I heard a radio commercial this morning for one of these credit card debt consolidation companies. The closing line from the commercial: Must have over $10,000 of credit card debt to qualify. Qualify? Exclusivity in a club for which most people would not want to qualify. Excellent spin.
Continue ReadingTime 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
Continue ReadingATS 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
Continue ReadingWearing Out The Delete Key
From a cover email I just received in response to an ad for a regional sales manager: Hi, Lee. I am _____. I live in __, however, I am international, or regional, or national, or whatever the job calls for. It gets worse. The candidate worked in a collection-type role and included 2 pages of collections (amounts, dates, commission, payment type). He included the first and last names of the people from which he collected the late payments. Unbelievable.
Continue ReadingWhen Your Cell Phone Takes A Swim
Seriously, this happened to me. When my son was 2 or 3 years old, he took my work cell phone and dropped it in the toilet (is there a better motivation to make sure everyone in your house flushes the toilet?). I couldn’t find it, I called the number and couldn’t hear it. I asked my son and he slowly led me to his bathroom where he raised the toilet seat and there it was. Yup, I reached down into the water (was flushed, thankfully) and pulled it out. I removed the battery and washed the entire thing with Lysol …twice. I let it dry out for 2 days and… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Surprised Economists
Why do the so-called experts consistently error on the doom-and-gloom side of economic prediction? The latest numbers via CNNMoney.com’s Jobs grow more than expected: Employers added fewer workers to U.S. payrolls in November, according to a closely-watched government reading on labor market strength released Friday that still came in a bit stronger than Wall Street expectations. Folks, you ever notice they always expect worse numbers? Note how they open the article with a negative comment even though the number is 24,000 jobs higher than expectations. The number will be revised later and the economy is cooling off after a torrid pace during the summer. But it is still strong.
Continue ReadingRationalizing 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
Continue ReadingDoom On Company Time
The Herman Group newsletter this week discusses the amount of gaming that goes on in an office. Gaming as in playing video games. Seriously. We estimate that computer gaming is costing United States employers millions of dollars every year. According to a recent survey of computer gamers, 24 percent of white collar workers admitted to playing during work hours. The most critical finding is the frequency with which these workers play. Over half (53 percent) said they play at work at least once a day. Seventy-nine percent said they play at work several times a week—or more. Eighty-four percent said that, on average, they play casual games at work for… Read More
Continue ReadingA Future Shift In Sourcing Candidates
Well, the future is now when it comes to this topic. The social network sites are going to have a dramatic impact on finding strong sales candidates. First, this may be slightly off topic, but MarketingProfs.com offers up this article – Facebook: Changing Advertising Forever: At the November 5 launch of Facebook’s new advertising platform, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, presented his vision for the future of advertising: “Once every hundred years media changes. The last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next… Read More
Continue ReadingWork/Life Balance And Relocation
Work/life balance is a hot topic as the younger generations flood into the work world and Baby Boomers start checking out. One are that I haven’t considered is the effect this balance will have on relocation. Forbes.com’s Travel Sick? article does take up this topic (my editing): Throughout the country a growing number of executives are taking to the highways, railroads and even the skies to get to work instead of relocating closer to their job. This is hardly a newsflash to the nation’s executive recruiters. Of those surveyed 55% say it’s more difficult today than ever to convince job candidates to relocate for a professional opportunity, according to a… Read More
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