Successful selling requires excellence – in talent, ability, communication amongst other factors. Successful sales management requires pursuing excellence in each team member. Unfortunately, many sales managers are able to define failure in the position but they find defining success to be far more elusive. When running our hiring process, we see this play out time and again. Sales managers are adept at describing past failures in exquisite detail. There is value in this knowledge so we gladly record it. However, the conversation almost always slows down when we turn our focus to success. The obvious answers are provided – revenue goals, customer acquisition, etc. But what about the traits, behaviors and skills… Read More
Continue ReadingMe Time Is Vital
Gen Y or Millennial candidates take a different approach to their job search. If you weren’t sure of this or have yet to experience it, I give you the Pioneer Press’ The choosy generation: They want to work for companies that offer nice salaries and clear career paths for advancement. But many are pushing for more. Work isn’t their life, they’re saying before they even begin working, and they’re searching for employers who offer flexible work schedules that allow them to maintain their personal pursuits. “Me time” is vital. So is volunteering in the community €” on company time. We can attest to this trend as we have seen it first-hand. … Read More
Continue ReadingBetter Than I Expected
We’ve been working as or with sales for over 20 years and have to deal with many discussions involving candidate’s resumes. The bias that occurs is that hiring managers make broad, sweeping generalizations based on what they think they see in the resume. This anomaly occurs even after we have screened and assessed strong candidates. After discussing the possibilities of what may be wrong with the candidate, we usually get to a point where the hiring manager agrees to to the interview based on our recommendation. After the interview, we hear something to this effect: “He was much better than I expected.” Strangely, I suspect we will still be hearing… Read More
Continue ReadingTattoos and Piercings – Part 2
I posted on this subject last December, but a recent article in SHRM’s newsletter touched on this subject and got my attention. Here are a few interesting stats: Dr. Anne E. Laumann, associate professor of dermatology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-researcher Dr. Amy Derick, of the University of Chicago, found that tattoos were more common among younger individuals: 36 percent of people aged 18 to 29 had tattoos, while only 24 percent of those aged 30 to 40 and 15 percent of those aged 40 to 50 reported body art. Tattoos were seen in all ethnic groups studied but were more common among those with Hispanic ancestry… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Personal Accountability
This week we look at an age-old sales trait that, unfortunately, is common to many salespeople. Personal responsibility in sales involves being responsible for results. Holding salespeople accountable for their results is part of the sales manager’s job. If you are experiencing a problem in this area, as a sales manager, your first task is to stop the salesperson’s excuse making. That move is the first step to accountability for the salesperson. Personal AccountabilityThis is the ability to be responsible for the consequences of one€™s own decisions and actions. It involves taking responsibility for these decisions and not shifting the focus of blame or poor performance somewhere else (i.e. others). A salesperson… Read More
Continue ReadingMythical Top Performers
From Dave Kurlan’s Myths About Top Performing Salespeople: Most companies have “them”. Most managers brag about “them”. Most of “them” toot their own horns. Most are their company’s role models. Most companies would love to have more like “them”. They masquerade as the top salespeople in their companies, a claim supported by data, spreadsheets, commission statements, awards and accolades. But who are they really? Most of them are sales frauds. Most of them have everyone fooled. Most of them, if you took their cushy, big accounts away and asked them to go out and find some new business would fail. Most of them aren’t very strong salespeople. Most of them don’t possess… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Allure Of Someone Better
From Seth Godin’s Marketing your job post: This is part of a larger trend, which is realizing that an amazing hire is worth far more than a mediocre one, or even a very good one. My take? There’s a difference between being noticed and succeeding. Sometimes you need to be noticed far and wide in order to succeed. That’s why some TV ads for low-involvement products are noisy or funny or over the top. Often though, especially for something like a job, I think that sacrificing your message in order to get noticed is a mistake. Making a video that tries to be funny in order to spread doesn’t necessarily get… Read More
Continue ReadingOverwritten Sales Ads
You don’t have to read this, just look at it’s sheer girth: Qualifications/Necessary Skills: Attention to Detail. Able to be alert in a high-risk environment; follow detailed procedures and ensure accuracy in documentation and data; concentrate on routine work details and organize and maintain a system of records. Able to clearly present information through the spoken or written word; read and interpret complex information; talk with customers or clients; listens well. Able to use a win-win approach to resolve controversy; stay objective and fair when dealing with sensitive situations; maintain constructive working relationships despite disagreement. Able to take action in solving problems while exhibiting judgment and a realistic understanding of… Read More
Continue ReadingTraining And Retention
CareerJournal.com offers this quick read – Hiring and Cultivating Employees Who Succeed – which covers the critical topics of hiring and retaining top talent. This opening statement obviously caught my attention: Business owner Andrew Field says he used to hire based on gut instinct. No longer. My kind of owner – one who has experienced the debacle of bad hiring decisions made on instinct instead of objective analysis. Their solution has been to use a multiple interviewer process that I would question, but they have lowered their turnover by half. If they were to objectively assess in their process, they could lower that turnover rate even further. Here is the… Read More
Continue Reading10 Simple Hiring Rules
Monster.com offers Hire Great People: 10 Simple Rules which contains some straight-forward, sound advice for any hiring activity. The article starts out with one of the most important rules to hiring (and often least followed): Rule number one is clear, but very counterintuitive: Don’t ever, ever hire somebody just like yourself. Why not? Because from the beginning of time, executives have been unconsciously cloning themselves, stocking the shelves with vanilla young men from impressive schools. It takes an enlightened executive to abide by this rule. Many executives believe they embody the gold standard for the position (especially in sales). They may be, but the best teams we evaluate have a… Read More
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