Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008 - (Page 27)

incorporate in order to hold onto their top talent over the long term? MO: I think a lot of them are simple things, such as checking with the people in your organization. Get a feel for where people stand—what are the things that they’re griping about, what are the things that they’re happy about—and try to see how you can adjust your organization to fit those things a little bit better. Certainly, no organization can do enough in terms of improving communication. Most [companies] think that people leave an organization because of money. But when they do follow-up interviews, they discover that people rarely leave because of money alone. They might say that when they leave, or that they’re leaving simply because they got a better offer from someone else. But when companies dig deeper, the real reasons come out: “I didn’t have a great relationship with my boss,” or “People in management didn’t listen to me,” or “I didn’t feel like I had opportunities in the organization.” S&MM: Say you’re an upper-level sales manager look- ing to hire a rep. In 2008, what criteria would you say a prospective applicant is using to judge your company and your competitors? MO: First and foremost, a company should ask, “What do we sell, and to whom do we sell?” That’s going to answer so many questions about a number of things. So figure out what you sell, who your customers are, and what type of person is likely to be good at selling that type of product to those types of people. The answer’s not the same for every organization. In fact, it needs to be a little bit different. There are a lot of people in the job market right now who have never experienced a true recession, so I think there’s a greater emphasis right now on the stability of the organization. This would be something I wouldn’t have said to you three years ago, but I think job-seekers today are asking themselves, “Is this an organization that has ‘been there’? Do they have a track record? Are they financially healthy?” They want to know what their opportunities will be, and what it will take to succeed. They want to know www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com “There are a lot of people in the job market right now who have never experienced a true recession, so I think there’s a greater emphasis right now on stability of the organization.” what a realistic income would be. Don’t tell them they can make $100,000 a year working from their bedroom in three hours a week. It’s just unrealistic, and you’re not going to get good candidates that way. Candidates want you to convince them that your product is something that people want to buy, and that you as an organization have a commitment to employee development. Are you just going to bring in a thousand reps at a time, throw them all against the wall and hope 10 of them stick? That’s a strategy that a lot of organizations use. But companies that employ that strategy get a reputation for it—and it’s not a good one. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 27 http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008

Sales &�Marketing Management - September/October 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Smart Sales Sales Strategy Smart Marketing Marketing Strategy Smart Management Management Strategy The Low-Cost Sales Leader Why Sales Process Gets the Shaft Training Q&A Technology Making the Case for Travel (Part II) Travel/Meetings On the Road The Way I See It

Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008

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