{"id":479,"date":"2006-12-05T07:46:11","date_gmt":"2006-12-05T13:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=479"},"modified":"2006-12-05T07:46:38","modified_gmt":"2006-12-05T13:46:38","slug":"dont-talk-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/12\/dont-talk-write\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Talk. Write."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been reading up on articles that are discussing how to use email for prospecting as opposed to the traditional cold call. The process has some merit since email has become so ubiquitous and accessible(BlackBerries, PDA cell phones, etc.). The cold call is an interruption in the prospect’s day no matter what time you reach them. Caller ID tied to voicemail provides a great screening tool for prospects.<\/p>\n

Email has a unique property to it – people do not view it as an interruption since they can check it at times that are convenient for them. Also, most people still enjoy receiving emails. I know spam is an issue, but there are plenty of tools to filter most of those messages.<\/p>\n

So this gradual transformation for prospecting provides a new twist when sourcing salespeople. First off, I doubt there will ever be a time when the phone screen becomes extinct. The ability to hear a candidate on the phone and observe their communication abilities in real time is too valuable to ignore. A question and answer phone screen does not allow the candidate to research the web and formulate strategic answers. They have to respond at the pace of the discussion.<\/p>\n

Yet we have now incorporated email into our screening process. As important as the phone screen is, email screening has become a close secondary screen. The candidate’s written words reveal their level of communication proficiency in the second most important media for customer interactions.<\/p>\n

How to screen writing ability:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Email Cover Letters.<\/strong> I make a stink about this topic all the time but it is the first glimpse of the candidate’s writing ability. I viewed one email cover this morning where the candidate did not capitalize their sentences. Seriously – looked like this:
    \n

    i am interested in an outside sales position. i have been working….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I read it and immediately envisioned a 12 year old typing at a keyboard. Can you imagine if that went out to a customer? Observe their writing when they send in their resume.<\/li>\n

  2. Electronic Dialogue.<\/strong> We have yet to source a sales candidate where email was not involved. At some point in the screening process, you will dialogue with them via email. I like to critique these interactions closely. Sentence structure, verb tense, punctuation, even spelling (heaven forbid there are many errors) are all revealed. I also pay attention to how formal vs. casual they appear in their message. Email is a relatively casual medium but job hunting is formal – watch for their ability to balance these polar opposites.<\/li>\n
  3. Written Screening Questions.<\/strong> For some positions, we email out a handful of questions and ask candidates to respond to them. They know it is a written screen, but we still get some interesting responses. We purposely keep the questions broadly stated so that we can see how the candidate approaches the topic and boils it down to their “thesis.” I have literally read some responses where I could not track their thought process . . . at all. Most candidates get in trouble here because they attempt to dial up their vocabulary. Their use of clearly unfamiliar words wreaks havoc on their ability to communicate ideas.<\/li>\n
  4. Inperson Writing Assessments.<\/strong> We have a couple of customers who have candidates sit at a PC in their conference room and write a response to a couple of, for lack of a better word, essay questions. I like this approach because it is proctored so you know the candidate is the author. Second, there is pressure added to this format. Candidates who excel in this situation normally have excellent writing ability.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you complete some or all of these steps, the candidate’s writing ability will be clearly defined. As email becomes more prevalent than telephone calls, the written screening process will become integral to any repeatably successful hiring process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been reading up on articles that are discussing how to use email for prospecting as opposed to the traditional cold call. The process has some merit since email has become so ubiquitous and accessible(BlackBerries, PDA cell phones, etc.). The cold call is an interruption in the prospect’s day no matter what time you reach them. Caller ID tied to voicemail provides a great screening tool for prospects. Email has a unique property to it – people do not view it as an interruption since they can check it at times that are convenient for them. Also, most people still enjoy receiving emails. I know spam is an issue, but… 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":[14,16,15,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sourcing","category-trends"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-7J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52194,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2019\/07\/1-important-change-to-prospecting\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":0},"title":"1 Important Change To Prospecting","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/KnqadkJmQCI Has anything changed more in recent years than prospecting?\u00a0 Cold calling a business phone number to sell a potential prospect is a marginal task, at best, today.\u00a0 Email is a similar task with similar results.\u00a0 Salespeople who do their own prospecting need an advantage, a shift, in their approach.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/KnqadkJmQCI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/prospecting-via-email\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":1},"title":"Prospecting Via Email","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"September 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Salespeopel\u00a0are always looking for better ways to\u00a0find new prospects.\u00a0 You don't have to look far to find articles giving advice about this subject.\u00a0 Some common examples:\u00a0\u00a0trying to make phone calls and undoubtedly leaving voice mails are futile,\u00a0call at different times of the day or develop an email marketing campaign to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1779,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/11\/14-cold-calling-suggestions\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":2},"title":"14 Cold Calling Suggestions","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Eyesonsales.com has a short article that lays out 14 steps in making successful cold calls.\u00a0 With the lengthening of the sales cycle in regards to the economy, it is important to make sure that your salespeople stay on top of their pipelines.\u00a0 This article has 14 points that can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1553,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/the-9-second-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":3},"title":"The 9 Second Window","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"That is how long you have to hook a person on a cold voicemail message according to this article on Salesopedia (my bold): 6 Interesting Sales Prospecting Statistics 1.\u00a0 In a recent survey 95% of salespeople said they can sell - they just need to get in front of more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":465,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/sales-time-wasters\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":4},"title":"Sales Time-Wasters","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sales & Marketing Management has a short article about what holds back sales reps - Companies Hamper Their Sales Reps. Some of the findings from the study: * Salespeople spend just 8 percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1964,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/03\/an-awful-approach\/","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":5},"title":"An Awful Approach","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I receive many email approaches each day which often leads to studying each one\u2019s strategy.\u00a0 Here is the opening line from one I received today: WANT TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? Lazy.\u00a0 Insulting.\u00a0 Those are the first two words that come to mind when I read that opening.\u00a0 I suspect the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"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\/479","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=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}