Allow me to indulge myself – I just read a fun, short post from Inc.com titled Spam, Where Art Thou? The author has some highly entertaining metaphors (and similes) in the post regarding her company’s new high-octane spam filter: This new filter, by contrast, is very efficient; cleansing my inbox of undesirables and dumping them all in spam ghetto, from whence I receive reports several times a week. Occasionally I find something like my CEO’s note has become accidentally trapped, and I release it like a dolphin from tuna nets. Generally, though, I just scan the subject lines. The sheer volume of coarse come-ons, unleavened by less-provocative missives from friends… Read More
Continue ReadingJurassic Marketing
I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard an ad for a company that mentioned their website. This company doesn’t sell anything over the web – this was simply a corporate website. Here is what caught my ear in the ad: “Our website is available 24×7.” We are not professional marketers here at Select Metrix, but I’m not sure that is a strong value proposition. In case it is, I am here to proudly announce that The Hire Sense is available 24×7.
Continue ReadingThe 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
Continue ReadingWork/Life Balance Has Reached Executives
BusinessWeek.com offers up a good summation of today’s hiring market in terms of executive recruitment. We could have wrote this article – it describes exactly what we are encountering in a couple of executive searches. Let’s unpack a couple points from the article: This new environment requires that executive headhunters and companies’ human resources and business leaders delve deeper into what’s really important to senior-management candidates and calibrate the recruitment process accordingly. Very true. Part of this understanding comes from assessing their motivations and rewards, the other part from interaction. Yesterday I posted on the need for flexibility when hiring since candidates desire work/life balance far more than in previous… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Value Of Flexibility
We’ve been focusing on retention recently as the present job market has forced this issue. One point to note is that retention topics show up during the offer stage of hiring new salespeople. The items the candidate values are often the ones in which they engage the hiring company. Forbes.com’s How To Keep Your Employees Happy offers this: Interestingly, throwing money at staffers isn’t always the answer. Neither is throwing a party every few months. Having fun at work and creating a cohesive team is just one element. The most successful companies also realize flexibility, values, career development and providing meaningful experiences are also important elements to minimizing turnover. The… Read More
Continue Reading"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
Continue ReadingYou Can’t Get "A" Players With A "B" Company
This truth is one that we cannot utter to our customers, but it is critical in assisting a company to upgrade their sales team. Implicit in this statement is the fact that some companies, when it comes to sales, do not provide an “A” level opportunity. The reasons companies do not fit the A level often revolves around a handful of lesser items and one big item. First the lesser items: Compensation.A players expect A-level compensation. Many hiring companies believe they can offer A-level compensation through their commission structure. While this may be possible, it is often unattainable. A commission plan in which the salesperson must triple the company’s revenue… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring Remains Strong
The latest numbers are out and the experts are…drumroll please…”surprised.” From Reuters: Employers added a surprisingly strong 166,000 new non-farm jobs in October, well ahead of forecasts in an early sign that consumer incomes may be better supported than thought heading into the fourth quarter, according to a government report on Friday. The Labor Department said the national unemployment rate in October was unchanged at 4.7 percent. It revised September hiring to show that 96,000 jobs were added instead of 110,000 it reported a month ago and said 93,000 new jobs in August instead of 89,000 that it previously reported. Don’t buy the hype about a bad economy. The 166,000… Read More
Continue ReadingOur Most Desired Question
One question we would love to hear more often from our customers is this, “What factors make this candidate a strong fit for our sales position?” This is the best question to ask when first viewing a candidate’s information. Unfortunately, we hear many customers resort to their old method for measuring a candidate – what does their resume contain? I often wonder if hiring would improve if resumes were removed from the process. I know it will never happen, but it would force hiring managers to take a more comprehensive approach to their decision-making. The focus would move from prejudging viability based solely on a sheet of paper to interviewing… Read More
Continue ReadingGood Interviews From Bad Salespeople
How about this thought – many bad salespeople are good interviews because they have much practice. We have seen many salespeople do well on the phone but once we dig into their history, we find a consistent pattern of 2 year stints. But man do they say the right things on the phone. For this reason, we tend to run a difficult phone screen to weed out the pretenders. In fact, just this week we received a resume from a candidate with whom we are familiar. He worked for one of our customers 3 years ago and displayed flamboyant incompetence. As they say in the Wall Street Journal, it wasn’t… Read More
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