The New Year’s Itch

I’m willing to guess that a majority of New Year Resolutions involve weight loss and career/job changes.  If so, then January is the apex of retention within a company.  In sales recruiting, we typically see January as one of the premium months for finding sales talent.  Salespeople have completed the previous year’s commission plan and are staring at an empty commission plan. In other words, this is an excellent time to upgrade your sales team. The time to hire is still extended right now in spite of the dire economic predictions of the media.  This week’s Herman Trend Alert email speaks to this point: The activity of job boards is… Read More

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Mediocrity In The Hiring Process

Hiring salespeople is the difficult combination of science and art weighted perfectly to select the right person for the position’s requirements.  Obviously, knowing the position’s requirements is the preeminent step.  Many sales managers believe they know what it takes to be successful in the position and they do to a certain extent.  Yet, their knowledge often consists of themes as opposed to specifics.  This reason drives us to profile the sale as the very first step in our sales hiring process. ManageSmarter.com’s Is Hiring Mediocre Good Enough? approaches a hiring process with some valuable insight and other items I wouldn’t recommend.  First, the reason astute hiring is mission-critical to corporate… Read More

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Sports And Selling

Older article here from our local StarTribune paper – Sales Skills Hiring Managers Seek.  There are some interesting points from the quotes in the article, but one thing that stands out to me are these quotes from different recruiters: …and have achieved in athletics. and A sports background also helps. This background is couched around the competitive nature of sports transferring to successful selling.  I’m not sure I buy into that correlation, but it does intrigue me.  I played sports throughout high school and college and can envision many self-centered teammates I would not recommend for any sales position.  Still, I am probably over-focused on the exceptions. However, I do… Read More

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Time Kills All Deals

I recently read an excellent Career Journal article – Speed Date a Potential Employer And Get an Offer That Same Day.  A point made in the article is to include a response deadline when extending an offer to a candidate. The author puts in the following quote: “Time kills all deals,” he says. “I’ve had clients that lost out on candidates because they went the traditional way and dragged their feet for three or four weeks.” No one is making you, as an employer, change how you hire.  If you want to take 3, 4 or even more weeks to run your hiring process, that is your choice.  Remember, you are looking at a salesperson and… Read More

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ATS Sterilization

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are widely employed on corporate websites and by recruiting agencies.  I understand the automated efficiency of a computer program in handling a large number of applicants.  Yet, I don’t find them helpful for hiring salespeople. When we place an ad for a sales opportunity, we provide the option to email or call for response.  We do not ask respondents to fill out an online form. First off, if they send a resume (the most common response these days), I get the opportunity to see how they present their experience and abilities.  Formatting, presentation, flow…these are all pieces of information that can be gleaned from their resume. … Read More

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Rationalizing Rejected Offers

From BusinessWeek.com’s When The Candidate Says No: Then, disaster strikes. The candidate says no. In the blink of an eye, the story is rewritten. He’s self-important; she doesn’t know what she’s passing up. We didn’t land the candidate, so the candidate is flawed. Ever heard this story before? Of course—it’s one of Aesop’s most famous fables, The Fox and the Grapes. Once the fox realized the grapes were out of reach, he decided they were sour grapes, anyway. Who needs ’em? It’s laughable to see this story played out over and over, but it has a sobering side. When we invest time and energy in selling a candidate on our… Read More

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When Experience Matters

We go after experience-only hiring in that it is overly subjective and wrought with pitfalls.  But that doesn’t mean experience is irrelevant.  There are certain aspects to an applicant’s history that is important for hiring decisions. I’m currently sourcing for a mid-level, B2B sales position in the Twin Cities’ market.  Although open to less-experienced sales candidates, our customer still requires a certain level of sales experience for the position. This requirement means that the Best Buy salespeople, car salespeople and other retail-based experience is not a fit.  I am certain there are talented salespeople within those groups, but the mitigating factor is that our client’s sales cycle is long (up to 2… Read More

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A Memorable Resume Title

I’ve been mining through a major job board resume database looking for a specific type of salesperson this morning which is tedious work.  The “detailed” view includes very little information about the person.  The one item that does stand out is the resume title.  Most are boring and forgettable. However, I did find this one rather clever: “Dry Behind The Ears” Sales Pro That is a good approach to get noticed from a long list. In a separate resume, the person appears to have mistyped.  Well, at least I think he mistyped.  His desired salary is $801,000.  I have a feeling that number is going to keep him out of… Read More

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The Laid-Off Salesperson Problem

When sourcing and phone screening, we tend to come across salespeople who have been laid off from a previous position.  Layoffs are obviously a common occurrence in business, but they are problematic in sales. Most companies do not lay off salespeople who are closing profitable business.  Granted, some companies view salespeople as an expense and assume the customer relationship will remain – big mistake.  Some smaller companies are family owned and keep the family members employed as the business contracts.  There are always exceptions, but they are not the rule. When we encounter a salesperson who has been laid off, we immediately look for logical specifics regarding their shortened tenure.  The… Read More

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"We’d Rather Miss A Good One Than Hire A Bad One"

Interesting story today from the AP – Employers study applicants’ personalities – that discusses hiring processes designed to see if a candidate is the right fit.  These processes are a good start, but much of what they are trying to accomplish could be done through assessments. Despite a labor shortage in many sectors, some employers are pickier than ever about whom they hire. Businesses in fields where jobs are highly coveted — or just sound like fun — are stepping up efforts to weed out people who might have the right credentials but the wrong personality. But if you would rather take the longer route, there is this approach: Rackspace… Read More

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