The Brooks Group
From what we see, the economy might be turning around. A lot of our clients are asking for our help hiring new, top-performing salespeople. It’s work we enjoy. We’re told they’re having a hard time because two things are happening:
The best salespeople have jobs and aren’t looking.
When sales managers start actively looking for candidates, they get a flood of weak ones. That ...
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Beware the Desperate Candidate
The longer they’re on the market, the more desperate downsized candidates become. As a result, they tend to be open to positions with lower base salaries and commissions and even less accountability – things they wouldn’t think twice about in more stable economic times.
While hiring managers may be tempted to snag a top-level sales professional at an entry level price, it is a decision that will ...
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Trends in Sales Hiring – 10 Questions for Kathleen Steffey
This month, Tony Smith had the opportunity to speak with Kathleen Steffey, owner and founder of Naviga Recruiting & Executive Search, a national sales and marketing recruitment firm, about trends in the sales hiring market. Kathleen also shared her insights about what it takes to make a sales hire a success. Over the last two years, Naviga Recruiting & Executive Search has been a strategi...
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Preventing the Mis-Hire
In a recent posting, fellow blogger Dave Stein commented on what he views as an epidemic: the mis-hiring of sales executives. Dave notes that too many C-level executives don’t understand what sales leadership is all about and, as a result, continue to put non-qualified people into these positions.
“That’s why sales is last on line in many companies with respect to quality, discipline, process, m...
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Job Hopping or Financial Survival?
I’m seeing a trend lately where sales reps – even A Players – are taking any job they can find, even if it doesn’t make sense for them in the long-term, then continuing to shop for the right position. In many cases, it’s an economic necessity. Which is why hiring managers may need to adjust their opinions of job-hoppers, at least until the economy recovers.
The reality is that professionals who w...
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Sales Hiring in this Economy; Perspective from a CEO of a North American Sales and Marketing Recruiting Firm.
Dave Stein, CEO and Founder of ES Research Group, Inc. and author of How Winners Sell, interviewed Kathleen Steffey, CEO and Founder of Naviga, for an interesting piece about the sales challenge of having the wrong people in sales jobs during these strained economic times.
As ESR continues to assess our clients’ sales challenges, we maintain that having the wrong people in the sales jobs is, i...
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Good Salespeople Are Hard to Find
"Successfully selling in specialized industries requires not only stellar sales skills but experience and industry-specific knowledge. Employers and salespeople alike need to focus on the salesperson's personal development, selling skills enhancement and their industry-specific training as well," discusses Daniel Sitter in his blog post for Idea Sellers. View the entire article at: http://ideasell...
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Naviga’s 2009 Economic Survey finds companies are cautiously optimistic for revenue and hiring growth in 2009
In some encouraging economic news, an independent survey conducted on behalf of my sales and marketing recruitment firm, Naviga Recruiting & Executive Search, found that companies are projecting at least modest revenue growth in 2009 and most are planning to expand their sales force to make that happen.
When asked how they project revenues to change in 2009 compared to 2008, more than 32% of ...
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Would An A-Player Use YouTube To Compete For A Sales Position?
If my own experience is any indication, video resumes are becoming more popular. I’m definitely seeing an uptick in the number of resumes I receive from sales professionals that direct me to a link on YouTube or another website to view their video resume.
For me, it creates a dilemma. There are some very real discrimination concerns because videos reveal information about the candidate such as r...
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Where do you stand on sales positions that offer no base and are 100% commission?
Would you take a 100% commission business-to-business sales position?
I wouldn’t, nor will I take on any company that insists on such an out-dated pay structure.
The turnover rates are just too high (something like 99% of commission-only sales reps fails to make a livable wage and are forced to leave for greener pastures) and it’s nearly impossible to find A-Players willing to accept t...
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Make the First Week Count
Completing administrative tasks in advance of a new employee’s start date is a smart way to get them producing as quickly as possible. But it takes more than business cards and an email account. It also takes careful planning of their first week on the job, making sure they are properly trained and prepared to meet expectations.
Don’t wait to get them into orientation programs and training on the...
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Why Wait for the Start Date?
If you want your new sales reps to quickly become efficient, productive members of the team, you need to make sure they have all the tools necessary to hit the ground running the day they start.
Why would you want them wasting time waiting for IT to give them an email password or reading through the company’s insurance plan when they could be hitting the pavement with sales calls?
True, some pro...
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Bring in the “A Team”
It doesn’t matter how innovative your products or services are, without a strong sales team, your revenues will remain flat. So why make the mistake of not involving your top performing sales representatives in building out your team? Or worse, putting the selection process in the hands of under-performers?
Throughout my years of recruiting sales and marketing professionals, I have learned that t...
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