Proofread your ads – a simple, simple task that seems to be ignored by some companies. From an ad I read this morning (my editing): A fast growing ______________ is seeking one great sales person to take the Minneapolis/St. Paul market to the next level. Innocuous enough, but when you read through the ad you find this requirement: Organization, computer proficiency, a valid Massachusetts driver’s license and proof of insurance required. That is going to drastically reduce their candidate pool in the Twin Cities. I wouldn’t recommend writing the entire ad in bold font either, but that seems minor compared to the Massachusetts license requirement.
Continue ReadingGet The Culture Right…
everything else falls into place. -Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com Now that is an interesting position, isn’t it? The article is from Human Resource Executive online and features a brief look at Mr. Hsieh’s “unorthodox” HR strategy. “We do two [job] interviews — the first for skills and the second for cultural fit,” he said, adding that the company has opted to not hire many talented candidates and has fired employees because they didn’t fit the culture or weren’t passionate enough about customer service. Fifty percent of the company’s performance review focuses on culture fit, he said. To ensure employees are committed to Zappos’ core values, it offers new hires… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Downward Spiral To Commoditization
We’re fans of Jeff Thull here at The Hire Sense and his latest article on the Salesopedia.com only supports our belief. Anyone who has been in sales longer than a day has seen a sea change in the customer relationship over the past couple of years. Rapid commoditization is a huge problem even for “unique” solutions. Here is the crux of what is happening (emphasis mine): Seeking competitive differentiation through increasing uniqueness and complexity can be a deadly double-edged sword, especially if building that differentiation exceeds the needs and understanding of your customers. You and your competition may believe you have a high-value product or service, but if your customers… Read More
Continue ReadingA Port In The Storm
If ever there was a time to make a move into the healthcare sales market, now is it. According to RecruitingTrends.com: “Healthcare continued to add jobs in February, with a gain of 27,000. Job growth occurred in ambulatory healthcare (16,000) and in hospitals (7,000). Employment gains in the industry averaged 30,000 a month in 2008,” the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this and last month alongside news that the nation’s overall number of unemployed individuals increased by 5 million over the last year. Select Metrix is located in the Twin Cities which is home to United Health Group, Medtronic and most of the other medical device players. This market… Read More
Continue ReadingSocial Sites Trump Email
Also from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal (emphasis mine): Nielsen said “member communities” are now at 67 percent participation while e-mail is at 65 percent. The study found that of Internet users throughout the world, two-thirds visited a social networking site last year. Of those Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook is the leader, with visits every month by 3 of every 10 Internet users, the Nielsen study reports. In fact, Facebook had a 168 percent increase in users, the study said, while Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn had a 137 percent increase. The biggest growth spurt for Facebook has been in the category of users from 35 to 49 years of age.… Read More
Continue ReadingHappiness Is Outstate
Ok, I’m confused – from our local Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal: Gallup, Healthways and America’s Health Insurance Plans earlier this week ranked Minnesota as fifth in the country for the overall health of its people. In the case of emotional health, Minnesotans were ranked fourth. The ranking, derived from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, comes about a week after the Minneapolis metro area came in 19th in BusinessWeek.com’s list of the 20 unhappiest cities in the United States. In Minnesota, we refer to the Twin Cities as the “metro area” and the rest of the state as “outstate.” Apparently happiness is found in the outstate areas. This distinction is even more… Read More
Continue ReadingSpooky Accurate Assessments
From Inc.com’s article on how to screen sales candidates: It cost $400 a candidate, and the recruits took the tests online. Dolan and Kinaxis’s star salesperson took the test, too, and Opus analyzed their test scores and created a personality benchmark. Afterward, Opus discussed the results with each of the candidates to see if any of them disagreed with the assessments. None did. “They’re spooky accurate,” Dolan says. We use spooky accurate assessments for all of our sales candidates. Assessing sales candidates is one of the best ways to cut through the veneer and see what they are truly made of. This article places a priority on personality assessments which… Read More
Continue ReadingFind The 15%
CNNMoney.com provides this article regarding 2009 hiring. As you may expect, hiring is down and it appears more cuts are coming soon: Of the 31,800 employers surveyed, only 15% anticipate hiring more employees during the second quarter, down from 16% in the first quarter and 26% in the same period last year. About 14% expect a decrease in their payrolls, up from 13% last quarter and just 9% one year ago. Another 4% said they were undecided about their hiring intentions. The net employment outlook, or difference between employers who plan to add jobs and those who expect to cut them, was 1%, down from 3% in the previous quarter… Read More
Continue ReadingCompanies Get It Wrong Too
I was recollecting about a job I took in which I felt I did everything right. It is doubtful I did, but it is my recollection so bear with me. I qualified the opportunity, the sale, the expectations and the ramp time. All of the responses were a good fit to my abilities. The ramp time was 6 mos. before getting to a steady revenue stream according to the hiring manager. I knew I could beat that and I did by cutting it in half. I had closed a handful of fairly sizeable deals within 3 mos. and was chasing a handful of large deals. And then I was laid… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Work-At-Home Scam
This shouldn’t be surprising, but abcnews.com has a story regarding all of the work-at-home job postings on the Internet right now. As you can imagine, this type of economy breeds these types of “jobs.” I’ve always found them to be borderline ridiculous…like the email spam that says you have inherited millions from a deceased Kenyan official. “Currently there’s a 54-to-1 scam ratio among work-at-home job leads on the Internet,” said Staffcentrix co-founder, Christine Durst, who screens up to 5,000 online job offers every week and rates them on her Web site. “That means that for every 55 [work-at-home] job leads that you find on the Internet, 54 of them are… Read More
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