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 ReadingWhen Experience Matters
We go after experience-only hiring in that it is overly subjective and wrought with pitfalls. But that doesn’t mean experience is irrelevant. There are certain aspects to an applicant’s history that is important for hiring decisions. I’m currently sourcing for a mid-level, B2B sales position in the Twin Cities’ market. Although open to less-experienced sales candidates, our customer still requires a certain level of sales experience for the position. This requirement means that the Best Buy salespeople, car salespeople and other retail-based experience is not a fit. I am certain there are talented salespeople within those groups, but the mitigating factor is that our client’s sales cycle is long (up to 2… Read More
Continue ReadingThat Might Work With The Chicks…
I’m quoting Bill Murray from Scrooged in case that was a bit too vague a reference. We’re in a good sourcing window right now, a window in which we have success every year (from now until Dec. 17 or so, then it shuts down until after Jan. 1). However, I received an email from a gentleman responding to one of our ads. His email: sexysalesguy@domain.com Good grief.
Continue ReadingA Memorable Resume Title
I’ve been mining through a major job board resume database looking for a specific type of salesperson this morning which is tedious work. The “detailed” view includes very little information about the person. The one item that does stand out is the resume title. Most are boring and forgettable. However, I did find this one rather clever: “Dry Behind The Ears” Sales Pro That is a good approach to get noticed from a long list. In a separate resume, the person appears to have mistyped. Well, at least I think he mistyped. His desired salary is $801,000. I have a feeling that number is going to keep him out of… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Disarming Casualness Of The Web
We’re in full-fledge sourcing mode here at Select Metrix and I am taking up the task of resume mining. I am aghast at what I am finding. A new trend that I have seen before, but not to this level, is writing without capitalization. I know this is an offshoot of texting. My dislike of this improper writing format probably reveals my lack of appreciation for text messaging. I don’t do it – email is fine with me. Online resumes are difficult to manage in that the formatting is often truncated and oddly spaced due to the job board’s coding. Yet, capitalization is not affected. I just read through a resume… Read More
Continue ReadingMy Shortest Phone Screen Ever
I am sourcing for a mid-level account executive for a complex, custom manufactured product for businesses. I had one candidate contact me via voicemail who stated that he has decades of experience in this market. Ok. So I called him back late in the afternoon to go through a phone screen. First off, he didn’t remember me. After I explained who I was, he remembered the company. Next, I told him, “I was hoping to take a few minutes of your…” He interrupted me at that point to say he only had 5 minutes to talk since he had to get to Dominos to deliver pizzas.
Continue ReadingThe B.S. Lie
Lee and I had lunch with a customer of ours who is the VP of Sales for a medium-sized business. We were discussing why candidates lie about their education, primarily stating they have earned a degree when they have not. This information is easily confirmed so lying about it seems foolish. We had one candidate who has been in the workforce for 30 years yet lied on his resume about earning a B.S. degree from a local university. A degree was not a requirement for this position. Besides, 30 years of sales experience easily trumps a degree in our world. My only thought on this topic is that candidates must… Read More
Continue Reading3 Words You Don’t Want To Hear In Voicemail
I just listened to a sales candidate’s initial message in response to one of our ads. He described his experience by saying: I’ve been in the _______ business for 20 years. Yada, yada, yada. Funny on Seinfeld, painfully bad on an approach call.
Continue ReadingSourcing Without A Surplus Of Candidates
5-6 years ago sourcing was a much different market for sales candidates. The economy had gone into recession and there were many talented salespeople looking for an opportunity. We used to run ads that required candidates to call in on a certain day between certain hours. We would then schedule them for a phone screen. We didn’t even offer an email response option though some would still respond that way. My how times have changed. We used to get 50 to 75 call-in responses to our ad. Today, we get 20 responses almost all via email. Job postings used to be all that was needed to find numerous candidates. Today,… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Pull Effect Of Gen Y
Steven Rothberg at CollegeRecruiter.com has an insightful post regarding the use of Facebook in recruiting Gen Y workers. His point: But to Gen Y, the other employees can also be a powerful recruiting tool. They want to know who they’ll be working with because they’ve been raised to work effectively in teams. If their team members aren’t up to snuff, their work product will suffer and they’ll be unhappy and looking for a new gig. He then provides an example of how Jennie-O (seriously, the turkey people) is leveraging their current employees to recruit. I must confess, I did not think of Jennie-O as a cutting-edge company in the social… Read More
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