Was That a Scream I Heard?

Why, yes, it was a scream! That ear piercing noise traveling across Tampa Bay at the speed of sound was Sheila Gimmler in branch 32 landing an order from her phone list. Way to go Sheila!

Great work Br 34!

Yesterday, George Lopez made an 11AM call and set a formal appointment for 1:30PM the say day. Patricia Campa went to the 1:30 formal and opened the new account starting an admin person today!! WOW! Great work.

Branch 34 set a total of 8 formal today and yesterday from the call list, with a total of 9 for the week. These are truly great numbers given that this is a short week before the 4th of July weekend!

Way to go MIAMI! Thank you for sharing the good news Katrina Horne!

Already this morning, Shamicka Price got 2 formal appointments from her call list! Way to go Shamicka. Great work :)

I also spoke with Sheila Gimmler this morning and she reported that the campaign has generated some major interest and qualified many warm leads in the Tampa Bay area. Way to go Sheila!

Thank you for your hard work :)

Results!

Now that I've asked everyone to share their results regarding the most recent campaign, I have to brag about George Lopez a little bit. We had quite the difficult time getting his call list to him this morning, and regardless, he made the effort to share the workload with Patricia Campa and get those calls knocked out. Because of his efforts, George made 4 formal appointments over the next 3 days. Way to go George!!!

I also had a positive experience with making calls. I felt making these calls regarding our name change and new services generated some major interest! I had several managers ask that I send them a packet of our updated info through the mail and through email. I made 51 calls today, spoke with 20 decision makers, all of whom requested more info. I felt that 12 out of the 20 will be perfect for near future formal appointments. Working over the phone is giving me some great sales experience, and I applaud all of you out in the sales force who do this on a daily basis! Out of all the calls, I had one hangup - I guess some people just have bad days huh? I found that most people were very pleasant and open to hearing new information. Wow! Overall, great experience, and a very good start.


Please share your results!

It Happens to the Best of Us

Written by Kimberly D. Mackey
[Guest Author]

Yes, even Sales Trainers and Motivational Speakers are not immune to the negative influences all around us these days…the difference is what we do about it. I have to confess that last week I had myself a small pity party. It happens. Sales Trainers do not live in glass bubbles, at least the good ones don’t. I watch/read the news. I keep up on all the current market trends (the good, the bad, and the ugly). And let’s face it, most of the time the news is negative these days. Then to top it off, I lost two deals—both in the same day!

Now, neither of those deals had anything to do with me, per se. But you know how it is, as sales people we pour our heart and soul into helping our customers, whether it is for Sales Training/Consulting or for helping our customers realize their dreams. Then when it doesn’t go our way, we start the process of beating ourselves up. What did we do wrong? What could we have done differently? You‘ve been there, right?

While it is a good thing to learn from our experiences, it is a simple fact of life that we will “strike out” more often than “we will hit a home run”. You’ve heard this before: Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times to hit 708 Home Runs¹. Bill Gates’ first business, Traf-O-Data, flopped–you know the rest of the story². Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy at least 4 times³, but isn’t he a success? Just ask him and see what he says.

So why do some of us bounce back faster than others? I believe it is the ability to step outside oneself, and look at the event as a learning tool. Dissecting the important lessons from the emotional part of the event has helped me to overcome, and to get back on track. This is a learned trait. One that our parents taught us early on when they let us “cry ourselves to sleep” in order to learn to sleep through the night on our own; or when we scraped our knee because we were climbing something mom had told us not to climb–mom said to just blow on it and then go back to playing. We learned to use a coping mechanism, and we learned “to get over it quickly”.

More important though is the act of getting right back out there, doing what you need to do, day in and day out, regardless of the set backs along the way. Dusting oneself off after loosing a sale, loosing a job, or any other loss is painful. I am not here to say that it isn’t. But, ultimately you have to move in one direction or another, right? So rather than sitting around being sad, upset, or even angry; I submit to you that FORWARD is the best direction and going forward QUICKLY will help you to lessen the pain. The question then becomes, “how do I do that?”

First thing, acknowledge the feelings you are experiencing. You can’t deal with them if you won’t even acknowledge them. Once you have acknowledged them, LET THEM GO. Especially if it is anger—because those negative emotions will drag you down, cloud your judgment and make whatever move you do next appear desperate. Then come up with your game plan for what’s next. This act alone should cause you to start moving forward; it should cause you to start experiencing much more positive feelings because if it is the right move, you will start to get excited about it, and will work to take the necessary action steps to get you there.

Next, seek support and discuss your action plans with people you trust. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful support system of family, friends, business coaches, and various successful people around me. This is no accident, I have sought them out. I value and trust their judgment. These are the kind of people who will be honest with me and help keep me on track and focused. They will tell me when and if my emotions are clouding my judgment, etc. These are the kind of people you need to make sure you have in your life. Hopefully, supportive friends and family are something you already have. What you may not already have are Coaches and Mentors (which by the way are generally separate from your managers). I encourage you to invest in yourself and seek these experts out. In times like these, we can’t afford not to have this kind of “weapon in our arsenal”.

So, how did I get back out there after my little set back? Well, I practiced what I preach. I went through all of these steps, and sought out the advice of my coaches and mentors to make sure I was now moving in the right direction. I also got busy doing the stuff I already knew I needed to be doing day in and day out to make me a success, i.e. reading positive material, working my prospecting plan, completing the projects I already had for my other clients (with a vengeance), and staying focused on the big picture. Of course, the moral of this story is that set backs and failures WILL happen. It is ALL up to you how you handle them on your path to SUCCESS!

Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure.

- Brian Tracy

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

- Dale Carnegie

¹Baseball-almanac.com, ² Business Week/06/08, ³ Wikipedia.com

Kimberly Mackey, MCSP, CMP, Realtor® is the founder of Creative Sales Solutions. A company dedicated to providing the Sales and Leadership Solutions You Need Right Now. She is a published author of many Sales and Leadership articles, a Coach and a Keynote Speaker. She specializes in all aspects of Sales and Marketing Management and Training and enjoys a reputation as an innovator and a strong team builder. If you need more TRAFFIC and SALES, Kimberly is has the SOLUTION for your team! To hire her today or for a free subscription to SOLUTIONS E-newsletter, please visit www.creativesalesnow.com . Kimberly is also the 2009 SMC President for the TBBA.

U.S. consumer confidence rose in June

Reuters reports>>>>>>>

Expectations growing that recession may be coming to an end

U.S. consumer confidence rose in June to the highest since February 2008, as expectations grew that the worst economic recession since the Great Depression may be ending, a survey showed on Friday.
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index of confidence for June was at 70.8 from 68.7 in May, equaling February 2008's reading.
This was above economists' median expectation for a reading of 69.0, according to a Reuters poll.The index of consumer expectations edged lower, though, to 69.2 in June from 69.4 last month.
Since the November 2008 low of 55.3, the sentiment index has gained 15.5 points, recouping about one-third of the loss posted since the peak in January 2007.
"Such a sizable gain has usually indicated that an end to the economic downturn is on the horizon, as consumers begin to increase their spending on houses, vehicles, and large household durables," the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said in a statement.

How To Sell by Word of Mouth

By Geoffrey James

June 24th, 2009 @ 6:30 am

Nothing sells better or faster than word-of-mouth. Sales generated through referrals are larger than those resulting from other lead-generation activities. Why? Simple. By making the referral, the “referrer” is eliminating uncertainties like “can this rep be trusted?” and “is this rep worth my time?” The sales process builds momentum more quickly, resulting in an easier, faster close.

There are three rules to developing sales opportunities through word of mouth:

• Rule #1. Ask for a Referral at the Right Time. Reps typically ask new customers for referrals when the first sale is closed, as in: “do you know of anyone else who needs our product?” That’s dumb. Why should an existing customer - who has already stuck his or her neck out by buy from you - stick it out further by risking their own business contacts? The time to a referral from a customer is AFTER your product has produced a measurable benefit for that customer’s firm.
• Rule #2. Ask Your Source to Take Action. If all you get is some contact information, you’re just setting up a cold call. Instead, ask your current (happy) customer to call or e-mail the contact. That way the current customer is essentially “endorsing” you, which will jump start your sales process. IMPORTANT: Ask your current customer to give you a heads-up when they’ve sent the email or made the call. Without this confirmation, you won’t know the best time to call the contact, which is within a day (preferably less than an hour) after the referral has taken place.
• Rule #3. Keep Your Source in the Loop. Your existing customer is likely to have ongoing commuication with the prospect, and can help you move the sale forward simply by remaining involved as a interested spectator. So follow up! Contact the referrer within a day after the promise to send the email. Express gratitude and (if necessary) gently remind the customer of his or her commitment. After you meet with the new contact, send another e-mail with a thank-you and a status report. (E.g. “You were right; Fred’s firm does have a need.”) Finally, if the referral actually results in a sale, be sure to send another thank-you.

The above is largely based upon a conversation with the brilliant Joanne Black, author of the bestselling book No More Cold Calling. She’s also a frequent contributor of comments to this blog. (Hi, Joanne!)

You Gotta See This!

Great video! Watch and you'll understand why we are doing what we are doing: http://ow.ly/fMb3

The Progression of Information Technology - Amazing!

$$ Another Tool to Make More Money! $$

Rec Radar is a tool similar to Bounty Jobs but it seems that it is easier to use and more flexible. It will also allow us to post our own job candidates so that other recruiters can help find them work and we can earn a split on the fee for sourcing the candidate.

This brings up an interesting business thought. If we can earn up to 30% of the fee for sourcing the candidate, why not? In this environment, that may be the easier job--finding great, qualified candidates rather than finding the jobs to place them--and in the process, earn 30% of 95% of the total fee (Rec Radar keeps 5%).

Be sure to read the online FAQ page as it answers many of the questions you may have. Rec Radar is free to register and free to use the service--at least for now.

Four Tips for Avoiding Back Door Hiring

from Edenchanges by edenchanges

This is the next in an ongoing series of articles presenting recruitment advice. Suitable for everyone who runs or works in a recruitment business.

Recruitment

is an Art Form

An important point to remember with all recruitment or sales advice is that both activies are art forms. As such there are lots of ways to do them.

I only offer advice that I have either used myself or presented to others and seen work well. Consider how you can adapt the advice here for your market place and your style of recruitment or sales and I truly expect it to help you be a success.

Four Tips for Avoiding Back Door Hiring

Back door hiring is that unhappy event that happens to all recruiters at some point in their career where the client hires a candidate without informing the consultant.

[Historical note - the phrases 'back door hiring'; 'being back doored' etc are not mine but ones I have heard widely in the industry - the analogue is that the candidate has been ushered quietly in through the back door of the building away from prying eyes. You might be aware of this situation via a different name.]

There are a range of reasons why clients do this is ranging from accidental oversight to criminal intent. Sometimes we do our job as recruiters so well that the temptation of what we are offering is too much for the decision maker.

From the candidate perspective they are often presented with the bleak choice of being morally upright or getting a job offer. A tough place to be in when you need a job.

For those consultants thinking this is all about forming strong relationships with their candidates let me agree and say that despite the best possible of relationships back doors will happen. People are people and sometimes that means they are less than upstanding and moral. What you need is a safety net for those occasions when people fall from grace.

I had one client who, as it turned out, had no budget to recruit but couldn’t resist the two candidates I presented to him from his direct competitor. He hired them after telling me they had failed the interview.

Fortunately his CEO was a decent chap and settled the bill immediately I brought it too his attention. (And put an official repremand on the record of the hiring manager). So all ended well but had I not been vigilant in my recruitment practice thousands of pounds of earnings would have been stolen from me.

So I present below four tips to help you get what you deserve and what you are legally owed:

1) Have a regular checking system – ensure that you have a regular system for checking against back doors. This should be an absolute part of your recruitment processes – as a company. If for some reason you company does not want to implement a system then put your own personal one in place for your personal units.

I suspect that once you have found your first example your company will be keen to adopt a checking system.

2) Check up on every arranged interview - I’ve had quite a few consultants tell me that they check up on the interviews that they are suspicious about. In my opinion that’s like having a fire alarm and turning it off when you are fairly happy there isn’t going to be a fire. You simply can’t know when there is going to be a problem so you check all of them.

You do that and I guarantee that at some point one will come up that will totally surprise you.

3) Check to the full extent of your terms and conditions – most recruiters have terms and conditions that describe their ‘introducing of a candidate’ as lasting for twelve months. So you check right up to the end of that time frame.

I remember clearly an experienced consultant whom I was coaching and I had him start to check for back doors. Something he had never done before. When I checked I found out he had stopped at interviews he had arranged six months ago. I strongly suggested he go back the full time span and lo and behold his first back door, worth nearly £9,000 in fees, turned out to be an interview he had arranged eleven and a half months ago.

Needless to say he religiously checks all his arranged interviews right to their end date now. (Disappointingly he never did buy me that bottle of wine he promised me to say thank you!)

4) Powerful Paperwork – this could almost be a blog topic in itself however once a back door situation has arisen your chief weapon will be your paperwork. Something that really helps is having a signed ‘Declaration slip”. This is a piece of paper which the candidate has signed to confirm that your company has introduced him to the client.

Several companies that I know of have added this as a tear off and return portion to their interview confirmation letters. If anyone would like an example of one then email me and I will send one over.

Along with the declaration slip your internal paperwork regarding the candidate and the interviewer needs to be strong and well documented. Dates are important and if you have those wonderful consultants who are terrific at sales and bad at paperwork then please try to educate them. Having a strong paper trail detailing candidate and client discussions can result in an out of court and early settlement when back doors happen.

I have literally seen thousands of pounds of billings and commissions lost when poor paperwork has prevented the truth from being provable!

I truly hope the above helps.

Until next time; be successful!

Stephen Hart

Trainer, Coach, Public Speaker

Keep Your Eyes Open for This One!

Rex Social.com is opening a social networking site just for the recruiting industry.

The site claims it will become an innovative social networking platform for recruiters. The company’s goal is to move the recruitment industry into a more social and transparent direction by creating the platform required for developing an integrated network for the future of recruitment.

Founder Andre Condurache said RexSocial.com will help recruiters make new industry contacts, manage existing relationships, source new job vacancies, source hard to find candidates and build niche networking groups, all the while interacting within a user-friendly and feature-rich environment.

The above is from Cheesehead Recruiting News and Opinion.

Another Great Blog for Internet Recruiters

Follow Cheesehead for the latest recruiting news and tips.

Internet Recruiting and Why it is Such a Big Deal

If you really want to be an effective internet recruiter you need to take the AIRS CIR course and exam to obtain your Certified Internet Recruiter certification. But if you can't afford the course or can't take the time, at least follow a blog like this and learn Boolean searches. You cannot possibly believe how much more effective your searches will be when you can truly target specific types of people while also filtering out all the "noise" or unwanted search results that take so much of your time to sort through.

Here is the link to the blog and an article that pertains directly to our industry: http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/2009/06/why-boolean-search-is-such-a-big-deal-in-recruiting/

Enjoy!

Follow This! Best Blog Yet!

This is the best blog I've found yet that translates how you can use web 2.o tools in our industry. The blog offers tips, tricks, practical info, and great articles about web 2.o and relates them to our industry in easy to understand, easily executable form.

http://sourcingconnections.wordpress.com/

The blog is written by Paulette Bennett, CIR, CDR, CTS, who owns her own recruiting firm and does nearly all her recruiting via low cost or free web searches using web 2.0 tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

I started reading this blog this morning and can't stop!

HOME OFFICE SUPPORT !!!!

Home Office wanted to show some support to our hard working teams in the field.

GO TEAM !!!!!!!!!!!

Pictured from bottom left: Dawn King, Julie Pounds,Debbie Bragg, Wendy Ray, Tom Bragg, Dee Tokarse, Shannon Greven, Chris Mckenzie,Destiny Cowan, David Horne.

Rally Caps arrive in Houston

The staff at Branch 17 shows off their brand new Diversified Rally Caps. As you can see by the smiles, "Rally" is on our heads, and in our positive attitudes!

Pictured above: Mayra Zapata in the branch. Kay Jordan (L) and Carol Estrada (R) out in the Houston sunshine.

Rally Caps have Arrived!

Top 50 Employers Recruiting on Twitter

Please check out this article to see what employers out there are currently using Twitter for recruiting purposes!


http://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-news/2009/06/09/top-50-employers-recruiting-on-twitter/

5 Twitter marketing experiments

5 Twitter Marketing Experiments - Check this out!

texting for temps

Mon, Jun 8, 2009

Articles

Another sign that the power of mobile is taking off, even temp workers are getting in on the action.

TempWorks Software recently released TW Text Messaging, a product designed for staffing firms that allows temp workers to take advantage of text messaging. TempWorks Software provides business solutions for the staffing industry.

“Many of our development projects come straight from our customers,” Paul Czywczynski, chief technology officer at TempWorks, said. “In this case we had a customer request the specific function of tracking employee availability through text messaging. Our team took their initial request and built this product around it. TempWorks Text Messaging creates the ability to multitask and respond to employee requests quickly and efficiently, taking out extra steps in the entire recruitment process.”

The product allows temp employees to text their availability, hours and request directions and assignment information to a pre-determined phone number. The text message then automatically populates their employee record, which is sent to the proper supervisor. The feature eliminates the need for internal staff to make phone calls and complete numerous data entry tasks.

“The text messaging function supports our mission to make staffing companies more profitable with technology” Cory Hintz, vice president of TempWorks Software, said. “Instead of having to make multiple calls back and forth to get in touch with an employee, all employees have to do is text in a message and the message is logged. Cutting out the extra steps will allow recruiters to focus on filling positions, rather than tedious data entry and phone tag.”

“You’ve heard of just-in-time manufacturing,” InStaff CEO Randy Burkhart said. “This is just-in-time staffing, having the ability to deliver hundreds of workers with little notice. Getting our clients the workers they need when they need them is our number one priority. The text messaging capability will give us a competitive advantage over our competition, allowing us to fill orders at a faster pace.”

Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is a great tool for business. You can use survey your employees, customers to gather valuable information. It's easy to use and you can create custom themes. Things I like about Survey Monkey.

• You can view your results as soon as they are collected. Watch live graphs and charts, and apply filters to your results


• Easily dig down to the individual response level to see the details of particular respondents, or to read the comments of open-ended questions.


• They support everything from multiple choice to rating scales to open-ended text. You can customize the layout of every question type for the ultimate in design flexibility.


• Complete Creative Control

You can check out Survey Monkey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/

The F.R.E.A.K.

Doyle Slayton | Jun 07, 2009 | Comments 2

Wanna be a F.R.E.A.K.? Post this and read it to yourself everyday!

Focus - I have the ability to relentlessly pursue my goals without distraction. It is a laser like focus that launches me to the top of the stack rankings. When negative forces tug at me, my will breaks through.

Results - I produce results that are so extraordinary, it makes others say things like… “How does (s)he do it,” “I’ve never seen anything like it,” “It’s unbelievable!”

Excellence - Let’s pause midway through to make a point. I don’t care how “freaky” I am, if I am not living a life of excellence. Being a superstar means doing the right things. I choose to be a person of high moral standards and integrity.

Activity - The thing that separates me as the best-of-the-best is that I don’t have a stop button. When it’s time to work, I work, and when others need a break… I drive on. I produce freakish results because I am willing to work smarter and harder than everyone else.

Karma - I always have deals just falling in my lap. Every action I take results in a positive reaction. Good things happen to me because it is my assignment to be great. It is my destiny!

I’ve created a printable version of The FREAK for you to download, print, and read everyday!

Upcoming Webinar Schedule

Here are three upcoming webinars that you should make plans to attend:

Doing Business on LinkedIn: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CDT
Click here to register

Using Social Media for Disaster Response and Recovery: Tuesday June 16, 2009 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. EDT
Click here to register

CareerBuilder

Learn how you can differentiate in the staffing industry by delivering messages that resonate with your potential clients. Wednesday, June 17, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Central Click here to register.

Webinar Wednesday

Join our Online Class on Top 10 Things Companies are doing to Generate New Business on LinkedIN

Click here to register.

Managerial Hiring Finally Shows Signs of Recovery

June 6th, 2009

No comments

CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index, May 2009

U.S. Job Posting Overall U.S. Posting by Region U.S. Posting by Level

The number of online job postings for U.S. managers and executives rose for the first time last month since November, a sign that hiring activity for salaried professionals is finally starting to improve.

The CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index, a new hiring index that measures managerial recruitment activity nationally, found that the number of job openings posted online for C-level, VP, director and other salaried candidates had an index value of 56.6 in May 2009, up from 41.4 in April 2009. The index uses data from each matching month of 2007 as its base, with monthly index values for that year equaling 100.

Full Article

Best Regards,

Edward Caulfield

Hiring the Right Sales Manager

Steven Rosen, MBA

Guest Author, Greg Deming Peak Sales Performance

I found this blog very informative so I thought I would share it with you.

The core theme of a sales manager’s role is to drive the team to sell. Though they may be the best sales person on the team, if they spend 100% of their time helping close business then sales results will plateau when their selling capacity is reached, and you will find that other team members have not developed. This “halter” is a problem that many companies face as they try to migrate to the next level of growth. As usual the best approach to solving a problem is to anticipate it, and solve it before it emerges. So this article will focus on finding a sales manager who can grow beyond your needs today.

Driving the team to sell is a three legged stool. Being effective at all three is important and requires a different set of competencies. You may not get all the competencies you’re hoping for, but you must have confidence that given support, the candidate you select has the will to learn the skills. The components are:

1. Selling to large Accounts - When larger prospects are identified it is crucial that the sales manager become actively involved in selling process. Whether or not they take the lead role depends upon the skill and will of the sales representative. Regardless, the sales manager must feel accountable for ensuring that this enterprise opportunity successfully navigates through their buying process. The manager must, at all costs, ensure that there is a complete understanding and consideration of customer requirements before making decisions and taking action.

• Identifying the Needs of Prospects - The sales representative must gather timely, direct information about customer requirements. If the sales person identifies the opportunity early enough in their buying process they can influence and shape those requirements. If they enter the sales cycle later in the prospect’s buying process they will be forced to conform to whatever requirements are already defined.
• Entrepreneurial Drive - Tenacity is the most important ingredient in any complex sale. If the sales rep’s will begins to fade over time, the manager must insert themselves into the process. To be of high value to the sales representatives your manger should demonstrate that they compete against a self defined standard of excellence. They tirelessly purse a goal until it is successfully attained.
• Meeting & Exceeding Customer Expectations - Retaining clients is equally important as acquiring clients. The first step in client retention is to make realistic short & long term commitments, maintain contact and then to exceed expectations by ensuring delivery of promised service. Your sales manager must understand that brand equity is built one transaction at a time.

2. Managing the Team - No matter the tenure of your sales representatives, their skill and will to do sales tasks will change over time. Your manager must create an atmosphere in which sales people are completely comfortable asking for help. At the same time they must be able to rapidly determine developmental gaps that are becoming unrecognized sales obstacles.

• Coaching & Developing Others - It is unfortunately true that 45% of managers hire sales reps that are not likely to succeed. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that 56% of managers do not conduct routine win/loss reviews and 36% of managers do not effectively identify which sales reps need coaching.* If you are not equipped to help the manager succeed then get them the help they need.
• Creating & Maintaining Effective Work Teams - The manager must create an atmosphere where individuals can work together as a team in pursuit of a common mission. The behaviors you’re looking for are; encouraging multiple points of views, harnessing the necessary resources to help team members succeed, establishing a positive climate (see article on “Why Leaders Get Followers”) and nurturing a commitment to the mission.
• Directing the Team - Your manager must ensure that the team completes tasks and delivers targets. There are times when coaching & good relationships are not enough. The manager must be more direct and take action if necessary, without inflicting damage to the team environment. Behaviors to look for are; aligning people behind a strategy even when decisions are unpopular, using authority productively to achieve results and setting expectations clearly while communicating the boundaries that exist. In short, the manager must be adept at managing performance.

3. Managing the Territory - whether the assigned territory is national or market specific, you will depend upon the sales manager to optimize results. In order to effectively manage the situation the manager must be motivated to reduce uncertainty and stay focused on those intiatives that will yield the greatest return.

• Concern for Order - Reducing uncertainty requires an insistence on timely, accurate information. You would see this drive expressed in such ways as; monitoring & checking information (CRM), insisting on clarity of commitments (conducting win/loss reviews), setting up and maintaining systems of information.
• Analytical Thinking - This may be an optional skill for your consideration. If the sales manager will be your “Top Sales Officer” (CSO) then I would strongly recommend you look for this competency. If the sales manager will report to an RVP, who reports to your CSO then this is a nice-to-have skill. I freely admit that it is difficult to find analytical thinking skills in a pool of sales management candidates. You are more likely to see good lateral thinking skills. But in this rapidly changing economy, where buyer preferences are changing at incredible velocities then this analytical thinking skill is very important!

* Statistics from CSO Insights “Sales Performance Optimization” 2009 Survey Results and Analytics

17 Things You Have to Know!

Doyle Slayton | Jun 03, 2009

1. Know the Vision - Sometimes managers get caught up in talking about the numbers over and over and over again. Although it is mostly about the numbers, it is also important to know what those numbers represent. Share the vision and the numbers will grow!

2. Know the Goals and Expectations -Print a copy of your goals for each month, quarter, and year and post them prominently in a spot where you see them every day.

3. Know the Score - Knowing your goal vs. actual keeps things in perspective. It helps keep your strategies and your focus in the right place.

4. Know the Compensation Plan - Work with your manager to understand exactly how you get paid. Now go out there and make the most amount of money!

5. Know the Guiding Principles - There are key key principles and strategies that lead to success. Once established, it shapes every decision and behavior to create a winning culture!

6. Know the Disciplinary Process - I’ve seen a lot of sales people who think they are an exception to the rule. Championship teams are built around team unity and cohesiveness.

7. Know Your Products and Services - Sales people often learn by trial and error when they run into a prospect who poses a new question. Although this natural progression is an important part of the learning process, those with the greatest knowledge often return the greatest gain.

8. Know Your Industry - Just as important as product knowledge is an understanding of your industry. There is great value in opening a sales meeting with the latest news and trends affecting the market. Whether the news is good or bad, find ways to turn that information into an advantage!

9. Know Your Competitors - Competition is as fierce as ever. It is common to walk into prospects office only to find out that your up against multiple other competitors. Understanding your competition can play a big part in establishing your objectives and your strategy.

10. Know Your Territory -Know the layout, the corporate demographic, current accounts, etc. and build a plan for attacking that market as efficiently as possible!

11. Know the Policies and Procedures - Show me a team with no established policies and procedures for handling conflicts, lead disputes, referral distribution, territory infractions, etc. and I’ll show you a team in complete discord. When issues arise, good policies and procedures settle everything cleanly and provide for consistent decision making.

12. Know Where You Stand - Sales people who receive immediate and consistent feedback are the most successful.

13. Know Your Strategy - After about 3 months in a new job, you should have a good feel for what it is going to take to be successful. Take your established goals and build a strategy that is toing to get you there. Follow the plan, day after day, and do everything in your power to knock it out of the park!

14. Know Your Office - It is too easy for sales people to end up stranded and lost on an island. Make sure you are plugged in!

15. Know Your Role - This really applies to people who have clear cut roles. For example, you might have a sales team, a customer support team, a finance team, and a tech team. I’ve seen sales people who take the position of, “I’m the one with the relationship… so let me handle every little issue that comes up.” Granted, there are exceptions that require your direct involvement, but at some point, you have to get your hand out of the cookie jar and allow your teammates to do their job. In this particular scenario, your job is set your support team up for success by making strong hand-off when you close the deal. It’s a good idea to have your team keep you updated on the “implementation” process… while you get back out there and find more clients!

16. Know That Your Manager Knows - Your manager needs to know the things that are really important to you. I’m not talking about telling your manager what you think they want to hear. I’m talking about sharing your honest goals and aspirations. Work together to find ways to make your personal vision fit into the team vision.

Ok… your turn… help me come up with number seventeen!

everyone’s slingin’ hash(jobs) on twitter

Jason Davis can barely control his enthusiasm. The cofounder of Splits.org and the new owner of HashJobs.com is bullish on Twitter as a job search and distribution tool.

“This should scare the hell out of sites like Monster and Indeed,” says Davis. “Just go to Twitter and do a search on #jobs. It’s a channel for job seekers to go for openings, and it’s all free.”

Stop us if you’ve heard this end-of-job-boards stuff before. But he may have a point. Job boards by the boatload are dumping job content into Twitter, and it includes many of the names you already know, like Jobing and JobCircle, two of the more aggressive Twitter distributors in addition to the slew of Twitter job search sites.

Does it work?

“We are seeing an average of 20-90 clicks per job posting, with a certain percentage (probably 10-15 percent) being bots and URL checkers, and we’ve seen a fair occurrence of jobs picked up, retweeted, and we’ve seen people talking about our brand,” said Joe Stubblebine, CEO of JobCircle. “We also tweet out 3-6 career articles a day, and those also get retweeted fairly often. We’re just leveraging Twitter as another way to reach out, gain exposure, and build brand.”

Historically conservative Classified Intelligence is even giving Twitter a thumbs-up via their recent annual report. “Yes. We really mean it,” reveals the study. “Post your jobs – some of them, at least – through Twitter … Ordinarily, we’re not big fans of the latest fad – of jumping into something that will be here today and gone tomorrow.

“And to a degree, we think Twitter may just be today’s fad. But! Read this Twitter-gram not as a statement ‘you must be on Twitter tomorrow.’ Rather, read it as a recommendation – no, a promise – that if you’re not going where your users are going (job-seekers and advertisers), you will be irrelevant. And employers and job-seekers are using Twitter. So you’d better be there, along with anywhere else your users are. If they jump in, you do too. If they jump out, you do slowly.”

Not So Fast
The elephant in the room, of course, is a little something the kids like to call spam. It’s done its best to disrupt everything from e-mail to search to Digg to Craigslist and the like over the years, and Twitter is going to be no different. The day when multiple sites are set-up and tons of jobs are dumped and redumped into Twitter with #jobs and everything else, is, well, likely already starting to happen.

A recent smackdown post on the whole Twitter phenomenon by Diggings’ Toby Dayton helps clarify. “As just a small test of Twitter, I searched for Creative Director on Twitterjobsearch.com. There were 6,000+ search results. I scrolled down a bit and clicked on advertischicago’s job for a creative director/Art, and was taken to AdvertisChicago’s Twitter page. After clicking on the same job again, I was taken to Indeed.com’s page, where I discovered that the job was no longer available on Oddskills.com, the original source of the job listing.

“So after 3 clicks, I found that a job that was tweeted about only 2 hours ago was no longer available and that the listing itself had traveled through 4 places. This was the first job I clicked on, and the experience was just as useless as any job search on Indeed, SimplyHired, Monster, CareerBuilder, or any other jobs site that has old, outdated, and duplicative job listings, and/or fake/fraudulent/scam jobs.”

To counterpoint, Davis says his HashJobs is a different animal. “We can control the accounts that get approved or not. We can block accounts from posting or possibly even give more weight to trusted sources.”

We’ll see. I tend to side with the whole thing eventually getting overrun with crap and turning job seekers sour to the whole thing turning them to connect with companies directly. Google, probably the best clutter-cutter we have at the moment, will be the biggest winner (or are social networks more trusted these days?). It’s just the nature of the Web. That said, there’s nothing that should be stopping employers and job boards alike from leveraging this channel while the good times last.

HashJobs, Twitter

This post was written by:

Joel Cheesman - who has written 1412 posts on Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion.

One of the most widely-read bloggers on emerging recruitment issues in the world. Accomplishments include being named Recruiting.com’s Best Technology Recruitment Blog and Best Recruiting Blog. Joel's been featured in Fast Company magazine, BusinessWeek Magazine, Resumes for Dummies, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal and more. Plug into Joel via Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, iTunes, YouTube or Flickr.

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Why Phishers love Facebook

Considering we use Facebook more and more each day, this is a great article to remind us of basic internet safety, even on a website we trust..

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/06/my-entry.html#posts

Cold Calling Dead or Alive

Doyle Slayton | May 31, 2009

If you missed the last post, Compelling Argument Against Cold Calling, it is piece you have to read several times to take it all in. I think there are two key issues. The first is cold calling and the second is lead generation.

I’ll set the record straight. If you are in sales, cold calling isn’t optional. It is a must. If you don’t want to cold call, get out of front line sales. Go into marketing and help develop some lead generation strategies to help your sales teammates. Another option is to go into account management and focus on building loyal customers that will speak highly of your company and refer new leads that turn into new business. That’s not meant as a jab or a brutal attack on those that don’t want to cold call. It’s an honest request to team up with someone who understands the battle… who knows about the scraping and clawing that goes into hunting for new business.

Most organizations are not being strategic enough about their cold calling approach and many are not focused at all on lead generation tactics. Jeremy states that cold calling as a “lead generation tool” is ineffective. There is no doubt, it can be time consuming and difficult to fight through, but we can’t paint everyone with the same brush. Generally speaking, cold calling as a lead generation tool works quite well with non-complex accounts where the sales cycle is short. On the other hand, a complex sale with a longer the sales cycle makes it more difficult to cold call your way to qualified leads.

Believe it or not, Jeremy’s breakdown…

“It takes 8.4 dials to reach a person, and 2% of all calls results in a meeting. If 30% of these first meetings convert into opportunities and a sales person closes 25% of these opportunities, he will have to make 1,000 calls to get 1 sale. If he is pounding the phones making 50 cold calls per day, he can get 1 winnable sale every 20 days. At this rate he can acquire 12.5 new customers per year. I am sure you can adjust these numbers to fit your business, but no matter which way you slice it the return on effort is terrible!”

…is very real for many sales people out there. That’s why they quit cold calling, miss their quotas, and eventually start looking for another job. Let’s be realistic. I don’t care how tough you are, the ratios above won’t take long to break a person’s spirit. That’s why the best sales managers who face this challenge find ways to put their people in a position to gain little victories along the way.

Jeremy shares that “when sales people are required to cold call to achieve quota, companies face two distinct issues: a higher cost of sale and higher turnover of sales people.”

Going into the financial breakdown is too complicated, so I won’t comment on the cost of the sale, but I can tell you that turnover rates are high because most people are not mentally tough enough to battle through the challenges of cold calling to generate their own leads month after month.

Cold calling on unqualified leads is like trying to chop down a Redwood with a dull ax. If you’re tough enough, you’ll eventually get through it, but it’s going to take some time. Once you knock it down, you’ll have plenty of fire wood. Sadly, most people don’t have the energy to get there.

The good news is there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Remember the 2 Simple Goals for Cold Calling Success. The best way to get away from cold calling is to stay put and work hard to build your pipeline. You can move out of the cold calling business and into the follow-up business by sticking with your present sales job, improving your skill-set, and building a strong, very large list of warm follow-up prospects.

So, this is where we come together again as a cold calling army of sales professionals to share best practices. The real solution is to call… call… call… and build a pipeline with the most reachable, most qualified, most interested prospects.