Often prospective employers will call us seeking to hire a candidate that has a “solid book of business”, or a list of former and/or current clients in which the candidate has key contacts. As the thinking goes, this will allow the rep to quickly generate considerable sales upon joining the new employer. I like the
It is well known that you have to pay at, or more likely a bit above market levels in order to attract the best sales talent in the business. There are numerous surveys that indicate what sales reps are getting paid and there is always anecdotal feedback that comes to an employer either via its
We don’t use IQ tests to evaluate sales people (we are more interested in predicting how they will behave and produce in certain situations), but we know that being smart usually is not a liability if a sales person has good sales DNA. I was curious to see who is using IQ tests in sales
For a lot of people hoping to land a new sales job, it is a priority to create a resume that is search engine friendly. Unfortunately, this often leads to resumes that are less succinct and are jammed with keywords which distract from the accomplishments and abilities of a salesperson. To those of us that
This year, sales training company Miller Heiman, published Best Practices in Sales Management: A Resource Guide for Sales Managers. In the guide, Miller Heiman shares its three keys to getting sales hiring right and looks at common missteps in sales hiring, long-term impact on sales, qualities of top sales people and revealing interview questions. All
This morning, I read an interesting post by SalesDrive on persistent candidates in which the article makes the following observation: Hiring managers occasionally encounter sales candidates who are especially persistent . . . calling or emailing them frequently to get an update on their status. Of course, persistence is a very important trait for success
The De Paul Center for Sales Leadership is one of the leading sales learning institutions in the country. Every few years the University publishes the Sales Effectiveness survey which observes the sales practices and results of over 435 organizations across 10 business sectors. Some useful insight is shared in this report: Age profile – % by
After many years of answering all sorts of sales management, recruiting and performance questions, I decided to put together an FAQ for hiring amazing sales people. These lessons have been learned from decades spent in the trenches building and managing successful sales teams as an entrepreneur and sales leader, as well as recruiting, investing and
Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, while not your typical sales book, provides a fascinating look at the science of persuasion and how buyers are influenced into making purchases. The author, a professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, spent three years undercover in telemarketing organizations, car dealerships and fundraising organizations observing
Good article here, Five Common – and Avoidable – Mistakes in Sales Force Design, by ZS Associates. We have summarized theses mistakes and added our take. Role pollution – Sales people are involved in too many support and non-sales activities. Peak’s Take: We see this a lot, particularly from sales managers that weren’t themselves top sales people,
