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Friends and Colleagues,
Welcome to another issue of the Bull's Eye View.
Sales recruiting is a unique profession because of the wide array of innate traits and learned skills required to be successful. It can be a difficult field to get into, and even more difficult to excel and last at, because of certain requirements that simply cannot be taught. This also makes it a very competitive field, which means you have a  lot of options when choosing a sales management recruiter.
However, if you’re not used to working directly in the recruitment field in can be difficult to know what to look for when shopping around for different firms. Recruiting sales people can take time, and you don’t want a recruiter to rush a potential hire, but you don’t want to waste time either. When you start looking at upper level positions and need a sales management recruiter, the stakes are higher and the process can quickly become more complicated.
Recruiting sales people for entry or mid-level positions is different than recruiting for sales management; a recruiter looking for senior positions needs to put a lot more time and effort into finding the right candidate(s) because of the nature of the position. This is true in every industry; the higher up the position, the more skills and experience are required, which means fewer applicants meet the necessary requirements. It can also take more to entice an upper level executive or manager to consider leaving their comfort zone to move to a new company.
Because of the importance of a management position, and the differences between recruiting sales people and recruiting sales managers, you need to be especially careful when choosing a sales management recruiter. There are a few things you should look for when comparing sales management recruiter or firm:
Track Record
Overall, how are they at recruiting sales people and placing employees at all levels? This is a good first indicator of work ethic and will give you an idea of how the recruiter or firm will work for you.
Management Placement History
Do the employees that they find stick around? A good sales management recruiter should know how their recent placements are doing and hopefully has a proven record of how long previous placements lasted so you know what to expect.
Guarantee
Are you protected if the new hire doesn’t work out for some reason? Most agencies guarantee their placement for a certain amount of time in case the new hire doesn’t meet expectations.
These are just some basic guidelines to get you started, and they can be applied whether you are looking for someone to work on recruiting sales people or trying to find a sales management recruiter. Make sure you do your homework and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Happy hiring!
Good Selling,
PM
Peter Marinilli CPC, CSP
Managing Partner
Vice President of MAPS www.mapsweb.org
Goals & Goal Setting
"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." – Tom Landry
The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.
When Andrew Carnegie died, they discovered a sheet of paper upon which he had written one of the major goals of his life: to spend the first half of his life accumulating money and to spend the last half of his life giving it all away. And he did!
Some people are disturbed by those tough days because all they have is the days. They haven't designed or described or defined the future.
Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.
We all need lots of powerful long-range goals to help us past the short-term obstacles.
The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.
Don't set your goals too low. If you don't need much, you won't become much.
If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.
We all have two choices: We can make a living or we can design a life.
Make this a Positive Day...unless of course you've made other plans!
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Why Have A Coach?
What if you could identify your inner motivation to achieve more of your goals more often? How would your life be different if you developed a keener sense of purpose?
A professional coaching relationship creates value through a powerful, highly tuned process of communications and problem-solving that is “co-creative” between coach and client. It focuses totally on the client’s interests, challenges and goals. Coaches help you improve performance and enhance the quality of your life. Great coaching helps you self-coach more effectively, not simply by helping you solve problems; it transforms the way you solve them. Coaching will not simply improve your life; it will transform the way you live.
Clients and coaches achieve more significant results together than either could achieve alone. While some people hire coaches purely for incremental growth, increased wealth or reformation, great coaching asks transformational questions. Instead of creating or developing the potential of the person being coached, effective coaching reveals and releases untapped value.
If you recognize that you may have untapped potential, suspect a “blind-spot” in your professional or personal relationships, or simply want help in moving from “good to great”, coaching may be for you. You may be ready for a coach if you seek a safe space to expand your thinking with someone who will listen and respond rather than advise or try to “fix” you.
Reprint permission granted by Mark Sturgell, Performance Development Network
Prospecting 2.0
By Evan Sohn
Web 2.0 is a shift in the way businesses think and leverage the Internet. Sales 2.0 is a shift in the way that businesses manage their sales forces and leads. But is there a Prospecting 2.0?
Not too long ago (say 1990) if we wanted to drive leads for our business we would send out postcards. Really great looking postcards. We would send out thousands of them, hoping for a 1% response rate. Online postcard companies that would send the postcards out for you automated this process. These companies would even provide the mailing list. Over the years, these organizations morphed into email houses and other eMarketing shops.
Prospecting 1.0 moved us onto the “internet superhighway” with online seminars (webinars). No longer limited to an in-person seminar in multiple local cities (can anyone else say 10 city seminars in 4 weeks?) the Internet allowed us to produce an online version of our in-person seminar. These of course became so dry that we supplemented the rather poor attendance with recordings that became available ‘on demand’. Prospective 1.0 eventually led to Podcasts and who (other than me) doesn’t want to listen to selling training materials on their iPod?
Web 2.0 has created a more open approach to the Internet, in particular user-generated content, blogs, podcasts, social media, review sites, Wikipedia, etc. Prospecting 1.0 has clearly benefitting from Web 2.0 trends as companies are using the social networks to drive business (certainly the recruiting industry and consultants are benefitting from social networks). Sales 2.0 brought together discrete marketing and sales tools into a single framework (think Salesforce.com, WebEx and Genius) and thus the Sales 2.0 sales force leverages the activity from Web 2.0 venues (such as Blogs) to deliver leads to the sales team. Web 2.0 was a real paradigm shift as consumer-oriented venues (Facebook for instance) are being leveraged for businesses. Companies started thinking about their social media coverage the same way they measure their public relations (print) coverage. But there has not been a shift in the way that prospecting occurs – it is very much the same formula; response to lead to qualified lead to warm lead to hot lead to opportunity to hot opportunity to deal. Many people have written about these steps (from Miller Heimen to Siebel) but let’s assume these are pretty much the steps. Web 2.0 has given more ways for responses to occur – from clicks, to blog posts, to downloads and web responses. These build on the direct mail response leads from the early 90s but in the end are still just responses. Shouldn’t the Internet be able to shift the way that people prospect for business the same way the recruiters now fish for candidates across LinkedIn?
Prospecting 2.0 is the new trend in allowing buyers to reach decision makers without the need for the first 3 steps of the marketing equation (response – lead – qualified lead). This is actually the most costly area of the marketing process. Think of how much you spent on your last Google PPC campaign and how many qualified leads were generated from that campaign. Think of how much you spent to exhibit at your most recent tradeshow and the number of qualified leads that were generated from that event. Web 2.0 has created an environment where one could easily leverage what we will call human capital. This started with eBay (albeit Web 1.0) where your ‘stuff’ is valuable because there is someone willing to purchase it. Prosper.com created a marketplace where your liquid cash can be ‘sold’ for higher interest rates because there is someone willing to pay a premium for a loan. More recently expert networks have become a common place where professionals could earn extra money (often referred to as an honorarium) by speaking to companies looking to leverage their knowledge (check out glgroup.com). Prior to an expert network a company would have no alternative but to hire a consulting firm whose analysts would serve as the industry experts on the desired subject. The analysts would do their research gathering information on their own and sifting through the bits and pieces to come up with their own conclusions that they would share with their clients for a very hefty fee. Online expert networks (the Web 2.0 flavor) bypass the analysts and consulting firms connecting the company directly with the industry expert.
Prospecting 2.0 works in a similar vein. Rather than a company using Google or other traditional marketing tools to drive responses, leads, etc. they bypass them by going directly to the source of the opportunity. They do this by creating a marketplace for referrals driven either by the buyer (of the qualified leads) or the seller. Companies like Myndnet, LeadVine and ThePerfectNetworker allow buyers to literally publish their lead request and the fee they are willing to pay for the referral. Companies like Inquisix and Passitto take the sellers approach by allowing a seller to list their referral or contact opportunity and allowing buyers to purchase their connections. Companies like Salesconx do both buy and sell introductions to decision makers. Are they working? It is probably too early to tell as a sector, but $10 billion will be spent in 2008 by businesses in the US on lead and opportunity generation. Checking out these companies sites, it isn’t just small businesses using these services. Myndnet has a few listings from Netscout, Passitto has a law firm, and Salesconx has Administaff, MessageLabs and Berlin Pacific. Companies of all sizes are faced with the constant struggle and desire to grow. In a day and age when every dollar counts, isn’t it time for Prospecting 2.0?
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Prospecting – A Key to Sales Success!
There is an old axiom: “you have to hunt where the ducks are.” This is especially true in selling. If you do not have a pipeline filled with prospects, you are not putting yourself in a position to sell very high volume. The Champion Salesperson recognizes that the lifeblood of sales is prospects. Before you can begin developing prospects, there are a couple of things that need to be defined.
The first step in prospecting is to understand what a prospect is. A Prospect has to meet three criteria:
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they have a need for your product or service,
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they have the ability to make a decision,
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they have the ability to pay for your product or service.
If you are talking with someone and you don’t know if they meet all three criteria, you are talking with a suspect. At one point all prospects were suspects. The key here is that you need to find out if your suspect qualifies as a prospect. If not, move on. Don’t waste valuable time on people that will not buy.
The next step in prospecting is to understand what business you are in. There is a story about a drill bit manufacturer who when asked about his business said, “We provide drill bits for businesses and individuals.” Later that day he saw a man using a hammer and nail and asked, “What are you trying to do?” The man replied, “I’m making a ¼” hole.” From then on the manufacturer recognized he was in the business of helping people make holes.
Once you begin to think in terms of what benefits your product or service provides, you are on your way to defining what business you are in. Once you know how to identify a prospect and what business you are in, you can go out into the marketplace to target prospects.
Reprint permission granted by Andre Boykin of CAPITAL iDEA
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 PRESENTS:
Beth Schneider, CPC
&
"REALITY RECRUITING"
When: Thursday, November 13, 2008 from 5pm to 8 pm.
Where: Newton Marriott - 2345 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton MA
Costs: $79.00 Members
$99.00 Non-members
Beth will be one of the best speakers we have this year!
Take $10 off each person if you bring three or more from your office!
Go to the MAPS website (www.mapsweb.org) to learn more or contact Cindy Laughlin at: cindy@recruitingspecialists.com
Target Consulting Group Hot Jobs
Account Executive
Job Description:
- Specialize in generating new business in your protected territory through prospecting, cold calling, networking and relationship building.
- Develop a territory specific strategy to increase market share by outlining tactics, activities and resources.
- Deliver presentations and perform demonstrations that highlight The Companys’ features, benefits and current marketing promotions.
- Actively research and display knowledge of prospects you are targeting, as well as your competition.
- Determine profitability of potential business and set client pricing.
Job Location: MA and RI
Base Salary: $45,000
OTE: $85,000
Job Requirements:
- Bachelors Degree or equivalent
- 1 - 3 years' outside B2B sales experience required.
Please send resumes to:
sales@targetconsulting.com
Inside Software Sales
Job Description:
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Identify, contact and lead generate to gain market share.
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Build & maintain subject matter expertise, and fluency, in Courion's Enterprise Provisioning suite
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Create rapport and develop quality relationships
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Assist field sales staff in managing Fortune 100-1000 account
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Assist with the generation of RFP responses
- Attend trade shows
Job Location: Massachusetts
Base Salary: $50,000
OTE: $90,000
Job Requirements:
- BS in, Business or Technology related
- 2-3 years sales experience minimum of 1 in telesales capacity
- Exceptional skills in selling over the phone
Please send resumes to:
sales@targetconsulting.com
Increase Business with Referrals
Increase business by asking for a referral from an existing customer. Referrals are one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to market. Referrals have more impact than any other marketing strategy or advertising campaign because prospective customers rely on the confidence and trust that your existing customers have for you. A satisfied customer is usually glad to help you and can provide a strong testimonial for your company. This can open doors quickly for new customers.
Candidate Referral Program
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Target Consulting will pay you $500 for each friend that you refer who gets a job through our services.
Client Referral Program
Refer Target Consulting Group a client and we will donate $500 to a charity of your choice.
Are you an HR or sales consultant looking to add value to your client with our service?
Call us about our agent program at
888-511-JOBS for details.
Call us at 888-511-JOBS for details.
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*Your referrals are the greatest compliment you can offer our firm. If you know anyone that would benefit from Target Consulting Group, have them call us directly for a complimentary Strategy Session. Thank you for your generosity.
Target Consulting Group is now a part of First Interview, a network of recruiters. Please call us for more information on how you can benefit from becoming a part of First Interview. (888) 511-5627 or sales@targetconsulting.com
phone: 508-314-3563
fax: 508-546-0317
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