Dangerous Demo's by Joe Mechlinski

10:01 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Candidates for Hire

It’s been two weeks of partying for America’s biggest parties – the Democrats and Republicans. Now four candidates have officially submitted their resumes for the two highest offices in America.  Nearing the end of this very long interview process, only two of them will be able convince us - the decision-makers -  to select them for the jobs.

So let’s put all political opinions and special interests aside. 
We’re not businesses operating out of Hollywood or Capitol Hill so
we’re capable of keeping our presidential picks completely to
ourselves, right?

Let’s play out a hypothetical hiring in classic EntreQuest style –
honing in on a candidate’s personal attributes.  If you had to hire one
of the featured federal four to work on your sales team, who would you
choose?

They’ve pitched themselves as Senator Barack Obama – The Change
Agent, Senator John McCain – The Maverick, Governor Sarah Palin – The
Hockey Mom, and Senator Joe Biden – The Statesman.

You know enough about their past accolades and you’ve seen enough of
their current energy to cast your vote for your next salesperson. 
Who’s it going to be?

07:21 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Who own's the idea?

So you are talking with a prospect experiencing significant pain. 
You know he needs what you are selling – but doesn’t know it yet.  How
do you get him to come to that decision?  Should you tell him what he
needs?  Or should intelligent salespeople ask prospects what they need,
and then bring them around to the same answer?

It is matter of form over substance here.  We teach in our classes
that when the prospect owns the idea – as opposed to you owning the
idea and preaching what it is – you are more likely to get the sale.

I’ll use EntreQuest as an example.  Our value prop is, we help
companies grow faster than they could grow on their own.  One way we
make this happen is by recruiting and placing what we call Truby™
sales professionals.  From our perspective, our Trubys are what every
company needs because they are exceptionally driven, have great
character, work ethic and coachability.  But we never tell prospects
that they need to hire these traits.  It’s much better to ask prospects
what they want to see in a candidate, and have them say, “I want
someone with drive, character, work ethic and coachability.”  At that
point, we show how our Truby Program was designed for companies with
exactly these requirements.

This approach creates a much deeper understanding.  It positions you as a true partner in helping them get what they need.