I’ve been swamped phone screening sales candidates this week and have seen many levels of ability. One thing that has been clear is the candidate’s ability to qualify money. This is a big issue for some salespeople in that they are uncomfortable discussing money. One move I like to use is to provide a wide range on the salary to see what they do with it. If they ask me about compensation (surprising how many do not), I give them a range like $40K to $80K salary. That is a wide range so I expect them to qualify it further: -What will it take to be closer to the $80K… Read More
Continue ReadingTalk About Experience
Ok, bit of a laugh here from an ad I read this morning. The ad doesn’t mention the company name and lists 10 bullet points describing the position’s requirements. The last bullet (and line) in the ad caught my attention: Experience in sanitation or portable toilets business is a plus Do you think maybe the author was attempting to sneak that point through like a Phil Niekro fastball?
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Realistic Goal Setting For Others
As the unfortunate recipient of some heinously impossible sales quotas in my day, I am most intrigued by this week’s trait as it pertains to Sales Managers (and a few from my past that I would enjoy assessing on this topic). Realistic Goal Setting For OthersThe ability to set goals for others that can be achieved using available resources and operating within a projected timeframe. This trait includes the ability to utilize previous measurable performance in the establishing of goals and/or quotas. A sales manager with strength in this capacity is adept at understanding the potential of another individual, weighting the requirements of a job against their abilities and setting realistic/attainable goals for… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Best Customer Service
can be found at the supermarket according to the latest Harris Interactive poll (h/t JustSell.com). This year€™s annual Harris Poll ranking industries on how well they serve consumers finds that the supermarket industry does the best job according to U.S. adults. Fully 92 percent of adults think supermarkets generally do a good job, and only eight percent think they do a bad job, giving them a net positive score of 84 percentage points. Other industries that receive high net scores are: online search engines (77 points positive); computer hardware companies (64 points positive); computer software companies (61 points positive); hospitals (58 points positive); banks (56 points positive); and packaged food… Read More
Continue Reading2 Keys To Finding Sales Stars
ManageSmarter.com offers up an article I cannot resist – Find Your Next Sales Star. We’re going to start a 10 part series on this article. No, we’re not (though I would like to). I’ve written about this topic in the past (emphasis mine): Chet Bloom isn’t a big believer in tests and intellectual assessments. The president of HFBC Ltd., a staff and recruiting firm based in New York, goes with his instinct. “A test will never show a person’s eagerness and motivation,” he says. For him, it’s all about impression, such as how an interviewee dresses, if he shows up on time, and his confidence level. Education is meaningless to… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Get The Most Out Of Your Sales Team
The first step and greatest key to get the most out of your sales team is to know what you have. I realize many sales managers believe they know their team’s strengths and obviously they do to some level. But I’m thinking deeper than an observational level. Assessing and evaluating their skills, talents and motivations provides a detailed, objective blueprint for maximizing performance. This principle is well written in an excellent Boston Herald article titled Leverage your team with sales assessments. Here is a succinct description of some successes which flow from assessing and evaluating your team. Assessments that measure individuals€™ motivating drives at work help you understand who the… Read More
Continue ReadingBeing Qualified
A strong candidate is going to ask strong qualifying questions. I mentioned earlier today a good qualifying and influencing move by one of our candidates interviewing at one of our clients. Another strong qualifying position is for the candidate to ask about a company’s financial situation. The candidate who wants to know about a company’s financial situation should not be off-putting to a hiring manager. Interestingly enough, I have seen this happen in mid-sized, private companies. Public companies are easily researched and smaller companies seem to be less concerned about this question. But hiring managers at these mid-sized companies seem to bristle, at times, with these qualifying questions. They are… Read More
Continue ReadingA Strong Candidate Shines
Great move from a candidate yesterday at his interview with one of our clients: His first move: “What would you say is a profile of a good salesperson for this position?” He followed that question up with: “How well do you see me fitting that profile?” That is some straight influencing of a hiring decision. Beautiful.
Continue ReadingEmployees As Investors
From today’s excellent ERE.net article Employees Are Not Assets: Employees As Investors One of our problems is that we think of employees as assets, or things we control and dispose of as we see fit. Unfortunately, this characterization leads to behaviors that are incompatible with reality. Employees cannot be owned, taxed, depreciated, or disposed of as machines or other tangible assets. They are investors in our organizations and they freely choose to share their expertise and skills with us or not. Each employee has a built-in return on investment meter that is constantly sampling the atmosphere and deciding if she is gaining or losing from a continuing association with the… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy I Dislike Keywords In Ads
I posted on these automated response programs recently. Well, I just received a different promo email for a more “automated” program: For the first time, there’s a service that finds 100’s of perfectly matched, available jobs & instantly applies to them FOR YOU, every day. It’s called __________ and it automatically: searches all the top career sites at once, finds all new jobs matching your criteria, applies with your resume to matching jobs, personalizes your cover letter for each application & provides a history report of jobs you’ve been applied to. Keyword-driven connections – both in the ad and the resume hunt – lead to, well, candidate spam. At times… Read More
Continue Reading