Business Marketing & Finance Resources

I was recently with Rick and he mentioned to me the difficulty of finding good selling professionals. Rick has been a sales manager for 35 years and during that time he has stated that he continually hires trouble. Poor hires manage to always slow down productivity and form a downhill slide into mediocrity for everyone around them. Poor hires only placate morale and productivity.

The problem that I find particularly in today’s competitive environment is finding the right individuals. This runs specifically true in a post recessionary world. As the economy continues to pick up steam there is enormous pressure to recruit and hire the best selling professionals possible. However, there is a great concern over the ability to find the proper personnel with the right talent. The recession provided an opportunity to purge poor salesman. Basically the economic doldrums separated the professionals from the wannabes. Now as productivity needs increase so will the need to find the best to keep organizations thriving.

What exactly might a hiring sales manager today search for?

It’s a job of the sales manager to always be seeking the proper talent for the organization. There’ve been too many times in the past where organizations have hired for behavior and not talent. Talent is those sets of innate skills that people possess. Such skills include relationship building, lead generation and the abilities of poise and professionalism. Sales managers that hire for behavior seemingly fall short of expectations. The problem is that these individuals require too much support, do not invest in self-mastery and weigh heavily on organizational costs. As Jim Collins said in his number-one selling book “Good to Great”, it is essential to have the right people on the bus. Hiring for anything less than talent does not provide the performance expectations required of most organizations.

Second, sales managers must begin an active recruitment process. Consequently even if your staff is at full capacity, it is essential to budget more people. This way if you do find an outstanding candidate you can hire them immediately without special dispensation from senior executives. For more than 25 years I have always required sales managers to utilize the ABLE method of hiring: Always Be looking for Employees. Unfortunately too many organizations and their sales managers are very reactive when it comes to hiring. Why wait when the right one comes along?

Third, among the largest issues for any sales manager is proper compensation. The fact is that in a competitive situation, organizations must have a proper competitive matrix to hire right. It is wise to look at the competitive marketplace and invest wisely in your compensation plan so that good candidates do not transition to competitors.

Fourth, perhaps probably the most missed opportunities during recruitment is seeking people with proper flair. Refrain from only looking at resumes that get people in the door. Look very keenly at the manner in which sales candidates have approached you as a sales manager. Would they do the same in trying to achieve prospective clients? Look for creativity and competitiveness – what got them in the door should keep them behind it, not in front.

Finally, in order to find the right sales talent similar to marketing and other business development endeavors organizations must be visible. This includes using your distribution channels: clients, strategic alliances and vendors. Tell your distribution channel you are seeking talent. You must use all competitive resources possible to obtain them. And, with good relationships these alliances will only provide the best people.

One final note – make sure that you’re not hiring future problems. Years prior to the recession organizations hired quickly because they were forced. However the wrong people were chosen. Commitment and time are the resources necessary to recruiting great people. Do not rush to achieve finding the most valuable resource for your organization.

A poster is a visual presentation of information and more often than not, it should be used to communicate a fairly simple idea or to attract attention. Anything too complex doesn’t work in this medium – so if your message is particularly complicated then it may be best to step away now and consider an alternative method of reaching your target audience.

Staring at a blank page can be both an exhilarating and yet daunting experience but even before you start to sketch out a design, it is crucial to select the correct paper size. Make sure you know the exact dimensions of the space available and if possible visit the site where the poster will be visible to get a feel for the competition. Secondly, consider how far away the reader/viewer will be when they are looking at the poster – will your poster be on the back of a toilet door perhaps in which case you have a fairly captive audience! On the other hand, if it needs to attract attention from the far side of a doctor’s waiting room or on a notice board in a busy corridor you need give greater consideration to the layout and font sizes.

Next consider your message. Are you simply trying to communicate information, stimulate further conversation, advertise your services or demonstrate your capabilities. Don’t try and do too much – pick one theme and stick to it.

The best posters are often those that really engage with the audience, capture a moment of their life and thereby instigate a reaction. You could do this by posing a question, using emotions to either make them laugh, smile, empathise or sympathise, or create something so shocking they look back twice. Another clever tactic is to use a suite of posters that tell a story over time. If they are replaced regularly you can start to build a relationship with your audience.

Getting the headline right is one of the most important parts of the poster. Don’t go for anything too long otherwise it won’t be memorable – in fact one word headlines can be the most dramatic.

Consider the imagery – you might not even need a headline if you have really strong graphics. As the old saying goes – a picture paints a thousand words. If you are using images rather than photographs it can be better to be selective on colour rather than opting for a rainbow approach. You could also consider using different saturations of the same colour – this can be really impactful. Make sure you think about colour combinations too – red on blue doesn’t work well and red and green in close proximity could cause problems for people with colour blindness. Make sure your fonts are clearly legible on the background colour from a distance. Remember no one is really looking for your poster or the information it contains so you need to go out of your way to make it eye-catching and obvious.

Don’t feel you have to cram the entire poster full of information – less is definitely more: background space is as much part of the poster design as the content itself.

Try to prioritise the information on the poster so the most important information makes the most impact either by font, size or colour and then work your way down in order of importance. Consider using arrows or other symbols to direct the eye to the next piece of information.

If you want to include website details then make sure the URL is simple and memorable and similarly with any telephone numbers, it could be wise to buy a new number and redirect calls rather than rely on your audience remembering a long and complex sequence of numbers.

Check your poster is balanced – usually the posters that are most aesthetically pleasing have roughly the same amount of information on each side.

Finally, if you are feeling confident and really want to get spotted, break all of the rules. You need to be sure that this avant-garde approach will also appeal to your target audience and is appropriate to your messages but by taking a different approach you’ll be sure to stand out from the crowd.