What Today’s Online Sales Person Is Looking For!

So, you have your venture funding and you are ready to deploy “feet on the street.”  You call up your search firm and say “I need to hire 10 people by next month in Miami, New York, Chicago, etc.”  You sit back and expect a flood of qualified, if not elite, sales people to come your way.

It may indeed happen, but you need to know that demand for proven online sales people is extremely high, even in our somewhat deflated economy.  Even in down times, sales people are at a premium, and those who have a specialty will always have options.

So here are some things you need to do and know as you launch your search:

1) Know that you will be “recruiting” these people, as much as interviewing them.

2) They know what the competition is paying.  Don’t try and save a few nickels on base salary or commission percentage, as you ultimately will lose the best people.

3) have a clearly defined compensation/commission schedule.  Make sure that you can illustrate the percentage of people on your sales team who reached quota in 2007, and what their average w2 looked like.

4) tout the product/service.  Nothing worse for an online sales person to come in and find out their are back end, delivery or service issues.  You should be able to get the sales person interviewing as excited as they would get your potential customer

5) culture/stability sell.  Everyone in sales knows it is produce or you are out, but no one wants to work in a chop shop where turnover is 100% and it is a boot camp environment(I can think of numerous online companies that motivate with fear only)  Online sales people will be networkers, they will know people at your company, or former employees.  If yours is a draconian shop, most prospects will know it, and turn down offers.

What Empolyers Want But Will Never Tell You

There are many similarities between dating and seeking a new career opportunity.  Interviewing is a courtship in every sense of the word. There is an etiqutte involved, that if violated, will leave you getting a dear john/dear potential candidate letter.  In addition, the rules are seldom ever defined, and finding out what your prospective suitor wants is often impossible to ascertain.

Having successfully performed searches on a national basis for over a decade I have been allowed “behind the curtain” many times by clients.  They often tell me what they really want, what they will and won’t tolerate, and how much subjective vs. objective criteria is really used.

They are seldom candid because they don’t want to jeopardize their own situation.  If they tell you why you are not a fit, then they risk you becoming irate, argumentative, or going over their head.  As recruiters, we are often instructed to tell candidates things like, “they went with an internal”, ” they have surfaced someone out of a competitor” or the like, with the ultimate goal of protecting the feelings of the jilted, and their own careers.

Here are some things that today’s companies are looking for, particulary in the interactive/online space:

1) Flexibility.  You must walk in the door and be comfortable in a fast paced, ever changing environment, where expectations are subject to change.  If you have only worked in fortune 1000 companies, with clearly defined processes, it is incumbent upon you to show how you have been able to adapt to changing circumstances.

2) Dedication: If you walk into an interview and ask about a) vacation b) flex time c) ability to leave early for child/parent care issues, etc. you have blown the interview. Today’s companies want employees that can “plug and play” They don’t want high maintenance, they don’t want absentee employees, and they want someone who is committed more than ever

3) You better be able to back it up.  I have heard from my clients time and time again about interviewees who talk a good game but who can’t demonstrate their accomplishments or successes.  If you are in sales, you better have a “brag book” if you are in marketing, you better be able to speak to new products you have helped get to market, or collateral you have developed, etc. and more importantly, how it has helped the company’s bottom/top line

4) They don’t want to train you.  Deal killer #4 “I am a quick learner”  Say this on an interview and you might as well walk out the door.  We are all able to pick things up quickly, but the person hiring you doesn’t want to be bothered training you.  You better already know the softwares, know the territory you will be selling into, etc if you want to get that job

5)Personality sells.  If you are likable, down to earth, self-effacing, intelligent, well read(at least on the industry you are interviewing in), presentable, you will have a better chance of getting hired.  Deal closer is when the client tells me “I really liked her, she would fit in well with the group”  Deal killer “great background, but I hated him”  doesn’t matter how good you are, if you can’t get the interview to like you to some degree you are out without an offer.

I hope this helps some of you on your job search!

Interactive Media Remains Red Hot

Despite all of the talk about recession and job layoffs, the interactive media space remains a growing, dynamic marketplace.  Our clients in this area are growing in sales, business development, marketing, account management, channel sales as well as in the back office.

As SMEs as well as fortune 1000s continue to shift more and more of their ad spend from print and traditional media to interactive and online, companies that focus in this area are poised for even greater revenue growth.

We will be attending the upcoming Kelsey Conference in Seattle, and will be exhibiting there as well.

Question:

What parts of the interactive advertising marketplace is most immune from recessionary effects?

I welcome your feedback and will share ten things employers are looking for in the online media space in my next blog.

In addition, as a company we are seeing our clients in healthcare, travel technology, professional services and pharmaceutical services hiring at an impressive clip as well

What About To Expect From This Blog

What do employers/employees want?  How do you stand out in a crowd?  What companies are getting it right in terms of attracting top talent? 

 

These are just some of the questions we will be answering in this blog.  With nearly fifteen years of international recruiting experience at both a middle manager and an executive level, I have seen some amazing things along the way.

 

There are some great companies out there that treat people well, in both the interviewing process as well as when they walk in the door on day one of employment.

 

Talking to hundreds of professionals in a given week, we have learned some interesting things that companies don’t put on their web site, and employees don’t put on their resumes. 

Our goal is to provide a lively, entertaining look at trends in the job market, and to provide a forum for those who are hiring and interviewing to share ideas.

 

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