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 tell if a sales candidate can qualify? Every possible piece of information is in the ad. Then I read the last sentence of the ad: No calls please. Those 3 words should never appear in a sales employment ad.
Continue ReadingUsing Email At Work
Emailing from work is a high risk endeavor especially now that company’s are required to store all company emails. Right on cue, CareerBuilder.com offers Netiquette: The Niceties Of Workplace Email Use. They quote a survey with a rather small sample size, but there is a surprising statistic: A 2006 survey of 416 companies by the ePolicy Institute in Columbus, Ohio, concludes that 26% of them have fired employees for inappropriate email conduct. That’s up from 21% in 2001. I have seen some egregious emails come from corporate email accounts. I have also dealt with many candidates who use their company email to converse with me regarding a job opportunity. I… Read More
Continue ReadingDon’t Talk. Write.
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
Continue ReadingThe Most Important Thing in Communication…
…is to hear what isn’t being said. -Peter Drucker We have assessed hundreds if not thousands of salespeople and the vast majority of them are extroverted in some form (High I being the most common). We have also assessed a handful of purchasing/financial employees who tend to have introverted tendencies (High S or High C being the most common). I mention this because selling, at its most basic level, involves good communication. Yet there is a natural problem that surfaces when a High I salesperson attempts to sell a High C purchasing/financial/operations person — their 2 styles are the worst possible communication match there is. The High I salesperson wants… Read More
Continue ReadingEmail Cover Letter Advice
BusinessWeek.com with an article written for me – How to Write an E-Mail Cover Letter. If you have read The Hire Sense for some time, you know I have a weakness for poorly-worded cover letters. This quick Q&A article provides a good intro answer: Skip the cover-letter attachment, and turn your e-mail message into a cover letter. A great cover letter shares a bit of your background but mostly talks about the company’s need (for a marketing research manager, an actuary, or whatever) and describes why your experience is perfectly suited to the opportunity. One paragraph is the perfect length. I couldn’t agree more with that advice. However elementary this… Read More
Continue ReadingCustomer Retention Rate
Starbucks card brings sales reward caught my eye first because I have a tremendous coffee addiction and read almost any article I find regarding coffee shops. Second, there is an amazing statistic inside of the article: Most major retailers have been offering gift and loyalty cards for years, but industry observers say few have seen so many of their customers hang on to them as long, use them as often and reload them as regularly as they do at Starbucks. Almost one in eight customers pays with a Starbucks card these days, Stark noted. About 96 million Starbucks cards have been activated in the United States and Canada since November… Read More
Continue ReadingTracking Work Emails
New Rules Make Firms Track E-Mails, Instant Messages for Federal Trials. I just caught up to this story and it has distinct repercussions for most businesses. According to legal experts, the rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require American companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce “electronically stored information” as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Most companies do have this type of monitoring in place today, but ones that don’t will have to make some fast changes. This law… Read More
Continue ReadingCEO Trend
I’m a fan of Anthony Meaney’s blog over at Recruiting.com. He has a great riff today on an interesting trend – publicly traded company CEOs leaving to join privately held equity firms. The reason from Anthony: Private equity firms are not publicly traded and are not beholden to shareholders, activists, wall street analysts or reporters. Therefore they don’t have to produce unrealistic linear growth every quarter and can make financial decisions for the long term. I am all for CEOs receiving the best pay package they can. It is a free market which means the market will determine the CEOs value to the company. Plus, not all CEOs are crooks,… Read More
Continue Reading“Don’t Hire In December”
Wrong. There are many myths regarding December hiring, but we have found it to always be an abundant time for sourcing salespeople. A Recruiter’s View: Five Myths About Holiday Job Hunting discusses the most common myths. A couple specific points from the article: 3. Positions open up in late November or early December because many professionals quit their jobs this time of year. As David Knowles, a senior recruiter with Excel Unlimited, an executive search firm in Houston, says, “The holidays can bring on a time of longing to be closer to family, roots and people. If no bonus is involved, people often will quit Dec. 1, and give two… Read More
Continue ReadingPresenteeism?
Sick? Your Boss Wants You to Stay Home, Survey Says. Did we really need a survey for this? I have never encountered the word presenteeism: 56 percent of employers now report that “presenteeism,” when sick employees show up for work, is a problem for them.Just 39 percent said that in a survey two years ago. We may need to add a new category to The Hire Sense . . . epidemic. I had to mention this article to reveal a company secret – The Rock Star suffers from presenteeism.
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