December Jokes

Here are the jokes for December.
We close out 2010. Onwards to 2011!
Thank you for reading and enjoying the jokes and the blog this year!

Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"


> A man is stumbling through the woods, totally drunk, when he comes upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. He proceeds into the water, subsequently bumping into the preacher.
> The preacher turns around and is almost overcome by the smell of alcohol, whereupon, he asks the drunk, "Are you ready to find Jesus?"
> The drunk shouts, "Yes, oi am."
> So the preacher grabs him and dunks him in the water.
> He pulls him back and asks, "Brother, have you found Jesus?"
> The drunk replies, "No, oi haven't found Jesus!"
> The preacher, shocked at the answer, dunks him again but for a little longer.
> He again pulls him out of the water and asks, "Have you found Jesus, me
brother?"
> The drunk answers, "No, oi haven't found Jesus!"
> By this time, the preacher is at his wits end and dunks the drunk again -- but
this time
holds him down for about 30 seconds, and when he begins kicking his
arms and legs about, he pulls him up. The preacher again asks the drunk, "For
the love of God, have you found Jesus?"
>
(get ready for this.....)

> The drunk staggers upright, wipes his eyes, coughs up a bit of water, catches
his breath, and says to the preacher,
> "Are you sure this is where he fell in?"

Las Vegas Churches accept gambling chips
THIS MAY COME AS A SURPRISE TO THOSE OF YOU NOT LIVING IN LAS VEGAS , BUT THERE ARE MORE CATHOLIC CHURCHES THAN CASINOS.

NOT SURPRISINGLY, SOME WORSHIPERS AT SUNDAY SERVICES WILL GIVE CASINO CHIPS RATHER THAN CASH WHEN THE BASKET IS PASSED.

SINCE THEY GET CHIPS FROM MANY DIFFERENT CASINOS, THE CHURCHES HAVE DEVISED A METHOD TO COLLECT THE OFFERINGS..

THE CHURCHES SEND ALL THEIR COLLECTED CHIPS TO A NEARBY FRANCISCAN MONASTERY FOR SORTING AND THEN THE CHIPS ARE TAKEN TO THE CASINOS OF ORIGIN AND CASHED IN.

THIS IS DONE BY THE CHIP MONKS.

YOU
DIDN'T EVEN SEE THAT COMING DID YOU? --

End of 2010 Quiz

I know you are probably sitting around bored because it is the week between Christmas and New Years. No one is in the office and you've already cleaned your desk 10 times. Now you are just counting down the hours until you can go home and have a little vacation time.
Here is something to help.
Enjoy and Happy New Year!
Ev

> This is a quiz for people who know everything!
I found out in a hurry that I didn't.. These are not trick
questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.


1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the
participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2.. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their
own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be
replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a
real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the
bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get
inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the
letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can
you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold
frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet
beginning with the letter 'S.'


NOW THE ANSWERS


Answers To Quiz:

1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the
participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends:
Boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward.
Niagara Falls - The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each
year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it
every minute.

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own
for several growing seasons: Asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew
inside the bottle. The bottles are placed over pear buds when they
are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in
place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are
snipped off at the stems.

6. Three English words beginning with dw: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar. Period,
comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark,
exclamation point, quotation mark, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and
ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned,
processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: Lettuce

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning
with 'S': Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates,
snowshoes, stockings, stilts.


PLEASE DO YOUR PART....

If you know others that are looking for something to do today feel free to send them this link. Just don't send it back to me. I've
already flunked it once.

Poll: How Many Employees will Your Company Hire in 2011?

How many employees does your company plan to hire in 2011?
Vote in my latest poll.
http://linkd.in/gVCWeE
I will share the answers in a future blog post.
Thank you!
Ev
http://linkd.in/gVCWeE

Visiting your elderly loved ones this holiday season?

As our population ages and the baby boomers retire, one thing to keep in mind as a benefit to look for in a company is if they offer eldercare programs. These programs not only take care of the elderly person, but also the caregiver. When caring for a family member, the caregivers often suffer lost work time due to doctors appointments, sickness caused by stress, mental stress caused by the additional financial and healthcare demands. On behalf of my collegue Veronica here is a reminder for the holidays.
Ev

"One might think at this point in our struggling economy, demand for benefit related programs such as eldercare would decrease. However, it was reported that in the last economic slump of 2002 there existed a greater need for eldercare assistance because with smaller numbers of employees in the workforce, people have to work harder, which leads to a greater need with family related assistance."
The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. Pension & Benefits Reporter 2002

The holidays are the perfect time to increase your awareness of the overall health of your older adult loved one. A few quick tips:

Be diligent in noticing changes in mood, memory and the general appearance of the older adult loved ones’ home. By mood, I am referring to the possibility of depression and/or anxiety. Try to increase your patience and ability to listen for clues to these issues.

Two quick communications from which to refrain if your loved one is experiencing memory loss: Do not ask them “Don’t you remember?” and when asking them a question, keep the options from which they choose limited. Bringing attention to their memory loss and/or confusing them with too many options increases their anxiety and fear, especially in regard to a possible forthcoming conversation related to moving from their present living environment.

One of the first areas memory loss becomes apparent is with numbers and calculations. If you can, help the elder “check the checkbook” for possible inaccuracies; make sure bills are being paid.

Is the home in disarray? It may be increasingly more difficult to keep up with household chores. Check the food in the refrigerator: are any past their expiration date? What about medications? Are they taking them as prescribed? Are you concerned about alcohol consumption?

Throw and scatter rugs cause many falls; one solution is to purchase the material used to help keep it in place from your local hardware store. It comes by various names; ask for the material used to keep area and scatter rugs secure; it can be cut to form. While this aids in avoiding a fall, the older adult must be alerted to their use and feel, so you may want to add one to start while you are visiting to determine the effectiveness and acceptance by your elder. (You can also suggest the actual removal of scatter rugs, but I forewarn you that this may not be welcomed.)

Before December 31st is the crucial time to help your elder review their Medicare enrollment. For more information visit: http://www.corporateeldercaresolutions.com/archive.html or www.medicare.gov.

Finally, remember that larger groups of people can be confusing to an older adult. They can become exhausted both physically and emotionally. Providing them with some quiet time will help them be more comfortable during these busy times.

I wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Veronica Woldt, MA
Corporate Eldercare Solutions, llc
www.corporateeldercaresolutions.com
veronica@corporateeldercaresolutions.com
Veronica Woldt, M.A., is the owner and principal of Corporate Eldercare Solutions, llc, providing both employee and employer solutions to eldercare concerns that result in the positive enhancement of company productivity and associated employee work/life issues.

Social Media Usage in 2010

Many companies still have rules against the use of social media in the office place.
If you are still not convinced that social media, apps, and smart phones are where your audience is, I dare you to watch the following:
Happy 2011!

Ev

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December 2010 Newsletter

Greetings!

2010 is almost over. It has gone by so fast!
If you are seeing this newsletter for the first time, or don’t remember the last time you saw one, this is my monthly newsletter regarding an HR topic.
I sent them via email for almost 10 years before switching to a blog last year.
I’ve had so many people request that I bring back the email version, so I have. The newsletter comes out about the 15th of the month. Above my signature there is usually a short article and a couple of cute jokes (always clean enough to tell your mother!). If you like what you read, there are more articles on my blog:http://everetsblog.blogspot.com


This month's newsletter delt with giving gifts to your employees to retain them into the new year. Since this was a previously published article I'm just posting the link here:http://everetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/gifts-for-employees.html
To read the jokes look at the blog entries on the 30th of each month.
Thank you for reading!
Ev"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

How Do You Want to be Thanked?

After a job interview I always send a hand written thank you card.
That is what I was taught. I know that people my age and above generally like getting a hand written note because it shows sincerity, personal effort to do a little extra rather than send an email, and not a lot of people send cards anymore.

In this day and age of instant media, is sending a hand written thank you card the only proper way to thank someone for a job interview?
What about texting?
Sending an email?
Is it okay to call by phone?
Is how you thank someone totally dependent on their generation?

What do you think?
Vote in my latest poll and I'll share the answers at a later time with you and the future job seekers I teach in my classes.
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/110792/rihbo

Thank you!
Ev

What Is Next After Job Boards?

Cheezehead.com was a recruitment industry "insiders column."
That site has since been taken over and the content changed. While going through my archives I found this post from that site. The question of what is the next big job hunting technology was interesting. It was a sponsored post. I edited out the sales pitch at the end. Here is the article:
Is Online Recruiting Begging for Disruptive Technology?
Posted: 19 May 2008 12:20 PM CDT

Online employment advertising platforms, also known as job boards, have more than come of age. Indeed, online recruitment strategies are diversifying as hiring managers look for an edge in the marketplace.
This evolution has birthed new models such as industry-specific job boards, targeted demographic job boards, and even social media schemes. But are today’s online venues effectively meeting the needs of employers and job seekers?
Research suggests the answer is “no.”

In fact, an April 2008 survey from The Adler Group reveals locating qualified candidates for key positions is a challenge that’s growing worse instead of better.
Despite the cadre of recruiting tools and technologies that have been introduced to help employers, Adler revealed, a whopping 89 percent of survey respondents said hiring top talent is getting increasingly difficult. Moreover, 63 percent of survey respondents felt the quantity and quality of candidates from major job boards is dropping.
Reexamining today’s recruiting models, Could it be time for a new paradigm for matching job seekers with employers? Put another way, is the online recruitment industry ripe for disruption?
Here’s what we do know: There are a handful of popular online job board business models – and there are drastic differences between them. We also know that new models are emerging that offer different recruiting technologies and techniques. The latter could be the key to greater hiring effectiveness in a more mature online recruiting world.

“Job boards are an integral piece of the recruitment puzzle as job seekers are more computer savvy than ever – but not all job boards are the same,” says Roberta Chinksy Matuson, president of Brookline, Mass.-based Human Resource Solutions. “HR Executives would be better served if they focused on results and not the cost of each click.”

It’s admittedly difficult to compare cost-per-click (CPC) among the most popular online job board models – free boards, flat fee listing boards, and boards that charge only if you open a resume – because CPC is only part of the pricing equation. To be sure, there are benefits and drawbacks to each model. With literally millions of resumes posted online it pays dividends to understand the pros and cons of the various models better before you begin your next search.
Do you really get what you pay for?Free job boards, where employers and job seekers freely exchange information with the keyboard as the only middleman, have gained momentum because the price is right. Doostang.com, TheJobSpider.com and LuckyDogJobs.com are among the better-known freebies online today.

But Tom Ruff, CEO of Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based recruiting firm Tom Ruff Company, says he hasn’t had much luck on the free boards. Spam postings often find their way on to free online job boards, but that’s not the only drawback he’s discovered.
“Sometimes free online recruiting sites appear to be free, but if you want the bells and whistles there are fees hidden into the back end,” says Ruff, who is also author of “How to Break Into Pharmaceutical Sales.” “We have tried some of the traditional free models, but we haven’t found any success. We stopped using them and moved to paid models.”

If time is money then do flat fee sites work?Flat fee sites are another option. Craigslist, and online classified sites like it, once disrupted the recruiting model. Study after study emerged about print newspaper classified ads drying up as people went online to let their fingers do the searching. Craigslist, for one, charges $75 to post per listing. Others charge much more.
One of advantages of flat fee sites is the paid aspect keeps the spammers off the boards, but that may not be enough to keep recruiters coming back. Flat fee sites tend not to draw large volumes of executive level candidates, and aren’t typically as user-friendly as some of the more traditional job boards, according to Shawn Desgrosellier, Chief Leadership Officer at Kay/Bassman International, an executive search and recruitment firm in Plano, Texas.
“You’ve got to invest some time to use sites like Craigslist because the way the site is organized and the way the layout is structured isn’t straightforward,” Desgrosellier says. “If you’ve got a full-time online recruiting team, it can produce some good results but otherwise it’s not the best use of time.”

Avoiding the flood of irrelevant responses. When the Internet was young, the likes of Monster.com turned the way people hunted for jobs – and the way employers hunted for candidates – on its head. The business model was simple: a two-sided network consisting of employers and job seekers. The recruiters pay; the candidates don’t. What’s more, recruiters pay to be part of the network, and also pay to view searchable candidate resumes.
Since Monster pioneered the space, sites like CareerBuilder.com and HotJobs.com have rallied the troops to collectively dominate the online recruitment industry. Variations of the theme have sprung up, including niche job boards like Dice.com and TechCrunch. The advantage of posting a job opening on one of these sites is the abundance of job seekers willing to send their resumes directly to the recruiter. But this blessing can quickly become a curse.
“Many times, the resumes you receive are preloaded resumes from active job seekers. When a certain search criteria is loaded into the system, that resume is automatically sent to you,” Desgrosellier says. “It requires no action on behalf of the job seeker. That can leave you flooded with applicants that may or may not be a suitable match.”

Tapping into a real-time paradigmAn emerging model, and one that has caught media attention for being disruptive, is real-time matching from RealMatch.com. RealMatch offers technology that replaces keyword searching with a profile-matching paradigm that uses proprietary algorithms to match candidates with recruiters.
RealMatch doesn’t charge recruiters or candidates to join the network, and offers real-time search results that grade, filter and rank candidates according to how well their qualifications meet the employer’s requirements. This real-time, non-keyword based approach overcomes the challenge of e-mail boxes that run over storage quotas in the face of hundreds of resume attachments. For employers, RealMatch.com only charges to view the matches. For job seekers, candidates can spend more time updating their resume and less time responding to job listings.
“There are certainly benefits to real-time matching methods since recruiting is about the quality and not the quantity of candidates,” Matuson says. “ Job boards that help you reduce time spent combing through unqualified candidates are certainly a plus!”

A frustration-ending disruptionThe sheer volume of resumes posted online every day make it difficult for employees to stand out in the e-paper crowd and make it equally as difficult for employers to find the right candidate in the electronic haystack. With candidates and recruiters frustrated by the limitations and challenges that earmark the current options, real-time candidate matching seems poised to become the next major online recruiting disruption.

November Jokes

Here are the jokes for November.
Thanks for reading the blog!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

-Did you hear about the man who walked into a screen door. He strained himself!

-Did you hear about the guy on the operating table who thought he 'kicked the bucket?' To his relief he only turned a little 'pail'.

-An American was going for a job interview in the English countryside and on the way out he asked a local farmer for directions, "Excuse me dude, could you possibly tell me the quickest way to London?" The farmer said: "You driving or walking, lad?" The American replied: "Driving." The farmer nodded, saying: "Yup, definitely the quickest way."

-What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long? .........Polaroids!
-Thanks to JQ for submitting this one!

-Two dogs meet each other in the park. The first dog says, "Hi, I'm Rover. What's your name?" The other dog says, "I don't know, but I think it's 'Down Boy'."

November Newsletter

For almost ten years I sent out a monthy email newsletter to my clients with a job or sales tip and a ccouple of punny jokes. When I stopped doing the monthly email in 2009 and switched to a blog format. I received 78 (out of 300 recepitiants) responses asking em to start it again! Since October 2010 I've 15 comments from clients that they missed the montly email and asked if I start it again.
I have done so.
Below is the November edition. I will be sending the email around the 20th of each month. If you are a regular reader of the blog the email content my be familiar. If you receive the email newsletter and are looking at the blog for the first time please enjoy!
Thank you!
Ev

It has also been requested that I continue the newsletter with the jokes.
More articles and jokes can be found at my blog:
http://everetsblog.blogspot.com/

Below is the short article for this month and the jokes:

WI Labor: Where is it and Where is it Going?
Remember three years ago when we were all screaming for good employees?
Heck, some companies were just asking for ANY employees.
With the recession that changed and now companies are inundated with lots of good candidates for each open position.
Will it stay that way?

Even with the recession and sluggish growth of the US economy, the numbers suggest that the trend will soon be to employers having a hard time finding good employees.
Demographic data suggests that the baby boomers are now just starting to retire. Many are choosing not to retire completely but to work part-time either at a job out of their field or as a consultant. Generation X is not as big and so there are not as many workers to fill the available jobs. Xers are also more concerned with family time than working overtime like their parents because they saw their parents work for years at a company only to get fired or laid off.
Millennials want more control of their own time. Since they have been "plugged in" to technology they often are available to employers through various technologies so when they are away from work they want to control their own time (as an aside you can incent millennials with time off, not money).

Look at the numbers. As the population changes that has a huge effect on the ability to hire.
Very interesting. Thanks to Betsy Falk, Labor Economist for Southeastern Wisconsin for sharing this information.
To see the data click below:
http://slidesha.re/9iS9yH

Jokes:
-Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

-A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because", he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

Giving Can Be Keeping: Retaining Employees Through Gift Giving

The holidays are fast approaching, and so the decision on what to give your employees looms. Rewarding employees through gift giving can help motivate and inspire them, especially in these hard times. Gift giving is an opportunity to recognize and appreciate your staff for their loyalty and hard work, a strategy aimed at those employees you want to keep on your team.

So what do you give in these politically correct and turbulent times?

Give a gift employees don't expect. If you provide monetary bonuses every year, your staff may no longer think of it as something special. Thoughtful, personal gifts that employees can use for themselves or share with family and friends are always a good bet. They show employees that they're your most valuable asset, and that can ultimately boost morale. I got a CD Walkman from my general manager 15 years ago. It still works and I still use it almost every day as my downstairs bar radio/CD player.

Gift certificates are a convenient option, always appropriate and appreciated. "Gift certificates are ideal," said Jeff Stevens, Milwaukee Corporate Sales Manager for The HoneyBaked Ham Company of Ohio. "You choose the amount to fit your budget and your employees decide how they want to spend it. It's that simple!"

If you want to get a bit more personal, select an appropriate gift to fit each employee. Your staff will appreciate that you chose something based on their personality and specific needs. "Many of our customers purchase gifts based on individual employees," said Jeff Stevens. "Whether it's our original, authentic HoneyBaked Ham®, Sliced and Glazed Turkey® Breast or a sweet treat, there's a gift every employee looks forward to come holiday time. What makes it even more special is that they can share it with their families."

Deciding on what gifts to give doesn't have to be difficult. Whatever gift you choose, see it as an opportunity to appreciate and motivate your staff and keep them happy all year long.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Ev

Recruiter Network November Meeting-How to Get Past Gatekeeprs

Thursday November 18th
8am-10am
Wisconsin Athletic Club
5020 South 110th Street
Milwaukee 53227
NOMINATIONS & ELECTIONS ARE THIS DAY!!!!
-president
-vice-president
-secretary

Presentation:
GETTING PAST GATEKEEPERS:
Make calling new companies easier
by EVERET KAMIKAWA

MORE Funny Job Application Answers

Part one was pulished previously:
funny-application-answers
Here are more funny job application answers:

REASONS FOR LEAVING THE LAST JOB:
“Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.”
“Responsibility makes me nervous.”
“They insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 every morning. I couldn’t work under those demanding conditions.”
“Was met with a string of broken promises and lies, as well as cockroaches.”
“I was working for my mom until she decided to move.”
“They made me a scapegoat - just like my three previous jobs.”
“I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing.”

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:
“While I am open to the initial nature of an assignment, I am disposed that it be so oriented as to partially incorporate the experience enjoyed heretofore and that it be configured to lead to the application of more rarefied facets of financial management as the major sphere of responsibility.”
“I was proud to win the Gregg Typting Award.”

SPECIAL REQUESTS & JOB OBJECTIVES:
“Please call me after 5:30. I am self-employed and my employer does not know I am looking for another job.”
“My goal is to be a meteorologist. Since I have no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage.”
“I procrastinate - especially when the task is unpleasant.”
“It’s best for employers that I not work with people.”
“You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time.”

PHYSICAL DISABILITIES:
“Minor allergies to house cats and Mongolian sheep.”

PERSONAL INTERESTS:
“Donating blood. 14 gallons so far.”
“Marital status: often. Children: various.”
“Marital status: single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments.”

SMALL TYPOS THAT CAN CHANGE THE MEANING:
“As indicted, I have over five years of analyzing investments.”
“I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience.”
“Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.”
“Education: College, August 1880-May 1984.”
“Experience: Dealing with customers’ conflicts that arouse.”
“Develop and recommend an annual operating expense fudget.”
“I’m a rabid typist.”
“Instrumental in ruining an entire Midwest chain operation.”

REFERENCES:
“References: None. I’ve left a path of destruction behind me.”

Have you seen any of these answers?
I have.
Have you written any?
I haven't.
Share them here.

Thanks!
Ev

Funny Application Answers

One of my good clients recently shared a story with me about the following application she received. Her story was that an applicant was filling out a job application. When he came to the question, "Have you ever been arrested?" He answered, "No."The next question, intended for people who had answered in the affirmative to the last one, was "Why?"The applicant answered it anyway: "Never got caught."
She asked that I not share her identity.

I thought there have to be other funny application answers. I found several sites listing answers allegedly given by job seekers. These are from a website called "Smack the Interviewer."

Here are some of the answers claimed to have been put on job applications:

QUALIFICATIONS:“Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.”
“Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions.”
“Lets meet, so you can ooh and aah over my experience.”
“I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.”
“I am loyal to my employer at all costs… Please feel free to respond to my resumé on my office voice mail.”

EXPERIENCE:“Note: Please don’t misconstrue my 14 jobs as job-hopping. I have never quit a job.”

EDUCATION:
“Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.”
“Finished eighth in my class of ten.”

SPECIAL SKILLS:
“I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor and spreadsheet progroms.”
“Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.”

I've really seen some of these answers on applications I've reviewed.
Have you had any funny application answers? Have you written any?
Share them here!
I've published more of these funny answers in a new article:
More-funny-job-application-answers

Thanks!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

WI Labor: Where is it and Where is it Going?

Remember three years ago when we were all screaming for good employees?
Heck, some companies were just asking for ANY employees.
With the recession that changed and now companies are inundated with lots of good candidates for each open position.
Will it stay that way?

Even with the recession and sluggish growth of the US economy, the numbers suggest that the trend will soon be to employers having a hard time finding good employees.
Demographic data suggests that the baby boomers are now just starting to retire. Many are choosing not to retire completely but to work part-time either at a job out of their field or as a consultant. Generation X is not as big and so there are not as many workers to fill the available jobs. Xers are also more concerned with family time than working overtime like their parents because they saw their parents work for years at a company only to get fired or laid off.
Milenials want more control of their own time. Since they have been "plugged in" to technology they often are available to employers through various technologies so when they are away from work they want to control their own time (as an aside you can incent milenials with time off, not money).

Look at the numbers. As the population changes that has a huge effect on the ability to hire.
Very interesting. Thanks to Betsy Falk, Labor Economist for Southeastern Wisconsin for sharing this information. You can see her presentation below.

Ev

http://slidesha.re/9iS9yH

October Jokes

I'm no longer including jokes as part of the blog posts because they get republished on different sites. I know many of you look forward to reading the jokes so I'm posting them on one blog post of the 30th of each month.

If you have any that you would like to share, please email them to me, however they have to be clean enough to tell your mother!

Jokes:

-Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

-A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because", he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

-A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

-Did you hear about the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

-If you saw the Packers vs. Vikings Game on 10/24/2010 you'll get this joke:
Wondered if you had seen the news from the NFL regarding Brett Favre. In addition to being the only quarterback to complete his first pass to himself, they announced he is the first quarterback in NFL history to record his own sack.
(Thanks to M.T. for submitting this joke!)

Job Seekers #1 Complaint

A job seekers #1 complaint is that they never hear back from companies about if their resume was received.

With all the technology there is out there, job seekers still ask the question first of "did you get my resume?"
Internet recruitment advertising whether it is social media or job boards, plus new phone and computer technology makes it easier for job seekers to send you their resume.
With everything on your plate, and with all the new tools out there to advertise jobs, there is no way that you could obviously respond to them all.
To save you the time of having to respond to job seeker’s repeated calls about if their resume was received:
Use an Auto Responder to let them know the resume was received AND what is the next step and how THEY should respond. The auto responders are standard for email programs and job sites.

Set up your responder so the job seeker will receive a standard thank you. This message will appear after the job seeker applies for your position(s). For example, "Thank you for applying! We are accepting applications for this position until March 15th. We will contact you for an interview if you skills match our requirements the week of March 21st. Because of the high amount of interest in this position, if you do not hear from us to set up an interview during that week, you are no longer being considered for this particular opening. We thank you for your understanding and encourage you to apply for other openings with our company as they arise. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer."

You can also take a different approach:
"Thank you for applying to this position.
We are excited to receive your resume. We are closing applications for this position on March 15th and will be calling for interviews the week of March 21st.
If you do not hear from us by March 28th, please feel free to send an email to --@----.com. Thank you for your patience and good luck in your job search."

Letting them know you received their resume should help you not receive many phone calls from frantic job seekers wondering about if they are being considered.
It will also help you have a positive brand image with that job seeker.
That could lead to a happy future employee or maybe a customer of the company.

Thank you!
Ev

Provide Timeline in Your Ad

Posting Tip:
Provide a timeline in your job posting for when you expect the hiring process to be completed.
Have the dates in the ad:
1. when applications need to be submitted by,
2. when interviews begin,
3. when final decision is expected to be made.
Obviously the “best laid plans never survive first contact with the enemy,” when it comes to knowing exactly when a hire is going to be made, however having these items in the ad can be of benefit in two ways:
1. If a job seeker knows how long the hiring process is, that will help them plan their follow up for thank you cards, letters and emails. They will know how long to wait before looking for any kind of response from the prospective company about the position they applied for.
2. It saves you the time it takes to answer inquiries from job seekers calling about a position before the hiring timeline is complete.
Have a great week!
Ev
"A Heck Of A Nice Guy"

Lets Play...Name My Blog!

It's time to do some rebranding.
When I started this blog it was a continuation of the email newsletter I had been sending to HR clients. It was titled "A Heck of A Nice Guy" which is my personal tag line that I've used for years.

When I went into sales training the blog was refocused to speak to salespeople and sales managers and sales recruiters. I was advised that "A Heck of A Nice Guy" was bad because no CEO would hire a "nice guy" as a trainer because they wanted someone that would stand up to them and their sales staffs. The blog name was changed to "Ev's Sales Answers." The blog content was split 50-50 between articles about sales and articles about recruiting.

Now that I am back in the world of recruiting full time I need to modify the name to reflect that change. The audience is back to HR professionals, Recruiters, and salespeople that sell HR services or HR products.

What name do you think I should choose:

1. A Heck of A Nice Guy

2. Ev's Answers

3. Ev's Recruitment Answers

4. Ev's Job Search Answers

You can vote by going to the polls section of my LinkedIn profile:
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/107344/gmjam

OR

Leave a comment on this blog post.

Voting will close by the end of November 2010.

Thank you!

Ev

Relationships in Recruitment & Sales

Being a recruiter has many parallels to being a salesperson. In fact I'd argue that it is one of the toughest sales positions because you have to convince the candidate they are right for the job and get them motivated, then you have to convince the employer that they are the right candidate. There are two sales made each time.

I recently did a workshop for a number of recruiters who were getting stalled by gatekeepers, blown off by decision makers, and stumped by how to prospect for new companies to reach. These recruiters weren't your "traditional salespeople," however their role demanded they know selling skills. One of the things we talked about was establishing a relationship with the people they were selling to. Once again, the day I do that seminar Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling, has a timely blog post. It is printed below. Instead of salespeople, insert the word recruiters and you see it is the same thing.

Thanks!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"
Many people have written extensively on the topic of relationships and selling. One common topic is that people only buy from people they like and the other is how to develop strong relationships. There is nothing wrong with either of those topics but they surely miss the mark in two important areas.

1.Some people develop wonderful relationships but the relationships take much too long to develop.
2.How many times have you or one of your salespeople had a strong relationship only to discover it was still not enough to get the business?
People do have to like you but it's not enough. Liking and trusting you has some value, but not enough to compensate for a price or quality gap. The added value must come from understanding their compelling reasons for buying what you sell and for spending money, sometimes more money, to do business with you rather than your competitor. When you have conversations that lead to and uncover their personal, compelling reasons, you'll be seen as a trusted adviser, different from all the rest, and THEN they'll see the value in doing business with you.

Unfortunately, in order to ask those questions and have those discussions, a relationship must be established. And this is where the double edged sword comes into play. The discussion I'm talking about is a first meeting discussion. But the relationship that requires is often a 2nd or 3rd meeting relationship. So the problem I present is, how does one develop a late-stage relationship in an early stage meeting?

This is what the elite salespeople (top 6%) do so well. It's what the mediocre (bottom 74%) do so poorly. And it's what all of your salespeople must be able to do effectively and consistently in order to win more than they lose.

How do your salespeople stack up?

How to Deal with Recruiter and Sales Personalities

Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling, is one of the formost sales thinkers in the country.
He wrote a blog about the different personalities that sales people have and how to deal with them as a manager. I think these personalities apply not only to salespeople, but to recruiters as well. What do you think?

Thanks!
Ev

Here is Dave's blog:

My regular readers know that when it comes to evaluating the sales force or assessing sales candidates, I have no use for personality assessments. If you're a first time or new reader, look no further than here for documentation and proof. Regulars also know that I sometimes reprint emails received from sales candidates who have been offended by a potential employer's request to take an assessment. Many of these uninformed, unprepared, emotional candidates refer to the assessment as a personality test - the assessment it least resembles. There are personalities in sales, but the various traits do not predict performance and there isn't a personality trait that translates into sales because the traits are discovered in social contexts, not business or selling contexts. That said, there are diverse individuals that you will have to manage and they aren't really personalities as much as they are characteristics. You might call them one or two word descriptions of people instead of characterizing them as personalities. Following are 9 Sales Characters and how you can manage them more effectively.

PETE THE PERFECTIONIST - Pete won't begin anything until he is sure he can do it perfectly. Symptoms are procrastination, failure to implement your suggestions and ferocious rewriting of his notes (because the first set wasn't perfect). Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to provide Pete with permission to fail. Assign a goal that you both know he can achieve. Tell him to get some "no's" and it's not only OK to bring back some "no's" but you would prefer it to a "think it over" or a "maybe". Read more


NICK THE KNOW IT ALL - Nick is easy to spot because he drives you nuts. He knows everything, as evidenced by his willingness to say, "I know!" You can't tell him anything new and he will always defend the way in which he has always done things. His lack of flexibility and resistance to change is his downfall. Your job, and in this case, it's too much fun to call it a job, is to challenge or dare Nick. Tell him what needs to be accomplished, but tell him you don't think he can do it. Tell him you'll have to get someone else to do it. Enough said.

ORSON THE OVER ACHIEVER - Orson is always busy, always striving to break the record, out-earn his latest paycheck, set the new company record for most miles driven in one day, etc. While you may have the urge to take some of the burden off Orson's shoulders, he actually functions best when over burdened so leave him completely alone. He doesn't need to be managed with a heavy hand. Just tell him what you expect and he'll get it done. It never occurred to him that he could find a way not to do it! Read More

LOIS THE LOYALIST - Lois is like a puppy dog, always following you around, sucking up to you, learning from you and even idolizing you. In fact, she'd love to have your job if it meant you would be getting a better one! The only thing you have to do with Lois is tell her what to say, who to say it to, when to say it, what will happen then and what to do after that. Make sure she has it down exactly and then have all the confidence in the world that your own personal groupie will get the job done exactly as you would have done yourself.

CONTENT CARL - Carl has sales know how but isn't using it as aggressively as he once did. His sales are probably flat and his calls for new business are dropping every year. He has a good existing customer base and services it well but you still want him to be more than a $100,000+ service man. Have a very serious, extremely strong meeting with Carl, in which you tell him how terribly unhappy you are with his performance. Tell him exactly what you expect from him, by when, and what will happen if he doesn't perform. Read More


NEED FOR APPROVAL ALICE - More than anything, Alice needs for you to like her. Her need for approval will cost you both a fortune in lost business in the field but you can play her like a fiddle in the office. Just tell her you are losing respect for her. Tell her she isn't measuring up to the others in the office. Tell her that she is disappointing you. She'll do whatever it takes to get back in your good graces. Read More


UNSTABLE URSULA - Ursula needs to get her head on straight, might come from a dysfunctional family and is used to being yelled at. In fact, it's the only thing to which she seems to respond. Ask her nicely to do something and she blows it off. Lose your cool with her and it's done in a New York minute.

MIKE THE MAVERICK - Mike plays by his own rules, is difficult to manage, won't take direction and drives you nuts. The only reason he still works for you is that he outperforms everyone else on the sales force including you! Managing Mike is easy. Tell him you respect his need for independence and his desire to do it his way. Tell him to stay away from the office as much as he likes, avoiding sales meetings and keeping away from the other salespeople. You'll continue to let him write his own rules as long as he continues to out-produce everyone else. If his production ever drops below a certain level, then he will have to follow the same rules as everyone else.

MISERABLE MARVIN - Marvin complains a lot. He has more excuses than hooky playing high school renegades. His performance is always below acceptable levels and despite that, everyone thinks he has potential - except that he's never approached it. Marvin is the easiest of the bunch. Create an exit plan that fires him for non-performance and a lousy attitude.

Biggest Mistake Salespeople Make #2

Here is another common mistake salespeople make.
I used to do this one as well. My comments are below, however here is best selling author Dave Kurlan's take:
When attempting to close sales most salespeople have a tendency to use either a good/better/best, option A/option B, or price 1/price 2 method of proposing and/or presenting. Everyone likes options, right? Yes, people love options. The only problem is that options prevent most people from being able to make decisions. In their new book, Switch - How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Dan and Chip Heath provide statistical evidence that people, when presented with options, go into paralysis. And the paralysis gets worse as the number of options increase.

Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball (2005), points to the importance of identifying the compelling reasons why someone, or some group, or some company would buy and buy from you. It points to the importance of demonstrating your expertise and differentiating yourself from your competition by asking good, tough, timely questions. It points to the importance of identifying whether the prospect is able to spend the money that solving their problem requires. Those accomplishments provide the information for you to present a single, ideal, needs and cost appropriate solution. If you are indeed an expert and you did ask the right questions and listened effectively, then there is only one possible ideal solution. Present more than one and you cause a prospect to question your expertise. Worse, you provide them with something to think about.

Make your solution ideal, both in terms of it being needs and cost appropriate, with no options, and if you did what you were supposed to do throughout the sales process you will make it easy for your prospect to make a quick decision.

http://http//www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/13259/This-One-Tip-Helps-Salespeople-Close-More-Business.aspx



As I said at the top I used to be guilty of this mistake. I was taught if you give a high price with lots of extra stuff in the package, a low price with nothing but the basics, and the price you want is in the middle with all the things a client WANTS, the prospect will pick the middle price and package. While this worked well in about 33% of the proposals I would pitch, there were times when it was obvious the client was in brain overload. I also couldn't understand why I would get so many "think it overs" when the package they want is right there!



The answers are simple:
1. It is easier to explain and for a cleint to understand one package or option.
2. It also doesn't make it appear that they will be treated "differently" because they have a smaller package than other clients.
3. One option is easier to negotiate if you need to.
4. One option also makes it easier to decide to "Take it or leave it."
5. Presenting one option reinforces that you were or were not listening and asking the right questions. Use one option as a visual reminder to yourself to ask and listen what your client needs. If you can't come up with one ideal solution, you probably need to listen more or ask more questions.

Try the single package option in your next ten proposals. I bet you get fewer "let me think it overs" than you did before. I did.


Thank you for reading!

Ev

Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make #1

In the course of me becoming a better salesperson over the last sixteen years, I've read thousands of articles about how to get better at this topic or that. I've even written a few of my own!
There are few sales trainers that I have read that get to the point better than Dave Kurlan. He's written two articles on the two biggest mistakes salespeople make.
I'm sharing them with you because I've committed these mistakes myself over the years and I know you have too.
Here is his article about the first mistake.
Thank you!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"
Ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title - "What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?", with the key word being mistake - something they do incorrectly rather than due to a weakness - and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are nearly always made but 2 of them happen as a result of the single biggest mistake.

Objective Management Group has conducted nearly 9000 sales force evaluations and more than 550,000 sales assessments. The data clearly shows that in 84% of the cases, salespeople make inappropriately timed presentations. What does that mean?

These days, the typical point of entry for a salesperson is AFTER a prospect determines an interest in purchasing a product or service. They think they know what they want and THEN the salespeople get involved. Prospects ask for a presentation of capabilities, and salespeople present their value proposition. Prospects ask for pricing and salespeople create a proposal. Then the salespeople begin to follow up, but the prospects have already disappeared and mistake #2 occurs - inappropriately timed follow up.

Let's use my Baseline Selling model to illustrate why the presenting taking place in the scenario above is inappropriately timed.


In the baseball diamond above, capabilities, value propositions, and presentations take place between third base and home plate. Yet, when a salesperson gets an audience with a prospect the salesperson is has just reached first base. It's inappropriate to run directly from first base to third base without touching second base on the way! But that's what 84% of all salespeople skip the valuable criteria that sits between first and second base, as well as between second and third base.

A salesperson representing the industry leader or the low-price leader might get the business by being in the right place at the right time, but it's nearly impossible for everyone else to succeed in these scenarios. It is very difficult to sell without uncovering a prospect's compelling reasons to buy (spend money) and buy from you instead of your competitors. That is just one of many criteria that must occur between first and second base. It's nearly impossible to sell without learning how much money the prospect will spend and that is just one of many criteria that must be identified between second base and third base. When a salesperson isn't aware of those two important slices of information, it isn't possible to differentiate (think decommoditize) your company from the pack nor can you present both a needs and cost appropriate solution!

What can you do about this problem?

Goodbye Mom. I Love You!

My Mom died today.
Here is her obituary.
Make sure you hug your loved ones!
Thank you Mom!
Ev

Kamikawa, Annamae

Annamae died October 8, 2010 at the age of 87 after a courageous battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Annamae cherished her family and is survived by three sons: Paul (Theresa) of Belgium, Dan (Betty) of Toledo, OR, and Everet (Julie) of Milwaukee; six daughters: Chris (Hubert) King of Annandale, VA, Meredith (Saul) Shuster of Fort Lauderdale, FL, Linda (Ken) Nolan of Greenfield, Kathy Kamikawa of Milwaukee, Pat (Bill) Famiglietti of Muskego, Barb (Jeff) Seonbuchner of BrownDeer; and 12 grandchildren: Tyson (Kristine), Keith, Peter, David (Heather), Claire, Samantha, Eric, Michael, Elizabeth, Kimberly, Hanna, Hiroshi; and 3 great grandchildren: Isabelle, Lily, and Isaac.

Annamae graduated from Holy Angels High School and attended Spencerian College in Milwaukee where she met her husband Paul. During World War II, she supervised the building of outboard motors for the Navy at Fairbanks Morse of Beloit, WI. She was a gifted singer who passed that passion to her children. She sung with the Bel Canto Holiday Chorus, Irish Fest mass choir, Old St. Mary's choir, and the St. Philip Neri choir.

She was committed to her parish by serving as its Council President and Boy Scout board member. She was active in her community as an election judge volunteer for 25 years, neighborhood watch committee member and a member of the Parkinson's support group at the Washington Park Senior Center.

Services and visitation will be held Monday October 11, 2010 from 3:00pm-6:30pm with a memorial at 5:30pm. Zwaska Funeral Home, 4900 W. Bradley Road. 414-354-5330 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 414-354-5330 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. She will be interred at Wisconsin Memorial Park at a future date.

The family requests that donations in lieu of flowers be sent to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, 811 W. Evergreen Ave., Suite 303, Chicago, IL 60642. http://www.pulomonaryfibrosis.org.

Why & How Salespeople Can Start a Blog

My brother asked me awhile ago why he would ever want to start a blog.

In his case and career it might not make sense. For anyone looking to establish themselves as an "expert" in a particular area, blogging is now an essential tool to help establish that credibility. It still doesn't carry quite the same weight as writing a book, however blogging has made it easier to get published.

There are several blog sites out there. Probably the most popular are WordPress, TypePad, and Blogger.com. I believe there are links to all three in the apps section on LinkedIn and all can be synced to your profile as mine is.

If you are going to start a blog first decide what it is going to be used for.
Business or Personnel.
Whichever it is, try not to mix personnel stuff in a business blog (unless appropriate) and vice versa, at least on a regular basis. You want to remember who your audience is. They are reading because it is information they are interested in. If you clutter it up with too much other stuff you will lose readers.

Once you know what you are going to write about, schedule some time each week or each day to write something. The key to making a blog is to be consistent. If you decide to post something each day then do that, or every other week or once a week, whatever is right for you.

Once you start writing you don't have to write big stories all the time. Just a paragraph or two will work. Look for articles you can comment on or include in your blog post. Include videos, pictures, graphs, etc.
The more you write and the more places you link your blog to and the more keywords you tag your blog with, the more the search engines will find you and rank you higher up (that is important for a biz blog-personnel stuff not so much potentially).
in the search rankings (see my SEO blog: http://http//everetsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-seo-is-important-to-salespeople.html)

If you want some ideas on what a blog can look like, other than this one,
here are two fun examples:
http://pastrypiratesailsforth.blogspot.com/
http://tonysbeijingreview.blogspot.com/

I hope that helps!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

Why SEO is Important to Salespeople & Managers

Google "Heck of a Nice Guy" or "A Heck of a Nice Guy" and this is what you get:

Google
Advanced search on 9/28/2010
About 615,000 results (0.33 seconds)

Search Results
1. Ev's Sales Answers
When doing a search on my tag line, "A Heck of A Nice Guy," I saw this article by Chip Camden. In his article he talks about IT consultants, however if you ...
everetsblog.blogspot.com/ -
Google
Advanced search on 7/14/2010
About 20,700,000 results (0.45 seconds)
Search Results
1. Ev's Sales Answers - A Heck of a Nice Guy.
Observations about sales force development. Written for Sales Managers, Salespeople, and sales Recruiters with a touch of humor from ...
everetsblog.blogspot.com/ - CachedA Heck of A Nice Guy: Why the title "A Heck of a Nice Guy"
Granted, not too many people might search for the terms above, however I've gone by this title for the last 10 years. It is on my business cards, was the original title for this blog, and often is part of my email signature. You might not remember my name, but you might remember the "heck of a nice guy" tagline. It is my personal brand.

In sales it helps you with your credability if you are known by your clients as an "expert" in something. You want them to think of you first if they ever have a question about whatever it is you are an expert in. There are millions of salespeople. How are you different? Product? Style? Clothes? Whatever it is own it and your prospects and clients will remember you.

In this day and age of the internet a customer can call up thousands of "experts" on any subject they like. If you aren't one of the top listings the odds of you gettling looked at go down. How you get listed toward the top is the subject of another blog. For now just figure out something you can own.
So why did I choose "A Heck of A Nice Guy" to own? Other salespeople are known as great closers, or trainers. I have yet to meet someone that has said they WANT to be known as a jerk or mean guy. If people buy things from people they know & like, or aspire to be like, then people want to buy from someone "nice." When we are on our deathbeds I believe everyone wants to be able to have a list of thier accomplishments, once of them being known as "A Heck of A Nice Guy or Lady."

Thanks Dominic!

I'm coaching my four-year-old son's kindergarten soccer team.
We had our first game and practice last night.
It is the first time I have coached any kind of sport.
It is also the first time my son has played a team sport.
I was so proud that he scored the first goal!
What made the the night really great though happened after the game.

As kids and parents were leaving and I was walking back to the car with my son, one of other players, Dominic, passed by with his parents and with an excited face yelled "thanks coach!"
I can't tell about how cool a feeling that is and the spring it has put into my step today!
We talk all the time about having a mentor or coach in your professional life.
It is one thing to be a coach or mentor for another adult, however
if you haven't served in that capacity in some way for a kid I really recommend it.
No matter what Dominic does in his athletic career or I do in my coaching career, I'll always be known as "Coach K" to him.
That is a cool feeling.
Thanks Dominic!

Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

Rod Stewart & Barry Manilow as Salespeople?

Dave Kurlan, author of "Baseline Selling" and founder of Objective Management Group, has written many great articles over the years (including several I've linked to in this blog).
I thought this one was fun:Rod Stewart & Barry Manilow Could Be Your Veteran Salespeoplehttp://bit.ly/9gbDzx

In the article Dave argues that Rod and Barry putting out "safe albums" of covers and standards for older fans. This is the equal to a veteran salesperson who has developed a list and now is sitting back farming the renewals and not going after new accounts or even trying new ideas with the old clients to get more revenue from them.

In addition to the questionable ambition of Rod and Barry, I would also hold the record management accountable. My guess is they know that Barry and Rob fans will purchase anything they record, so it is safe revenue for the record label. This is just like a sales manager who doesn't want to upset a veteran salesperson because they don't want to risk losing that piece of their overall revenue goal by forcing them to change, and having them quit. The revenue generated for the label by Rod and Barry, while it my shrink a bit from album to album, is still a certain amount of revenue they can count on from year to year.

I'd also argue that the record management might have tried to get Rod and Barry to record something different to gain new fans and Barry and Rod might have refused. Instead of dropping them from the label, management wants to keep them around for as long as they can produce some revenue rather than let them go to the competition. This is just like a sales manager who instead of dumping the veteran and giving the developed list to someone that will actually work the accounts to get new revenue, they keep the veteran person on because then the current company gets the revenue and not a competitor.

While huge hot acts like Elvis or The Beatles don't come along everyday so it can be scary to drop an act because you don't know initially how you are going to replace their revenue, there are plenty of acts like U2 or Metallica that have started small but kept doing the basics better and better and now they are huge revenue makers. Sales managers need to get salespeople on their staffs that do the basics and become big rather than keeping the veteran salespeople who have lost the fire and are slowly fading into oblivion. Some of the new and upcoming salespeople may turn out like Metallica and be solid revenue producers for years, others may turn out more like Britney Spears, hot for awhile, then become too much of a burden on the company and need to be dropped. Some of the new salespeople might be like Hanson. They get to the top and the salesperson and company ride the wave, but then they crash and the salesperson is never heard from again. Some acts when given the right management and coaching (like Britney Spears got when her dad took over her management) get another chance and make hit albums again. Other acts like Autograph are one hit wonders and flame out. The secret is to recognize which way the salesperson is going and act accordingly.

I'd argue in either case your company is better off taking a chance on an early U2, an unknown Carrie Underwood, or an up & down Brittney than hanging on to a staff of Barry Manilows and Rod Stewarts.

Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

What Grades Are You Getting?

This week has been a bit crazed so far.
We're reaching back into the archive for another good reminder from Jeff Gitomer.
Thank you!
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

What grades are you
getting in business?
All WOW!s…
Remember when you were in school and you got your report card?

And you were so nervous that you didn’t open it, because you thought there were bad grades, and you just couldn’t look? Or worse, you thought your parents would be angry?

Finally, on the way home from school, you couldn’t stand it so you looked. Or you traded cards with a friend and looked at each others. You got a C in math, you felt you didn’t deserve it, and you hated old Mrs. So-and-So?

You only got six report cards a year. One every six weeks. They were progress reports and grades for that marking period. And you had to wait another six weeks to improve or redeem yourself.

Fast-forward a few years (or 20) to life, job, career, sales, service, co-workers, and customers.

Report cards are now instant, and they come in all forms. Verbal communications from co-workers, comments from your boss both good and bad, customer compliments for a job well done, or botched email, text, IM, or voicemail from anyone. Even a hand-written note.

Report cards are now instant. And they can come at any time. You get them every day from co-workers and from customers, but the grading system is different – they call them word forms, not letter forms.

A failing grade is “What were you thinking?” The next highest is “Let me speak to your supervisor.” The middle grade is “Thanks” or “Good job.” It’s passing, but not great. The second highest grade is “Great job. I really appreciate that.” And the highest grade is, “WOW!”

When someone tells you “WOW!” it means you did something they were not expecting, or you performed or delivered beyond their expectations.

WOW! comes one of two ways: reactively customers call about something wrong and you react and respond all the way to a WOW! Or proactively you uncover a need and fill it before the customer knows it was going to happen. The easiest example is a backorder where you call the customer in advance and give them choices.

But it could be something like a new way to install or use your product, or a new item that just came in that you thought would be perfect for the customer. Or you had an idea that you gave to your company or your customer, and their response was WOW!

When someone tells you “WOW!” it means that you have gone the extra mile. WOW! and extra mile are siblings - equally valued - and one leads to the other. When you go the extra mile, someone will say “WOW!” And when someone says, “WOW!” it means you are going the extra mile.

You helped someone when they weren’t expecting it. You created a service response that went beyond your customer’s expectations. Or you performed a random act of kindness…and got a “WOW!”

Negotiating a Great Salary

I've published lots of advice on how companies should recruit salespeople, however here is some advice that salespeople often ask when interviewing for a job.
This comes from Kim Lankford. For more information and articles by her click the link provided.
Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"
Step-by-Step Guide to Negotiating a Great Salary
By Kim Lankford http://www.core-usa.com/interview/Step-by-StepGuide.html#Topic40 ,

Here's a secret: Employers rarely make their best offer first, and job candidates who negotiate generally earn much more than those who don't. And a well-thought-out negotiation makes you look like a stronger candidate -- and employee.

"We found that those people who attempted to negotiate their salary in a constructive way are perceived as more favorable than those who didn't negotiate at all, because they were demonstrating the skills the company wanted to hire them for," says Robin Pinkley, coauthor of Get Paid What You're Worth and an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.

You can start laying the groundwork for your salary negotiation even before the first interview. Here's a step-by-step guide:

During the Interview Process

•Do Your Research: Before the interview, learn about the company's salary ranges and benefits as well as industry salary ranges. Also learn about the company, its competition and the industry. Then think about what you want from the job, both in terms of salary and benefits, as well as opportunity and upward mobility, Pinkley says. This information will become valuable during the interview and salary negotiation.

•Don't Talk Turkey Too Early: "You never win by talking about money early on," says Lee Miller, author of UP: Influence, Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want . "The time to talk about money is when they've fallen in love with you." Before that, you're just one of many easily dismissed candidates. But once the employer has decided you're right for the job, "it becomes an issue of, ˜how are we going to make this happen?'" Miller says.

•Avoid the Salary Requirements Trap: Pinkley tells people to say: "I completely understand why this is an important issue -- you're trying to determine who you want to continue in this process, and it doesn't make much sense to pursue candidates you aren't going to get. Secondly, I know that the tendency is for people to lowball their salary range, because they don't want to get out of the pool. My preference is to figure out, independent of these issues, the degree to which there is a good fit here and the extent to which I can bring value to this organization and the extent to which I'm going to be fulfilled and involved and committed to this position. I suggest we wait to have the salary conversation until you're prepared to make an offer."
If they still want a number, leverage your research to talk industry-standard ranges, not specific numbers.

At Time of Offer

•Strike First: Try to mention a specific salary before the employer does. This will start the negotiations in your ballpark. "The whole negotiation is based on that first offer," Pinkley says.

•Don't Commit Too Quickly: The employer often offers the job and salary simultaneously. Never say yes right away -- even if you like the offer. "I would always come back and try to get more," Pinkley says. Tell them you'll give them an answer within a certain time frame.

•Make Them Jealous: If you've been interviewing for other jobs, call those prospective employers, tell them about your offer, and see if they can speed up the interview process -- or make you an offer. Knowing you have another offer will make you more attractive to them.
When it's time to answer the first employer, mention the other employers' interest to help boost your value. But don't make up offers. It's easy to check, and the interest alone will help you look good.

•Articulate Your Expectations: Tell the employer what you want from the job, in terms of salary, benefits and opportunity. "It may be time off, flexibility about where you work, autonomy or ownership over a particular area, it may be your title -- whatever has a perceived value to you ," says Joyce Gioia, president of the Herman Group, a think tank of management consultants and futurists.

•Negotiate Extras: If the employer can't offer you the salary you want, think about other valuable options that might not cost as much. Miller always recommends asking for education, which can make a big difference in your long-term marketability.

•Quantify Your Value and Performance: Mention your value in quantifiable terms, such as how much money you saved your company and how your projects increased revenues by X thousands of dollars, Gioia says. Then tell them specifically how valuable you expect to be in your new job.

You also can add a few contingencies showing your confidence in your performance. You could ask the employer to give you a salary review after six months rather than a year or for a year-end bonus if you make a certain amount of money. "It shows that you believe in yourself and are committed to bringing what you say you can do," Pinkley says. "You believe you are going to bring significant value to the organization.

How Salespeople can deal with the Impostor Syndrome

When doing a search on my tag line, "A Heck of A Nice Guy," I saw this article by Chip Camden.
In his article he talks about IT consultants, however if you substitute our titles of "salesperson," "sales manager," "sales trainer," or "sales consultant" you can relate to the same things Chip mentions.
Thanks Chip!

Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

How consultants can deal with the Impostor syndrome
Date: September 10th, 2010
Author: Chip Camden
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/project-management/?p=2075

Last week, we engaged in some highly critical navel-gazing, as we brutally examined our level of expertise with the help of the Dreyfus model. The point of that exercise is to realistically assess where you are so you can improve; it isn’t meant to “put you in your place” or discourage you from pursuing consulting. This week, I examine some of the dangers of thinking too poorly of your own abilities, as well as why that happens and how to address it.

Now you may be thinking that most of the consultants you know don’t need any help in this area — they think too highly of themselves already. Don’t confuse a portrayal of self-confidence with actually possessing it. The loudest blowers of their own horns often do so because they sense that they need to convince people of their worth — which can be a symptom of poor self-esteem rather than real confidence in their abilities. If you know you’re good, why do you need to assert it?

I’d wager that most of the people who suffer from a low opinion of themselves are the ones whom you would least suspect — those who are most successful. In 1978, two clinical psychologists named Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes created the term Impostor Syndrome to describe a phenomenon in which successful people fail to appreciate their own abilities, ascribing their achievements to luck or their knack of fooling people into thinking that they’ve got it together when they feel instead as if they had no control over their success.

I think that consultants may experience this phenomenon more than those in other professions. Our vocation provides little or no structured advancement or official recognition. Employees receive promotions, pay raises, and perhaps awards to indicate official recognition of their achievements. These set expectations within the company for the opinion that everyone should have about their abilities. We have to demand our own rate increases — clients don’t generally volunteer to do that. We often work on our own, so feedback and assessment don’t occur naturally — we have to seek it out. Furthermore, we often have to operate outside our field of direct knowledge. Sometimes we have to do a lot of research, or try things until we figure it out — but we think that our clients expect us to know what we’re doing.

Consultants tend to be perfectionists. And those of us who are autodidacts are especially susceptible; we don’t have the specific degree or certifications to point to and say, “See — I do know this stuff,” even though our years of experience may have trained us far better than any coursework could have done.

All of this can lead to the feeling that we’re “winging it” and hoping that nobody finds out that we haven’t a clue. So, what’s wrong with having that feeling, besides the knot in the pit of your stomach as if you were landing a B-52 loaded with bombs without any flight training? For one thing, it can make you feel even more overwhelmed than you are, increasing procrastination and possibly leading to burnout. If you start to give those voices credence, then you may start to try to cover up evidence of your incompetence: failing to admit your mistakes and shuttling the blame onto others. If you deny and suppress the feelings of inadequacy, then they can grow larger than life and compound all of these problems.

Tips for dealing with the Impostor syndrome:
Face it head-on. Admit that you sometimes feel like a charlatan — that you think the impression others have of you is false, and that you feel somewhat to blame for that misconception.

Realize that you aren’t alone. This phenomenon affects many highly successful people. Guess what — they aren’t any better than you are. Humans have some sort of hero worship instinct that makes us deify the people that we respect. When people start doing that to you, it’s natural that you should feel like it’s misplaced. So think about all the people whom you think you could never be like, and remember that they’re only human. They’ve made plenty of mistakes too, and probably don’t feel like they deserve their celebrity any more than you deserve yours.

Accurately assess your own achievements. Sometimes I like to step back for a minute and pretend that I’m my own acquaintance. If I knew someone who had done all the things that I’ve done, good and bad, what would I think of them? I’d think they were a phenomenal learner and a creative thinker who makes their share of mistakes but always tries to learn from them, and who is often confused by human relationships. That isn’t so bad, is it? If that’s the picture others are getting, then nobody’s getting fooled. If I’m still trying to hide parts of that, then I need to learn a little self-acceptance.

Embrace your failures. A failure is not the smoking gun that demonstrates once and for all that you’re an impostor. As the old saying goes, “If you never failed, you never tried.” Analyze each failure to learn what you could have done differently. Recognize yourself as part of the system that needs adjusting. But get off the moral high horse about never making mistakes — that will never happen, nor is it desirable. Fear of failure can paralyze your efforts. As one of my early mentors once told me, “I’d rather you make ten wrong decisions than to take the same amount of time making one right decision.”

Don’t blow off praise. If it’s genuine — not just trying to get on your good side — then accept it for what it says. You did something that someone else appreciates. Even if it wasn’t all your doing, you had a hand in it. Accept their thanks with humility.

Use self-effacing humor. You can’t possibly believe that you project a falsely superior image of yourself if you’re always joking about your own foibles. Here’s the paradox: people will think even more highly of you when you do. “He’s not only a wizard, but a heck of a nice guy too.” This also sets a tone for yourself, so you don’t take yourself too seriously.

Get to work! The best antidote to thinking that you’re a fake is to get things done. Prove that you’re for real.

Have you ever experienced the Impostor syndrome? If so, how did you deal with it?