For those of you who have been long time readers of my newsletters and blogs, you know that I include a few punny jokes at the end of each blog or newsletter.
While that has always been a trademark and branding point for my blogs and newsletters, a point that many of you have shared with me over the years, the fact that articles are now published all over the web I can no longer control where or what situations my articles are printed in. Since I don't know if jokes are always going to be appropraiate for the venue,or if the readers will understand why they are there, I'm no longer putting the jokes in my regular blog posts.
Since humor has always been a part of my newsletter and blog, and my blog description says the blog contains humor, I've decided to dedicate one post a month to just jokes. I'm not going to publicize it, however if you need a little laugh or need an ice breaker for a client or meeting, the jokes will be there for you to enjoy. Jokes are always clean enough to tell your mother.
I'll post this blog on the last day of the month.
Thanks for reading.
Here are the jokes:
Q: When is the vet busiest?
A: When it's raining cats and dogs.
Q: What happened when the dog ate his owner's watch?
A: He got a lot of ticks.
Q: What is a baseball dog?
A: One that catches flies, chases fowls, and dashes for home when he sees the catcher.
What's a sharks favorite game?
Swallow the leader
What kind of dog always runs a fever?
A hot dog
Two peanuts walk into a bar.
One was a salted.
A mushroom walks into the bar and says to the bartender "Could I get a beer please."
The bartender looks at him, shakes his head and says "No, we don't serve food here."
The mushroom says "Why not? I'm a Fungi!"
Ev
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
How to Get Customers to NOT Focus on Price
When a customer is just focused on price, what is one strategy you can do to get them to move off price? I asked these fellow sales experts and here is what they had to say
Terry Slattery of Slattery Sales Group (www.SlatterySales.com)
Howard Popliger of Epic Development & Evaluations (www.epicdevelopment.ca)
Gretchen Gordan of Braveheart Sales Performance (www.braveheartsales.com)
Adam Boyd of Market Sense (http://www.ms.sandler.com)
Terry Slattery of Slattery Sales Group (www.SlatterySales.com)
Howard Popliger of Epic Development & Evaluations (www.epicdevelopment.ca)
Gretchen Gordan of Braveheart Sales Performance (www.braveheartsales.com)
Adam Boyd of Market Sense (http://www.ms.sandler.com)
Monday, July 26, 2010
My Job Search
There are a lot of good salespeople looking for work these days.
I've been there.
I was a guest on Street Smart Conversations with Kathy Bornheimer.
Here is my story. There are two more segments with more specific information on how salespeople can find jobs in today's market.
For more information on Kathy Bornheimer's job coaching program go to:
http://www.streetsmartjobsearch.com
Ev
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
HR Professionals! Are You Looking for a New Job?
HR Managers, Recruiters, Generalists, Benefits professionals are you looking for work?
We all know of fellow professionals that have lost their jobs over the last three years. As president of the Recruiter Network my newsletter mailing list went from 1,500 names in 2007 to 400 in 2010.
I know there are members of the Recruiter Network that are out of work.
We know this because of the experiences shared with us by members, bounced emails from our newsletter list, and some members suddenly not attending meetings.
Since many of us work for agencies that help others find employment it might be embarrassing to admit you are out of work since we are all "professionals" in employment.
You might not realize some of the techniques people are using to find jobs these days, or just need to brush up those skills.
This meeting is for you!
Our presenter will be Bob Bachman, The Likeable Engineer. He is an excellent presenter on many things, but especially Job Search Techniques, Networking and Spider Networking. He is on the Board of 40Plus, leads it's event Planning
Committee, has taught 8 week classes for Crossroads job seeking programs at Elmbrook and Hales Corners Churches, and spoken to a number groups about Job Search techniques. He is thrilled to speak to us, to the point that he is taking a vacation day to do so. Lets have a big crowd in appreciation for Bob and also that it is a July meeting.
Date: Thursday July 22 2010
8:00-10:00am
Location: The Meta House
Seating is limited!
RSVP through the Recruiter Network site www.sewirecruiternetwork.com
We all know of fellow professionals that have lost their jobs over the last three years. As president of the Recruiter Network my newsletter mailing list went from 1,500 names in 2007 to 400 in 2010.
I know there are members of the Recruiter Network that are out of work.
We know this because of the experiences shared with us by members, bounced emails from our newsletter list, and some members suddenly not attending meetings.
Since many of us work for agencies that help others find employment it might be embarrassing to admit you are out of work since we are all "professionals" in employment.
You might not realize some of the techniques people are using to find jobs these days, or just need to brush up those skills.
This meeting is for you!
Our presenter will be Bob Bachman, The Likeable Engineer. He is an excellent presenter on many things, but especially Job Search Techniques, Networking and Spider Networking. He is on the Board of 40Plus, leads it's event Planning
Committee, has taught 8 week classes for Crossroads job seeking programs at Elmbrook and Hales Corners Churches, and spoken to a number groups about Job Search techniques. He is thrilled to speak to us, to the point that he is taking a vacation day to do so. Lets have a big crowd in appreciation for Bob and also that it is a July meeting.
Date: Thursday July 22 2010
8:00-10:00am
Location: The Meta House
Seating is limited!
RSVP through the Recruiter Network site www.sewirecruiternetwork.com
Monday, July 12, 2010
Have A Professional Email!
Lately I've been writing about recruiting salespeople more so than things salespeople should do.
I don't want to create overkill on a subject, however I can't be silent any longer.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A JOB HAVE A PROFESSIONAL EMAIL ADDRESS!!!
I'm not a recruiter, however I'm assisting some clients with their recruiting system.
Lots of good candidates are coming to these clients through job boards and social media posts.
Several have doubt cast on them because of their email address.
I thought this was common sense by now.
Here are some samples:
LoveDaniel
sexyguy
babyboy
mspooh8705
lilpohbear
sexymomma
dunkiss
punkrockchickaheadlookout
I understand that when looking for a new job you can't use the email address given to you by a current employer, however DON'T use the one you use for friends either.
If you're reading this and you recognize your email, or have an email like the ones above that you are using for your job search, change it to something more professional and I bet you will get more positive responses to your resume.
Everet
I don't want to create overkill on a subject, however I can't be silent any longer.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A JOB HAVE A PROFESSIONAL EMAIL ADDRESS!!!
I'm not a recruiter, however I'm assisting some clients with their recruiting system.
Lots of good candidates are coming to these clients through job boards and social media posts.
Several have doubt cast on them because of their email address.
I thought this was common sense by now.
Here are some samples:
LoveDaniel
sexyguy
babyboy
mspooh8705
lilpohbear
sexymomma
dunkiss
punkrockchickaheadlookout
I understand that when looking for a new job you can't use the email address given to you by a current employer, however DON'T use the one you use for friends either.
If you're reading this and you recognize your email, or have an email like the ones above that you are using for your job search, change it to something more professional and I bet you will get more positive responses to your resume.
What is the silliest email address you've seen?
Everet
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Top 10 Tips for Hiring Salespeople
In my conversations with company presidents, one of the frustrations I'm constantly hearing is that they can't hire great salespeople.
My philosophy has always been that sales is a different type of job. What other career is there where a person gets rejected as often as in sales? What other careers are there that people fall into because there is nothing else for them to do (a career of default). How many other jobs are there where you are paid on performance? How many jobs have the types of "freedoms" allowed to salespeople? Since sales is a different type of job, they way you recruit salespeople needs to be different.
Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling, recently published a blog with his top 10 tips to recruit salespeople. Having spent 15 years recruiting salespeople they happen to be parallel to mine.
Here are his tips:
1.This is a perfect time to be hiring - the economy is quickly turning around - heading into an upswing - and you must have excellent salespeople to find opportunities and get them closed by outselling your competitors.
2.Hiring is not an experiment. Trial and error will set you back the length of your sales cycle and learning curve plus the cost of your salaries and draws.
3.You absolutely must know whether you have been hiring the right people or not, why, and what you must change to get it right. This is where the sales force evaluation comes in. Accurate answers to all of the possible "could it be...?" questions. It's not unusual to have 10-20 of them that must be answered in order to be certain about what must change.
4.You must know what it will take for a salesperson to be successful in your business, calling on your market, against your competition, and with your pricing and product, and it goes WAY beyond industry knowledge and experience.
5.Job descriptions are for employees - the people you hire - they aren't for posting your jobs. You provide the new salesperson with the job description when they report for their first day of work. The job posting is a description of the person you're seeking to hire.
6.Jettison or redeploy your under performers. Everyone is a role model for your new salespeople so you must be certain that everyone is modeling the right kind of behaviors and competencies. It's similar to the hopes you have for your children when you hope they meet and become friendly with good kids from good families. The problem is that some of your salespeople aren't and won't ever be able to model what you want and you'll need to know whether they can be developed to do this or not. The Sales Force Evaluation provides the insight to make these decisions too.
7.You must let go of old beliefs, guidelines, methods and processes. The organization that isn't yet a client (and might not become one) from the last example above made a broad statement that will absolutely kill any attempts to improve their ability to select successful salespeople. One of their leaders said, "your hiring recommendation (hirable, not hirable) will be a deal stopper for us". They want the option to hire the people who don't have a chance of being successful. This despite the fact that they haven't had consistency from the people they've previously selected. Why are they taking this stance? They had a problem with some other assessment - not a sales assessment - so they believe that if the mini-van of assessments wasn't predictive, then the Mercedes of assessments won't be either.
8.You must have patience. I know you want those new people in place in two weeks but let's be realistic. Six months from now, would you rather be saying, "Sure glad we waited to hire the right candidates!" or, "I wish we waited to make the right hires - this isn't working out and we'll have to do it all again..."
9.Success in sales has little correlation to college education, degrees, years in sales, or even industry experience. Stop putting so much weight on these criteria and instead, make sure the candidate can outsell your competition.
10.Success in sales has much less to do with who your new salespeople know than is thought to be true. I've seen more examples of this myth than you can believe. If your company is the one everyone wants to do business with - the industry leader, price leader, or technology leader, then salespeople with a book of business will thrive because the customers will follow them to your door. On the other hand, if you are the new kid on the block, have new (different and not yet accepted as the standard) technology, higher pricing, are value challenged, or have decent but not great products/services, then the books of business your new salespeople bring along may not follow them to your door.
To read Dave's full blog entry click here:
http://bit.ly/9dq2pR
These ideas may be a little different than what you are used to, but they are spot on. I've seen them work in the field and I couldn't have written them better (so I didn't). Thanks Dave!
Everet
My philosophy has always been that sales is a different type of job. What other career is there where a person gets rejected as often as in sales? What other careers are there that people fall into because there is nothing else for them to do (a career of default). How many other jobs are there where you are paid on performance? How many jobs have the types of "freedoms" allowed to salespeople? Since sales is a different type of job, they way you recruit salespeople needs to be different.
Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling, recently published a blog with his top 10 tips to recruit salespeople. Having spent 15 years recruiting salespeople they happen to be parallel to mine.
Here are his tips:
1.This is a perfect time to be hiring - the economy is quickly turning around - heading into an upswing - and you must have excellent salespeople to find opportunities and get them closed by outselling your competitors.
2.Hiring is not an experiment. Trial and error will set you back the length of your sales cycle and learning curve plus the cost of your salaries and draws.
3.You absolutely must know whether you have been hiring the right people or not, why, and what you must change to get it right. This is where the sales force evaluation comes in. Accurate answers to all of the possible "could it be...?" questions. It's not unusual to have 10-20 of them that must be answered in order to be certain about what must change.
4.You must know what it will take for a salesperson to be successful in your business, calling on your market, against your competition, and with your pricing and product, and it goes WAY beyond industry knowledge and experience.
5.Job descriptions are for employees - the people you hire - they aren't for posting your jobs. You provide the new salesperson with the job description when they report for their first day of work. The job posting is a description of the person you're seeking to hire.
6.Jettison or redeploy your under performers. Everyone is a role model for your new salespeople so you must be certain that everyone is modeling the right kind of behaviors and competencies. It's similar to the hopes you have for your children when you hope they meet and become friendly with good kids from good families. The problem is that some of your salespeople aren't and won't ever be able to model what you want and you'll need to know whether they can be developed to do this or not. The Sales Force Evaluation provides the insight to make these decisions too.
7.You must let go of old beliefs, guidelines, methods and processes. The organization that isn't yet a client (and might not become one) from the last example above made a broad statement that will absolutely kill any attempts to improve their ability to select successful salespeople. One of their leaders said, "your hiring recommendation (hirable, not hirable) will be a deal stopper for us". They want the option to hire the people who don't have a chance of being successful. This despite the fact that they haven't had consistency from the people they've previously selected. Why are they taking this stance? They had a problem with some other assessment - not a sales assessment - so they believe that if the mini-van of assessments wasn't predictive, then the Mercedes of assessments won't be either.
8.You must have patience. I know you want those new people in place in two weeks but let's be realistic. Six months from now, would you rather be saying, "Sure glad we waited to hire the right candidates!" or, "I wish we waited to make the right hires - this isn't working out and we'll have to do it all again..."
9.Success in sales has little correlation to college education, degrees, years in sales, or even industry experience. Stop putting so much weight on these criteria and instead, make sure the candidate can outsell your competition.
10.Success in sales has much less to do with who your new salespeople know than is thought to be true. I've seen more examples of this myth than you can believe. If your company is the one everyone wants to do business with - the industry leader, price leader, or technology leader, then salespeople with a book of business will thrive because the customers will follow them to your door. On the other hand, if you are the new kid on the block, have new (different and not yet accepted as the standard) technology, higher pricing, are value challenged, or have decent but not great products/services, then the books of business your new salespeople bring along may not follow them to your door.
To read Dave's full blog entry click here:
http://bit.ly/9dq2pR
These ideas may be a little different than what you are used to, but they are spot on. I've seen them work in the field and I couldn't have written them better (so I didn't). Thanks Dave!
Everet
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