I wouldn’t recommend this tact to a sales ad: Are you the candidate we are looking for? If you are very familiar with Excel, have good organizational skills along with verbal and written communication abilities, you may just be the future (salesperson) for our growing business. Leading with Excel and organizational skills are generally not the strongest points for drawing in talented salespeople. I would recommend putting those abilities in a “helpful to have” section. Far better to focus on the abilities the salesperson will need to close business.
Continue ReadingMisguided "Hiring A Hunter" Assumptions
I just read another article about hiring sales “hunters” that was filled with simplistic tips and tricks. The article triggered a thought – there seems to be much conventional wisdom about hiring strong salespeople that permeates these articles. Unfortunately, I think the logic behind them is overly assumptive. Let’s look at some of these mythical assumptions: Sales Managers Should Always Be Interviewing Sales CandidatesThis approach sounds good in a theoretical sense but has minimal real-world application. The only sales managers who should follow this approach are ones who head up high-turnover sales departments. A sales managers’ top priority is to increase profitable revenue (with an eye on SG&A at the same… Read More
Continue ReadingUnderappreciated
These surveys come out on a fairly regular basis. There is a part of me that believes 20 years down the road we will still be seeing similar results to the findings in Inc.com’s Employees Feeling Underappreciated. Of more than 500 full- and part-time employees surveyed nationwide, 35 percent said the company they worked for was ineffective at rewarding strong performance, according to OfficeTeam, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing services firm. At the same time, 30 percent of 150 senior executives surveyed admitted that employee recognition wasn’t a high enough priority. The reason I mention this survey is that that Gen Y/Millenials have a different take on employment. They value… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Quality Orientation
Quality of standards is an important aspect of successful selling. A salesperson who does not ensure quality has a tendency to appear inaccurate, or to the extreme – sloppy. Since salespeople are initially the face of the company, this quality disconnect can present a poor view of the company’s quality as a whole. Quality OrientationThis trait is a measure of a salesperson€™s affinity for seeing details, grading them against a preset standard (internal or external) and identifying flaws. This is directly related to a person€™s preference for paying attention to detail. Whereas attention to detail is more a measure of how capable a person is to appropriately see detail, this capacity… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Americans Are Working From Home
Foxnews.com offers a story regarding the booming trend of working from home. I hope no one is surprised by this trend since it has been prevalent for many years now. Obviously, $3 a gallon gas is driving even more people towards this model. Yet, I think the gas prices are exacerbating the increasing commute times around the country. To my point, think of how much time is wasted each work day when commuting: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2005 an estimated 3 million Americans commuted more than 90 minutes to work each way €” almost twice as many as in 1990. Fifteen out of every 100 Americans traveled… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 5 Candidate Lies
CareerBuilder offers up the 5 most common candidate lies in this article. They bring up a good point in that 85% of all companies perform some type of candidate verification. Surprisingly, candidates continue to embellish or falsify their information. The top 5 lies: Exaggerating Dates of Past Employment…as many as 35 percent of all resumes include discrepancies related to previous employment Falsifying the Degree or Credential EarnedWith roughly a 20 percent discrepancy rate in information provided by candidates regarding their education qualifications, it’s important that companies understand the variety of ways applicants lie to claim unearned degrees.Even if a candidate has earned a legitimate degree, the applicant may lie about… Read More
Continue ReadingAre You Using Assessments?
Most people are, according to a Workforce Management Quick Take titled Organizations Look to Get Personal in €™07. Statistics from the short article (my emphasis): Organizations in 2007 will increasingly turn to personality tests when recruiting and hiring, according to Birkman International in Houston. Birkman, citing research from New Orleans-based Rocket-Hire Inc. (a Dear Workforce contributor), says 65 percent of companies used them in 2006, up from 34 percent a year earlier. That is a noticeable increase in one year. If you are not using assessments today in your hiring process, we can help.
Continue ReadingCustomers Don’t Walk
Here is an urban legend we encounter frequently in our sales hiring activities – customers don’t walk with the salesperson. What I mean is customers rarely follow a salesperson to a new company. If the salesperson quits one company and goes to a competitor, it is a rare occurrence in which the customers move their business with the salesperson. Yes, everyone can provide an example of when it happened, but we deal with many salespeople in many industries and it just is not common. Sales candidates, on the other hand, will go out of their way claiming that they can bring the business with them. Unfortunately, many companies who do… Read More
Continue ReadingA Surprising 6 Figure Job?
According to Forbes.com’s article Near The Head Of The Salary Class, one of the “surprising” 6 figure jobs is that of a sales representative. Surprising? As most of you know, a strong salesperson can easily make 6 figures in most industries. The main point regarding sales (and many other positions) is that you have to pay your dues. Nonetheless, Forbes listed this information in their slide show regarding the sales rep position: Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products Sell goods, for wholesalers or manufacturers, to businesses or groups of individuals. Work requires substantial knowledge of items sold. Top 10% Wage: $101,030Median Wage: $49,610Total No. Of Jobs:… Read More
Continue ReadingShow Up And Throw Up
As a continuation of my post from earlier this morning, I came across another Selling Power article that complements the point about the importance of asking the right questions. The Sales Intelligence Imperative provides detailed statistics regarding the point at which many sales stall. Interestingly enough, the researchers found that prospects were dropping out at a surprising time: New research from CSO Insights shows an €œalarming erosion€ in sales reps€™ ability to move the sale forward from that initial conversation. Specifically, 57.6 percent of companies in 2005 said more than half of their initial conversations progressed further into the sell cycle. There will always be salespeople who approach the wrong… Read More
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