This post is Part 4 in a Salesjournal Series on “Making Your Business Attractive to Top Talent.” Part 1 asks “Is Your Business Attractive to Top Talent?”, Part 2 describes how to “Market Your Company and Positions to Attract Top Talent”, Part 3 outlines ways to “Cultivate Your Network to Attract Top Talent“, and Part 5 asks “Want Top Talent? Rethink Benefits“.
Whether you know it or ...
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Cultivate Your Network to Attract Top Talent
This post is Part 3 in a Salesjournal Series on “Making Your Business Attractive to Top Talent.” Part 1 asks “Is Your Business Attractive to Top Talent?” and Part 2 describes how to “Market Your Company and Positions to Attract Top Talent”, Part 4 details “Lack Luster Employee Culture? Address It Now to Impact Retention” and Part 5 asks “Want Top Talent? Rethink Benefits.”
You can’t rely...
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Market Your Company and Positions to Attract Top Talent
This post is Part 2 in a Salesjournal Series on "Making Your Business Attractive to Top Talent." Part 1 asked, "Is Your Business Attractive to Top Talent?"
Attracting top talent is a struggle for almost every company. An essential element to combating this problem is being able to market your company and your positions effectively. Appealing job descriptions, marketing your open positions...
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Practice Makes Perfect: How to Rehearse for Your Next Job Interview
By Caroline M.L. Potter
There are a lot of steps that usually happen before you get to the interview portion of your job search: writing a resume, networking, compiling your references. Most folks are able to put a lot of effort into getting the interview, but many fall apart during the actual interview. Why? Poor planning and a lack of practice.
Instead of winging it, or relying solely on your pr...
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Is Your Business Attractive to Top Talent?
How do I attract top sales talent? I find this question being asked repeatedly when speaking with business and sales leaders. It is nearly unanimous that they all struggle with finding and keeping good sales professionals.
Solving this tough challenge involves selling your company as much to prospective employees as to prospective customers. Too many businesses set up all of their marketing and c...
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On Boarding New Sales Reps
by Richard Ruff
Today a sales team must not only be able to sell a competitive advantage; they must be a competitive advantage. In most companies, it is increasingly difficult to sustain a competitive advantage by traditional means. Traditional factors such as superior products, scale, and innovative manufacturing technology may provide short-term advantages but unfortunately, they can be replicat...
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Fostering a Positive Relationship Between HR and Sales
By Resolution Systems, Inc.
A sales management team needs to ensure that their department is on good terms with human resources professionals employed by the same company, as these two groups need to work together for the benefit of the entire business. Though fostering this relationship may be difficult, reps should be in line with the thinking of their managers.
These two departments often work...
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5 Questions Great Job Candidates Ask
By Jeff Haden, INC.com
Be honest. Raise your hand if you feel the part of the job interview where you ask the candidate, "Do you have any questions for me?" is almost always a waste of time.
Thought so.
The problem is most candidates don't actually care about your answers; they just hope to make themselves look good by asking "smart" questions. To them, what they ask is more impo...
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7 Things to Look for in a Sales Manager
By Lee Salz
Many execs put industry experience at the top of their criteria list for sales-management candidates.
“The successful applicant will have 10 years experience in the widget industry.”
Hogwash!
The end result of this approach is that companies hire the industry retreads.
Perhaps, employers think that this person will bring along valuable competitive secrets — maybe even some clients. Wh...
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An Unlikely Partnership: When HR and Marketing Join Forces
by Patricia Nazemetz and Will Ruch
The HR discipline is evolving into a strategic voice because its sphere of influence — talent attraction, engagement and retention — is now recognized as the foundation to organizational success. But the pervasive influence of social media on the work world demands change in the way employers motivate and communicate with talent. We've seen success with a n...
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Role of HR in Achieving Business Goals
By Sherrie Scott for Demand Media
Human resources professionals have many roles within an organization. They are responsible for formulating strategies that focus on recruiting and retaining top employees as well as overseeing projects that promote company-wide productivity. Most human resources departments control the overall operations of a business, making the department a key component of...
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What employers look for in hiring salespeople
By Tom Searcy, CBS MoneyWatch
(MoneyWatch) Salespeople are hired to be fired. So when it comes time to find that next sales job, just what is the person doing the hiring looking for in a new salesperson?
Research suggests there are three key factors prospective employers look at to predict the success of an employee. If you hire salespeople, you should be looking for these factors. Shockingly, m...
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7 Secrets of Recruiting the BEST Salespeople
By Steve Suggs, Recruiting Expert and author of Can They Sell
When Jeffery Gittomer, endorsed my book, Can They Sell, he said, “To hire or not to hire? That is the question.” Jeffery is a master at getting salespeople to understand this foundational principal of success: “Salespeople’s mastery of sales skills will determine the quality of their lifestyle.” A similar principal of succe...
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7 Hiring Mistakes and How Not to Make Them
BY S. ANTHONY IANNARINO
I am not throwing the first stone here (or the last). I have personally been guilty of half of these. But, alas, it is how one learns.
Hiring Out of Desperation
One of the fastest ways to build an underperforming sales force and burden yourself with human resources nightmares is to hire out of desperation. If you desperately need someone to fill the position, or if you are ...
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KEEP IT SIMPLE WHEN IT COMES TO SALES COMPENSATION
By Matt Smith
In an earlier blog post that cited some key data from a recent CSO Insights report on best practices in tracking sales metrics, we noted that companies that measure 4-7 key sales metrics had higher sales performance than companies that tracked 3 or fewer key sales metrics. My first reaction when I read these statistics was that if measuring sales metrics drives sales performance then...
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Will This Sales Candidate Really Fail If We Hire Him?
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
This week I called the type of candidate that traditional HR professional love - his resume was formatted, there were no typos, his background was exactly what my client craved - but the assessment wasn't so impressed with him; he was a borderline candidate at best.
Normally ...
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Why You Must Kick the Sourcing Habit
by Lou Adler
As many of you know — I announced it at the ERE Expo in San Diego — I’ve decided to bring recruiting back to recruiting. This is my new old mission. Somehow this has been lost in the past few years when overall candidate supply exceeded demand. Hiring top talent is not the same as finding top talent. While sourcing is a step in this journey, it is only a step, and one getting easier e...
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Startups Need To Hire A Recruiter…Now
Jeff Bussgang, Seeing Both Sides
The unemployment rate in America is hovering around 9%. But if you are a competent engineer, sales executive, online marketer or general manager in Silicon Valley, NYC, Boston, or other startup hotspots, the unemployment rate is 0%.
The talent market has gotten as competitive and aggressive as I have ever seen in the last 20 years. CNN recently reported that 4...
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Sales Interview Questions from JustSell.com
Interviewing your next superstar? Looking for your next sales position?
Here’s a list of 31 interview questions in no particular order.
If you’re interviewing candidates, use what you like and improve what you don’t.
If you’re in the hunt for a new sales position, use them as a prep tool and work your way through. When you come out the other side, you’ll be completely tuned and ready for action...
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Gracefully Decline a Job Offer
Original Post: The LaddersBy Andrew Klappholz
It sounds too good to be true. One highly touted job seeker was hit with a perfect financial services storm: job offers from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Blackrock — all at the same time.
This was the situation facing one client of career coach Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio, a partner at SixFigureStart and former head of staffing for Merrill Lynch...
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Didn’t Get the Job? Don’t Be Shy… Ask Why!
By Tim Estiloz, Posted Dec 7th 2010 AOL Jobs
You go in for a job interview and do what you believe is a killer performance that should nail you the position, only to find out a short time later, after no call backs, that someone else got the position. Along with the natural disappointment at losing the job, it's also natural to wonder why your qualifications and presentation fell short. You can't ...
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Seven Tips for Reentering the Workforce
Original Post: By NicoleWilliams.com staff
Reentering the workforce can be a challenge no matter how good your excuse is: volunteering, working or studying abroad, starting a family, caring for a sick relative or coping with your own illness, or investing in your future by completing a graduate degree.
Your search can be made more difficult by the poor economy and a bias against people who have la...
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What to Expect on a Second and Third Interview
Original Post: By Darryl K. Taft, The Ladders
“Understanding the typical schedule and purpose of each round can prepare you to face each and give you an advantage in the hiring process.”
Before you hear the words, “You’re hired,” you will typically sit through three separate interview sessions … at least.
You prepared for the first interview. So you’re prepared for the second and third interviews,...
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The Power of a Simple Thank-You Note
Original Post: Peter Vogt, Monster Senior Contributing Writer
When my wife was hired for her first real job after graduating from college, she was remembered and saluted by her new supervisor for one seemingly small step she had taken during the interviewing process: She was the only applicant of several interviewed who had sent a thank-you note after her interview.
It seems amazing, but it's true...
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Don’t Let a Bad Attitude Ruin Your Job Search
While a lengthy job search might be unpleasant, expressing negative thoughts to a recruiter or hiring manager about the search process or a past company can cost you the position. Businesses look for individuals with a positive outlook and a high level of excitement. People want to collaborate with others who are optimistic and enthusiastic about their work and exhibit these qualities visibly...
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Use The Holidays To Find A Job
Original Post: Susan Adams, Forbes.com
You can and should. One reason: You'll have less competition then.
When my friend Matthew turned down an offer for a lucrative marketing position two weeks ago (it conflicted with the noncompete agreement from his old employer), he told me he couldn't find another job until the new year. That's just the way it is in his business, he said. Once the holidays hi...
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Top 10 Online Job Search Tips
Original Post: CareerBuilder.com
While the popularity of online job boards puts millions of jobs at one's fingertips, it has also made the job applicant pool that much bigger. For this reason, national job search sites and the Internet as a whole have gotten a bad rap from some industry professionals as an ineffective job seeker tool; on the contrary, the Internet actually can be a great re...
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What if They Want Me to Sign a Non-Compete Agreement?
By Jack Chapman - Original Post: The Ladders.com
Don't sign that non-compete agreement.
A non-compete agreement may look harmless enough, but if you're not careful it can cost you a lot of time and money in the long run.
Here's an example: A college student had an internship at an ad agency. She signed a routine non-compete and was subsequently hired as a full-time employee. Two years later a form...
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Selling a Pen (and Yourself) in an Interview: Outdated Tactic or Timeless Question?
A question was raised in one of my LinkedIn groups recently that got me and other members thinking about the tactics used by hiring managers during the interview process. The question: If you were interviewing for a sales job and the sales manager said “sell me this pen," how would you respond?
The feedback from the group was varied. Some offered recommended responses to the actual question. Ot...
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13 Ways Your Resume Can Say ‘I’m Unprofessional’
Hiring pros share the faux pas they find in real resumes, including wacky e-mail addresses, defunct phone numbers and cookie-cutter templates.
Original Post By Lisa Vaas, The Ladders
No offense, thebigcheese@domain.com, but if nobody has told you yet, we’re telling you now: That e-mail address is not making you look particularly professional.
Unprofessional e-mail addresses are just one way of se...
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