In a recent survey of 3,000 workers and hiring managers by Robert Half and CareerBuilder, almost 50% of the hiring managers think higher energy prices will hamper their ability to recruit skilled workers in the next year. It is very common for hiring managers to be very focused in finding candidates who are extremely local, said Rosemary Haefner, CarererBuilder.coms Vice President of Human Resources. Job seekers are being a lot more selective now of opportunities that are closer to home or can take advantage of mass transit, she said, so they can have a better work/life balance. Now this article takes this information a little far in attempting to paint… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Advancement or Job Hopping?
I just reviewed a sales management resume I received from a gentleman. The resume contains a handful of spelling and grammatical errors which is a concern. But this is what caught my eye, for the past 10 years, he has changed companies every 2 years. This employment pattern is always a red flag for us. Sales is a difficult position to successfully hire as most people know. A main problem is that bad salespeople often use their good rapport-building skills to subtlely, but emotionally, persuade a hiring manager to hire them. We refer to these types as schmoozers. They look like John Wayne in the interview and perform like Elmer… Read More
Continue ReadingDo or Do Not. There Is No Try.
We’re sourcing for an outside sales position in a sunny climate (not here in Minnesota) and had a candidate respond to an ad. He has tremendous industry experience and was good on the phone screen. He was quite inquisitive and asked strong questions about our customer and their market position. He did his due diligence in researching the company which led to his questions. As is our process, we asked him to complete the online assessments as the next step. The candidate paused. He did not complete them. Instead, he decided to research sales assessments and then contacted us to run through his questions on this topic. We answered some… Read More
Continue ReadingEmployment Ads – What Not To Do
I just read a detailed employment ad for a sales position that made me cringe. The ad has 34 bullet points describing everything from the company culture to job responsibilities to candidate qualifications. Too much, too long, to detailed. I read it and thought how will they be able to tell if a sales candidate can qualify? Every possible piece of information is in the ad. Then I read the last sentence of the ad: No calls please. Those 3 words should never appear in a sales employment ad.
Continue ReadingDon’t Talk. Write.
I’ve been reading up on articles that are discussing how to use email for prospecting as opposed to the traditional cold call. The process has some merit since email has become so ubiquitous and accessible(BlackBerries, PDA cell phones, etc.). The cold call is an interruption in the prospect’s day no matter what time you reach them. Caller ID tied to voicemail provides a great screening tool for prospects. Email has a unique property to it – people do not view it as an interruption since they can check it at times that are convenient for them. Also, most people still enjoy receiving emails. I know spam is an issue, but… Read More
Continue ReadingCustomer Retention Rate
Starbucks card brings sales reward caught my eye first because I have a tremendous coffee addiction and read almost any article I find regarding coffee shops. Second, there is an amazing statistic inside of the article: Most major retailers have been offering gift and loyalty cards for years, but industry observers say few have seen so many of their customers hang on to them as long, use them as often and reload them as regularly as they do at Starbucks. Almost one in eight customers pays with a Starbucks card these days, Stark noted. About 96 million Starbucks cards have been activated in the United States and Canada since November… Read More
Continue Reading“Don’t Hire In December”
Wrong. There are many myths regarding December hiring, but we have found it to always be an abundant time for sourcing salespeople. A Recruiter’s View: Five Myths About Holiday Job Hunting discusses the most common myths. A couple specific points from the article: 3. Positions open up in late November or early December because many professionals quit their jobs this time of year. As David Knowles, a senior recruiter with Excel Unlimited, an executive search firm in Houston, says, “The holidays can bring on a time of longing to be closer to family, roots and people. If no bonus is involved, people often will quit Dec. 1, and give two… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Self Confidence
First off, I decided to change the name of this series based on the previous posts. We speak aptitudes but what we are referring to are traits. We’ll use a blend of both words in this series. Our last installment defined an important aptitude for sales success – Handling Stress. Today we’re going to tie into that aptitude with a complementary aptitude – Self Confidence. First, an interesting point from an Os Hillman daily devotional: In my younger days I played sports. I came to observe that we fail under pressure usually because we reach a point where our ability to focus on execution yields to concern about outcome. This… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat We Are Capable of Doing…
A rather timely quote from the justsell.com guys in regards to my earlier post. “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Continue ReadingTalent, Talent, Talent
Another marketing article with overall hiring implications – Marketing Challenge: Hire Experience or Potential? The article is from the MarketingProfs.com website and is basically an open question to their readers looking for their input. A manager interviews employees and narrows down the candidates to two: one with experience and one with potential, intelligence, and high motivation. Which one would you choose? The experienced employee may ramp up faster and bring in knowledge that will help make the process better. But he or she may also have baggage that could interfere with the work. The employee with potential may bring enthusiasm and energy into the job and go the extra mile… Read More
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