As we all come to terms with rapidly changing economic circumstances, one of the most significant challenges facing business leaders is preparing the sales force to ‘sell in hard times’.

One of the alarming facts we are faced with is that many of today’s business to business sales people have no experience of selling in difficult times and many of the sales leaders are in the same position!

Read the rest of this entry »

As we are all well aware, the face of the business world is changing rapidly. There are not only new technologies to help (and hinder) us on what seems like a daily basis, but the economy is also currently playing a large role. High performers are desirable in any business but in the current climate they are a necessity.

A high performer is someone who can work smarter and faster, and take on greater responsibility and grow in strength when faced with challenges. It is fair to say that one superior person is worth as much to your organisation as a handful of mediocre people. But who are these high performers?

Read the rest of this entry »

In the current economic climate businesses have to work harder and smarter to not only win new customers but then retain and develop them into high level business. Customers are not willing to part with their money on a whim and are demanding that the products or services they choose to purchase are exceeding their expectations. With tightening margins comes a desire to tighten the purse strings, but could minimising all of your outgoings be a false economy?

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past 30-plus years, I’ve been involved in thousands of searches, worked with hundreds of hiring managers, trained 3,000 to 4,000 recruiters, and worked closely with dozens of major companies. Following are some of the common threads among the best techniques, processes, and tools that I have seen and used.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past decade, when it comes to human resources, the IT industry has been living in an atmosphere of doom and gloom. Many reputable organisations and individuals went on the record stating that the shortage of IT workers would reach critical proportions and severely impede economic growth. The contraction of the sector in 2001-2003 made the prophets of doom retreat for fear of being ridiculously irrelevant, as even the greenest of IT pastures, like the Bay area, were going through a severe drought.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the years, we’ve helped many companies apply the principles of Performance-Based Hiring to find talented and productive sales people. When we first engage with these companies their conversations often begin with similar words… “Help me find sales people who are competitive, multitaskers, closers who don’t take ‘No’ for an answer. It would be great if they came from our competitors and brought with them a few clients, contacts, or knowledge that will help them hit the ground running. And oh, by the way, I need them NOW.” At this point in the conversation we have to intervene and help our clients think differently about the process of consistently hiring outstanding sales professionals. Below are three common sense secrets for doing just that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today businesses are relentlessly looking to improve productivity, eliminate waste and grow revenues by driving the performance of front line sales people. 

Whilst facilitated by an ever increasing investment in technology, such as CRM, the ability to recruit, motivate and retain the best people is more important. Every contact between customer and sales staff can gain or lose business as customers increasingly expect nothing less than service excellence.
Read the rest of this entry »

Winning new clients and keeping existing ones are two focal issues for most companies.  This is key to business growth and development.  Companies won’t survive without new customers, but equally, it is pointless to win new business if present clients keep slipping away.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today highly competitive business environments are full of well honed, professional sales people.  Consequently, the question that is always on the tip of sales manager’s tongues is, “How can we gain the competitive edge”?

The answer, put quite simply, is the use of psychology. I believe that companies could increase their profits by up to 20% by showing their staff, particularly sales people, how to exploit psychology in the sales process.  The added benefit would be a confident sales force with an increased range of skills and self esteem.

Read the rest of this entry »