Sales candidates have a propensity for…expanding the truth. That fact could be stated differently, but let’s stick with this wording. Elon Musk has accepted this fact, according to this Entrepreneur article. His approach: …the mogul asks his aspirants to tell him one of the most difficult problems they have had to solve or face in their life and how they managed to overcome it. According to the employer, the people who solved the problem know exactly how they did it and can describe the little details. However, those who lie will not be able to tell their story convincingly. This approach is effective and revealing. We use a similar approach… Read More
Continue ReadingGathering > Giving
This statement is going to sound blunt, but gathering information is always more important than giving information in a selling process. This truth may sound counterintuitive to the stereotypical sales process. However, it is crucial to understand this approach. The stereotypical thought is that good talkers make good salespeople. I hear this conventional wisdom every week when dealing with sourcing sales candidates. It is a well-established belief and it is completely wrong. Strong salespeople are more closely related to adroit investigators -they ask good questions, pursue the right topics, and drill down on ambiguous responses. The ability to understand this approach is to first realize who is running a qualifying… Read More
Continue ReadingBad Hiring Trend-Lack of Decisiveness
This HRE article addresses a worrisome trend in hiring today – slow hiring decisions. Decisiveness is the most important trait of successful hiring managers. Lacking today because people are unsure of who they are hiring. Can use assessments to assuage this fear. Gartner found that, in 2018, the average time between the initial job interview and the hiring manager making an offer was 33 days—an 84% increase since 2010. “The longer decision-making stage is causing a 16% reduction in candidates accepting offers,” says Lauren Smith, vice president of Gartner’s HR practice. “Ultimately, hiring managers are losing out on prime candidates because of this lag in decision-making.” In sales hiring, I… Read More
Continue ReadingFinding Sales Talent In Other Departments
The labor market is as tight as it has been in decades leading some to say we are at full employment. This labor scarcity is driving companies to look for sales talent in other departments. Have you ever thought someone would be good at selling? Do they seem to have potential? The key here is follow your intuition, but you need to know if it is correct. This is where we can help with our sales assessment tools. What we are looking for in the assessments are intrinsic abilities that lead to sales success. These abilities do not revolve around the gift to gab. The ability to listen effectively, ask… Read More
Continue Reading5 Hiring Hacks For Full Employment
The job creation numbers are slowing down yet I don’t think that is due to a catastrophic economic slowdown. The most recent jobs report shows that we have 50-year record low unemployment that is holding month-to-month. The average hourly wage rate is rising at over 3%. These factors are signs of a still-strong economy settling in to a cruise control speed for the time being. What is an ongoing problem is hiring…a problem due to a nearly full (100%) employment situation. In fact, the latest jobs report revealed there are 6.7 million job openings and a total of only 6.4 million unemployed people available to fill them. To say it… Read More
Continue ReadingSoft Skills Needed In Sales
The customer experience shift occurring right before our eyes is causing a sea change in sales. The transactional sale is being consumed by a myriad of company websites offering products and solutions. I think this description from the TTI blog deftly describes the trend in sales hiring: Only a few decades ago, a customer was mainly dependent on what was on supply. These days, a customer has so many options that the customer journey has become a key concept in the boardroom. Whoever delivers the most flexible, attractive, trustworthy and innovative product and/or support wins over the customer. The change is a supply issue – prospects have multiple solutions at… Read More
Continue ReadingTexting Is Trending
Texting is becoming the best communication channel in the business world. It seems that phone calls are answered less often even when considering business lines. The backdoor, surest communication channel is the cell phone and, specifically, texting. Texting/app messaging is the preferred communication tool for younger workers. When you are hiring today, you need to keep this fact in mind. I still find LinkedIn messaging to work well. However, nothing works as well, or as quickly, as texting. The response time is typically minutes or less. The ability to send attachments and links has improved also. So is it a trend when dealing with Millennials? According to HR Executive it… Read More
Continue Reading1 Minute On The Internet
This information is difficult to comprehend. These are the activities that happen in 1 minute on the Internet in 2019. I don’t know how this information is calculated, the numbers are staggering.
Continue ReadingThe Shrinking Attention Span vs. Relationship Sales
Here is a problem I have seen developing in sales over the past 10 years – shorter attention spans in salespeople having to deal with longer sales cycles. First, some background from a quick American Management Association: Whenever I teach students, I tell them, “Your chance of being successful has gone up exponentially because all you’ve got to do now is actually try to pay attention for more than five minutes.” Ok, that is disconcerting. You can see where this is going. The integration of the Internet into our lives has provided prospects with a unique ability to research your company, and more importantly, your solutions. We often talk about… Read More
Continue ReadingInterviewed By A Robot
You’ve probably used the term “robot” to describe some of the people you have worked with or, in my case, some of the hiring managers with whom I interviewed over the years. But I’m not talking metaphorically now. This BBC news article introduces (is that the right word?) us to Tengai, the job interview robot. Here is Tengai: If Tengai is here, surely our robot overlords are not far off in the future. Can you imagine interacting with that robot on a serious job interview? The European company that has created Tengai explains their thoughts on the robot’s interactions: The firm has spent the past four years building a human-like… Read More
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