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."