KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Get Qualified! Managing Sales People is all about Training

Do you want to get better at managing your sales employees? Do you think that you lack training in the management of sales people? If so, the sales employee management and training experts at KeenHire can help you.

If we want to become an accountant, we have to study accountancy. If we want to become a doctor, we must go through medical school. If we want to cut hair for one of the top stylists in the business, we had better get some practical training under our belts fast.

Therefore, why should we approach the employment and managing of sales employees in any other way?

If you want to know how to hire effective sales people, then how to retain and manage them, you really should do some studying, go through a training program and develop the skills to do so properly. The sales management training specialists at KeenHire are here to explain to you how to achieve just this and we hope to get the ball rolling positively forwards via this short post.

1. Log on to the KeenHire Blog every single day
One of the most important things to be aware of when wanting to improve the way in which you manage sales people and sales employees in general is to stay connected to the information laid out in the KeenHire Blog on a daily basis.

It is our job to hunt down the many different types of training programs and management courses that you can take in order to improve your management of sales employees as far as possible. We have the time to investigate into the best sales management training programs available so that you don’t have to worry.

Therefore, make sure that you stay connected and stay abreast of the possibilities available in sales employee management training so that your business can thrive.

The Retention Issue: How To Assess Candidates, Perfect Selection and Retain Top Talent

According To Noah Webster, retention is the act or power of keeping or retaining, but Corporately, retention is the power to keep employees actively engaged and committed to being an integral part of the organization. So what is retention like in this day in age? Are employers on the same page as their employees when it comes to effective performance and talent management?

According to the SHRM Workplace Forecast of 2011, our workplace trends are directly related to talent acquisition, selection & retention. All of these being consecutive to one another and going hand in hand with creating a successful business.

A recent survey on employee performance and retention conducted by Express Employment Professionals, one of the nation's largest privately held staffing companies, found that employers are more disconnected than ever from their workforce. Express' survey revealed that 77 percent of leaders say retention was not a problem or only a slight problem in 2011, while 91 percent of employees said they are willing to switch jobs. These extreme figures should be waking up the employers of our nation, and creating a call to action that something’s not right.

With Employee turn over in the US at 16.4 percent what is there to do? How do you shift your talent management, selection and retention in a way that that increases your profit, your employee satisfaction and turnover?

First of all strong leadership is imperative right now in order to enhance your management operating style, implementing accountability systems, while building and developing high-performance teams.

Talent acquisition can only be beat one way: putting the right people in the right roles. How do we do that? By perfecting selection. Selection can be managed with internally, with a 3^rd party recruiter or using both. Whichever your company decides to go with you must ensure that their skills, personality, and values align with the job and the company. Developing Interview strategies that include pre-established critical screening questions, an in-depth career history review and custom built behavioral interview models prevent the unhealthy corporate impact as well as the high cost of a mis-hire.

Over all the corporate response must be to link employee performance and its impact on the organization’s business goals. Doing this will keep employees goals align with the company’s, creating increasing accomplishment and happier on track employees.

So try something different, create a new hiring process, change the way you interview and beef up your leadership training and finally retain the talent you need. 

To learn more about retention, talent management and see how to create a conscious hiring process, visit us at keenhire.com. We equip companies with systems, processes and people to hire & retain with clarity and insight.

By: Emily Eastman

Conscious Hiring: An Operationally Efficient Sales Hiring Process That Gleans World-Class Results

As business leaders of scaling organizations you know that the success of your organization  depends on the quality of the people inside. KeenHire Talent Management’s Conscious-Hiring webinar enables you to learn how to identify the right people for the right roles directly impacting your ability to achieve corporate sales objectives.

Registration for Conscious Hiring Webinar is FREE

Date: August 2, 2011

Time: 10:30 - 12:00 PST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

During this high-powered webinar you change the way you think about your employees' impact on your business while raising your level of expertise and control in choosing your sales team wisely.

By engaging in this Conscious Hiring process you hone in on the key elements it takes to produce consistent sales results in your sales organization and you learn to identify the core sales behaviors, values and competencies needed to achieve those results reliably over time.

You walk away with:
1. A blueprint for creating a highly effective Conscious-Hiring process
2. Insight into Role Analysis, and why it is the key to effective sales hiring
4. Understand how & why to use psychometric assessment tools
5. Review Behavioral Interviewing techniques; the when, why and how

 

The Expert

Margaret Graziano is a torch bearer in the Staffing and Recruitment industry. Her visionary ability, astute knowledge of full life cycle Talent Management and her tenure in the field, positions her far ahead of the Human Capital innovation curve. In the early 2000's Graziano shifted her mindset from recruiter working to make a placements to consultant committed to building extraordinary workforces. She added a talent management division to her staffing operation, adopted a world-class conscious hiring and placement process and significantly invested in her own personal and professional development. She utilizes her certifications in Organizational Development, Behavioral Interviewing, Psychometric Assessment usage, Role Analysis and Employee Retention to create curriculum and programs that elevate KeenHire's customers' ability to hire and retain the right people.

REGISTER NOW!

Can't make the webinar, visit the KeenHire on line store and purchase tools, workbooks, scripts, manuals, assessments, CD's, DVD's, books and more!

Hiring Better 101

Hiring better people starts with a mindset. In an ever changing world, adapting to new technologies and reevaluation of current systems should always be in consideration. Specifically, the staffing industry is riding a wave of social media correspondence as well as introducing new ideas within the hiring process as a concept. The days of "resume-interview-hire" are over and the power of behavioral interviewing, benchmarking, role analysis, succession planning, and leadership development have shot to the forefront of the industry. For a successful company, incorporating these concepts into your current hiring process can only improve your results and drastically impact your bottom line in a positive way.

Attracting The Best Candidates

Do you have what it takes to become one of the country’s top-rated employers?
 
When Fortune magazine makes their yearly list, they survey employees on topics such as management credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie, then they ask company management detailed questions about pay and benefit programs, hiring practices, internal communication, training, recognition programs, and diversity efforts.  

The Fortune ratings look at tangibles such as pay rates, health benefits and family-friendly programs as well as intangibles like work-life balance and employee satisfaction. Most of the 100 companies report low turnover rates, and their employees report a high level of job satisfaction.

Even if your company is not on Fortune's list, you can still be a terrific employer. It's not just a high pay rate or special perks that makes your employees happy. First and foremost, you have to make them feel they are important to your company's success.

Recruitment: Why Change is Good

Global employment is changing rapidly. Within the last 20 years, we've witnessed highs and lows that have redefined the way talent is acquired, assessed, and implemented into the various business environments of the modern world. This change has been a result of global events, government regulations, and a changing economic climate that has demanded efficiency. Not only is this change revolutionizing the recruitment and hiring process, but is benefiting both recruiters and growing companies alike.

Choosing To Win During A War For Talent

By: John Kurzatkowski.

I currently work with Margaret at KeenHire as a Sr. Recruitment Consultant, and wanted to share with you a bit more about how to win in the midst of a war for talent. 

As the business-news media competes for our attention by flashing information on the impending talent shortage, some of us listen with a keen ear while others turn to more urgent, pressing issues. After 22+ years in the human resources business, I don’t need the media to tell me there is going to be a problem; I already feel it in my bones, similar to how my grandfather used to know it was going to rain by his knees aching. When your business is the business of finding talent you are the first to feel ANY inkling of change in the marketplace. Although I may feel like I run a best-in-class business, and I may have evidence that I know how to skin the cat better than the competitor, KeenHire is all the more faced with the challenge of locating new talent for myself and my clients in a diminishing talent pool marketplace. 

KeenAds: An Account Executive In Silcon Valley

Account Executive/ New Business

Change the Game in Recruitment & Talent Management! 

You pride yourself your ability to build and maintain relationships and bring leading edge solutions to your customer base. You enjoy the selling and business development process and prefer for someone else to manage the details of fulfillment, service delivery and day-to-day administration. An ideal situation for you is one that provides residual income opportunity and gives you the freedom to go get new business while your account base and bank account grows.

You are an innovative, driven, successful professional with strong business–to-business sales experience and a deep Silicon Valley decision maker contact list. Your tenacity and drive rewards you with a strong income and a steady stream of new customers.  Your strategic selling ability makes you well poised to sell to the C suite and deliver high impact business solutions.

We are KeenHire Talent Management; we provide the next generation of recruitment and retention solutions to growing organizations where hiring the RIGHT mission critical, key contributor and leadership talent for the right roles for the right price is imperative to their success.

You are looking for a high impact sales role. You are keen on selling customer centric, high value, customizable solutions. You chose to utilize your natural talents and play to your strengths while generating a long-term residual revenue stream.

You are well aware that the game of business is forever changed. You are very clear that when you do not offer a differentiated value proposition, a deeper level of service, and a more effective solution that is strategically priced; then someone else will.

In the next 5 years 90% of companies report they need to improve and expand their recruitment and retention programs to compete for the best talent. Many companies state they are ill equipped to manage their expected growth, mitigate their risk in hiring, reduce unwanted turnover and compete for the best U.S. talent for key contributor, mission critical and leadership talent.

KeenHire Talent Management is Growing and needs the right person in Silicon Valley to open doors and close deals. We provide recruitment & talent management process in-sourcing (the people, systems & tools) for companies expanding or shifting their workforce; where making & keeping the right hire effects profitability, customer engagement and retention. Our customers currently do not have the internal capacity or desire to implement or manage effective spike hiring, selection, on-boarding & retention programs.

If you are called to respond to this opportunity, please check out our web site – www.keenhire.com, and the keenhire blog – blog.keenhire.com and let us know in your phone interview why you believe we are a good match for one another.

To Apply click here

 

Lets Talk Retention

According to Noah Webster, "Retention is the act or power of keeping or retaining. Corporately, retention is the power to keep employees actively engaged and committed to being an integral part of the organization."

Webster separates employee retention from standard retention. However, I have read about, seen and experienced a direct correlation of employee retention with stock price and EBITA. When a company does a great job of hiring the right people and then they do a great job of retaining them, they maximize their ability to secure and retain market-share. The businesses that have cracked the code on recruitment and talent management hold on to customers longer, are in a position to proactively solve their customers’ problems, and have the ability to be on the leading edge in offering new and innovative solutions to their customers because of a steady stream of new knowledge and solid relationships. The correlation between employee retention and profitability makes perfect sense.

Impacting your company’s ability to retain your key contributors, mission-critical players and next-level leaders begins with you understanding where people are at from a  of view.

It is important to note that today’s workplace psychological state is at an all-time low—peopleare too discouraged to go the extra mile; they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. The workforce of 2010 is mistrustful and skeptical. The top issues affecting workplace psychology and employee engagement are “warm chair attrition,” when the body shows up but the mind and heart have been left at home, and “corporate cocooning,” when the mature, highly experienced worker is hoarding information, afraid to share with or train others for fear of being replaced. Yet another is young working parents choosing their families first. Many in this group opt for working at home or only going to the office part-time. A great many people in this demographic are looking for “life/work navigation,” as they have seen firsthand how putting the job first and family second is crippling, un-fulfilling and littered with false rewards. One thing for sure is that in most situations and for most of your workforce: Corporate Loyalty Is Dead.

Competitive, astute employees are adopting a free-agent mentality and building their own relationships outside the company with vendors, customers and ex-employees so they are always ahead of the networking curve. Additionally these mission critical players, key contributors, and highly sought after next-level leaders are constantly improving their skill set so when the ax falls, they have opportunities lined up and waiting.

Recently HR Executive magazine conducted an engagement survey with hundreds of high-performing high potentials from all over the nation, and what they published was somewhat surprising, to say the least. Their study reported that 45% of all internal “candidates” within anorganization’s promotion pipeline are currently looking to leave the organization.

In another survey, conducted by Harris Poll and CareerBuilder, the results were just as compelling:

• 41% of employees are not satisfied with their jobs
• 46% say their workload has increased
• 33% feel they’re at a dead end at their current job
• 78% believe they are coping with “burnout”
• 56% are not glad they chose to work for their current employer
• 63% believe their top management does not display integrity and morality.

Any company that values the power of their human capital, believes that their people are their competitive advantage, is aware of the cost of replacing a great employee, and does not have a progressive talent strategy in place should be nervous. If you are not, take a look at this chart. It makes a great visual. Think about if your company lost their best salesperson to the competition. These days even your ironclad non-compete would most likely only slow them down. They might not call on your customers, but they can take their brain and everything they learned while in your operation and use it against you.

The problem is a big one and a strategic, systemic one at that. Not having enough knowledge-workers leads to longer development times, lower sales coming into the organization, fragmented customer service, a reduction in innovation and, eventually, lost customers. Hiring the wrong people because you are in a “rush” leads to more unwanted turnover, and that turnover comes at a high cost. Not knowing what makes your people tick leads to an incubation of the “free agent mentality.” The bottom line: the demographic and psycho-graphic challenges facing our companies cannot be avoided or ignored. Furthermore, the cost of doing nothing far outweighs the cost of being proactive and creating high-impact solutions that affect your bottom-line profitability and stakeholder equity.

Your company must decide if people are your competitive advantage, and if they are, you must strategically cause a corporate transformation, adopt a talent mindset and lead the way. Once you adopt and engage the rest of the leadership and management team in the talent mindset,you need to develop a people, or better said, talent strategy that lives and breathes throughout the organization.

Think, Work And Grow Rich In A Sales Career

 

There has never been a better time in the staffing industry! Economists are forecasting a 20% growth in staffing requirements in 1^st quarter of 2011. For a hungry sales person this means an opportunity to gain market share, expand client base, make a name for yourself, lay the foundation and sew the seeds for a marvelous and lucrative next 5 years.

The question many candidates, employers and Sales Managers ask is, “How do I know if a person, or if I am right for a sales career?”  Some answers to that question as well as some insights around who makes it in sales for the long term are detailed below.

A key in consistently producing high levels of sales in any industry is a core belief in the product or service you sell. Fundamentally, you are the type of person that would spend money on the service you are pitching, you know what you expect as a deliverable and then sell it.

Additionally, you posses the right raw material required for a successful sales person. Some raw material traits that the best sales people studied by Sales Gurus, Industrial Psychologists, Performance Analysts and Business leaders are the “high achiever”, “self starter”, “personal accountability”, “solution oriented” and “astute” traits. These are not behaviors or personality traits that are taught, prodded, coached or developed in someone else, you have these traits or you don’t.  You know you have these traits when you are the type of person who gets things done with little external stimulation, you drive yourself to high levels of productivity, you take responsibility for what gets done and what doesn’t and you create a plan to get what did not get done complete ahead of schedule.  You know you have the astute trait when you have a keen awareness of what is happening with people around you, you observe conversations, communications and respond accordingly, you look in the mirror and see the beauty as well as the warts. You possess the astuteness trait when you are the type of person that looks at what is not working with you and aims to fix it. A person who thinks they are perfect in every way; lacks common sense, common sense is astuteness.

Beyond these personal deep-rooted traits, most highly effective, Sales professionals who build sustainable incomes are people, like it or not who put a high value on money, things money buys, the freedom money provides and the opportunity to measure their effectiveness by the money on their commission check. Another value that propels sales success is the value of independence and influence and power over others. The driving force of needing to control outcomes, wanting your causes to be victorious is critical for most Sales roles.

These two values operating in synergy in a person who has the self-starter trait, the personally accountable competency, the common sense trait, the solution-oriented trait is like a Ferrari engine, a full tank of high-octane gas, a brand new paint job an open track and a green light – vroom!

Now let’s throw in your behavior of being highly competitive, needing to win, your strong sense of urgency and your need to service your customers and you are positioned for a top producer role. 

Next, you need to assess your listening skills.  Do you sell or do you tell?  A person with all the right stuff who does not shut up long enough to hear what the prospect or customer’s true pain is; is a person who leaves money, a lot of money on the table.  When you listen you are poised to influence.

If you think a Sales career is the next step for you, I suggest you watch a movie, assess the behaviors, traits, ethics and competencies of the lead “Sales” role and ask yourself if that is you.  A great moving to watch addressing this very concept is “The Pursuit of Happiness”.  Will Smith powerfully demonstrates exactly what it takes to win in a sales career.

Once you determine you have that raw material, behaviors, competencies and values to be a killer sales person, it’s time to isolate and identify the industries that you believe in and are passionate about.  Then find companies in that industry that offer a solid value proposition, have a business model you can get behind and a decent training program combined of on the job ‘doing’ and classroom ‘theory’.   The last aspect of focus is the commission plan.   

Every organization I read about and work with as well as every CEO I interview tells me very clearly if the person is putting numbers on the board, generating sales, retaining customers; they compensate fairly.  I have been paid out 16% commission (no base, straight commission); I have been paid out 50% commission. My favorite job by far, my favorite company, the place I learned the most and grew the most was the 16% commission place.  They provided the structure I needed to learn the recruiting and staffing business, they provided the coaching and the training and they hired only top producers, I was surrounded by and emulated the top producers.

Do you hear yourself in any of this?  When you know yourself as a sales person at heart and you want the opportunity to earn what you are worth.  When you never ever want to look for another job; look for a sales career and look to staffing, recruiting and consulting in the Talent Management space. There is no limit on the opportunities and anyone who puts their heart in to it, has a strong work ethic and has the natural ability to sell is in a position to think, work and grow rich.