Tag Archives: Relax

How Do You Hire and Retain Good Salespeople? Ten Points

Situation: Many companies struggle to find good salespeople. They find that few of those they hire last very long. Some individuals don’t have the skills to sell, others find the job more difficult than they anticipated, and some leave for better pay at another company. How do you hire and retain good sales people?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Hiring salespeople is most important job a company or owner has, yet it often receives the least attention.
  • Determine what the company needs the person to do.
    • What skills do they need? Is past experience aligned with the company’s needs?
    • Do they have experience in the company’s market.
    • How much can the company afford to pay?
    • Is the pay offered market competitive?
    • What is the pay scheme: salary, salary plus commission, commission only or commission only following a learning period?
  • Advertise
    • Use internet portals, referrals, ads in the local paper or recruiters.
  • Review resumes for basic qualifications and weed out all that do not meet those qualifications or who lack experience in sales.
  • Test or screen applicants using an instrument such as: Identity Compass, Sales Skill Assessment Scorecard, The Caliper Profile, Sales DNA, DriveTest, SalesGenomix, DISC, Myers-Briggs, Grit or Objective Management Group (OMG).
  • Bring interesting applicants in for interviews.
    • Are they relaxed and comfortable with those who interview them?
    • How do they react to pressure?
    • Do they seem to be a good match with the company culture?
    • Are they comfortable with the company’s philosophy, size, reputation, and products or services?
  • Check references – not just those provided, but talk to companies where they’ve worked in the past.
  • Call customers with whom they’ve worked.
  • Remember that past performance does not guarantee future results

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How Do You Assess Team Morale? Five Points

Situation: Given current uncertainty about the future of the economy, a CEO wants to assess team morale. In the past, as the company grew, she received lots of input on how people were feeling about their jobs. As the company has grown, she no longer receives this. What can she do to gather more input without alarming people in the process? How do you assess team morale?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Find opportunities to spend time informally with your employees. Talk to them one-on-one or in small groups in the lunchroom or while getting tea. Organize, or have others organize company events where individuals can be more relaxed and open about their feelings.
  • If you have lunch in the lunchroom 3 times a week, and sit with different employees each day. Over the course of a month or a few months you can talk to the majority of them – perhaps several times.
  • Ask how they are – family, friends, relations, and their neighborhood. They may be hesitant to talk to the CEO about their jobs, but it is possible to get a sense of how they feel indirectly by asking about family and friends. Listen to what they have to say. Be sympathetic.
  • Be open to others. MBWA – Manage By Walking Around.
  • Ask supervisors to be your ears. They work with their teams on a daily basis and will have a sense of what is going on and how employees are feeling. They may have good ideas about improvements that the company can make in employee relations.

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How Do You Maintain a Healthy Work/Life Balance? Three Perspectives

Situation: A CEO finds that even on vacations he is obsessed with what is happening at the office. This keeps him from relaxing even during time off. Moreover, his family notices this and is unhappy that he isn’t spending his vacation time with them. How does he turn this around? How do you maintain a healthy work/life balance?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • If an individual is still working most of the time when on vacation this has a number of negative effects.
    • It makes the vacation even more stressful than normal work. First, a vacation is meant to provide distance and perspective from the workplace, as well as to allow time to relax and recharge. Second, this is time set aside to enjoy being with family and focus on work robs everyone of this. Third, while on vacation, there are fewer resources at one’s disposal so solving problems from afar is more difficult that when in the office.
  • To address these issues, plan on the next vacation to be “fully unplugged.”
    • Designate a “substitute” to act as CEO during this vacation. Assure that this individual has their own “go to” person to work with if they encounter a situation that puts them in over their head. Perhaps this can be a member of the board or another senior officer.
    • Plan the next vacation for two weeks to test the substitute model.
    • An additional benefit is that this can provide assurance that even if an unexpected situation prevents the CEO from being present, there is an assurance that the company can operate without the CEO if necessary. This boosts the value of the company.
  • Remember that success as a CEO is measured partly on the ability to have a fully operational office when the CEO is absent. Build and conduct the role so that the company operates well when the CEO is not there. This is consistent with a healthy growth model and long-terms plans for building a successful company.

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