In a recent article from Workforce Management on new employee retention, 7 months seems to be the magic number when it comes to retaining newly hired employees. Office Angels interviewed 1,400 new recruits on this subject. Here are some of their findings. In the first seven months the workplace is viewed as a trial period for: The boss – is he or she ‘lackluster?’ Are there mentoring opportunities available for them? Does the new job accommodate their lifestyle? Another important opportunity new employees look for is the camaraderie between the team. 77% of the respondents find it essential for the team to make a trip to the local pub. No,… Read More
Continue ReadingDoes Your Website Help Your Salespeople?
Our website is a constant topic of discussion for us – one of the subjects is how much information should we be publishing. I came across a post relating to this topic on the B2B Lead Generation Blog. There are a number of very good points made in this entry, but a couple really stand out. People use the web for research; they are looking for fresh ideas, insight and actionable information. Intellectual property is difficult to protect and is quickly commoditized by the market. Why not leverage some of your IP to your advantage? Leverage it and demonstrate your thought leadership. I have read numerous articles in the past… Read More
Continue ReadingHire Fast, Fire Fast
From Dick Costolo’s Ask the Wizard blog: Briefly, the “No False Positives” school of hiring says that bad hires are worse than no hire because bad employees infect the company with all sorts of issues. Better to march on with nobody filling an important slot than to bring in a sub-par performer. The hire fast, fire fast approach basically can be boiled down to “it’s really almost impossible to understand whether a person is going to be a killer A+ match before they start working with you day to day, so best to find somebody that seems close enough, and then remove them quickly if they don’t work out.” This… Read More
Continue ReadingNo Email Fridays – Part 2
We posted on this topic last November and here it is popping up again. Abcnews.com offers No E-Mail Fridays Transform Office. An interesting stat: The volume of e-mails has exploded in recent years with over 170 billion now being sent daily around the globe, according to technology market researcher Radacati Group. That’s two million every second. I’m not surprised by that stat. But here is the piece of data that spawned the idea: Two and a half years ago, Ellison was receiving an average of 200 e-mails a day, many of which went unopened. After getting cyber-indigestion, he sent out a memo to his 5,500 subordinates. “I’m announcing a ban… Read More
Continue ReadingSelling With A Pierced Tongue
We’ve been on the tattoo and piercing topic for a while and it has generated many discussions at our shop. BusinessWeek.com offers A Pierced Tongue: Too Edgy for Sales? which is a Q&A article. Here is the set-up: There is a young woman in our office who has done a great job in sales support. We are considering her for an outside sales position, but some of the managers are concerned because the employee has a pierced tongue and a little silver barbell ornament in it. Good question – one we have never faced before. I would personally have reservations about the pierced tongue with an outside salesperson. The article mentions… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Management Fear Factor
“Let’s be clear, I’m not going to take the assessments.” That was part of a conversation I had with a sales manager recently. It is surprising how often I have this discussion – either overtly or indirectly. Sales managers are not fans of taking our assessments even though the assessments provide strategic insight into growing themselves and their team. One cannot successfully look at a team – any team – without the context of the team’s leader. In order to understand the sales team, we must understand the sales manager. This disdain for our sales management assessment begs the question, why do they dislike the assessments? My thought is simply… Read More
Continue Reading“They Are Not Motivated”
I had lunch yesterday with a friend of mine who is a sales manager for a technology company. As is often the case, we started talking about some of the issues he is seeing with his team. We also discussed another one of our friends who is a sales VP and the problems he is having with his large sales team. Two managers, same problem – the salespeople are not motivated. That is it in a nutshell. The salespeople are capable and know their product, but they do not appear to be highly motivated nor successful. Their sales are average at best, but not remarkable. Mediocrity is a sales neutralizer.… Read More
Continue ReadingCold-Calling Numbers Game
Is it me or is the saying “it’s a numbers game” an overly-simplistic statement regarding a grossly inefficient tactic? Weight lifting is a numbers game. Sales and marketing is not. Some instances where this statement is applied: cold-calling networking job searching mailers invitations I’m sure there are other examples but those stand out in my mind. There is a modicum of truth to the statement. Yet, it lacks the strategic aspect needed in today’s market. This throw away line is often the dismissive final comment from a person whom lacks a formal strategy and/or has reached the end of his or her tactical moves. What about adjusting the approach, shifting tactics… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Pursuit Of Excellence
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 ReadingAnnoying Co-Workers
From abcnews.com’s How to Cope With Annoying Co-Workers: When someone makes a mess of the microwave, don’t say, “You’re such a pig.” Instead, try saying, “To keep the microwave clean for everyone, all of us must pay attention to wiping it down after each use. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, so I’d appreciate it if you’d try to be more diligent about this.” Honestly, who talks like that? I would tell them they trashed the microwave and the paper towels are over there. The premise of the article is still entertaining. Here is an annoying example from early in the article: At one company I visited, WallSt.net, the employee… Read More
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