There are many articles discussing the need for salespeople to be good listeners though it seems like a challenge area for many salespeople. Entrepreneur.com’s Listen And Learn When Making A Sale provides 4 ways to start working on listening skills. I am particularly fond of this one: 2. Dig deeper. Don€™t settle for what the customer says on the surface; have him expand on his key needs and challenges. This helps me uncover hot buttons (very important points that the customer says and that I circle, highlight or star on my notepad), which I can use later to explain how my product or service will address them. Sometimes it might… Read More
Continue ReadingTime-Outs At Work
Yes, you read that correctly. This is the topic covered in SHRM’s February issue of HR Magazine. The article titled “Days of Contemplation” (membership required) has the tagline “Have a problem employee? Give him a time-out to decide whether to come back fully committed or to move on.” The article discusses the use of paid decision-making leaves or “days of contemplation.” Here is the premise behind it’s use: Adult learning theory will tell you that when you treat people like adults, they will respond in kind. Unlike formal discipline, which tends to punish workers formally for substandard job performance or inappropriate workplace conduct, decision-making leaves are much more subtle. More… Read More
Continue Reading8 Forms Of NonVerbal Communication
One of our readers sent an email this past week questioning the “experts” that claim the vast majority of communication is nonverbal. I searched around for more information on this topic and found this about.com page – Types of Nonverbal Communication. This page breaks down 8 different forms of communication: 1. Facial Expression 2. Gestures 3. Paralinguistics 4. Body Language and Posture 5. Proxemics (personal space) 6. Eye Gaze 7. Haptics (touch) 8. Appearance Quite a list with communication channels I did not consider. Appearance is an excellent point – think of a candidate who appeared for an interview and looked like an unmade bed. That appearance communicated something beyond… Read More
Continue ReadingSoft Skills Development
An encouraging sign from M.B.A. programs as reported by CareerJournal.com – M.B.A. Programs Hone ‘Soft Skills’. From the article: The schools are responding to employers’ growing interest in soft skills. Executive suites are increasingly composed of managers running far-flung operations who must attract and retain knowledgeable workers. That puts a premium on skills such as communicating and brokering compromises, says Warren Bennis, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and author of a best-selling book on leadership. “It isn’t just nice — these interpersonal skills,” Mr. Bennis says. “It’s about stuff that’s necessary to lead a complex organization.” We’ve been observing this shift first hand… Read More
Continue ReadingOverzealous Email Filters
I’m sourcing for a non-sales position and am trying to email a candidate the job ad. He has a common provider with a strong spam blocking program. This program asks you to go to a website and enter the letters displayed in the box. After that, your email address is approved and your email will go through. The website cannot display the letter image – it simply shows the red x meaning it can’t get the image from it’s own website. I have no way to get the email through to the candidate. Now I have a voicemail in to him and have to wait until it is resolved. Utterly… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Management Primer
Selling Power is covering topics near to our hearts this Valentine’s Day. A Primer for New Pharmaceutical Sales Managers discusses some of the challenges facing new sales managers and provides 5 key tips. Obviously the context is the pharmaceutical industry, but these challenges are consistent throughout industries. I couldn’t agree more with this statement from the article: “The biggest mistake new pharmaceutical managers make,” Williams says, “is failing to properly evaluate the sales team’s strengths and weaknesses prior to developing and implementing a firm plan of action for the team’s sales improvement and increased goal attainment.” Amen to that statement. In fact, we see this error play out amongst existing… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Manage Gen X and Gen Y
CareerBuilder.com’s latest newsletter features Managing Outside Your Generation which discusses the differences in managing Gen X employees vs. Gen Y employees. The article is a good, hands-on read for any manager. To cut to the summary statement of the article: Generation X requires more training, whether on-the-job or through continued education, and feedback on a regular basis. Generation Y also requires a higher amount of feedback than what you may be used to, but they also desire greater flexibility and the freedom to run with a project once it is assigned to them. Good advice and insight. Then there is this specific suggestion: If you are not doing so already,… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Social Media Boom
From Foxnews.com – Study: Inc. 500 Companies Fast Adopters of Social Media: The nation’s fastest-growing private companies are making use of social media – including blogs, social networking and podcasts – at a rate more than twice that of Fortune 500 companies, according to a new study. The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research surveyed companies from the 2006 Inc. 500 list, to gauge the level of familiarity and usage of six forms of social media blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking and wikis. Out of 121 respondents, generally managers and other senior-level executives, 42 percent claimed to be “very familiar” with social networking, followed by 38 percent with… Read More
Continue ReadingBody Language Continued
We are now establishing a theme for today’s posts. BusinessWeek.com offers this article regarding body language – It’s Not Your Mouth That Speaks Volumes. I’ve read these stats before but I always find them remarkable: Only a small percentage of communication involves actual words: 7%, to be exact. In fact, 55% of communication is visual (body language, eye contact) and 38% is vocal (pitch, speed, volume, tone of voice). The world’s best business communicators have strong body language: a commanding presence that reflects confidence, competence, and charisma. Do you ever stop and think of that percentage – only 7% of in-person communication is your choice of words. That’s amazingly minute.… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Body Language Of Interviews
You Can Say Too Much Without Even Speaking – this is so true. This article dovetails nicely with our Sales Traits Series posted earlier today. From CareerJournal.com: No matter what a job candidate might say, using the wrong body language can make them appear disinterested or even deceitful to recruiters. I sat through an interview recently with a candidate who maintained eye contact without blinking. Ok, that may be an overstatement, but I was quite put-off by his intensity. Thankfully, I don’t think is mattered much to our customer. That faux pas just happens to be the first one listed in this article: 1. Maintain the right amount of eye… Read More
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