Ok, I haven’t heard of this book until now, but it sounds most interesting – Teaching an Anthill to Fetch: Developing Collaborative Intelligence @ Work. The book is profiled in the BusinessWeek.com article Building a Better Team. From the author: Teaching an Anthill to Fetch is a metaphor for the challenge of creating a significant level of collaborative intelligence in a system. It applies equally whether it is a team, a business, or an entire organization. The title also poses a question: Is it possible to create change at a micro level that will have s(sic) predictable large-scale effects? In my opinion it is. I think he is on to… Read More
Continue ReadingI’m It
Ok, I have been delinquent in responding to Clayton from Salesopedia and his tag of me. Apparently I have to share 8 little known things about me. I’ll give it a try: I am a twin. I have a “younger” sister – I was born 3 min. before her. Still counts. Although I live in Minnesota, I was born in Ann Arbor, MI and bleed Maize and Blue. I only lived there the first 5 years of my life, but it had a huge impact on me no matter what the Rock Star says. I met my wife at work. I was in sales and she was in marketing. We… Read More
Continue Reading1 Is The Loneliest Number
Here is the ultimate hiring conundrum – you complete all of your sourcing and qualifying to end up with one candidate. That candidate was strong on the phone screen, has strong online assessments and a notable track record of sales success. The hope here is that he will interview well and there is not reason to think he won’t. The issue is that many clients are not comfortable just interviewing one candidate . . . no matter how strong the candidate is. This predicament is one we are in currently. The candidate is quite strong and has been excellent throughout our process. He has stood head and shoulders above the… Read More
Continue Reading2 Performance Problems – Mismanaged and Misemployed
Since we work in the sale hiring and management arena, we get the chance to see a sales position from both sides – the sales management side and the sales person side. It is a unique perspective that we discuss often internally. Like most people, we tend to look at what goes wrong in these situations and we really see 2 items that lead to performance issues within the department: Mismanaged – Sales Manager sideThis problem is quite severe and certainly is the greater of the two problems. A sales manager who mismanages salespeople has a tremendously negative effect on an entire company. The most common problem is disengagement. A sales manager… Read More
Continue ReadingCold Call Potpourri
Some more general points from this morning’s cold calling discussion: Some other items to consider: -Be positive – it is only a phone call -Stand up-your tonality is better, you’ll be less anxious and less distracted -Don’t get verbal diarrhea -Have a hook, don’t try to do a data dump -Qualify the next step – no fuzzy phrases (“I’ll think it over”) In the end, you need to be able to answer (well) this question from the prospect: What do you know about our company? We use a modified approach when phone screening candidates. We ask them how their skills and experience fit the criteria listed in our ad. The Rock Star… Read More
Continue Reading5 Cold Call Basics
I’ve been reading much about cold call techniques this week which is good because I am a lousy cold caller. An interesting discussion occurred at a networking meeting I attended this morning regarding cold calls. There are 5 cold call basics to maintain before each call: 1. What does the prospect company do and what industry are they in? 2. Based on quick research, in what areas does the company need help? 3. Based on what you know, what is the value you bring to them? 4. Who at the prospect’s company will recognize your value? 5. What are the other unique aspects your company brings to this discussion? The… Read More
Continue ReadingQuestions From Left Field
I have a weakness for bizarre interview questions so Yahoo’s Oddball Interview Questions was a must read. Apparently these questions are couched as a method for determining if a candidate will fit into the corporate culture. Right. Anyway, the article provides more insight into how to handle these questions as opposed to the actual questions themselves. Still, a couple of dandies are in there: “What would I find in your refrigerator?” “What did you want to be when you were 10 years old?” You know, some times just having an open, clear discussion with a candidate will accomplish more than some loaded, oddball question.
Continue ReadingOnly College Grads Are Smart
This excerpt is taken from a sales ad by a well-known, national recruiting company: But you must be sales orientated – it (sic) you have a specific industry or occupational background such as IT, engineering, or whatever that is good but again not a requirement. You must be smart – normally a college grad. Boy, where to start on that short piece of bad writing. I would not recommend using “whatever” in an ad – sounds like a high school student. I doubt the author’s intention was to state that college grads are the only smart candidates, but you can see how the mangled syntax of that sentence could be… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Conveying Role Value
This week we focus on another important sales leadership trait. We’ve seen this trait firsthand have the effect of holding a sales team together during turbulent times. Conveying Role ValueThis ability draws upon a variety of traits (empathetic, interpersonal and leadership) to instill in an employee a sense of value for the task at hand. It is the ability to convey to another the value and importance that a given role carries with it. This is not a measurement of a person€™s ability to understand a role€™s value, but to communicate that value to another or group of others. A sales manager with strength in this capacity will be able to effectively… Read More
Continue ReadingSandbagging
We’re working through some commission plans with our customers and one of the plans has a function to where the salesperson has to clear a certain quarterly revenue level before the commission plan kicks in. This approach is somewhat common and has its merits. Personally, I am not a fan of it for one reason. Sandbagging. I’m not talking about preparing for a flood (though there was plenty of that activity up here this summer). I’m talking about getting a deal to the point where it can close today, but the salesperson holds it until the beginning of next quarter, month, week – whatever constitutes the commission time frame. I… Read More
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