Some interesting points for employers hoping to find top performers via job boards. The downfall of this mass marketing approach is the complete lack of focus and specialization. Of course they get tens of thousands of visitors a day but do you care? When you are looking for a sales person it doesn’t matter how
I was recently interviewed by Inc Magazine on the topic of cold calling. Darren Dahl put together a great article on tips and techniques for improving cold calling success (see article here >> How to Improve Your Cold Calling). As an extension to the article, I have added some additional tips since our projects often involve
We recently answered the following question on Linkedin: Are there any psychometric tests out there to assess Sales Skills/Preferences before making a hiring decision? I have heard of two tests: SPQ Gold and SalesKey. But I haven’t used any of them so far and not sure how good they are. If anyone has used these
This is the time of year most people think about goals (of course, our readers think about goals year round). Whether you make detailed sales plans or tend towards goals that fit on a napkin, make sure to include the following hot topics in your thinking for 2010 sales goals. Besides the economy, how did
We have been involved in thousands of sales hiring and recruiting projects. We are often called in to investigate and fixed failed hiring initiatives. Here in countdown order are the top 10 sales hiring mistakes we see and what you can do to avoid them. 10. Hiring based on gut. Problem: while a person may
Geoffrey James at the Sales Machine recently interviewed Michael Dell and posted his interview. I have included some of the most interesting comments from Dell. On Competition: “Sometimes it’s a battle, but sometimes we’re clearly working with a number of companies to grow an industry. I think the leading companies tend to be able to
Selling Power Interview with Dave Stein discussing approaches to sales training. His company, ES Research, helps sales management and corporate training organizations evaluate, select and implement sales training and productivity improvement programs. Some interesting notes from the interview: US companies spend $4B per year on sales training only 20% of companies measure the effectiveness of
Our friend Brian Jeffrey, President of Salesforce Assessments, recently sent out this articles on hiring superior sales people and we thought you would be interested in reading it as well. ================ Nobody deliberately sets out to hire salespeople who can’t or won’t perform. But it happens, and it happens more than you might expect.
Geoffrey James at BNET continues his series of top ten lies in sales. This week, he posted the Top Ten Lies Customers Tell Sales: LIE #10: “We don’t have the budget.” LIE #9: “I promise to read your brochure.” LIE #8: “I am the sole decision-maker.” LIE #7: “Your competition is much cheaper.” LIE #6:
I love quarter end. Having spent many years selling myself, I remember the rush of the countdown and closing everything you can to hit your quota and get into accelerated commissions. I also enjoyed the competition amongst all the reps hustling hard and getting super creative to not only hit their own numbers, but to
