TweetMis-hiring isn’t the root of all sales ills, but it sure continues to run like hell for first place. We’re amazed here at how many companies we speak with have no formalized hiring process. No profiles. No pre-determined, structured interview questions. No training for interviewers. No simulations. No assessment tools. No reference checks. No background [...]
Filed under: Hiring | 6 Comments »
TweetI had rollercoaster ride of an afternoon. First, I reviewed my notes from yesterday’s briefing for ESR’s Principal Analyst, Al Case, and me by Corporate Visions. We’ll be publishing a brief on them within a few weeks. I prepared for an upcoming briefing with HR Chally. We’re doing some upcoming work in the area [...]
Filed under: Hiring | 2 Comments »
TweetI’ve written a lot about hiring sales people and sales managers on this blog. ESR knows that the epidemic of ineffective hiring is one of the reasons that sales performance has been so dismal over the years, even before the current economic situation. The best sales methodology, training, tools, technology, coaching, and reinforcement doesn’t have [...]
Filed under: Hiring, On the Road | 4 Comments »
TweetSales training is more than 100 years old. With few exceptions, it’s not very sexy. Many salespeople believe (PDF) they’ve been through enough of it to last a lifetime. For many reasons, most of their managers don’t see any value, so they take a tactical, event-based approach just to check the “trained my people this [...]
Filed under: Buyers, CRM, Economy, Hiring, Methodology | 15 Comments »
TweetAs ESR continues to assess our clients’ sales challenges, we maintain that having the wrong people in the sales jobs is, in many cases, the biggest inhibitor to the success of a training intervention. My interview with Todd Harris of PI Worldwide highlighted one of the tools available for sales leaders to get an objective [...]
Filed under: Economy, Hiring, Interview, Measurement, Professionalism | No Comments »
TweetPick one or more of the resolutions below. Commit, execute, enjoy the results. I’ll never hire another sales rep who can’t get the sales job done. First, completely understand the position and the skills and traits required to be successful. Evaluating whether a candidate meets those requirements requires a series of two to three structured [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Buyers, CRM, Economy, Hiring, Leadership, Measurement, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Research, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, sales process | 6 Comments »
TweetWhen I was a VP of sales, I had no training in hiring. I was lucky enough to hire some winners who contributed to my company’s (and my) success. But I also hired too many of those reps who were good enough to sell me during the interview but couldn’t sell enough of our software to make their numbers. Here [...]
Filed under: Hiring | 7 Comments »
Tweet I’ll be headed back to Ireland next month to facilitate two one-day workshops as part of the CEO Series for the Dublin Institute of Technology and Enterprise Ireland’s International Selling Programme. I’ll be working with 60 CEOs and managing directors over the two days. The topics require a bit of explanation. Each is a critical capability for [...]
Filed under: Compensation, Competition, Hiring, On the Road, Relationships | 1 Comment »
TweetThat’s a question I’m often asked about business-to-business selling. I define science (in this application of the word) as the ability and willingness of a person to follow a set of processes in order to carry on the business of day-to-day selling. Examples would be formal planning, the use of checklists, dependence upon research, vigilant qualification, [...]
Filed under: Hiring | 3 Comments »
TweetEliot Burdett posted a comment on my post about lying on resumes. His own blog has a terrific list of challenges for those hiring sales people. Here is his seventh point: “Performing reference checks on someone who is employed is challenging due to confidentiality. (There are always managerial contacts that can be approached, although you may have [...]
Filed under: Hiring | No Comments »
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