The Bull's-Eye View

Friends and Colleagues,
Welcome to another issue of the Bull's Eye View.

Finding and training new sales recruiters is a difficult but vital part of any business. As I've said before, these new recruits are often the best hire you can make. They have a passion and drive that cannot be taught, and that is more valuable than any acquired skill. Given a few guidelines and training, your existing core of professional sales recruiters can help bring these new recruiters up to speed.

A recent article by Dave Kahle,of The Growth Coach, outlines the beliefs that will limit a salesperson or sales recruiter's performance. The issues he discusses are mistakes made by many professional sales recruiters, but new sales recruiters fall prey to them more often than not.

His major point is making the customer (in recruiting, the employee you are trying to hire or place) your focus, and seeing the situation from their point of view, not yours. He boils his argument down to six tips that apply to every selling situation and are words to live by for professional sales recruiters at any level:

• Engage with the right people.
• Make them comfortable with you.
• Find out what they want.
• Show them how what you have gives them what they want.
• Gain agreement on the next step.
• Follow up and leverage satisfaction to other opportunities.

With a few exceptions, professional sales recruiters are not born; they are made. What's important to remember is that most sales recruiters are only as good as they think they are. Anyone who's seen Annette Benning's emotional breakdown in American Beauty remembers her mantra "in order to be successful, one must project an image of success." Encourage your newer sales recruiters to adapt this motto to work for each of their individual situations.

Don't Be The Victim Of A Hiring Mistake

Every employer makes both good and bad hiring decisions. Both are unavoidable. Even the worst hiring system will produce some very good employees on occasion, and the best selection systems will occasionally produce mis-hires, or employees that don't fit the job they are hired for.

No selection process can guarantee that every newly hired employee is the best or even a good match for the job. A good selection process is designed to reduce the probability of hiring the wrong person, regardless of what the person that designed the process says it will do.

The problem is not that employers occasionally hire a bad employee. The problem is that once the bad employee is on the job and gives indicators of being a poor performer, the employer avoids terminating the worker promptly.

A supervisor once said to me that his reason for not immediately firing a mis-hire was that "there is a 90-day probationary period and he has only been here for 30 days." The experience then becomes one that lasts far too long.

While the employer is wrestling with determining the "right" decision, the better employees in the organization have already made their decision. They begin to either distance themselves from the poor performer, complain, or they start doing the extra work that is now required to assure that their performance is not hurt by the new employee's poor performance. After the first mis-hire, good employees may wonder what went wrong with the selection process. After additional mis-hires, they will begin to wonder how much longer they will be able to put up with carrying the load for the employee that can't carry their fair share.

The result is that towards the conclusion of the 90-day probationary period the mis-hired employee is terminated. Unfortunately, bad employees do not always leave by themselves. They often (unintentionally) convince more valued employees that there may be a better place to work.

Employers and their most valued employees are better served when time is invested in terminating the mis-hire rather than trying to make him or her into the next good employee. When newly hired employees are determined to be "mistakes," their employment should be terminated, regardless of how much time remains in the probationary period.

The chances of hiring a person that is not a good fit for the job decreases when an employer invests quality time in selecting employees, adheres to a policy of not settling for the "best of the bunch," and terminating mis-hires when it is determined that they are not the right person for the job.

- Lonnie Harvey, Jr SPHR, President of The JESCLON Group Inc.

Contribute In Meetings

Do some of your employees contribute more at staff meetings, while quieter members hold back?

To achieve more balance, inform staffers in advance that you'll be directing specific questions to them.

Once you've given quieter employees fair warning, call on them.

Games People Play

You can crack down on computer game playing in your office and still maintain morale.

Set up "games-only" computers in the lounge or lunchroom for staff members to use on their own time, during breaks and at lunch time.

Maintaining A Positive Attitude In The Workplace

If you want to remain or become a positive force in the workplace, you need a strategy. Follow the suggestions below to get yourself on your way:

• Ask three people you consider positive forces how they maintain their attitudes.
• Survey your use of language, and change it when necessary. This includes inner talk and outer talk. Change your negative words and thoughts into positive ones.
• Surround yourself with as many positive people as possible.
• Appreciate yourself. Accept yourself for who you are, not who you ought to be.
• Don't worry about something that has already happened. If there is a lesson to be learned, learn it and move on.
• Accept that you are going to make mistakes.
• For one entire day, commit yourself to using all of your energy to be positive.
• Realize that how you feel about something is your choice.
• Take charge of your life, and give yourself credit when you do.

-Adapted from The 6 Success Strategies for Winning at Life, Love & Business by Wolf J. Rinke

There is no future in any job. The future lies in the person who holds the job.

- George Crane

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

- Albert Einstein

The Top 5 Things That Can Kill Your Candidacy

Are you going to stay another year in a job that does not fulfill you? Have you been thinking about making a job change but have been unmotivated because the task of taking on a search or complete career transition is just so daunting to you?

The good news is the job market is better now than it has been in the past five years. Unemployment is about 4% and companies are finally starting to speed up the hiring process because they are losing good candidates.

Perhaps these tips will trigger you from "thinking about it" to "taking action."

1. Not being up to date with technology

   Not being up to date with current technologies has been a key factor I have found that has hurt many candidates from getting called into interviews. If your skills are outdated, look into the many available classes, buy a book, or take a course on line. Get up to date!

2. Staying with the same company for too long

   Yes I will be bold enough to say it because I see it all the time! This is not a myth; being with the same company beyond 15 years, even if you have moved up the ranks can hurt your personal brand. The concern often is that the person is stalled in his/her career and isn't expanding their skills aggressively enough and can be considered stale. Other times the fear is that no matter how qualified, the candidate is, he/she won't be able to adapt to a new company very easily.

3. Applying for positions you are over qualified for

   Some say it's a numbers game but sending your resume to just any job especially if you are over or under qualified doesn't make a good impression.

4. Sending a generic cover letter

   The more you can target your cover letter to the specific skill-set the prospective employer described in the job description, the better response you'll receive. Think about the objections the prospective employer might have when reviewing your resume. And as a side note, address any gaps in your resume in the cover letter as well.

5. Sharing your salary history

   Online forms and filling out applications can be tedious, however if you fail to complete the salary section, employers can view you as unwilling to comply with guidelines, somewhat difficult, or unable to follow instructions. You never want to write in a specific number, or give a range; instead write or respond with one of the following: would be happy to discuss in the interview, open or negotiable. Do your research on where the salary for the position should be. Get the employer to speak first about the range of the position and ask for a job description.

Hopefully these tips will motivate you to start your job search now! Take advantage of my "no obligation" offer and get a jump start on your search by calling me for a free job search strategy session at 508-520-9933, or email me the best time to reach you - CoachDQ@CareerLifeBalance.net

Future Insights

Stay flexible. Change will be constant. New opportunities will present themselves. Unexpected challenges will throw themselves at you. Be ready to duck, bob, weave, side step, and hop-scotch. Agility is power.

Stay alert to your own environment. Even carefully watching the trends, we can't predict everything that will happen to you and your company. Futurists work at the "30,000 foot" level; corporate leaders operate at the mountain top level. Keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground.

Practice "Future Thinking." Always look ahead in everything you do. Anticipate, project. Consider the future consequences of every decision you make. Train and encourage your staff to think the same way. Build this kind of active futures perspective into your company's culture.

Clarify your mission. Involve all your people in the creation-or confirmation-of your mission. Crystallize your reason for being, and your direction into the future. People support what they help to create.

Do you need a top-performing sales professional to drive revenue?

If you don’t have time or money to waste searching for a top-quality sales person that drives revenue, Target Consulting can do the sales recruiting for you. You only pay us if you hire a candidate, and we guarantee the candidate for a limited time. Visit our Client Services section.

Call us for a confidential job search

MAPS Cruise

For more details, visit:www.mapsweb.org

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