Greg Doersching
on Dec. 12, 2011
Last week, we discussed Understanding What Your Customers Want. If you are going to sell anything to another human being, you have to understand something about people as buyers because we respond to certain things in certain ways. With this in mind, there are two very specific sales “styles” that all human beings respond best to: Fact-based Selling and Story-selling. Below you will find a description of these two sales styles.
Jon Bartos
on Oct. 24, 2011
Welcome to the last installment of The Art of Marketing and Business Development series. Last week, we discussed the first five business development scripts that are working today:
This article continues with highlighting the additional five marketing scripts, 6-1 0. Keep in mind: different selling situations will call for different scripts. As a recruiter, it is important to have as many options (clubs) in your recruiting bag as possible. Master them all, so you will be prepared for any selling situation and have the ability to pull them out when that shot is needed. Don’t forget, the goal is to achieve a large quantity of job orders coming in so you have the ability to continually ‘top grade’ the work you have on your desk. Until you get a large number of “A” search assignments (job orders), keep marketing every day. That’s right – every day.
Jon Bartos
on Oct. 20, 2011
Earlier this week, I shared with you three key principles to establishing a strong marketing foundation. Of course, it all starts with obtaining high quality searches.
After that though, you need to know how to have an appropriate conversation with potential new clients, and the best way to do this is by having a pre-written script to help you. Today, I bring you the first 5 of the top 10 marketing approaches that rock the recruiting world today.
Jon Bartos
on Oct. 17, 2011
Finding the perfect candidate for an open search assignment is an exciting moment in any recruiter’s day and contributes significantly to the overall success of achieving their goals. More important than fulfillment, however, is the role that business development plays in the process. Effective marketing is the biggest factor in any recruiter’s success.
There are three key principles to establishing a strong marketing foundation. It all starts with obtaining high quality searches. The better the search you have to recruit on, the more placements you will make. Period. Most of us agree with this concept, however practicing it seems to have become a lost art. Time is money and you want to make sure you are spending your time on searches that will result in placements. Ask yourself about the searches you are currently working on – are you guaranteed a placement if you find the person you are looking for? Resources are too valuable today to be risked on uncertainty. A good search means that “if” you find the right candidate, your client will hire them — no maybes and no excuses.
Lee B. Salz
on Oct. 13, 2011
The sales team is the primary revenue source for most businesses. However, this revenue is not without significant cost. If not carefully managed, this revenue source can easily become a money pit. There are five areas business executives should watch to ensure they make a wise investment in their sales team.
Jeremy Snell
on Aug. 15, 2011
…only without strategy!
There is a common mistake that I see repeated across the recruitment and staffing industry. From a development and training perspective over 80% of the recruiters I encounter are seeking to develop their sales skills: opening techniques, killer questions, Jedi-like influence skills, and robust closing skills. Each of these is a potentially valid training need. Each an area that I know I can help them to develop, although for some it is a case of putting the cart before the horse.
Let me explain further. Becoming a ‘great’ sales practitioner is clearly the goal of every sales person. Developing the techniques to win more clients is undoubtedly an important focus area for a self-sufficient recruiter. What benefit is there to develop such skills if you are pointing in the wrong direction? Developing the salesmanship of the individual alone is not going to generate more business.
Steve Finkel
on Jun. 1, 2011
In Part 1 of this article series, we addressed the fact that many fine recruiters have extreme difficulty making the transition from “salesman to manager” when they decide to take on those different responsibilities. The reason for this is that they forget the many long years of concentration, study and practice involved in learning how to “work a desk,” and presume that their skills enable them to automatically become an effective manager.
Steve Finkel
on May 26, 2011
It’s one of the most common stories in sales. A sales rep starts with a company. He studies, learns, plans, practices, perseveres. After some years, be becomes an excellent producer. As a result of his achievements, he is made a manager. Or perhaps, in our industry, he decides to start his own firm. And soon nothing goes right. Time spent to interview, evaluate, and train new hires reduces his sales effectiveness. His new people produce poorly. When they do produce, they start to argue with him as to methods and strategies. He cannot motivate them beyond adequacy. Turnover is constant, further draining his personal productivity. Frustration sets in. An excellent and happy salesman has become a mediocre and unhappy manager.
“How do you ruin a good salesman?” goes the old joke. “Make him a manager!” is the sarcastic and frequently accurate answer.
Is this a common scenario in our business? You bet it is!
Lee B. Salz
on May 9, 2011
A disconnect exists between sales managers and recruiters that causes challenges for both. Together, they can resolve this issue by creating their company’s Sales Talent Screening Program.
Candidate screening is one of the most difficult tasks that recruiters and managers face. Most will tell you that screening sales talent is the toughest of all. Why? Sales people are trained in the art of persuasion. They know how to provide the desired responses to the questions. Even more daunting is when you are interviewing sales people that worked for a competitor. These sales people know the language and industry buzz words making it even more challenging to screen them. Fret not! It is possible to successfully screen sales talent, but there is work to be done before you even look at a résumé.
Bob Croston
on May 3, 2011
I had the pleasure of meeting Ed Rendell when he was the mayor of Philadelphia. He was pointed and direct, quite different from the other politicians I have met over the years. So it came as little surprise when early this winter, Rendell, then Governor of Pennsylvania, called NFL officials “wimps” for canceling a game between the Eagles and Vikings due to snow.
When asked about the NFL’s decision the next day, Governor Rendell made his stance clear: “My biggest beef is that this is part of what’s happened in this country. We’ve become a nation of wusses.”
This nation of wusses has extended into the field of sales. There’s no hiding that sales is difficult. Day in and day out you face rejection, you must constantly be filling the pipeline with new leads, you have quotas you must meet, and results are often inconsistent.
Yet too many sales people use these difficulties as excuses and let them hinder their own success – they wuss out.
How can you tell if the wuss factor is dragging you down? Look out for these five symptoms:
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