Category Archives: Business

Topics relating to business and business practices.

Dinosaurs Still Live… in Sales

I was a tad shocked by something I read the other day relating to current salespeople and their clients. The article in question, Consider Retooling Your Sales Team by “eyes on sales” discusses sales methods and how to spot the salespeople on your team who are leftover from the Jurassic age.

Ahh, the old fashioned salesperson.

This article quotes research done by “The Sales Board” and shows that surveyed buyers say “95% of salespeople talk too much” and “82% of salespeople can’t differentiate themselves from their competition“. The article also states that “86% of salespeople ask the wrong questions” and “only 18% of salespeople can close without needing to offer discounts or incentives of some kind“.

At first I was taken aback by the “talk too much” and “can’t differentiate themselves” percentages. I mean, for years we’ve been advised by experts and our clients to ditch the old fast-talking hard sell for a more consultative selling style. Yet looking at these statistics seems to indicate we’re heading in the opposite direction. After the initial shock wore off the pessimist in me piped up to remind me that people and business can be very slow to change. So really, it’s not that surprising.

This brings us to the point of my article. I have some thoughts to throw by you. First off, can we all agree it’s easy to blame the salesperson? They are the front line, the person in your face, and that’s typically where most would direct the blame. But let’s look beyond that.

How often do you see job ads that state something comparable to: “must be able to sell snow to Eskimos”. I see it regularly.  The latest was only a few days ago. This indicates there are businesses out there who are feeding the Dinosaurs and keeping them healthy and strong. You can argue that it’s a cliched way of saying, “we want a great salesperson”, but on a deeper level I feel the company is more concerned about selling a product than their customers’ needs.

It’s very rare that I see an ad stating something like: “Need a sales consultant who cares about our clients, who will listen to them, help them and their businesses to grow and excel. Be the face of our company and show them we care about their success”. What I do see is, ‘Must be results oriented, meet and exceed sales figures, cold call, fast paced, good presentation skills, driven and motivated, great talker, must live and breath sales’. I’m probably being a bit one-sided here but I’m doing it to send a message.

Here’s something to consider, let’s say a salesperson needs to close some deals to hit a monthly target or, worse, needs a commission to pay their bills. What happens to a person in that situation? The natural instinct may be to try to force a deal and convince someone to buy. That could be when the whole fast-talking, hard sell, pushing the product mentality comes out. This could very well be the product of survival instinct.

Company dinosaur surrounded by their sales force sighted in the wild business streets.

I would suggest to companies to look further into their situation. Is the hiring of sales people the same as it’s always been? Is the company sending the wrong signals to their sales staff? Is product knowledge being provided properly? Are goals being set the same old fashioned way? Has the right environment been created for the Dinosaurs to evolve into a consulting salesperson? The change has to come from everywhere not just the salesperson.

I find these statistics very intriguing and would like to delve deeper into the potential reasons behind them. In the meantime, what’s your view and opinion on it?

1 Reason Why Your Company Should be Blogging

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Should Your Company Blog?

Do you believe a blog is important for your company? If you said no it wouldn’t be a big surprise. Chances are most businesses wouldn’t think so. For example, according to research by Socialtext released in December of 2009 only 15.8% of the Fortune 500 companies are blogging. If you’re a Fortune 500 company then you probably don’t have to worry about it. If not, you’re likely hungry for more business so you may want to reconsider.

Why, you ask? An interesting study from HubSpot came out in January of 2010. HubSpot looked at 2,300 of their customers and found a trend. Businesses that were actively blogging had 126% more monthly leads than non blogging companies. Yes, 126% more monthly leads. On average the non blogging companies did grow their leads by 73% but the blogging businesses saw their lead growth shoot up 165%. According to HubSpot this statistic is relevant regardless of the blogging platform.

You may argue that this study doesn’t prove blogs are the one and only reason for this. I would argue the same. But, it does hint that companies who are actively marketing themselves through social media avenues seem to be generating more leads and gaining more exposure.

So there you have it. One reason why your company should be blogging: improved lead generation. Now should be a good time to plan and execute your company’s new blogging and social marketing campaign. What do you think?

Technology-less Personal-less Job Recruitment

(Question 1) Does technology kill the creativity of recruiters?

(Question 2) Are head hunting human resourcers becoming lazy due to the Internet?

(Question 3) Is the Internet and technology destroying common courtesy?

(Bonus Question) Can we stop our world’s downward de-humanizing spiral encouraged by the Internet and technology? Is there any hope?

As finding an additional form of stable and enjoyable work is my focus as of late, I expect there to be further articles on this topic. So stay tuned or run away because here we go.

As mentioned, I am looking for additional paying gigs. A few potentials have lead me to read, “Finding Keepers : The Monster Guide to Hiring and Holding the World’s Best Employees”. I admit, I am only 36 pages into it but recent experiences and thoughts generated from this book have me questioning the whole human resources world. This article will touch on the aforementioned questions.

  1. The employment industry (is this what we would refer to it as?) and recruitment systems seem to be lacking in creativity due to technology and the Internet. Now, before I get lambasted, the fact is many businesses and industries have this same problem. For recruiting it seems to me they are using new transport systems for old and possibly out-dated methodologies. I like to refer to this as the ‘Build it and they will come’ syndrome. They also seem to be dropping the personal touch which in my opinion shows more about a person than a creative resume or CV.

    For example, where it once was the norm to place jobs in print (newspapers) it seems Craigslist is now that current workhorse. Where there was a quick resume drop off there is now email. Where there was once word of mouth… well I guess there’s still that.

    My point is that the Net and technology should allow for some interesting recruiting and screening practices. I may be missing something, but where are the ‘Meet and Greet 2008 in IRC’ or ‘Four hours with <insert company and name> on video chat’ or ‘Play our online Manhunt Talent Game’ or ‘Join our Virtual Tour on Second Life”. At the very least, why are companies not asking for a Video Resume/CV?

    These are off-the-cuff ideas. There are many possibilities with our current technology yet the same old practices are applied to such a powerful medium.

  2. I will say, I do believe there are many more applicants for jobs than their used to be. It is just too simple to throw your hat into the ring with an email as opposed to mailing it, dropping it off in person or what-have-you. This may be a large factor in what is quickly becoming the standard ‘no phone calls’, ’email only’ and lack of business name or address in ads.

    With that said, shouldn’t the current technology help handle many more applications? Shouldn’t it open hiring staff or agents more time for the personal touch or possibly a little more two way communication?

  3. This leads us to common courtesy. This is a no brainer. The fact is email and the Net and the concept that “it’s just business” all have negative effects on common courtesy.

    What I find mind boggling is the lack of even the most simple form mail stating your resume/application has been received. This problem, in my opinion, also crosses over into the laziness point.

    How difficult is it to create a email template stating the position is filled, that you don’t meet or that you exceed their requirements? This is down right unbelievable and should send a message to potential employees about the company practices and priorities.

There are some companies who are considerate and personable when it comes to hiring. They are proactive and have creative ideas. This is a generalized article based on some of my experiences and by no means is meant to attack or insult any one or multiple entities.

I saw a statistic on the news (sorry, no reference) that soft skills were narrowly the number one priority for companies and that this was an increasing requirement. Current pre-screening methods really aren’t considering this. A resume is not an indicator of a person’s soft skills. First off, a resume is spun a specific way and there is no telling who created or helped tune it.

Additional considerations for the recruiter or HR representative, as stated in ‘Finding Keepers’, and what I believe is general knowledge at this point is that people are increasingly more informed and considerate about their jobs. The fact is you have to sell someone on working for you. There has been a slow shift from where the employee was happy to have a job to where the employer is happy to have a productive worker. There is more to keeping an employee than money and the threat of job loss. There are human factors to consider and it should start with hiring practices and considerations, from the ground up.

I will leave the bonus question for you to answer. Any comments or enlightenment would be appreciated. Expect some further articles on hiring an ego and the forgotten art of training and ‘growing’ your most important resource, people.

Technical Skill Semantics.

This entry is going to be a bit rough on me. As someone who dislikes technobabble with excessive terminology and classification this entry is going against my grain.

You see, I’ve been looking for some casual contract type of work and find myself a bit uncertain as to how to rate or grade my skills.

Using some of the terms found in ads I wonder, am I a Ninja? Is a Ninja better than an Expert? Obviously a Guru is much more skilled and knowledgeable than an Expert. It takes years and strict training to become a Guru and I know I’m not that in any technical abilities.

So, should I consider myself a Star? I would sure like it if everyone called me Star. Better yet, Super Star! I assure you I am not a Rock Star and I don’t know what that has to do with web skills let alone what a Wizard does.

One thing I am certain – I’m not is a Fiery Dancing Faerie Master! OK, I admit I just made that one up.

It could be my age as I’m now deep into my thirties. I’m pretty good at understanding terms such as ‘basic knowledge’, ‘good’, ‘understanding’ and ‘excellent’. I do start to waver a bit with the semi-obscure or relative terms such as ‘intermediate’, ‘advanced’, ‘experience with’, and ‘expert’.

I further admit to finding it confusing when someone is advertising a ‘Junior’ position with a list of 10 or more different major skills. Another speed bump for me is ‘expert’. There is no way we have millions of experts and all willing to work for $10 to $15 an hour according to the ads. An expert to me is someone who has mastered their chosen profession, who lives and breaths it, someone who can school a teacher.

So my point as you may be wondering is that we need a good Technical Skill Rating system to gauge proficiency. You know, like the standard trade skill apprentice, journeyman and master. Something of that like. Is there something out there I, and most companies, don’t know about?

So back to my search where I can at least feel safe in understanding what ‘Local’ means.