Hiring Like A Detective

Yes, the title is a bit quirky, but it is true.  A significant portion of successful hiring involves being a good detective.  I have always taken that approach when helping our customers find the right salesperson for their position.  To be a good detective, you need to be a bit skeptical. Sales candidates blow sunshine.  Few have ever missed quota, most state their primary weakness is being a workaholic and all have earned everything they have accomplished.  Right.  In reality, most have missed their sales quota at some point, many have real weaknesses discussing money and handling rejection and most have benefited from somewhere be it marketing, territory, company market… Read More

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Multi-Channel Sourcing

We preach to our clients that simply placing an onlie ad is not a sound sourcing strategy.  Managesmarter.com has an article that gives 3 good, quick tips for leveraging the Internet to fill open positions. The only way to effectively recruit is to use multiple channels. You’re trying to find that one person who is exactly right, and that means exploring multiple avenues. This includes your offline efforts, by the way—don’t stop networking just because you’ve posted a job online. Work multiple sources (both online and real world) to get the word out about your opening. Make sure you’ve got an accurate, well-written, exciting job description. You need a posting that… Read More

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3 Sales Hiring Inhibitors

Even bad salespeople can appear to be strong in a face-to-face interview situation.  This reason is why sales recruiting is truly different than any other form of recruiting.  Reviewing resumes and assuming abilities is is a fool’s errand.  Yet, there are certain aspects of general recruiting that can that hinder effective sales recruiting. The Resumes. Yes, resumes.  I have sat through far too many discussions where hiring managers or recruiters attempted to divine incredible insight from a sheet of paper.  Granted, you can probably eliminate the retail salespeople from your B2B Sales manager process.  Sales is still a people-oriented profession so overanalyzing a document is not the most effective technique… Read More

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Relocate Me

This post was no joke on April 1. I give you my backyard this morning: Add to that 31 degrees and you may understand the overall somber mood up here.  Last weekend was sunny and 75 degrees.  One thing about living in Minnesota, we love to whine talk about the weather. Now, perhaps, you understand why.

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Recessions Are Tactical Problems, Recruiting Is Strategic

Steven Rothberg over at CollegeRecruiter.com provides a money quote in his post Why Today’s College Students Need Not Fear Exploding Offers.  Obviously, Steven’s market is geared towards college students, but this paragraph is applicable to all businesses when it comes to hiring (emphasis mine): The recession of 2001-03 was worse than the recession of 2008 and employers are looking backwards in order to better understand what to do as they move forwards. Although many and perhaps most employers have scaled back their college hiring plans for this spring, there’s little talk of exploding offers. More employers realize that recessions are tactical problems and college recruiting is strategic. You don’t solve… Read More

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Relocate This

Here is a picture of my backyard this morning: This is no April Fool’s joke – 7″ of snow yesterday and last night.  Honestly, do you wonder why we normally recruit locals for Minnesota-based sales positions?

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The Cleanest Cities In America

Maybe the list from Forbes.com (via ABCNews.com) provides some assistance in recruiting candidates for relocation?  The Twin Cities is ranked no. 9 on the list.  A definite advantage until weather (i.e. winter) is discussed.   Miami, FL Seattle, WA Jacksonville, FL Orlando, FL Portland, OR San Francisco, CA Oklahoma City, OK Tampa-St. Pete, FL Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN San Jose, CA

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Jobs In Paradise

ABCnews.com offers a completely tempting story to those of us stuck up here in the frozen tundra.  With a snowstorm heading our way this evening, I am stuck on this thought: “We also have a ‘chief of village,’ which is sort of a cross between a cruise director and general manager,” Moeller said. “This is the most aspired-to position for many of our [employees]. It is like being queen or king of the roost.” There is a recruiting opportunity here: Most of these companies that cater to an international clientè have structured recruitment programs to draw worldwide talent. Bases are set up on multiple continents to sell the idea of… Read More

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Some People Play Checkers, Others Play Chess

BusinessWeek.com offers up the Best Corporate Practices 2008 which is a fascinating slide show if you have time to view it.  This is from the opening of the article: In fact, much of the gap between the best and worst management practices can be described by that word: trust. At one point as a corporate human resources leader during the dot-com boom, our company switchboard was bombarded with calls from recruiters, seeking to pull away our sharpest technical talent. Our hardworking phone operators did their best to deter search consultants looking to make contact with talent by any means possible, but it wasn’t always easy. … We said to our… Read More

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Retention Starts With Recruiting

The Herman Trend Alert offers up an excellent analysis of the most pressing topic of today – retention.  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 bodies”. The second is choosing people who have long-term expectations of staying with the organization. We encounter companies that have a hire fast, fire fast mentality.  Personally, I think this approach is high risk, low reward and we never condone this approach at Select Metrix.  The second point is an important one also.  If you are looking at a candidate… Read More

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