I Don't Know

Two different sales managers I've had in my career have told me that if a client asks a question I don't know the answer to just:
1. "tell the client an answer that sounds like it makes sense and move on."
2. "tell the client a very vanilla answer that doesn't really answer the the question"
3. "make something up"

I hated all of the above and just go with the advice my dad told me:
"When a client asks a question you don't know the answer to, say you don't know the answer to that question and you will get back to them by a certain time with what you found out."

That advice has in my opinion saved more deals for me over the years than I can count.
I've been in meetings with other sales people who have told the client one of the three answers above and when I've heard them I always think how corny that sounds. How false and insincere.
If it sounds that way to me, how does it sound to the client?

By telling the client I don't know the answer but I will find out and call them back at a certain time it does three things to strengthen my relationship with that client:
1. It gives me a reason to call them back
2. by calling them back at the appointed time it gives me credibility with the client that I will follow up as I say I will
3. I get instant credibility in the meeting because I am being honest

Danny Cahill of Hobson Associates has a good video example of what I'm talking about.
Thanks Danny. I'm glad to see you took my dad's advice too!

Thanks!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

Danny Cahill "I Don't Know" video

8 Cold Calling Tips

Here are eight tips you can use to make your cold calls more effective:

1. STAND UP
The tone of your voice conveys more about you than the words coming out of your mouth. By standing up and talking you energize yourself and sound better on the phone. There is some truth when people say "I think better on my feet." It also changes your perspective of your surroundings. Your brain gets more active taking in the subtle changes it is seeing.


2. HAVE DIFFERENT INFORMATION EACH TIME YOU CALL
I used to work at a company where the salespeople left the same message and had the same conversation over and over hundreds of times per week. Not only were they bored, but the number of calls returned went down. Why? Prospects knew why they were calling and found it more of an annoyance. They accepted appointments just so they could stop the calls. If you have a new idea, relevant to your customer, each time you call your customer will more readily take your call because they know you will have some good information for them that they can use and it establishes you as an expert in your field and a professional salesperson. It is a good compliment to be called a professional.

3. DON’T LEAVE A VOICEMAIL EVERY TIME
This stops you from sounding too robotic and gives you a break from leaving the same message over and over, and relieves you the stress of trying to think of something new every time.
***I only suggest this if you are routed through a gatekeeper or automated switchboard to your contact. If you dial the direct number of your contact make sure you leave a valuable message. With caller ID they might be screening calls. If they see your name or company they might not pick up. If they know you are leaving interesting messages they are more likely to pick up or return your call.***

4. TRY A FUN GAME
Instead of calling your list at random. Make it a game. Call all companies starting with "A," or companies that end in "Y," or all of your contacts who are ladies or all of the contacts who are men. If you want to know about something I did, read this blog by Mike Carroll http://intelligentconversations.com/blog/bid/45767/Cold-Calling-all-Brian-s-and-Kevin-s

5. DON'T TRY TO BE PERFECT ON EVERY CALL
Be yourself. You won't have the perfect pitch and tone or wording all the time. No one is perfect. Don't try. Be yourself. Have fun. Learn from your mistakes. Try new ideas. If you screw up, SO WHAT! You have an immediate opportunity to do better on your next call.

6. DON'T USE A SCRIPT
Scripts are guidelines. Put them into your own words.
If you are worried you can't, see tip #5.

7. SMILE
Place a mirror where you can see your face. As you talk smile at yourself often. This is an old radio broadcaster trick. Smiling helps inflection and tonality and you come across more friendly.

8. RESEARCHGo to LinkedIN and see if the person you are trying to connect to has anything in common with you. That is an easy way to start a conversation. Spend a minute or two looking at the company website so you know what they do. DON'T GET BOGGED DOWN IN RESEARCH that you let it distract you from your calls.

Don't use any of these tips when calling my clients! If you do call my clients credit me when you get through to them!

What tips do you use for making cold calling easier?

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

7 Pre-Call Tips for Making Cold Calls

You're about to read two words that will probably make you shudder...cold calls.
Everybody hates doing them to some degree, however they are necessary part of sales and NO technology will ever replace the value of speaking to a LIVE person.

Assuming you have no hidden weaknesses or head trash that is preventing you from picking up the phone (subject of a different article), here are some practical tips for making cold calling easier:

1. USE A CRM ACT!, SalesForce, Landslide, Outlook, or even an Excel spreadsheet are invaluable when it comes to tracking your calls. USE THEM!
-Log all contact information
-What the conversation was about
-If you left a message what the message was about
-Your next step when you call again

2. SCHEDULE CALLS IN YOUR CRM
Give yourself a reminder of when you want to call these people again. Inevitably things happen and if you don't schedule a call I guaranty you will forget about that customer. Next time you look at the record you'll realize it has been several weeks since you called them. Scheduling calls also allows you to do step three...

3. USE YOUR LIST OF SCHEDULED CALLS LIKE A TO-DO LIST
You know the good feeling you get when you accomplish something? Same here. Make it a daily goal to get through all of your scheduled calls. Cross them off the list and you'll have a visual record that you accomplished something today!

4. DON'T SCHEDULE ALL COLD CALLS FOR ONE TIME OF DAYYour prospects aren't slaved to their desk, why should you be? Instead of blocking out an hour or two of solid time (lets face it you'll get bored or find some excuse not to do calls within 15 minutes), schedule 3 or four blocks of 20 minutes each at different times of the day. It's shorter. Keeps you focused. Plus someone that isn't there in the morning might be there when you call in the afternoon.

5. SET A REACHABLE CALL GOAL
Make cold calling a daily goal. Pick a number of 10 or above and make sure you hit that number every day. If you don’t have a CRM that you can use to schedule your ten daily calls, print call sheets with the numbers 1-10 or 1-20 or 1-whatever. As you call each prospect write them down on the sheet until you have the sheet filled up. As you get better at cold calling increase the goal by five prospects. When you hit that goal for a month increase it again by five prospects until your schedule won’t allow any more increases. Soon you will know (through data in your CRM) how many calls it takes you to get a meeting. Then you can set a more permanent call goal.

6. STAY FOCUSED WHEN MAKING CALLS Since you're only doing calls for short periods of time, turn off your email or extra phones. If your sales manager comes by for a "gotta minute" tell them to take a hike because you're making calls. Good mangers will realize what you're doing and will leave you alone because they know cold calls lead to new business. Jerky sales managers will take offense and be pissy toward you because you're not paying attention to them. If they don't understand the importance of what you are doing and are giving you attitude, print this blog and leave it on their desk.

***I want to note here that you shouldn't be afraid to have your manager listen to you while making calls. If your manager comes in and wants to listen and they are not a distraction, let them listen in. They can offer feedback after the call or encouragement during a call. I had a sales manager that I didn't get along with and she didn't care for me. One day I was struggling with a call and trying to get an appointment. She was listening behind me and could hear I was frustrated. She calmly patted me on the shoulder. It surprised me later that she did that, but at the time it was the encouragement I needed. I calmed down and got the appointment. Even though we didn't get along, I still to this day appreciated the little gesture she did.***

7. DO YOUR CALLS FIRST THING
I'm a big believer in doing the hardest tasks first. If cold calling is that much of a strain for you, schedule one of your calling sessions for first thing when you get into the office in the morning and first thing when you get back from lunch.
Tackle calls when you are fresh and energized.

Being organized with he steps above will help ease your mind. Instead of coming into your office in the morning and wondering where to start, you'll already have a plan in place and can hit the ground running.
These tips alone will make cold calls easier for you.

Next blog I'll give you tips on what to do when making your calls.
What has worked for you? Let me know. I'm always ready to learn new ideas.

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

August 2014 Jokes

More Puns from MT!
Thanks for submitting them MT!
Thanks to all of you for reading them!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

19. England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

20. I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

21. I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.

22. All the toilets in New York 's police stations have been stolen. The police have nothing to go on.

23. I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

24. Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.

25. Velcro: what a rip off!

26. A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.

27. Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!

Top 10 Resume Mistakes Made by Young Careerists

I teach this same subject.
Rich is dead on, not only for students, but adults too.
Thanks Rich!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy


The Top 10 Resume Mistakes Made by Young Careerists
by
Rich Grant

Throughout my experience in career services, I have seen 200 to 300 resumes written by college students. Based on that experience and my interactions with recruiters and other career advisers, one thing is clear: just about everyone makes the same mistakes.

This is not a scientific survey by any means. However, ranked by frequency I submit to you the top 10 resume mistakes made by young careerists:

Lack of Accomplishment Statements (95%)

With only a small handful of exceptions, students and recent graduates need to more strongly articulate their accomplishments. I ask students to think about results, achievements, outcomes… what was significant about what they did? A resume is not a job description; it’s a marketing document. Rather than “wrote marketing brochures,” take it a step further and tell the outcome, such as “wrote marketing brochures that resulted in new product launch revenues 15% over goal.”

Lack and/or Poor Placement of Action Verbs (90%)
Far too many resumes fail to include action verbs. Instead, they include passive phrases like “responsible for” and “assisted with.” Sometimes, the true action is embedded in the middle of the bullet point, obscured by details such as who else was involved and the nature of their role. For example:

“Working with the chief operating officer, coordinated a training session for…”

Instead, start with the action:

“Coordinated a training session with the Chief Operating Officer…”

Lack of Differentiation (80%)

Most resumes I’ve seen lack the punch needed for an effective marketing document. They might be error free, but not at all effective at helping the author stand out or be persuasive. In a competitive job market, your resume must demonstrate your unique value proposition!

Why are you different? What makes you stand above all the “clutter?” Thousands of college students graduate each year, and to recruiters and hiring managers, most of you look the same on paper. (The Onion did a really funny spoof on this topic: “Company Immediately Calls Job Applicant Upon Seeing ‘B.A. In Communications’ On Résumé”)

Irrelevant Detail (70%)

A large majority of students need to cut out irrelevant or obvious information. Above all else, be concise. To stay focused on the position you seek and to avoid the use of too many words, don’t have bullet points any longer than two lines and don’t have more than three to five bullets for each job.

To stay away from stating the obvious, focus on common sense. For instance, if you aren’t applying for retail work, it’s not necessary to say you “handled cash transactions” when describing your last retail job. And if you’ve worked at a Subway sandwich shop, you don’t need to tell us you “made sandwiches.”

And, speaking of irrelevant: unless you are a college freshman, delete all information about your high school.

Poor Formatting (60%)

Some of the same students who list “Expert at Microsoft Word” on their resumes don’t know how to use bullets or set tabs to right justify information such as dates. Typical issues I see are inconsistent fonts (styles and sizes), bullets not lining up, inconsistent line spacing and resumes that display a blank second page.

Meaningless Phrases (50%)

If you are going to claim attributes such as “strong leadership skills”, “good team player”, and “strong communication skills” you need supporting evidence in your resume. A big pet peeve of recruiters and staffing professionals: reading hollow, unsubstantiated phrases on resumes. To the previous point about differentiation, what applicant wouldn’t claim to be a “good team player?”

Grammar or Word Usage Issues (40%)

Several resumes have either use the wrong word (“they’re” versus “their” and “you’re” versus your”) or poor grammar. There are dozens of words that sound similar but mean different things, like “prospective” and “perspective.” The two most common grammar errors I see in resumes are capitalizing words in the middle of a sentence and misuse of apostrophes (See Two-fer Tuesday: Common Grammar Errors)

Typos (33%)

Even the smallest typos can kill your chances of getting an interview. Two solutions to the problem: (a) read your resume out loud and (b) have someone else read it. Don’t be like the college senior who had in her summary section, “five years interacting with the pubic.”

Use of an Over-used Resume Template (20%)

Not only are Microsoft Word templates the lazy way to put together a resume, they look cheesy and will make you appear like all the other lazy job seekers. Most recruiters and HR professionals can spot a template a mile away… and they hate them! Use Word and learn how to use all the formatting tools correctly.

Old School Elements (10%)
Some students didn’t get the memo that resumes no longer should have objective statements or the meaningless phrase “references available on request.” I also don’t like to see an old-fashioned header with name and contact information stacked like pancakes. You can set yourself apart, and save room, by displaying your information more creatively.

Start Over Please! (5%)

A few resumes I’ve seen are just so bad I tell the students they need to start over. I’m sometimes astounded… do you not know what a resume should LOOK like? Do some online research about how to create an effective resume, and look at samples. Take a look at Jessica Hernandez’s website with several awesome resume samples. Besides Jessica’s website, read about job search best practices on some of the best career blogs, such as this one on YouTern and Careerealism.

After you create your resume, get editing and proofreading help from someone who has experience with reviewing resumes (a hiring manager, HR professional or career services adviser at your college).

So go take a look at your resume… and then determine: how many of these mistakes are you making? More important: how soon can you fix them?

About the Author: Rich Grant has a background in writing and editing, business planning, and higher education. Rich is the current president of the Maine College Career Consortium and the former director of career services at a small four-year college in Maine. He is wrapping up a 10-month interim position as a career adviser and internship coordinator at a private college and is seeking his next role in business or higher education. Find Rich on LinkedIn and Twitter, and become a regular visitor to his blog where he imparts his words of wisdom once or twice a week.

July 2014 Jokes

More from MT.
Thanks buddy and keep them coming!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy...just not as funny of a guy as MT

10. They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.

11.  Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations.

12.  We re going on a class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there's no pop quiz.

13.   I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

14.  Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn't control her pupils?

15.  When you get a bladder infection urine trouble.

16.   Broken pencils are pointless.

17.   I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.

18.   What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.

Can We Contact Your Current Employer

Can We Contact Your Current Employer?
When an employer asks this question, who will they usually contact and what questions will they be asking and what can an employer legally answer?
More and more companies are asking this and my candidates aren't sure what to do.
They're worried about retaliation if their current employer finds out they are working.
How can I assure them it will be okay?
If they check "no" will that disqualify them from jobs?
Here are some of your responses:

Are you crazy?
Don Espinola CPIM

Don:
If you mean Clinically Crazy, not that I've been recently diagnosed.
If you are asking if it is Crazy as in unbelievable that employers are asking this question, it is indeed true.
I've had many candidates go through this.
If you mean Crazy as in I don't know how to answer this question, then I'm guilty.
It is better to ask a dumb question than live in ignorance as I just started saying.
Thanks!
Everet


Everet, I like your sense of humour it is exactly like mine. My point is once any of my old employers find out about my wanting to leave, then they would make it their business to make me go bye-bye.
Don Espinola CPIM

I've also run into this myself on standardized tests for companies a major insurance company and a fast growing IT server company. In both cases I was perfectly qualified but had marked "no" to that question because it was very early in the process. If someone is coming to me with an offer I can sort of understand that they want to contact my employer as a last check to make sure I'm not being fired or disciplined. I think it is asked too early in the process most of the time and I wonder how many good candidates an employer is losing because of that question.

Someone else I know very well had an employer contact them when they applied to the new company on a sort of whim when they weren't too serious about looking for a new job but the position sounded interesting. Their current employer made life troubling enough that they WANTED to quit after being contacted by the new company.
Ev



whenever i have been asked this question i always reply with a big fat NO!!!. As once with my previous employer who i thought was extremely professional tried to make my life a living hell with the new employer even though they ignored his comments but he was too ticked off that i was leaving his organization.
Shua Ahmad
Group COO at Binham Pakistan Pvt Ltd

The easy answer for employers is to clarify when they will be contacting your employer in the interview process. If it is after I have an offer in my hand I don't have  a problem when you contact my current employer. Before that point I run the risk of being fired and I do have an issue with that.

Thanks for reading and participating!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

10 Phrases Great Speakers Never Say

As a salesperson at some point you are going to have to do a sales presentation to a group or even be asked to speak at a local event.
When that happens, here are some things to remember not to say when giving your presentation.
Thanks Jeff!
Ev




10 Phrases Great Speakers Never Say
BY
Jeff Haden

Want to ruin a presentation in seconds?
While it's really hard to immediately win over a crowd, it's really easy for a speaker to lose the room within the first few minutes of a presentation.

To make sure you don't lose your audience, here's Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, serial entrepreneur and founder of TwitterCounter and The Next Web, with ten things you should never say during your presentations:

1. "I'm jet-lagged/tired/hungover."

Not sure where this comes from, but one in five presentations at any conference starts with an excuse: "They only invited me yesterday," or, "I'm really tired from my trip," or some other lame excuse the audience really doesn't want to hear.

We, the audience, just want to see you give it your best. If you feel like crap and can't give it your best, maybe you should have cancelled. Take a pill, drink an espresso and kill it!

2. "Can you hear me? Yes you can!"

This is how many people start their talks. They tap a microphone three times, shout, "Can you all hear me in the back?" and then smile apologetically when it becomes clear that, yes everybody can hear them, but no one raised their hand.

It isn't your responsibility to check the audio. There are people for that. (And if there aren't, test the volume ahead of time.)

But if you do speak into the microphone and get the impression it's not working, just relax, count to three, and try again. If you still think the sound isn't working, calmly walk to the edge of the stage and discreetly ask the moderator to check for you.

Throughout, smile at the audience and look confident. Assume everything works until proven otherwise, then stay calm and wait for a fix.

3. "I can't see you because the lights are too bright."

Yes, when you are on stage the lights are bright and hot and it will be difficult to see the audience. But they don't have to know about all that.

Just stare into the dark, smile often, and act like you feel right at home. Feel free to walk into the audience if you want to see them up close.

And don't cover your eyes to see people but politely ask the lights person to turn up the lights in the room if you want to count hands or ask the audience a question. Even better, talk to the lights people in advance so they know when you will ask them to raise the lights.

4. "I'll get back to that later."

If you happen to stumble on an audience eager to learn and interact, grab that chance and enjoy it. If someone has a question you will address in a later slide just skip to it right away.

If someone is brave enough to raise their hand and ask you a question, compliment them and invite the rest of the audience to do the same. Never delay anything.

5. "Can you read this?"

The common rule is to make the font size on your slides twice the size of the average age of the audience. Yes, that means that if you expect the audience to be 40 then on average you are stuck with a font size of 80 points.

You won't be able to fit a lot of text on the slide, which is a good thing and brings us to the next point.

6. "Let me read this out loud for you."

Never ever, ever, ever in a million years add so much text to a slide that people will spend time reading it. And if you do, make damn sure you don't read it out loud for them.

The best way to lose your audience's attention is to add text to a slide. Here's what happens when you have more than four words on a slide: people start reading it. And what happens when start reading? They stop listening to you.

Only use short titles on slides, and memorize any text you want the audience to read. Or, if you must include an awesome three-sentence quote, announce that everyone should read the quote and then be quiet for six to ten seconds so they can actually read it.

7. "Shut off your phone/laptop/tablet."

Once upon a time you could ask an audience to shut off their devices. Not anymore. Now people tweet the awesome quotes you produce or take notes on their iPads. Or they play solitaire or check Facebook.

You can ask for the audience to turn their phones to silent mode, but apart from that you just have to make sure that your talk is so incredibly inspiring they will close their laptops because they don't want to miss a second.

Demanding attention doesn't work. Earn attention instead.

8. "You don't need to write anything down or take photos; the presentation will be online later."

It is really cool that you will upload your presentation later. But if it's a good presentation it won't contain too many words (see point 4) and won't be of much use to the audience.

For many people the act of writing is an easy way to memorize something they've heard. In short, allow people to do whatever they want during your presentations.

9. "Let me answer that question."

Of course it is awesome if you answer a question right away, but you need to do something else first. Often the question from an audience member will be clear to you but not to the rest of the audience.

So please say, "I'll repeat that question first so everybody can hear it," and then answer it.

Plus, when you make a habit of repeating questions, that gives you a little more time to think of an awesome answer.

10. "I'll keep it short."

This is a promise no one keeps. But a lot of presentations start that way!

The audience really doesn't care if you keep it short or not. They've invested their time and just want to be informed and inspired. So say, "This presentation is going to change your life," or, "This presentation is scheduled to take 30 minutes, but I'll do it in 25 minutes so you can go out and have a coffee earlier than expected."

Then all you have to do is keep that promise, which brings me to the last point.

Bonus tip: "What, I'm out of time? But I have 23 more slides!"

If you come unprepared and need more time than allowed, you've screwed up. You must practice your presentation and make it fit within the allotted time.

Better yet, end five minutes early and ask if anyone has questions. If they don't, invite them for a coffee to talk one-on-one. Giving an audience five minutes back earns their respect and gratitude. Taking an extra five annoys and alienates them.

Conclusion: come prepared, be yourself and be professional. The audience will love you for being clear, for being serious, and for not wasting their time.

How To Get More Interviews While Sending Fewer Resumes

Thanks Phil for the great advice!
Ev

 

Career Advice: How To Get More Interviews While Sending Fewer Resumes
By
Phil Rosenberg

Which do you think is more effective?
1) Sending 100 resumes responding to many jobs in the hope that a couple might be interested in you
or
2) Sending a few resumes to a few jobs where you are a perfect fit and a superior candidate?

Most candidates still send too many resumes today, and many still use method #1 above … but it doesn't work well today, leaving candidates frustrated and job search even more difficult.

While this strategy is counter-intuitive, sending fewer resumes is a much more effective method. It’s more effective and gets most candidates more interviews than the "spray and pray" method.

Why? Because candidates can’t target 100 resumes per day – not even close.

Sending many resumes per day is random. Candidates who use this method randomly apply for jobs, using the same resume. The strategy here is to hope that the words on their form letter resume magically match the 7 -10 keywords an HR rep, recruiter, employer, or admin (at a small company) is searching for.

The odds are awful, which is a big reason I see candidates with an average 1.5% resume response rate (see ''2 Ways To Determine Your Resume Response Rate" at http://www.recareered.com/blog/2011/03/02/career-advice-2-ways-to-determine-your-resume-response-rate/).

You can target one or two resumes reasonably well per day, maximum. Sending fewer resumes allows the candidate to research the company and customize each resume to specifically meet that employer's unique needs.

An effective and customized resume can get a 15-25% resume response rate (face to face interviews with hiring managers divided by total resumes sent) using a "send fewer" strategy.

Notice this ratio doesn't include recruiters (nor informational interviews) – while both are nice, they aren't job interviews…they may be a preliminary step to an interview, or they may not be.

Why does this work?

When you send fewer resumes, you spend more time customizing and targeting each position. Candidates tend to do more research (See "4 Killer Ways To Use Research In Job Search: Best of reCareered" at http://www.recareered.com/blog/2010/07/16/4-killer-ways-to-use-research-in-job-search-best-of-recareered/) when they send fewer resumes.

Candidates tend to select jobs they are "perfect for" if they send fewer.

I advise my clients, even unemployed clients, to send no more than five resumes per day. That's only if there are five perfect fit jobs, otherwise sending fewer than five works more effectively.

When you send fewer resumes … you focus.

When you send fewer resumes you also take more care on each, and really spend time on wording, bullet locations, look of the resume, reformatting.

So try sending fewer resumes and let me know – how did it work for you?


Phil Rosenberg is President of reCareered, the web’s central hub for job search advice. An active blogger about social media and career change, Phil’s articles have been republished by several of the leading job, career and recruiting sites.

The 5 Best Questions a Job Candidate Can Ask

Jeff thanks for the great questions.
Recruiters do you agree that these are good questions for the candidate to ask?
Ev

The 5 Best Questions a Job Candidate Can Ask
by
Jeff Haden
Inc. Magazine Contributing Editor

While you certainly have questions you like to ask (like these three), and maybe you ask one question to identify a superstar... if you’re an experienced interviewer you may almost always feel it's a waste of time when you ask the candidate, "Do you have any questions for me?"

Why? The average candidate doesn't actually care about how you answer their questions; instead they try to make themselves look good by asking "smart" questions. To them, what they ask is a lot more important than how you answer.

On the other hand, great candidates ask questions they actually want answered because they're actively evaluating you and your company… they're deciding whether they really want to work for you.

Here are five questions great job candidates ask:

“What do you expect me to accomplish in the first 60 to 90 days?”

Great candidates want to hit the ground running. They don't want to spend weeks or months "getting to know the organization." They want to make a difference right away.

Plus they want to know how they’ll be evaluated – so they definitely want to understand objectives and expectations.

“What are the common attributes of your top performers?”

Great candidates also want to be great long-term employees. Every organization is different, and so are the key qualities of top performers in those organizations.

Maybe your top performers work longer hours. Or maybe flexibility and creativity is more important than following rigid processes. Or maybe landing new customers in new markets is more important than building long-term customer relationships. Or maybe spending the same amount of time educating an entry-level customer is as important as helping an enthusiast who wants high-end solutions.

Whatever the answer may be, great candidates want to know because 1) they want to know if they fit, and 2) if they do, they definitely want to be a top performer.

“What are the one or two things that really drive results for the company?”

Employees are investments, and every employee should generate a positive return on his or her salary. (Otherwise why are they on the payroll?)

In every job some activities make a bigger difference than others. You want your HR staff to fill job openings... but what you really need is for HR to find the right candidates because that results in higher retention rates, lower training costs, and better overall productivity.

You want your service techs to perform effective repairs... but what you really need is for those techs to identify ways to solve problems and provide further benefits -- in short, to generate additional sales.

Great candidates want to know what truly makes a difference for your company... because they know helping the company succeed means they will also succeed, on multiple levels.

“What do employees do in their spare time?”

Happy employees 1) like what they do, and 2) like the people they do it with.

Granted this is a tough question to answer. Unless the company is really small, all any interviewer can do is speak in generalities.

Even so, great candidates want to make sure they have a reasonable chance of fitting in with the culture -- because great job candidates almost always have options.

“How do you plan to deal with...?”

Every business faces a major challenge: technological changes, competitors entering the market, shifting economic trends... there's rarely a moat protecting a small business.

So while a candidate may see your company as a stepping-stone, they still hope for growth and advancement... and if they do eventually leave, they want it to be on their terms and not because you were forced out of business.

Say I'm interviewing for a position at your bike shop. Another shop is opening less than a mile away. How do you plan to deal with the new competitor?

Or say you run a poultry farm (a major industry where I live): What will you do to deal with rising feed costs?

A great candidate doesn't just want to know what you think; they want to know what you plan to do -- and how they will fit into those plans.

Now it’s your turn. If you’re an interviewer, what are great questions you’ve been asked – and what do those questions indicate? Or, if you're interviewed, what questions do you like to ask?