Читать книгу How To Manage A Security Sales Organization - Lou Sepulveda CPP - Страница 6

A challenge facing all company leaders and sales managers is recruitment: how to recruit, when to recruit, and which media or methods to use. No matter how you go about it, recruiting is an essential ingredient to growing sales. Let’s look at a few methods companies are using today to find sales talent.

Headhunters

At one time there were plenty of employment agencies a company could contact for the purpose of hiring salespeople. The difficulty lay in negotiating the fees.

Most employment agencies based their fees on the income the hired candidate would receive. Here is where the first point of contention occurred. If a manager told the agency that a better-than-average salesperson could earn $100,000 a year, the agency based their fee on that figure. You know and I know that while some salespeople earn top dollars, more than half do not. So if the candidate they furnished only produced enough to earn $70,000, the company paid too high a fee.

As a result, some managers would tell the agency that the earning capability was $65,000 instead of $100,000 so as to pay a lower fee. The agency would then tell potential candidates that the earning potential was only $65,000, and the company would get a less qualified salesperson—one who would be happy earning the lesser amount.

This may be why employment agencies don’t operate this way any longer. The fee structure didn’t work for anyone involved. Though headhunter companies do still exist, they almost exclusively conduct searches for management positions, and they function differently. Today employers give headhunters a description of the type of employee they are looking for, and the headhunters conduct searches for candidates who fit the description.

Can you find salespeople that way? In my opinion, based on the conclusions above, your chances of hiring good salespeople through headhunters are very low.

Help-Wanted Ads

Salespeople are routinely recruited through ads in the classified section of local newspapers. However, searching for candidates that way requires research, planning, and good copywriting skills. Why?

To really understand the challenges involved, do the following exercise. Pretend you are looking for a job in sales, and you have decided to check the local want ads to find that job. When do you look? What day or days?

Did you decide the best days to look are Saturday and Sunday? And did you further decide Sunday was preferable? If your answer is yes, why? If your answer is no, which day did you decide to look?

When I conduct seminars and workshops on this subject, the most popular answer is Saturday and Sunday, with the best day being Sunday—the day when the greatest number of want ads are in the paper. Sunday offers the most choices for employment. And most companies know that, so they place their ad on Sunday along with everyone else. What’s wrong with that?

Here is another exercise for you: Pick up a Sunday paper and scan the want ads for a job in sales. There are a lot of ads, aren’t there?

Start reading the very first ad in the sales section and go through every one until you get to the end. Do this before reading the next paragraph. Remember, you are on the honor system. I’ll trust you not to skip ahead.

If you did what I suggested, here is what happened. You read the first few ads entirely, but then found yourself speed-reading the next few. After a few more you found yourself skimming instead of reading—sliding your finger down the column looking and for an ad that grabbed your finger or your attention.

It is a difficult task for prospective employees to read every single want ad even when they actually need a job. Add to that difficulty the fact that Saturday and Sunday are days when many of their friends are off work and there is a lot to do, a lot of distractions. So skim over the want ads again and circle the ones that catch your eye. Ask yourself why. Why did this ad grab me? What did it say that captivated me?

When you are done, cut out the ads that grabbed you, stick them on a piece of paper, and ask yourself again what it is that makes them stick out. What did the want ad say that attracted you? Do all the attention-getting ads say similar things?

If you were a salesperson looking for a job, would you have been stopped by the same ads? If no, go back to the beginning and think like a salesperson. If you cannot do this, then you’ll need a salesperson to perform the exercise.

When I look at a company’s hiring procedures, I often find that the person writing or designing the ad isn’t a salesperson and doesn’t think like one. Painful as it may seem, this exercise will help you create an ad that gets salespeople’s attention. If you are going to invest money on a newspaper ad, you want to write an effective ad.

Another decision you will have to make is whether you should place an in-column ad or display ad. There is an obvious cost difference. However, choosing incorrectly can result in a total waste of money, so placement is important. How do you decide?

Go back to the newspaper and compare the display ads to the in-column ads. What did you learn? What kinds of salespeople are companies searching for when they use display ads? What about in-column? Which one fits the candidate you are looking for? If your answer is display ad, then you should place a display ad regardless of the cost. If the answer is in-column, then use in-column.

In either case, what you say in the ad is of paramount importance. It is well worth your time to design an ad that will draw.

You’ve heard the term “different strokes for different folks”; keep it in mind as you design your ad. You may discover that one group of salespeople responds well to an ad that talks about money while another group responds to an ad that focuses on career.

What kind of person are you seeking? Do you want someone who is self-motivated, disciplined, a closer, a team player, or a potential manager? Then use those buzzwords in your ad so the salesperson you want knows you are talking to him.

Can salespeople earn a six-figure income working for your company? If yes, say so. Is there an opportunity for advancement into management? If yes, put it in your ad so the salesperson who feels like she has hit a wall when it comes to advancement will become excited about your offer.

Your ad acts as a salesperson promoting an opportunity to work for your company. In as few words as possible, sell your opportunity to would-be candidates.

Having described the position, consider your call to action. How do you want interested salespeople to respond?

I have seen want ads in newspapers that said, “Mail your resume to PO Box 12345, Somewhere, USA.” This request may sound reasonable; after all, you will want to know about your candidates’ experience. However, asking for a resume creates an opportunity to procrastinate. Many salespeople perusing want ads don’t have an updated resume ready. They might think, “I will follow up on this as soon as I can get my resume updated.” And then they’ll move on to the next want ad.

Your goal should be to remove any and all obstacles so that people can respond easily. You’ll have an opportunity to ask for a resume after the salesperson answers the ad. Get them in the door. “Call for a confidential interview” will get the job done. “Apply in person at 1234 Main St.” may also work for you, depending on the type of candidate you are looking for.

Should you place a blind ad or tell them who your company is?

The answer depends on a few factors. Do you want everyone in your organization to know you are looking for another salesperson? (I can’t imagine why not.) Is your company known in the area? Will the use of your company name add value to the ad? If yes, then absolutely use it.

Blind ads tend to scare off some prospective salespeople because so many of them are for multilevel organizations.

All in all you must know that salespeople respond to words that tell them what they want to hear. Have you seen an ad that starts off with, “Tired of your dead-end job?” or “Are you ready to earn a six-figure income?”

These ads target a specific emotion—one your candidates may be feeling.

The want ad that caught me many years ago was what I call a double-blind ad. First, it didn’t mention a company name, and second, it didn’t make clear what the new hire would do. It grabbed my attention anyway because it spoke to what I was going through at the time.

I had recently mustered out of the Navy after serving four years and eight months mostly aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. I had spent weeks searching for a job that would pay me enough to live on and make up the difference between what the GI Bill paid toward a college education and the cost for same. I had very little experience doing anything in civilian life.

I showed you this ad earlier, but let’s look at it again to analyze why the company placed it and what emotions they expected the ad would awaken in a candidate.

Men wanted to move stock from warehouse.

No experience necessary.

Apply in person Monday between 8 am and 9 am.

$500 per month guaranteed.

1234 Claiborne Ave, suite 4

By saying “no experience necessary,” they were targeting people who, like me, were having difficulties finding a good job due to lack of experience. They removed that barrier.

They said to apply in person. They only wanted to see individuals who would simply show up. You can believe that a lot of people didn’t trust that ad because it said “apply in person” and the company knew that. If I had the “guts” to show up in person, without an appointment, they figured I’d have the guts to make a “cold call.”

The ad said “$500 per month guaranteed.” Let’s put that in perspective. In 1966 you could purchase a new car for $1,500. I bought a three-bedroom brick home in 1969 for $17,000. $500 per month in 1966 was equivalent to $6,000 or more per month now. They knew the pay would be highly attractive to some, and unbelievable to others.

Those buzzwords were enough to motivate me to show up Monday morning.

Kirby knew they had to trick people to come in and hear their story. They also knew that a large percentage of the people who showed up at 8 am would leave before the presentation was over. They knew at the end of the day they would have, at best, two or three candidates left. And they knew that by the end of the week they would have, at best, one person who stuck to the plan.

Why not be up-front from the beginning? Because there are a lot of people who could be successful in sales but have never tried. Companies like Kirby know that, so they use double-blind ads to lure people and find the diamond in the rough.

So give a lot of thought to what kind of salesperson you want before you run your ad. Think about the buzzwords you saw in the newspaper when you performed the exercise I asked you to do. Consider running a couple of different ads at the same time to attract candidates with different motives. Run one focused on income, and another focused on management opportunities.

After running the ad, get the actual newspaper and look for it. Tear out the entire page and put it in a scrapbook for future reference. Make note of where on the page your ad falls. Is it near the beginning, middle, or end? When you were doing the exercise, you paid closer attention in the beginning and less at the end, so placement is important. Consider what you could do to move your ad closer to the front of the section.

Keep notes about the weather the day the ad runs. If it is a beautiful summer day, your ad may do worse because the distraction factor is higher. Some of your would-be candidates may have procrastinated and decided to go play instead of look for a job. It happens. Judging your ad on how many responses you receive may be unfair unless you consider all the factors affecting the response rate like weather, events in town that weekend, or a special sporting event.

Bearing these factors in mind, make a note of how many responses you get so you can compare the results from this ad against others you have run or will run.

As managers we have to face the fact that in sales, turnover is a pretty high. I read an article recently that said to expect upwards of 60 percent turnover in sales, higher if your program involves straight commission. Given those statistics, recruiting salespeople should be your company’s number-one priority. I have interviewed successful sales managers and general managers who told me that they are in the recruiting business, not the sales business, and they’re probably right. For their company to succeed, recruiting new salespeople needs to be a major part of their day-to-day routine.

Fielding Calls

Let’s suppose you run an ad on Sunday and include contact information. Assuming the calls start on Monday, what phone number will you use? If you post your company’s general number, you should think about who answers that phone. If it is always the same person, has he been briefed on the ad, and has he been told what to say to the candidate calling in?

I spoke to a manager who lost several response calls because, at the time the company ran an ad for sales positions, it was also running an ad for an installation tech. Further, he failed to brief his staff that both ads were running concurrently. Apparently when people said they were calling about the ad in the paper, the company employee answering the phone said, “You must be calling about our installation position.” Hearing that, a couple of the callers said, “Oh, I must have the wrong number,” and hung up.

Had the company employees been properly briefed, they would have known that there were two ads running and therefore would have asked the callers which ad they were calling about.

Better yet, when you place an ad for salespeople, use a phone number that rings at the desk of one person who has been trained to field salesperson inquiry calls and who will usually be at that desk when the calls come in. That way the response will be treated the way you want it treated.

If you cannot direct a call to a particular desk, the next best thing to do is add a contact person’s name to the want ad. For example, “For information about this position call 555-1234 and ask for Mr. Lewis (a “desk name”). Then tell all of the employees who might answer the phone that people asking for Mr. Lewis are very important sales applicant calls and should be directed to XYZ. Using the same “desk name” every time you run a sales want ad makes it easier for your employees to distinguish sales applicants from any other positions you may be advertising for. It tells your employees that this is a sales applicant, handle accordingly.

Recruit through the Internet

Today, another medium available to help you connect with salespeople is the World Wide Web. You can use Craig’s List, Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and other Internet search engines to find people who are looking for jobs online. As time goes on, more and more of these kinds of search sites will be available.

I have a lot of success in recent years and recruitment sessions using Craig’s List. However, I have learned how to use Craig’s List to make it work better. Here is some of what I have learned.

1.Place the advertisement you plan to run in the general, customer service, and marketing sections.

2.Place the advertisement at 10:00 am the same morning you want applicants to call. For example, if you plan to start interviews Monday, place the Ad at 10:00 am Monday or whatever time you want calls to start coming in. The Internet is instant, so you may see instant responses.

3.There are two type Craig’s List markets, “Paid & Free.” Paid are what you’d imagine, you have to pay for the Ad to be placed. Paid markets can be better because in those markets Craig’s List doesn’t limit the number of categories nor the number of times you can place your Ad. In free markets, like the term implies, there is no cost for the Ad placement, however, Craig’s List will limit placement. So you have to be clever in Ad design and frequency to get around the rule.

The Three-Foot Rule

You’ve probably heard “the three-foot rule” in reference to developing leads, but it also applies to finding sales talent. Anytime you are within three feet of a potential sales applicant, or someone who may know a person that could be a sales applicant, let that person know you are in the market for qualified sales talent. Make sure you always have a supply of business cards with you. Better yet, have special business cards that include an extra message on the reverse side. That message could say, “Ask me about an exciting career opportunity with my company.” Or, like the want-ad example, “Are you ready to start earning a 6-figure income?” Or, “Have you hit the ceiling where you work? Ask me about the opportunities for growth with my company.” Be creative; think of other catchy phrases that might spark interest.

When you meet someone who makes an impression on you at a social gathering, at a restaurant, or in an elevator, hand your card to him or her. That effort takes mere seconds and could prove extremely valuable.

Your Mailing List

Do you send invoices, newsletters, or any other correspondence to your existing customer base? If you do, consider telling your customers you are looking for a representative to assist your company in securing new business. Along with the correspondence, ask your customers if they know people who are honest, intelligent, and hard-working, and perhaps aren’t entirely happy with their current employment or have found themselves out of a job in these troubling times. Ask them to have their acquaintances call you to inquire about a career with your company. Great leads can come from this source. What better reference could job-seekers want than from a satisfied customer they know?

Restaurant Servers

When you go out to dinner at a nice restaurant, have you noticed how professional some of the servers are? When you are in recruitment mode, pay closer attention to them. Do they present themselves professionally? Do they sell the specials with excitement and flare? Do they convince you to purchase a good wine? And do they sell you an after-dinner drink or a dessert?

The server is, for all practical purposes, a straight-commission salesperson. Yes, she earns a wage, but in most restaurants that is half of minimum wage. Their real income comes from tips and sometimes a commission on wine. Do you think the server working with you wants to be a server for the rest of her life? Maybe she is completing a college education, or has been seeking better employment but hasn’t found it yet.

If you see a person like that, tell her that you noticed the professional way she did the job, and then hand her a very nice tip and your business card. Tell her to read the back of the card when she has a private moment.

Salespeople Who Call on You

Like me, you may have a person working for you, often a receptionist, who has to say no to salespeople cold-calling your business to sell copy machines, office products, cleaning services, you name it. When you are looking for salespeople, tell that receptionist to let you know whenever someone cold-calls the business.

When that happens and the salesperson is ushered into your office, listen completely to what he is saying. Mentally grade the person on appearance, personality, professionalism, presentation, knowledge of the product, and closing skills. Did he ask you to buy?

Tell the salesperson that you will need time to think the purchase over. Then wait to see what he says. Does he attempt to handle the objection and close you? You might even voice a second objection if he answers the first just to see if he continues to try closing you. Effectively you have just auditioned a salesperson in a real-life scenario. If he scores well, offer a job instead of agreeing to buy. Explain how well he could do and how much money he could earn in your business if he does just what you witnessed today.

A Note on Educational Requirements

Let’s talk about the level of education that salespeople must achieve to work for your company. Do you require a college degree? Have you convinced yourself that a salesperson must have a degree to be successful in your company? Do you have any evidence to support your case, or did someone else convince you?

I bring this up because of my firsthand experience. You see, I joined the Navy, like many young men and women, right after high school. By the time I completed my four-year enlistment (actually four years, eight months due to the Vietnam War), I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted a better life and that a college education was desirable. However, since I passed on the opportunity to continue my education in favor of joining the Navy, I had to pay my own way by working as I pursued a degree.

Some years after taking the job with Kirby Vacuum Cleaner Company and before earning my college degree, I interviewed with a chemical company for a sales position. I had reached a point in my career when I wanted to move up from door-to-door straight commission sales to a company that offered benefits and a career path.

The manager of the chemical company perused my application, talked to me about my sales experience, and then asked me if I had a college degree, specifically a degree in chemistry. When I said I didn’t have either, but that I was fairly close to earning a degree, he promptly laid my application down. I didn’t meet their requirements.

Being the salesperson I had become, I took that statement as an objection, and began a rebuttal explaining why his company should disregard the requirement and hire me anyway. But regardless of what I said, he explained that they had a hard and fast rule. In order to successfully sell chemicals, a salesperson needed to have a strong knowledge of chemistry. I continued to argue my points, but ultimately lost the argument and the opportunity to work for the company.

Not long after, I learned that a competitor of the chemical company I had interviewed with was also looking for a salesperson. I applied for that job, and this time I got hired. It seemed that they didn’t have a rigid rule about education; instead they relied on the judgment of the sales manager who conducted the interview. His gut said I could do it.

I hit the streets after a rather brief training period in which I rode with a salesperson in another state to learn how to represent the company and its products, and when I got back home to my own territory I proceeded to kick sales butt. I sold chemicals with names I could barely pronounce. I sold chemicals to golf courses, to high rise building for their chiller systems, to hotels for housekeeping, to bars and restaurants, and to every other business I thought could be a prospect. Much to the first company’s dismay, many of those clients had previously been their clients. I especially enjoyed selling to them.

At the end of the first year I was presented the Rookie of the Year award at the company’s annual convention. I accomplished that without a degree in chemistry, or in anything else for that matter. What I did have was sales experience and a burning desire to succeed.

Does this mean I believe that you shouldn’t prefer a candidate who possesses a degree? No. But I do believe that you should allow a manager to make a gut decision based on experience. Having a degree should not be a critical requirement.

One last point, if you conduct your recruitment process partially online or through the human resources department, and your company has a degree requirement, consider a way to allow exceptions based on the experience of the candidate and the judgment of the interviewing manager. The final decision can be sorted out in the interviews. I know companies that post sales jobs on Monster.com, and when applicants answer they have no college degree on the online application, the system automatically disqualifies the applicant, and no one sees the application. I understand that this automated process likely saves time, but it leaves no room for personal judgment and good old gut reaction.