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
Continue ReadingTop 3 In-Demand Positions
From RecruitingTrends.com (my emphasis): Manpower Inc. releases the results of its third annual talent shortage survey, revealing that 31% of employers globally are finding it increasingly more difficult to fill jobs. The top three candidates most in-demand are skilled manual trades, sales representatives and technicians (technical workers in the areas of production/operations, engineering and maintenance). What would it be if they put a qualifier on finding the right salesperson? I keep saying this – a strong salesperson is always in demand no matter what the economy is doing.
Continue ReadingExecutive Hiring A Challenging Priority
From the Herman Trend Alert newsletter (sorry, no link): The economic slowdown here in the United States is not having the expected effect on the demand for qualified executive talent. ExecuNet’s “2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report” finds that increasing demand, along with a shortage of qualified talent and sustained economic growth overseas, are driving better than expected job growth at the executive level.(http://www.execunet.com/marketreport) The sectors with the highest demand are High Tech, Healthcare, Business Services, Pharmaceuticals/Biotech, and Energy/Utilities. The factors credited with the continuing demand for executive talent are an aging workforce and global economic growth, despite the looming threat of recession. The report also finds, in spite of… Read More
Continue ReadingShortening The Sales Cycle
Salesopedia.com offers a good article this week on a timely topic – How to Shorten Your Sales Cycle. The author cuts to the quick on an issue we encounter frequently: To begin with, many sales people just don’t know how long their sales cycle is, we ask and we hear things like “depends” (sometime it fits), “it changes” (it always seems longer during Daylight Savings Time), and the all time favorite, “well you know it’s different in our business”. Well it’s not really. Underlying this is the fact that many reps and organizations do not know what their sale looks like, they have not deconstructing their sale, identified the basic… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Wacky Lists
CareerBuilder.com offers up another list with “wacky” in the title. For web purposes, wacky is a euphemism for link bait, but I’ll bite. The list is comprised of the most unusual excuses provided by employees for being late. While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog. Someone stole all my daffodils. I had to go audition for American Idol. My ex-husband stole my car so I couldn’t drive to work. My route to work was shut down by a Presidential motorcade. I wasn’t thinking and accidentally went to my old job. I was indicted for securities fraud this morning. The line was too long… Read More
Continue ReadingA Line For Every Sales Ad
A bullet point from a Business Development Sales Position ad: Demonstrated ability to persevere and remain positively motivated when faced with negative response or rebuff from the customer What they are describing is the ability to handle rejection. I think there is no more important differentiation between average salespeople and sales superstars. That quoted line could, or maybe should, be in every sales ad.
Continue ReadingTelecommuting Is Old School, Nomadism Is New School
The modern workplace is shifting towards a more ad hoc approach vs. a scheduled interaction according this The Economist’s excellent article Labour movement. This article defines nomadism in the current work world: Today’s work nomadism descends from, but otherwise bears little resemblance to, the older model of “telecommuting”, says Mr Ware. That earlier concept became popular in the 1990s thanks to cheap but stationary telecommunications technologies—the landline phone, the fax and dial-up internet. Because it still tied workers to a place—the home office—telecommuting implicitly had people “cocooning at home five days a week”, he says. But people do not want that: instead, they want to mingle with others and to… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Urgency Of Hiring
BusinessWeek.com has a terrific article about executive recruiting that applies to more than just executive positions. Sales hiring mirrors the same issues from the article. The pull quote: Not surprisingly, corporate bosses usually want to play a role in interviewing and assessing top candidates’ experience, qualifications, and fit with senior leadership. The problem arises when those leaders just don’t commit to the executive recruiting process. Often they fail to appreciate its urgency, the fact that candidates may be weighing other offers, or that candidate interviewing can be a process that’s unpredictable, and one that isn’t completely in their control. Even the hiring of a top-notch executive recruiter can’t guarantee there… Read More
Continue ReadingRelocate 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.
Continue ReadingMisspelling Ads
Spelling errors in a resume are bad, but spelling errors in ads may be worse. I’m looking through ads this afternoon and found an ad that spelled Minnesota this way – Minnasota. Yeah, that isn’t going to impress the locals. However, I think I have seen the worst error ever. One company has the word “electrical” in their name…they misspelled it. They misspelled their own company name. Unbelievable.
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