career development, the ability to be a part of something bigger than themselves. <\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade (except for the Internet bubble hiring blip) the message from U.S. companies to employees has been clear: Don&#8217;t count on us for anything except your next paycheck.<\/p>\n<p>Companies that are no longer able to provide such things should not be surprised when employees take a &#8220;show me the money&#8221; attitude. <strong>And this is going to affect not just the big institutions most responsible for fracturing the social contract between employer and worker\u20ac\u201dit will affect all of us<\/strong>. And it will affect us at a time when the competition for talent is going to be at its greatest.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I think the author is spot on with this analysis and especially the highlighted text above.&nbsp; That fracture will lead to this:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Competition for talent will be not only with other companies but with employees themselves. Of the roughly 22 million U.S. companies in business today, around 16 million are one-person shops, and that number is growing rapidly. Why take a full-time job if you are likely to be out on the street in 18 months because your company has been purchased and integrated into a competitor? If you are one of the best in the field, why not set up shop yourself and control your own destiny?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The sales skills-for-hire days may be upon us.&nbsp; I have always been skeptical of this approach since selling does require a relationship with the customer.&nbsp; Many companies are loathe to outsource that relationship.<\/p>\n<p>But what of it?&nbsp; Maybe there is a place for this approach in light of the talent crunch?&nbsp; The manufacturer&#8217;s rep model has been in place for decades and provides a manufacturing company with local representation.&nbsp; Sales is uniquely set up for compensation in that you can reward the rep for success &#8211; a closed deal.<\/p>\n<p>At a minimum, I can see more salespeople becoming contractors for multiple&nbsp;companies as opposed to an employee for one company only.&nbsp; If a salesperson has demonstrable skill closing deals, the talent crunch may provide an opportunity to sell their skills to many buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, this is more brainstorming than well-developed post (don&#8217;t touch that &#8211; they are all well-developed in my mind).&nbsp; Anyway, I read through an interesting piece on BusinessWeek.com titled Coping With the Talent Crunch.&nbsp; The article is from last year, but the author hits on a couple interesting points. First, this (my editing and emphasis): It may be that employers (especially large ones) are increasingly out of touch. True, for most of the past two decades employees have consistently said there are reasons more important than money that make a job attractive. The problem is, most of those reasons to stick around have gone the way of the manual typewriter.&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/10\/the-beginning-of-sales-mercenaries\/\">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":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trends"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-kc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":314,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/09\/why-salespeople-leave\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":0},"title":"Why Salespeople Leave","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"September 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting article ran in last week's Selling Power Newsletter for Hiring & Recruiting titled \"Why Do Salespeople Leave?\" According to Compensation Resources, Inc. (CRI), obtained turnover statistics and trends from a broad range of industries and company sizes. The results indicate that both voluntary turnover and overall turnover have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Compensation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1353,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/retention-starts-with-recruiting\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":1},"title":"Retention Starts With Recruiting","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Herman Trend Alert offers up an excellent analysis of the most pressing topic of today - retention.\u00a0 I thought this statement was spot on: The Hodes 2007 Workplace Study holds that two factors are critical to retaining valued employees. The first is choosing quality people, not settling for \"warm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":565,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/presenteeism-and-flexible-hours\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":2},"title":"Presenteeism and Flexible Hours","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had never heard of \"presenteeism\" up until a couple of months ago as I mentioned in this post. Now I encountered this SM&M article - Working While Sick. Top reasons for schlepping in when sick: I feel guilty for calling in; my workload is too heavy; I save my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trends&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trends","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/trends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":196,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/07\/retaining-employees\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":3},"title":"Retaining Employees","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a follow up to the previous post. 'Career Path' Programs Help Retain Employees discusses efforts by companies to retain workers. Some strong points: Most career-path programs outline promotion possibilities and offer training in required skills. Some employers also offer career-planning sessions. Leigh Branham, a human-resource consultant and author\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Team Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/team-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/reinforcing-employees-less-turnover\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":4},"title":"Reinforcing Employees = Less Turnover","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I was reading my daily email from the JustSell.com guys and they referenced an interesting study: With help from Gallup, the authors surveyed more than 4 million employees and found that those who give and receive praise: increase their individual productivity increase interaction among colleagues are more likely to stay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":644,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/filling-the-leadership-gap\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":5},"title":"Filling The Leadership Gap","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"CareerJournal.com provides an interesting look at one Minnesota company in Manager Shortage Spurs Firms to Grow Their Own. Schwan found itself with a significant shortage of leadership talent that is symptomatic of the national hiring landscape. The tight labor market puts a premium on retaining top talent and raises the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Retention&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Retention","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/retention\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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