Sales Recruiting Today

How to Train Cats and Salespeople

By: John Boe

Which do you think would be harder to train, a cat or a salesperson? Seriously, which one would you pick?
While it's true that cats have a well-deserved reputation for being independent, demanding and virtually impossible to train, the same can be said for many salespeople. Surprisingly, the same training and reward techniques required to get Fluffy to jump through a hoop can also be utilized to motivate your sales team to achieve peak-performance! 

One evening while channel surfing I came across a fascinating animal act that grabbed my attention.
The act featured a cat trainer with a half dozen cats of varying size, shape and color. Unlike a circus lion tamer who attempts to intimidate with a chair and whip, this man simply used a combination of treats and verbal praise to motivate his cats to perform difficult tricks.

Using only soothing voice tones and a pocket full of cat treats, he would calmly command each cat to do its own specific trick. Amazingly, he got one cat to walk on his front paws, one balanced on a ball, while yet another pushed a toy baby stroller across the stage. 

After the performance, the cat trainer was interviewed and asked how he was able to get his cats to willingly obey his commands. His response surprised me with its simple wisdom. He said that he didn't train the cats at all, he simply figured out what each cat liked to do best and then encouraged that behavior! 

"People need to realize that a cat's indifference doesn't mean they can't learn cool tricks," says celebrity animal trainer Joel Silverman. "It simply means you haven't convinced them yet that doing so is in their best interest.

A dog naturally wants to please you and will work for you, but a cat needs a paycheck to be motivated."

Five Tips to Help You Train Cats and Salespeople

1. Temperament testing is a must! Before you invest your time and energy into training make sure you check for temperament suitability. Temperament testing allows you to identify those who by nature lack the discipline, desire or self-motivation to consistently achieve peak performance.

Sales managers who lack the benefit of temperament understanding are inclined to place too much emphasize on their gut-level feeling during the hiring process. If you hire someone that is not suited for the position, you will experience low morale, high turnover and find yourself constantly in the training mode. On the other hand, when you recruit the right person you will find that they are self- motivated and eager to train.  

2. Look for "hot buttons". Traditionally, sales managers have relied primarily on commission to motivate their sales force.

Unfortunately, a compensation structure based solely on commission does not address individual motivational factors and therefore, money alone will not motivate your sales force.

A successful incentive program is a mixture of awards, recognition and peer pressure. There is tremendous power behind a timely word of praise or a handwritten note acknowledging achievement.

While money is certainly an important ingredient in any incentive program, it should by no means be the only tool in a manager's motivational toolbox. If money by itself were a sufficient motivation, commission-based salespeople would simply sell more without additional enticement. 

3. Make the training fun and positive. All cats and most salespeople have pretty short attention spans and low boredom thresholds. Keep lessons short, interesting and always try to end on a positive note.

4. You must be patient when training cats or salespeople. It's important to respect individual abilities and preferences. Make allowances for personality, and don't get frustrated if the training schedule doesn't go exactly as expected. Remember that people have off days and on days just like cats. ''When I'm really pushing and the going gets tough," says Silverman, "sometimes the cat just sits down and says, 'I give up'. Even the brightest cats, if they feel you're pushing them too hard, will, in effect, say, 'Screw you, buddy, I'm going to go over there, sit down, and stare into space.'''

5. Make sure to take time for rest and relaxation. All work and no play will make the cat, the salesperson and the trainer grumpy.

Whether it is playing with a ball of yarn or enjoying a round of golf, taking time out to play is critically important. By successfully balancing play and work, you will return recharged, refreshed and ready to accomplish more.

By incorporating these five powerful tips into your training program, you will develop an award-winning sales team and achieve unbelievable results!

John is a successful entrepreneur and an internationally recognized authority on customer service, body language and temperament styles. His motivational and sales training articles have been read by millions of people worldwide and translated into over a dozen languages. Give John Boe International a call at 877-725-3750 or visit the http://www.johnboe.com/ page and complete the Speaker Request form to tell them about your event and check John's availability.

Hiring Strategies for 2009

By: Tim de Jardine

The Big Picture

Hiring needs change, big change. The Human Resource industry is often too stagnant for its own good. If you focus on basics like speed, collaboration, and effectiveness your results should increase dramatically.

It’s not about how many candidates you have. All that matters is who is looking right now and how fast and effectively you can make decisions to determine whether you want this person before you hire them as a new employee.

Where are we today?

We use information systems that store resumes from candidates, reference checks, and phone numbers. We capture all candidate in our systems and sometimes even ask them to enter their own information. We have CV’s going back 5 or even 10 years. This becomes redundant.

Hiring needs to change, and I believe that the systems are the first step to driving the change. I have studied the hiring industry and spoken to recruiters and candidates. One thing is clear: all systems have to operate with speed.

But is speed everything? What about quality of decision?

As you went into that last interview with a candidate were you on exactly the same page as your colleague who interviewed the candidate yesterday? Did you even know how their interview went? What about the person who screened their CV? What was their opinion?

I have personally seen situations where companies and managers had absolutely no idea what they wanted. Often it’s like leaving success frequency down to pure chance. There simply was no teamwork, leaving hiring to chance.

Currently many employers often delegate responsibility of hiring to a single person. That single person has the weight of expectations on their shoulders to find a dynamite candidate. The problem with this approach is that it rarely works. Rarely does a perfect candidate come through the door and rarely will you find them.

This is because you are relying on one person rather than a group of people, which is like having all your eggs in one basket. Often the person responsible for hiring has other commitments and if these other commitments take priority then you will have times where no one is managing your recruiting. Hiring should be a conversation between:

• candidates
• employers
• recruiters
• internal staff
• friends
• referrals
• acquaintances

Why is it then that all current applicant tracking systems have no means to build or track a conversation? You cannot have a conversation with a CV, key words, skill list, or a database. You cannot have a worthwhile conversation with one person doing the hiring. You are simply spread too thin.

Each conversation, whether it is scoping, interviewing, or just general discussion adds to the effectiveness of hiring new employees. You gain different perspectives and are able to view the candidate from new angles. The more input you receive the better.

Strategies for 2009

What makes a great candidate? We all have our own views around this issue. It is almost universal that a recruitment agent tries to customize their candidate to fit the perceived match of a hiring manager or job description. But what about your team? Does your team’s view count? New employees will be working with the team more than the hiring manager. If you do not get your team involved in the hiring process/activity, then you are simply hiring for yourself.

Allow teams to conduct or attend interviews

This means they will be more likely to favor a new employee if they had partake in the hiring process. This will also increase buy-in to the hiring process.

Gain honest feedback from team members about a particular candidate

Anonymous, no-strings-attached feedback can do wonders. With no pressure, your employees are more likely to say what they really think instead of what you want to hear.

Treat referrals like gold

Referrals should not be something that happens once a year, but something that is actively sought by all employees. By using a bounty/reward system to encourage referrals you will motivate your team to become active recruiters.

Set expectations

If candidates, recruiters, and your team don’t know what is expected of them, neither will you. Make a plan. Establish mutual criteria or a measurement point from which you will evaluate a candidate. This could be as simple as a numbered list of qualities and a rating scale beside them.

Use a system

The system has to be formalized and reliable. Make sure that everyone knows the rules, and everyone adheres to the processes that you have put in place.

Stick to your decisions

There is nothing worse than a hiring manager flip-flopping on decisions about candidates. It sends a bad message to the candidate and everyone else that may be involved.

Measure Recruitment Agencies and Third Parties

There are so many agencies around, so it’s important to keep track of who delivered on what they promised. Where are your best hires coming from?

Measure the worth of your agencies. Break this down by:

• Resources allocated to the job
• Candidates per week expected from the agent
• Timeframes to complete work
• Responsiveness of the agency

Use these measurements to keep the best agencies and drop the poor ones. This is a good way to determine whether you actually need to use an external recruiter.

Quality of Hire
How do we measure quality? One method is to define criteria for each job. Ask yourself, what are the required qualities in this particular job?”

Simplify it. Take some requirements and go through in your mind and number them. Communicate what’s on your mind and distribute it so everyone can see and is on the same page. For example, a sales executive job may look like:

1. 5 years experience in the field
2. Able to cold call
3. Knows TAS or has attended TAS training
4. Worked with Government and Enterprise
5. Managed a portfolio of over $2 million dollars

With clearly outlined criteria for the assessment it will ensure you and your team and everyone else involved are on the same path of thinking when accessing candidates.

Conclusion

With a focus on speed, communication, and collaboration you can bring your hiring strategy into 2009 and focus on results over number of candidates/CVs in your talent silo.

Tim de Jardine is a technology entrepreneur with a passion for the web. As long as he can remember Tim has been fascinated by industry, ideas and big pictures. Currently Tim is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hirewall, a web-based hiring system for SMB's that allows employers to secure candidates before their competitors. Tim is also a Co-Founder of TribeHQ, a social network that focuses on employment verticals to be released Jan-09. Check out Tim's blog at www.timdejardine.com 

The Critical Goal of Interviewing

By: Robert Weiss

Many people believe that the goal of interviewing is to hire people who are most qualified based on some listing of ordained factors, such as knowledge, education, training, experience, competencies, personality traits, or other characteristics that may describe candidates.  Yet, hiring candidates by focusing mostly on these criteria is precisely where many mistakes are made.  Wide variations in performance exist among people thought to be highly qualified based on such criteria.

For example, a candidate may have attended the best schools, be brilliant, possess outstanding technical skills, and be friendly during the interview.  While these are indicators of potentially high performance in a prospective job, they are not predictors of actual job performance.  

The same candidate may not be motivated to complete challenging projects, or lack resiliency to overcome obstacles and setbacks that inevitably arise in a particular job.  The candidate may be unethical, uncooperative with coworkers, arrogant with customers, careless, or lack common sense, any one of which can cause mediocre or dysfunctional work outcomes.  

These are some of the causes of a common disconnect that occurs with many people; the serious problem of knowing what to do (or knowing what to say in an interview) but not doing it.  

A second disconnect:  Often, a person who has been successful in one job will fail in a different job, even when the jobs appear to have much in common.  A common example is when the most technically competent person is promoted into a manager position.  In this situation, a poor selection obviously creates a compound problem: 1) the new manager is often mediocre or fails, and 2) the organization loses the high level of technical performance in the vacated job. 

What is the Critical Goal of Interviewing?  Hire people who 1) are consistently good performers and 2) possess the abilities and motivation to do the job for which you are recruiting. 

How? Start by identifying the patterns of your candidates’ successful performance accomplishments and comparing them with specific performance outcomes, or results, required for success in a new job.  When you find a good match, evaluate the cognitive or mental abilities, and the motivation that helped candidates achieve their record of consistent and relevant performance, and compare them to the abilities and motivation required in a new job.

Imagine a shipping and receiving specialist job that requires multitasking to manage inventory and maintain production. A commonly suggested “behaviorally based” interview question would be, “Can you describe a situation when you had to do a lot of multi-tasking?”  The problem is that such a question is not clearly linked to the performance outcomes required in this job.

First, what does the interviewer mean by multi-tasking?  There is no context to understand what specific activities are required to be successful, or how a candidate’s past performance involving the term “multi-tasking” might be linked to the major performance requirements in this job.  The candidate may provide an excellent example of multitasking that reveals nothing about the ability or motivation to perform the responsibilities required in your vacant job. 

As an interviewer, the critical goal is to determine which candidates possess pertinent and consistent records of performance success that reflect their ability and motivation to learn and achieve the required performance results in a new job.  So, interview questions should be framed in a specific manner that is directly linked to required performance outcomes.  This results in a much more challenging question to answer than a general, poorly defined, multitasking question.   

For example, the interviewer could start by explaining that a person, “…in the shipping and receiving specialist position…to be successful, must be able to coordinate several overlapping responsibilities under time pressures, and these include electronically monitoring work production, adjusting inventory levels, and proactively trouble shooting supply shortages.” 

Then, the interviewer sets the bar high by asking if the candidate can offer specific examples of work accomplishments that demonstrate success at addressing these types of challenges.  This removes the guessing game about what the interviewer needs to learn, and requires a level of specificity that cannot be achieved with canned answers or inexperience with these kinds of responsibilities. 

Using this type of structured interview process, interviewers identify which candidates offer the most relevant and consistently good performance records.  With effective probing, interviewers determine which candidates can provide the most salient insights that reveal their thinking, abilities, motivation, and behaviors which set them apart from other candidates.   

In summary:  Identify some of the most challenging performance outcomes required to be successful in a job.  Be clear in describing these to candidates as part of a structured interview process. Then, set the bar high by asking if candidates can offer specific examples of work accomplishments that demonstrate success in addressing similar challenges. This frames and sharpens the interview conversation in a way that allows the best candidates to know what you need to learn, and with good interviewer probing, provide the most relevant insights and details that reveal their abilities and motivation which enabled them to achieve consistently good results. 

Bob Weiss is a leadership consultant, executive coach, and speaker whose clients include organizations in manufacturing, information technology, health care, law, secondary and higher education, publishing, and charitable and community-based social services. He can be reached toll free at 1-877-754-9647. His website is: http://www.rjweissconsulting.com. 

Recruiting the Best - 5 Qualities of Successful Sales Professionals

By: Paul Meyer

No two salespeople are exactly alike. Each one is unique in his or her actions, needs and behavior. However, successful salespeople share at least five characteristics or qualities that are important in achieving success in the profession of selling.

#1 Quality - Self-Confidence

All truly successful sales people have one quality in common: a no limitations belief in themselves. A no limitations belief expresses itself in a calm, honest, self-confidence. Self-confidence is gained only through practical know-how. In turn, know-how comes from knowledge and experience; experience is gained only from confronting obstacles and situations that most people avoid.

Self-confident people know exactly where they stand now. They understand their present strengths and weaknesses and feel secure about where they are going, and they are motivated by results. Self-confidence fully realized is power. Failure to develop self-confidence is a one-way street to mediocrity.

#2 Quality - Self-Reliance

Salespeople more or less control their schedules, which is one reason why the development of self-reliance is a must. They must be self-starters. As a sales manager, allow your salespeople to develop self-reliance by giving them the freedom to act alone. Doing for people what they should do for themselves produces dependency. However, directing people while they learn to do for themselves produces self-reliance. The most common indicator of the lack of self-reliance is the reluctance to make a decision. Remember, even a relatively bad decision is sometimes better than no decision at all.

#3 Quality - Perseverance

The winners are those who develop perseverance, the firm determination to continue on no matter what or how many setbacks occur. As a sales manager, your first step is to discover the underlying reason for a salesperson's lack of perseverance. Often it can be traced to a low achievement drive or the absence of goals. Salespeople with a low drive harbor a negative self-image. However, focusing on achievement allows them to build their own career ladder.

#4 Quality - Positive Self-Image

When people accept themselves as they really are, they have taken the most important step. They realistically see where they stand now and hold an inspirational view of where they want to be in the future. Self-acceptance helps narrow the gap between the two. As a sales manager, it is your responsibility to lead your producers to develop a more positive self-image and to assist them in achieving a fine balance between empathy and ego drive. Create a climate where their developed talents find the greatest opportunity for successful expression and your people will become motivated by results, not methods.

#5 Quality - Empathy and Ego Drive

These two qualities are interdependent in salespeople, but a careful blend of empathy and ego drive must be delicately balanced. Too much or too little of either quality results in problems. Empathy is the developed ability to see, to feel, and to appreciate a situation or circumstance from the viewpoint of another person.  Empathy is the ability to understand others, and it results in effective communication.

Salespeople with ego drive not only want to make the sale, but they need to make the sale for the enjoyment and experience of making the sale. To top sales people, every prospect represents a challenge that must be conquered to satisfy their ego and prove that it can be done. They must prove to themselves they can do it.

Salespeople who are highly successful possess a relatively high measure of these qualities. Look for these traits as you recruit new salespeople. When looking for a top producer, keep searching until you find someone with most of these qualities. These are the hallmarks that signal potential successful sales ability. Aptitude and IQ tests do not measure many of the qualities necessary for success in selling.  Neither do tests measure how much they will be motivated to apply the talents they do have.

As a sales manager, you have the opportunity to be a builder of strong people. Personality traits in your people may be highly resistant to change. The positive climate you create in your sales organization is your greatest ally. When your salespeople are successful, so are you.

When you know what to look for, you can select better salespeople in the first place and avoid expensive high turnover. Believe in the true potential of people, and be willing to help them move forward from the point where they stand today. As a sales manager, consider yourself a personal consultant and confidant for your salespeople.

Paul Meyer is a successful entrepreneur and a New York Times best-selling author. Take a look at some of his great products on http://theleadingedgepublishing.com/

13 Ways Managers Coach Salespeople Poorly

By: Lance Cooper

Sales managers coach poorly when exhibiting the following behaviors.

They ...

1. Throw new salespeople into a job without a well thought out training and ramp up process.

2. Do not help a salesperson develop a sales plan.

3. Do not know how to show they care about their salespeople as individuals.

4. Focus on meeting budget numbers instead of achieving each salesperson's income target.

5. Manage salespeople as if their motivational and learning nuances were the same.

6. Do not express encouragement either one-on-one or in team settings.

7. Manage without developing and teaching a face-to-face (or telemarketing) sales process (steps, tools, and skills).

8. Pound on their salespeople for results instead of managing an activity process or series of strategic moves (large accounts).

9. Use fear as a primary motivator instead of positive or future imaging.

10. Micromanage a salesperson's time instead of giving them innovative expression.

11. Allow bad behaviors or performance to continue without an immediate discussion or confrontation.

12. Do not use a sales board or other visual representations to show individual/team progress during sales meetings.

13. Retreat to themselves and do not have one-on-ones or go on appointments with their salespeople.

It's easy to look at some of these and see the more appropriate behaviors. For example, great sales managers design a new hire training and ramp up plan. They organize a salesperson's first few weeks to help them reach minimum production levels within a standard time frame.

Other great behaviors, as an opposite to those shown in the above list, are more difficult to understand. How do you show that you care about a salesperson as an individual? What behaviors show that this is true? And, how will they impact sales results?

Please send me your list of ways that sales managers coach poorly- especially the ones you've experienced and dislike the most. And, then learn to move away from these and get better. You can.

Lance Cooper, President, SalesManage Solutions http://www.salesmanage.com/blog "Recruit and Coach the Best." We coach sales executives, sales managers, and entrepreneurs to Recruit and then Coach the Best salespeople. We want our clients to lower turnover and increase first year production from new recruits and overall sales team production. Please visit the blog above and then the rest of our site. Contact me at lcooper@salesmanage.com.

Solving the Staff Retention Puzzle

By: Christine Sutherland

How to Solve the Staff Retention Puzzle: and Save Your Company Many Thousands of Dollars in the Process

Never before have companies been so severely challenged i n the area of staffrecruitment and retention. Not only are associated costs skyrocketing, and growth and development being hampered, but in some cases a company’s very survival is at risk!

Please feel free to pass on this report to colleagues who may also be struggling with these challenges.

Executive Summary

It will come as no surprise to you to learn that 96% of employers say their biggest problem is recruiting and keeping talented people. 62% of business leaders say that not only are they concerned, but that they have "great difficulty" in this crucial area. Business is wilting under the mounting costs of rehiring.

Employee turnover and the retention of valued employees are major problems facing business in Australia. The average turnover rate is hovering at 17%. The costs associated with that turnover can be high – at least 25% of the individual's annual salary. 

With unemployment in Australia at a 27-year low, and employee loyalty stretched beyond breaking point, it is critical to focus on strategies for keeping good employees.

Quick fixes and gimmicks do not work. Evidence-based approaches not only do work, but are capable of saving good companies many millions of dollars over the coming years.

This white paper sets out the reasons for the current challenges, as well as solid solutions that can put your company ahead of the competition.

The Problem

There is no doubt that in times of high unemployment, employees still leave for a variety of reasons: 

• Lack of challenging and stimulating work
• Pay perceived as “unfair”
• Lack of tools and resources to do their job well
• Insufficient recognition for work well done
• Exclusion from involvement in decision making related to issues that directly affect them

In the current economic environment, employers are finding that meeting these basic needs is not enough. Often even paying patently unwarranted rates is not enough!

Along with a difficulty in attracting competent staff, and retaining them, are higher rates of absenteeism, or even “presenteeism” where employees are present but not committed to being productive, or constrained from being productive because of constant supervision or mentoring duties with new staff members, or because of stress-induced illness.

The cost of this set of problems is not only draining Australian companies of financial resources, but is hobbling our ability to compete on the world market.

Incentives for Change

Every employer should be galvanised into action by the sheer scale of the incentives for retaining good employees, and developing workplaces that achieve higher rates of productivity, more easily.

• Employee surveys show 75% of absenteeism is work stress related (ABS – 6342.0)
• The current conservative estimate of the annual cost is over $9 billion (The Royal Faculty of Occupational Medicine: “Workplace Attendance and Absenteeism” 1999)
• The current cost of replacing an employee is an average of $20,000 to $50,000 dependent upon position (AIM Salary Survey)
• The average cost of stress-induced illness or absenteeism is around $2500 for every female employed, and around $7500 for every male employed in your company

It can be seen that employee turnover, and the conditions that produce employee turnover, are a direct drain on the bottom line. Put bluntly, keeping good employees (and maintaining happy, healthy employees) increases profit, along with stability, and the ability to compete in an open market.

Solutions

An attitude of “more of the same” (attending to the same old strategies you already have in place) or “wait and see if it gets better” just doesn't work. 

Smart companies are discovering that solutions are more about how you treat employees than the financial or other tangible rewards that are offered to them.

The following are proven strategies for Managing for Retention by proactively reducing absenteeism and turnover with a shrinking labour pool in a competitive job market:

• Get the right people coming to you because you have an environment which is attractive to them in an holistic way -- it's not just about money.

• Recognize where your current employment strategy/process is and make sure you have a top-down commitment to improving it.

• Improve it step-by-step by getting feedback and responding appropriately at every stage.

• Ensure you have developed a comprehensive success profile which goes far and beyond the job description and remuneration. Do your KPI's and ensure these link strongly to underlying competencies and make these the foundation of your sourcing and screening process.

• Ensure that incoming candidates have a personality profile which is conducive to first-rate communication and co-operation with the existing team. This cannot be done in the interview process because the candidate is in "sales mode".

•Ensure that hiring managers, including HR, form strategic partnerships with expert recruiters so that you avoid pumping time, money and inappropriate candidates into a flawed process.

• Pay attention to on-going career planning and training in order to foster the personal and professional development of your employees, old and new. Provide company-wide training in stress recognition and stress strategies.

• Have clear, written expectations of every employee, linked to task lists, procedures manuals, and KPI and other reporting.

• Foster a genuine relational environment where employees feel part of a strong community. People do not easily get drawn away from their community. 

What to Do Next

When you fully understand and implement these steps, not only will you have a strong competitive advantage when it comes to selecting and retaining talented employees, but you will save your company many hundreds of thousands of dollars, and perhaps millions, over its lifetime.

Few companies can put these into effect without help. Professional recruitment agencies are very aware of the issues and the challenges, as well as the solutions. After all, it’s in their interest also that your new employee stays! 

As a first step to implementing successful strategies to reduce costs associated with turnover and absenteeism, simultaneously increasing both productivity and profit margins, consider taking advantage of an initial consultation, usually provided at no cost for companies committed to operational success.

Christine Sutherland is a behavioural counselor who has a counseling and training background of over 30 years, with a passion for research and development of innovations in training and therapy.Christine is also Co-founder of BMSA International, owner of Speed Business Networking, and the CEO at The Lifeworks Group Pty Ltd. 

Do You Have an Employee Retention Strategy That Also Increases Employee Motivation?

By: Bob Urichuk

These were the questions posed to Business owners in a workshop at an Annual Conference at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort earlier this year. Thanks to their contributions, this article became possible as an employee retention and employee motivation learning tool for you.

Teams were created to brainstorm answers to each of these questions. It wasn't long before everyone started to see a common element in all three areas.

The common element was people and how management relates to employee retention and employee motivation, no matter what area they worked in.

Everyone agreed that it is the people, and their attitudes that make the difference. Finally, we concluded that it is you, the management team that has to first make the difference in employee retention and employee motivation. Therefore, let's look inside.

You can't have something on the outside if you don't first have it on the inside. In other words you cannot attract good employees if you don't first have the right attitude towards your existing employees, provide a good working atmosphere, tools and growth opportunities.

So take a close look at your employee retention and employee motivation strategies, since they are both under your direct management influence.

Here are some of the team's top answers on employee retention and employee motivation:

Employee Retention
------------------
Keep your promises
Build employees self-esteem
Good access to management Training and Cross Training
Staff events / Team building
React on employee suggestions
Regular staff meetings, parties Everyone is equal to each other

Employee motivation
-------------------
Ongoing staff training
Keep employees informed of status
Frequent /consistent rewards and recognition for performance
Set goals, review, evaluate, feedback
Lead by example
Mentoring programs
Be sensitive to personal issues

When you take a close look at these two areas, you can see a lot of overlap. What you do to increase employee motivation also applies to employee retention and vice versa.

Some of the main areas of employee retention and employee motivation that are commonly overlooked are orientation training, the establishment of team and individual goals, having ongoing reviews and providing constructive feedback.

Without these elements the employee is wandering around aimlessly, and doesn't get any feedback on their performance. How can you expect the employee to meet or exceed your expectations if they don't know what they are or how they are doing in relation to your expectations?

In a previous article that I wrote, I pointed out what motivated employees the most and how employee retention and loyalty faired out based on the results of National research study.

The three top elements were:

1.Full appreciation of work done
2.Feeling of being in on things
3.Help on personal problems

Full appreciation of work done is recognition. Recognition is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement of actions gets those actions repeated. Recognition and praise reinforces our beliefs about ourselves, and helps make us think we are better than we may have thought we were.

Positive reinforcement is what builds our self-esteem. Our self-esteem is the way we see and feel about ourselves either internally, through our own beliefs, or externally through what we accept as the beliefs of others. If we feel good about ourselves and we believe others feel good about us, we perform better than we would when we see the opposite side of the coin.

People perform in a manner that is consistent with how they see themselves conceptually. So, the key is to help people build their self-esteem. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.

You cannot motivate another person to do anything. We all know we could only accomplish so much on our own and that everyone is a product of their environment. You have the opportunity to create the environment.

You can only provide the means and the atmosphere in which others motivate themselves. You are the leader and you must set the example by demonstrating appropriate behaviors. Take the time to define the appropriate behaviors you want to see in your employees, then start demonstrating them. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.

By bringing all employees together in a room for a meeting you create a team environment. By including them and sharing information with them, you are giving your employees an opportunity to share your perspective.

With inclusion, you are indirectly empowering them to contribute to the success of your whole operation, because it gives them a chance to see and understand the bigger picture. This in turn leads to them taking initiative and improving things in their own area of responsibility, particularly if they are recognized for it.

By sharing the results of the period with them and asking them what went well and what areas could use some improvement, you are obtaining a wealth of information, and including them in the overall success of your operation.

What do you think will happen when it comes time to implement some of their suggestions? Do you think they will object, or, do you think they might take ownership in implementing them beyond your expectations?

This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.

What about personal problems, do you take the time to listen, to understand, to show you care?

Personal problems often interfere with work performance. Take the time to help your employee with their personal problems. Coach them to look for solutions and they will feel closer to you. In turn, they will perform better because you showed you care.

People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.

From this point on you will notice that employees will go out of their way to do a great job, because you took the time to include them, empower them, to thank them and to show them that you care. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline.

The Bottom Line: Actions that get recognized or rewarded get repeated. Are you demonstrating appropriate behaviours in your employee retention and employee motivation strategies?

 

Bob Urichuk is an International Speaker, Trainer and Best-Selling Author. Bob focuses in the professional areas of Sales, Motivation, Leadership and Team Skills. He has given more than 2,000 talks and seminars and worked with over 1,200 companies worldwide. Subscribe to Bob's Free Newsletter, worth $297, visit http://www.BobU.com

Top Ten Challenges in Hiring Sales Professionals

By: Eliot Burdett

A whopping 65 percent of sales hires fail when there is no systematic process in place to guarantee results. Even with process, sales teams with more than 40 percent of reps below target are the norm. (CSO Insights, 2007).

The costs of this performance gap are high; estimates of the annual costs of each bad sales hire range from 75 to 150 percent of the rep’s annual quota. 

For most companies, that’s serious money!  Even if the poor reps represent only a small portion of the team, that can be a potentially fatal problem to a company with cash flow issues.

Why is that? What can you do to stack the odds in your favor?  Here are ten tips to get you started…

1.    Most salespeople know how to sell.

Challenge: Salespeople are used to putting the best spin on their accomplishments.

Solution: Implement in-depth screening and cross-referencing to separate truth from fiction.

2.    Does “Mr. Personality” have the right personality?

Challenge: DNA or personality traits (for instance the need for achievement, or optimism) are the most critical factor in sales success, but are far more difficult for the untrained interviewer to assess than experience or even skills, leading to leaps of faith in order to select the right candidate.

Solution: Use behavioral assessments and interviews performed by trained interviewers.  Gear these to the role as much as possible.  Look at sales-specific and even role-specific tests where possible.

3.    What am I looking for?

Challenge: The hiring manager may not have benchmarked the profile of the top performers currently on the team, and can’t properly characterize what they are looking for.

Solution: Define the experience, skills and personality traits that are critical for the hire to be successful, and then have the discipline to stick with it.

4.     Setting the bar too low

Challenge: A high percentage of active job seekers have poor sales records, which conditions the hiring manager to lower the benchmark for hiring.

Solution: The hiring manager needs discipline to not settle.

5.    Sometimes the best candidates bring out the worst (screening) behaviors

Challenge: The best candidates are gainfully employed and are not likely to respond to your job ad, and if you are lucky enough to get to them they may not be inclined to let you make a full objective assessment.

Solution: You need to perform the same interview process on every single candidate so you can compare apples to apples when selecting the candidate to be hired. That means you need to be able to “sell” the opportunity to the passive candidate, to encourage them to engage in the process.

6.    The sales “halo” effect

Challenge: Many sales managers are extroverts and are naturally attracted to other outgoing people regardless of qualifications.

Solution: This is a twist on the “halo effect,” where well-dressed or likable candidates appear more qualified to the interviewer. Recognize it as a potential problem, and you are half way to avoiding it.

7.    Is this candidate who I think they are?

Challenge: Performing reference checks on someone who is employed is challenging due to confidentiality.

Solution: There are always managerial contacts that can be approached, although you may have to be creative in your approach.

8.    Money is the easy part

Challenge: Verifying income is easy, but verifying performance is tricky.

Solution: Rigorous behavioral interviewing, asking questions like “What did you do?” “Can you tell me about a time…?”, and similarly detailed background checks are critical.

9.    Am I qualified to make this decision?

Challenge: Sales managers are trained to be sales managers, not interviewers. HR screeners are experts in interviewing, but not in sales.

Solution: Anyone hiring for this critical position needs to get trained or engage experts to assist in the identification and selection of the best and right hires.

10.    Quota (today) versus quality (tomorrow)

Challenge: The pressure of the clock counting down on a quarterly target forces the sales manager to settle on the best candidate available rather than the right candidate.

Solution: From personal experience and reams of data, hiring the wrong sales team members is far more costly than investing the time necessary to do this right. 

The bottom line: When making a hiring decision that is this important, invest in a proven process, and have the discipline to stick to it.

Eliot Burdett has 20 years of experience building and leading technology companies.  He co-founded two successful software companies and built the sales organization at a third.  His experience in building and managing successful sales teams is now being applied at PeakSales, a firm that builds performance-oriented sales teams for technology companies.  The company is one of the largest specialized search firms in North America.  Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University, and has been honoured as one of Ottawa’s 40 under 40.   You can get Eliot’s take on things in his company blog, at www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/blog .  To hire well in sales, Eliot believes the first step is to properly scope out the role, and Peak launched a free online Sales Role Analyzer to make that easier, available at http://peaksalesrecruiting.com/stepone

Four Steps to Maximize Effectiveness of Reference Checks

By: Kristin Kane

They're not the most interesting part of the job, but good recruiters and hiring managers understand the importance of doing reference checks on job candidates—both to make sure the candidate is indeed as capable as he or she claims to be, and to protect their company from legal or other problems that might result from hiring a candidate with a troubled past.

Unfortunately, checking a candidate's references is not always easy. Wary of potential defamation lawsuits, many employers have policies of not giving references, or of providing only basic factual information such as dates of employment and title.

Getting Useful Information From Employer References
If you conduct reference checks in-house, you need a strategy to persuade former employers to give candid evaluations of candidates' performances.

Wendy Bliss of Bliss & Associates, a consulting firm in Colorado Springs, Colorado that specializes in employment law and human resources management, suggests the following steps for effective in-house reference checking:

1. Obtain Written Release From the Applicant.
   Have the applicant sign a consent form allowing you to check references and releasing both the hiring employer and former employers from liability resulting from the ensuing exchange of information. Releases should be written broadly, such that they allow the company to contact not only those references mentioned explicitly in the person's application, but all pertinent people.

   "A company is proceeding at its own peril if it does not let applicants know up front that it may be checking references, and get approval to do so," Bliss says.

   Providing references with copies of the signed release form can be instrumental in encouraging a candid response from the candidate's former employers.

2. Inform the Reference of Applicable Immunity Statutes.
   Due to the rise in the number of defamation lawsuits resulting from negative references, many states have enacted reference-checking immunity laws protecting employers from civil liability when giving references in good faith. Unfortunately, many employers are unaware of these laws. If the state in which one of the candidate's references does business has an immunity statute, consider informing the reference of that fact. Former employers are more likely to provide useful information if they know they are protected.

3. Talk to the Applicant's Former Supervisor.
   It is generally best to speak with an applicant's former supervisor rather than someone in the human resources department. A supervisor will have had more firsthand experience with the applicant, and can provide a more detailed evaluation. In addition, supervisors are much more likely to be forthcoming than their counterparts in human resources.

   "Even though many employers have 'name, rank, and serial number' policies, many supervisors are willing to break the policies for a good employee," says Bliss.

4. Ask the Reference to Rate the Employee on a Scale.
   Many references who are reluctant to volunteer information about a former employee will agree to respond to questions that ask them to rank the candidate on a scale of one to ten with respect to specific qualities. Questions of this kind might include: On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the applicant's attendance record? On a scale of one to ten, how would you rank the applicant's customer service skills?

Outsourcing Reference Checks
While 85 percent of companies conduct background checks in-house, some employers choose to outsource their reference checking, or at least some of the process. Enlisting the services of a reference-checking agency can be especially beneficial if you wish to do an in-depth background check that includes the job seeker's criminal, credit, or driving history.

It's important to note that companies that use third-party background-checking services must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Under the FCRA, employers must procure written authorization from the applicant before obtaining information about him or her from an agency. Furthermore, the employer must provide a copy of the report to the applicant if he or she is not hired as a result of the information received from the agency. For more information, visit the Federal Trade Commission website.

Kristin Kane is a Senior Technical Recruiter at Kane Partners LLC. Kane Partners LLC is a Philadelphia based staffing firm, focusing on the Information Technology (IT) and Engineering markets. 

The Second Dimension of Screening Sales Talent

By: Lee Salz

My wife Sharon and I dated for exactly two years before I proposed to her. Over our two year courtship, I got to know her likes and dislikes. I understood her goals in life and her aspirations. She knew the same about me. On July 24, 1996, in the White House Rose Garden (true story), I asked Sharon to marry me. She excitedly agreed. What might have been her response if she didn't feel like she knew me well enough to make that kind of commitment? Would she still have accepted?

What if during the entire time we were courting, I kept my hand close to the vest? In essence, what if I shared little about myself and what I wanted from life, but asked lots of questions of Sharon to understand her? Would she have enough information to make an informed, educated decision on whether she should take her relationship with me to the next level? Probably not. Perhaps, she would have declined the offer outright if she saw that my goals were completely different than hers.

That scenario may seem silly to you. You probably think that it would be a rarity that someone would propose without letting their significant other get to know them to a level where they could both make an educated decision on the future of the relationship. If you think that, you are probably right. However, my question is why do companies create a one-dimensional process when they screen sales candidates?

I've always been a firm believer that when the time came for me to make an offer to a candidate, taking the ring out of my pocket, both the candidate and I had enough information to make an educated decision. My expectation is that when I make an offer, the candidate will accept/decline on the spot. More often than not, I received an acceptance of the offer.

What is the secret to doing that well? The key is to create your sales talent screening program such that it is two-dimensional. You want to gather data about the candidate so that you can make a solid decision. Most companies get that. However, the goal is to also create an environment where the candidate has the same evaluation opportunity. That is the second dimension.

What does a candidate need to know to make an informed decision on a sales position?

One important consideration for candidates is culture. Some companies, to save money, conduct their interviews entirely by phone and only bring finalists to Corporate. After a day of interviewing with some executives, the team makes an offer/no offer decision. However, the entire process has been a one-dimensional exercise where the company has gathered key information, but the candidate has not.

The decision to join your company is not taken lightly by sales candidates. They need to be able to evaluate the culture to see if there is a good fit. While they come to the table with the skills, they have to determine if they can apply those skills successfully in your world. Thus, the candidates need to be immersed into your environment so they can analyze your culture to a level that allows them to make an informed decision on the relationship.

One of the best ways to share the sales culture with candidates is through reverse interviewing. The way this is done is that you select a seasoned member of the sales team to conduct a reverse interview with the sales candidate. However, the interviewer doesn't ask any questions, thus the expression reverse interview. This is an opportunity for the candidate to ask questions of a potential peer. The candidate should be encouraged to ask questions that will best help them best understand the sales culture.

There is also a tremendous benefit to employers in immersing the sales candidates in the culture. Every company has a story about someone they hired and six months into the relationship, they recognize that the person doesn't fit with the culture. The sales person recognizes it too. Then, the relationship is terminated. A six-month investment has gone down the tubes with nothing to show for it. Had the company allowed the candidate to experience the culture during the screening process, perhaps he would have removed himself from consideration so that both the candidate and employer could have been spared the pain of this experience.

Years ago, I was interviewing with a company in Bethesda, Maryland. The entire process had gone well. The recruiter called me and said that the C.E.O. would like to take my wife and me to dinner as a final step of the process. What he shared at dinner was that he felt that it was important for my wife to understand the company and the opportunity. He wanted her to have an opportunity to ask questions and understand the plans for the company. This made an incredible impression on both my wife and me. Needless to say, when the offer came the next morning, I accepted and enjoyed a great experience with the company. A great sales marriage!

Another important element in this decision-making process for sales people is the direction of the company. Sales people look to join organizations that have a solid game plan. They have to be passionate about their company and product to be successful. Yet, I hear from many candidates that the company with whom they interviewed did not share it with them. I recognize that there is sensitivity toward letting out trade secrets, however, that lack of sharing can cause the sales candidate to be unimpressed with your company. The secretive nature of your company could also send up a red flag of paranoia. If you are really concerned about trade secrets, have the candidate sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). If you are still uncomfortable, design a message to share with the candidates that is compelling, but does not create risk for your organization.

The final element for review by the candidates is the compensation package. They need to understand the mechanics of the compensation plan. Many companies tell candidates the potential earnings based on achieving the goal of the plan (quota). Few take the candidate through the plan as part of the sales talent screening program. "The plan is designed to target your earnings at $150,000, but we'll get into how the program works when you are onboard."

Yeah, that doesn't work for sales people. They need to know in-depth how they make money. The same holds true for benefits. Share the benefits program with candidates during the sales talent screening program. Show them the costs of the program. Provide them with a Human Resources contact so that they can ask questions about the benefits.

The offer stage of the process should be a formality, just like a marriage proposal. Ladies don't expect their significant other to pull a rabbit out of their pocket. They expect a ring. Your sales candidates shouldn't be surprised either. The offer should be consistent with what they have learned about during your screening process. No surprises!

Lee B. Salz is the CEO of Business Expert Webinars , President of Sales Dodo, and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager. ” Known as “The Sales Dodo,” Lee specializes in helping companies and their sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing world of business. He is an online columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine and the host of the Internet radio show, “Secrets of Business Gurus ” Look for Lee's new book in 2009 titled, "The Sales Marriage… How to Hire the Right Sales People." He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a business consultant. Lee can be reached via email at lsalz@salesdodo.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or by phone at 763.416.4321.