June 24th, 2010
You want to be the best in the world right?
To figure out how you and your product possibly could be, “the best in the world at” and become “more Walgreen than Eckerd”, lets go through a hypothetical analysis of your sales product or service line.
Lets say your sales reps sell a wide variety of software for businesses of all sizes (in complete and full disclosure, I have never sold software before so bear with me, however I have sold connectivity solutions). One particular kind of software package your salespeople sell is a Customer Relations Management software package. Even though your product is not the best in its class, its not the worst either.
This package (we’ll call it CRM 3.2) has certain query features that the competition does not have. Aside from a few of these features, your product is pretty much the same as the competitions. But you, as the ever observant sales manager notice a few things about CRM 3.2 and they are: (more…)
Filed under: Leading by ralphburns
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June 9th, 2010
In our continuing series on how to screen a sales resume, today we touch on:
Does there seem to be a logical progression of promotions throughout the salesperson’s resume?
Most companies, after a set period of years, will typically enhance a salesperson’s title to reflect increased stature and seniority. This is usually awarded in concert with achievements at the “lower” level, but not always.
If you see this logical progression, this simply tells you that the candidate is well-regarded, but will not necessarily tell you that they can sell at a high level.
If they have solid achievements alongside steady advances in promoted titles, then this is certainly a positive. Accolades, as we’ve discussed before (more…)
Filed under: Hiring by ralphburns
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May 27th, 2010
In our continuing series on how to screen a sales resume, we’ve been going through two more of the 18 different ways in which, without even meeting a candidate face to face, you can tell a ton of stuff about that potential sales candidate by simply analyzing their resume. this saves you time and in the end, money.
In today’s post, we touch on:
Where and in what geographic areas have they worked?
When screening new interview applicants, the best case scenario is if they have current experience in the market and the geography that you are hiring for. This isn’t essential, but very nice to have. So this is a plus.
However, another more important factor to consider is, (more…)
Filed under: Hiring by ralphburns
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May 11th, 2010
In this video, Ill show you exactly how to find out what makes your sales team tick. Once you know what their deepest motivations are, you can then tailor all your conversations and communications with them centered around these ten things.
The best part is that its easy…and it only takes ten minutes to do it.
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Filed under: Uncategorized by ralphburns
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April 16th, 2010
In our continuing series on screening sales resumes prior to interviewing, today we come to employment history – a critical component to analyze.
Remember that the goal here is to filter out the less than worthy candidates, before you take the time to do live interviews.
How many jobs has your sales applicant had…and for how long?
You can reference age on this one because this one is a biggie. If you see them changing jobs every two years, why would you think this applicant would stay working for you any longer?
They may have a fear of commitment or they may just get easily distracted. Either one is not so attractive to you.
The truth is that they may just wear out their welcome after a certain point in time. This will most likely be the case if they come to work for you. What you are really looking for here is what kind of person are they and time spent at previous employers tells you a lot about them and could mean any of those things previously mentioned.
To be fair, (more…)
Filed under: Hiring by ralphburns
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