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Selling #LikeAGirl vs Sales Studs – Is There A Difference?

Sales Trainer, speaker and all around super sales stud, Jill Konrath’s recent blog post “I Sell #Like a Girl – and I’m Proud of It!” ended up in my inbox yesterday.

Jill and I have had a couple of brief conversations over the years. I like her stuff.

Selling #LikeAGirl vs Sales Studs – Is There A Difference?

She’s innovative, tenacious, consistent and committed — all the qualities that make for being a superstar salesperson.

Jill wants to claim in her article that women and men sell differently. I, respectfully, don’t buy it.

I’ve been studying salespeople for nearly 40 years now.

I started in radio.

Broadcasting is unique.

For 50 years the Federal Communications Commission has required stations demonstrate their hiring be race, creed, gender and orientation blind. There’s a special department in Washington of government bureaucrats who wreak havoc on any broadcaster that discriminates.

There are a lot very powerful women who’ve succeeded in radio. I’ve had quite a number of them as clients through the years.

When I ran my company Radio Profits Corporation I’d make a point to travel to visit with our client managers.

One thing I learned very quickly was that being a top performing woman had nothing to do with facial characteristics or body type.

These top performing women had stick-to-it-ive-ness, follow-through, and the ability to overcome adversity.

They have the values and personality characteristics of winning salespeople. Regardless of whether they’re boys or girls, they won’t succeed without these internal drivers.

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How to Hire a Salesperson E-course Part 5 Making Your Ad Kick-Butt

In this section of the Advanced Hiring System E-course we will create the message you will need to attract the best sales applicants.

Marketing your position in the Internet age has become both harder– and easier.

It is harder because we live in a time some have called The Attention Deficit Age. People are being pulled in all directions and its sometimes difficult to get their attention.

Its easier because you can do most of this from your computer.

When you think about hiring as a process the first step in the hiring process is advertising… Both what our ad will say and where were will place it to look for applicants.

Before we start to write the ad I want to focus you here with one question…

“Why are you hiring a salesperson?”

“Ah, to bring in more sales,” you say

OK but tell me more…
1. Are they required to generate their own leads?
2. Do you have any success stories for this position?
3. If they do a good job what will they earn?
4. Is your compensation strategy realistic?

Answer those questions before you start writing

Expert ad writers call the headline “The ad for the ad.” Consider that statement for a moment. The headline is the part of the ad that calls out,
“Hey Jim,” on a crowded subway platform that gets Jim’s attention.

Writing great headlines is overlooked by most sales recruiters.
Great copywriters spend three-fourths of their time writing their headline because if the headline is weak no one will read the ad

Your headline is the first thing the applicant sees in your ad

Scroll through the ads on internet job boards right now. Most of the headlines are boring or trite or just stupid. Your headline either causes the right applicants to read your ad or to ignore it.

Your ad’s headline must stop them in their tracks and get them to read about your offer.

There’s a trick to writing great headlines: Borrow on.

Here are some examples of taking great classic headlines and turning them into sales hiring headlines:

Do You Consider Yourself to be Strong-willed, Forceful and Determined?
Last Year Our Top Salesperson Earned $135,400 In His 2nd Year Working With Us
Did You Ever Tell Yourself That Your Talent As A Salesperson Ought To Be Worth More Than You’re Making Right Now?
Who Else Has Got What It Takes To Earn $138,900 (that’s what our top sales rep earned last year)?

If you follow this formula your ad will be more powerful than the thousands of other ads you are competing with.

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