Suggest You - Business

The Power of Networking
In today’s competitive job market, candidates must have a multi-prong search strategy. It is not enough to simply post a resume online, or answer ads in the newspaper. One tactic that is grossly under utilized is networking. With the proliferation of online communication, today’s job seeker has failed to grasp the importance of the personal connection. We sometimes joke about deals made on the golf course, or sales closed over dinner but believe it or not, even in today’s techno environment, this still holds true. A large percentage of jobs are never publicized. They are filled through an internal network. Sometimes jobs are even created based on the strength of a personal contact. So, what can you do to take advantage of this job searc

es he needs to hire a “real sales rep” (this often occurs immediately after the technically-oriented “virgin” sales rep has left!). The CEO or founder sets out to find someone with experience in sales, and preferably someone with existing contacts in their market segment. This looks like a great step at first blush. Sadly, this time our founder falls back on his “stereotype” of a sales rep.

How To Write Direct Mail That Really, Really Works!
So, you have something you want to sell. It may be a product, a service, or a cause. It could be a membership, a subscription, or a motor car. It might be paper, health products or the idea that the humane society or the Alzheimer’s association is worth giving money to. It could be computer equipment, hand-sewn dolls clothes or garden gnomes.Whatever it is you are selling, you need to let the right people know you’re selling it. And one of the most effective ways of doing that is through direct mail.Direct mail works best if you know the type of person who buys your product or service. For instance, if you sell to building contractors or pet owners you can get a targeted, personal message to them quickly and easily.What’s m

The hiring of salespeople is often one of the most frustrating aspects of staffing a high tech enterprise.

Particularly in the startup phase, senior management has often come from a technical (or at least not sales) background. They know that they need a sales force (usually!). But they’ve certainly never hired them before. Or if they have, it’s not been successful. And truth be told, technical founders often don’t have a high opinion of the sales profession. They may think sales looks like an easy job that anyone can do.

Necessary Evil

Salespeople are often stereotyped as having several of the following, rather undesirable traits:

- Lazy
- Opportunistic
- Over-paid
- Not particularly smart (certainly not smart enough to be an engineer!)
- Un-ethical
- Pushy or High Pressure personalities
- A backslapper and BSer
- Only interested in money

You probably could add a number of others to this list, but you get the picture. Sales people are often seen, at best, as a necessary evil.

The Two types of “bad” hires

This is really very unfortunate and is based upon many years of stereotyping and misunderstanding by people from the technical end of the business. The fact of the matter is, salespeople and technical people are very different. What makes a great salesperson is quite different from what makes a great engineer. The problem results when an engineer evaluates a sales candidate using his “engineer” filter, or worse—using the salesman “stereotype” as his hiring model.

So when things go poorly, who gets hired? There are two common scenarios that often take place. Let’s take a brief look at them:

The first one is the technically adept but “virgin” sales rep. It might be another engineer who is tired of designing or writing code. Because they can relate well to the hiring manager, a good rapport develops leading to their hiring as a new rep. This candidate obviously has the technical skills to have a great grasp of the product technology. The hiring manager is quite happy, really likes the guy or gal he’s hired, and is quite optimistic that sales will be increasing in short order. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen. Why?

The new rep has little to no experience or formal training in sales. There is no strong sales mentor at the company, and he’s left to his own devices to “figure it out”. He calls a number of potential customers, with very little positive feedback. He gets very discouraged; this isn’t as easy (or as fun) as he’s expected. In fact, it’s hard work and pretty deflating. He quits within weeks or months and looks to return to a technical position.

The second scenario occurs when the technical CEO decides he needs to hire a “real sales rep” (this often occurs immediately after the technically-oriented “virgin” sales rep has left!). The CEO or founder sets out to find someone with experience in sales, and preferably someone with existing contacts in their market segment. This looks like a great step at first blush. Sadly, this time our founder falls back on his “stereotype” of a sales rep.

Document Management, What's in it For You
Business document management historically has been - and in many quarters remains - a tedious process involving ranks of file cabinets, platoons of file clerks, hours and hours spent placing specialized paper business documents in storage and often, still more hours researching their whereabouts and recovering them when they are needed.Recent research indicates the magnitude of the challenge and cost:90% of typical office tasks revolve around paper gathering and distribution 15%of all paper handled is lost. 30% of knowledge workers' time is spent trying to find lost documents. Companies spend an average of $25,000 to fill a typical four-drawer file cabinet; $2,000 to maintain it

tic
- Over-paid
- Not particularly smart (certainly not smart enough to be an engineer!)
- Un-ethical
- Pushy or High Pressure personalities
- A backslapper and BSer
- Only interested in money

You probably could add a number of others to this list, but you get the picture. Sales people are often seen, at best, as a necessary evil.

The Two types of “bad” hires

So when things go poorly, who gets hired? There are two common scenarios that often take place. Let’s take a brief look at them:

Don't Confuse The Message
One of the worst mistakes an advertiser can make is sending mixed messages. I'm always paying attention to advertising and marketing to see how others attempt to get their message across in 15-30 seconds. After-all, the human attention span isn't getting any greater, and we're overloaded with messages on a day-to-day basis so we weed out almost everything anymore. That's interruptive marketing at its best. What happens when advertisers confuse the message and stray from the core of what the business actually does?A prime example today of a mixed message campaign is Rally's Hamburgers, a southeastern based burger and fry joint with dual drive through windows (one on each side of their facilities) which used to be headqua

from what makes a great engineer. The problem results when an engineer evaluates a sales candidate using his “engineer” filter, or worse—using the salesman “stereotype” as his hiring model.

So when things go poorly, who gets hired? There are two common scenarios that often take place. Let’s take a brief look at them:

Change Management And Getting Invited For a Date
Resistance is a nuisance. You want to carry on, get up to speed and all kind of people are pulling your sleeves with a lot of questions, criticism and other hindrances that slow you down.Good for them! And ... good for you!What would you plan be if nobody resisted? Is this not what dating is all about? You say; “no really, I can’t make it tomorrow, I’m sorry!” and in the meantime you hope that your date is not off all together. Let him (or her) wait for a bit.In business it’s quite more complicated, but also there you have a plan and people, departments, that are not willing. At first.Not in the last place this is because there is not really a plan. Sometimes the plan looks more like a dark tunnel, where I wouldn't

g manager is quite happy, really likes the guy or gal he’s hired, and is quite optimistic that sales will be increasing in short order. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen. Why?

Before You Sell Do The Math
This is an important and potentially profitable piece of advice. It goes like this - before you ever attempt to sell any products and services - do the math. Doing the math means you have to know certain numbers. These numbers include: • The sell price. • The cost of the product. • Shipping and transportation costs. • The available margin percent. • The available margin dollars. • The formula for calculating standard gross profit. Avoid discounts like 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% etc. You should avoid discounting at all - but that's another topic. If you must put a price concession on the table - do it with dollars. For example, if you're selling a product that has a list price of $795: Most sales

He hires a bubbly, talkative guy or lady who never shuts up. He’s always “selling”- customers don’t’ have a chance to get a word in edgewise. He really doesn’t understand the product very well, but he has high energy and makes lots of contacts. He’s buddies with everyone and never offends. Initially, this looks like it might be the ticket for the company, as the “sales pipeline” seems to be filling up. But in the end, sales don’t increase significantly, and our second new hire either quits or is fired for non-performance. The founders are despondent. This sales thing seems so simple, but they feel they’ve just been unlucky with the people they’ve hired.

The “right” way to hire

I’ve seen these two “mistake” hires repeated over and over in my career by my clients and colleagues. Technically driven companies, especially the startup variety, grossly underestimate the importance of sales and exceptional sales reps. In reality, the sales rep who is exceptional at his job is every bit as important to a company’s success as the star engineer in product development. But what are the key attributes which make the great high tech sales rep?

I list below the critical attributes of a great rep in no particular order:

A listener, not a talker: High tech sales is about listening to customer needs and connecting product benefits to those needs. The aim of the sales call is to get the customer talking about his needs, using the least amount of prompting by the rep.
Need to be smart: it’s a different kind of smart from the product developer, but there’s no substitute for intelligence A very strong work ethic: Sales is a very hard job that has no substitute for making lots of calls.
Exceptional honesty and integrity: Customers have their antennae up for dishonesty in every sales situation. If they get even a whiff of it, your company has no chance.
A strong self-concept with a lot of self-confidence: Rejection is much more common than success in sales. If you can’t handle it, you won’t last. Ability to understand and enjoy technology: After all, it is still high tech. And just because you can sell soap, doesn’t mean you can sell enterprise software or electronic components.
A competitive, risk-taker by nature: Sales is a pressure-packed, performance-oriented field. With typical rep comp plans that are heavily commission-based, if you don’t perform—your family doesn’t eat.

So that’s my map of a great sales rep. You won’t often find someone who is the strongest in every category. But simply using these categories in the interview process will enable you to rank candidates properly, thereby optimizing your sales hiring.

In the future I’ll be discussing other topics relating to the high tech sales force such as compensating, managing and motivating reps. As always, I’d love to get your feedback.

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.suggestyou.com/article/38553/suggestyou-Engineers-Hiring-Sales-Reps.html">Engineers Hiring Sales Reps</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.suggestyou.com/article/38553/suggestyou-Engineers-Hiring-Sales-Reps.html]Engineers Hiring Sales Reps[/url]

Plumbers are renowned for gravitating towards boring, unoriginal and under leveraged advertising. Find out how this plumber dropped the perennial plumber’s van and took a leap of advertising faith that flushed his competition down the drain.

College fund raising ideas can be quite creative since you are not limited to events that only children can accomplish. Some of the best college fund raising ideas...

Opinions on the possible outcomes for companies currently involved in outsourcing vary significantly. While people are afraid to loose their jobs, companies continue to apply outsourcing in their business practices.

Tags

Links

Suggest You - Engineers Hiring Sales Reps

Related Articles: