The fastest path to increased sales is to match your sales staff to your clients.  All consumers want to do business with companies that most resemble their community.  A type of neighborhood feeling.

Matching to the community can be having someone on staff that speaks a second language for clients that are more comfortable using a native tongue.  Some dealers in very diverse cities have as many as 40 languages spoken in their showrooms.  Gender and racial diversity can also have a large impact on customer comfort level.  Potential clients that come in to your store may not need to specifically deal with a person of their race or gender, but they feel better about doing business with a company that employs people that are like them.  So a woman coming in to a showroom is fine being helped by a man, but would be more likely to purchase from a dealership that has a representation of women in its showroom floor.

With the obvious benefits of hiring diverse staff, why aren't dealers hiring from different community bases?  The answer is simple, we like candidates that are most like ourselves.  The same principal that makes selling easier with a diverse showroom, makes it harder to hire with diversity.

Here are three ways to break the cycle and get the new blood we need:

1. Use phone interviews to initially screen candidates. Remove appearance bias, by evaluating candidates on communication skills and previous experience first.  Face to face interviews happen after you like everything else.
2. Have standardized interview questions and objective scoring.  Keep interview sessions about the job with preset questions.  It is great to connect with candidates about outside interests after you know everything relating to job performance. For each question have a grading scale.  Numeric grading makes it easy to compare multiple candidates.
3. Every candidate gets a minimum of two interviews from different departments.  The best way to ensure you hiring with an open mind is to have more than one perspective viewing the applicant.  Use at least one person from sales to interview, and then someone from another department such as HR or fixed operations.

Talented diverse candidates are applying for our positions, it is time to start leveling the hiring field and turn up our profits.

Greg Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

The fastest path to increased sales is to match your sales staff to your clients.  All consumers want to do business with companies that most resemble their community.  A type of neighborhood feeling.

Matching to the community can be having someone on staff that speaks a second language for clients that are more comfortable using a native tongue.  Some dealers in very diverse cities have as many as 40 languages spoken in their showrooms.  Gender and racial diversity can also have a large impact on customer comfort level.  Potential clients that come in to your store may not need to specifically deal with a person of their race or gender, but they feel better about doing business with a company that employs people that are like them.  So a woman coming in to a showroom is fine being helped by a man, but would be more likely to purchase from a dealership that has a representation of women in its showroom floor.

With the obvious benefits of hiring diverse staff, why aren't dealers hiring from different community bases?  The answer is simple, we like candidates that are most like ourselves.  The same principal that makes selling easier with a diverse showroom, makes it harder to hire with diversity.

Here are three ways to break the cycle and get the new blood we need:

1. Use phone interviews to initially screen candidates. Remove appearance bias, by evaluating candidates on communication skills and previous experience first.  Face to face interviews happen after you like everything else.
2. Have standardized interview questions and objective scoring.  Keep interview sessions about the job with preset questions.  It is great to connect with candidates about outside interests after you know everything relating to job performance. For each question have a grading scale.  Numeric grading makes it easy to compare multiple candidates.
3. Every candidate gets a minimum of two interviews from different departments.  The best way to ensure you hiring with an open mind is to have more than one perspective viewing the applicant.  Use at least one person from sales to interview, and then someone from another department such as HR or fixed operations.

Talented diverse candidates are applying for our positions, it is time to start leveling the hiring field and turn up our profits.

Greg Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

There is a famous quote from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, "They're single serving friends". If we are all honest with ourselves we like having them.

A single serving friend is one that is there for a small window filling a specific need. It is a very indulgent luxury that all of us can have, and that many times we go back to over and over again. I have more than a few in my life, like the server at Starbucks. I am an admitted coffee addict (there is a giant cup next to me now) and go in to Starbucks daily for a large black coffee. Each time I go in the same server is behind the counter, and we have what amounts to a 30 second exchange daily. When I get to the counter she smiles, most times already has my coffee order ready because she noticed me in line, asks how my day is going, and generally makes a comment about the weather, news etc. For my part I compliment her on remembering my order and being so quick, have some comment or another on the weather, work, etc, and then tell her to have a great day. The perfect single serving friend that I pick up when I want.

Most of us have a network of people like this that can be counted on to be a friendly face at the time of our choosing. The price of a cup of coffee is a small price to pay to have a friend any time I want. Social media is a this concept on a larger scale. How many accumulated followers/friends/connections do you have that are not actual friends, family, or associates? Like the rest of tons. We connect, play games online, chat to have a friend at the time and in the situation of our choosing.

Now how does this relate to being a professional sales representative? Simple, your potential clients coming in want a single serving friend. A person that is there strictly to be nice to them, listen to them, agree with them. When people feel this they keep coming back, it builds loyal clients. Consumers coming in to your business want to be able to have a relationship on their terms, as they want it. That could be anything from formal to extremely personal. A great salesperson adapts and allows the client to have this indulgent friendship.

P.S. If anyone would like to be my single serving friend I am always looking for one. Send me a connection request, or find me on twitter @hggershman

Gregory Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

There is a famous quote from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, "They're single serving friends". If we are all honest with ourselves we like having them.

A single serving friend is one that is there for a small window filling a specific need. It is a very indulgent luxury that all of us can have, and that many times we go back to over and over again. I have more than a few in my life, like the server at Starbucks. I am an admitted coffee addict (there is a giant cup next to me now) and go in to Starbucks daily for a large black coffee. Each time I go in the same server is behind the counter, and we have what amounts to a 30 second exchange daily. When I get to the counter she smiles, most times already has my coffee order ready because she noticed me in line, asks how my day is going, and generally makes a comment about the weather, news etc. For my part I compliment her on remembering my order and being so quick, have some comment or another on the weather, work, etc, and then tell her to have a great day. The perfect single serving friend that I pick up when I want.

Most of us have a network of people like this that can be counted on to be a friendly face at the time of our choosing. The price of a cup of coffee is a small price to pay to have a friend any time I want. Social media is a this concept on a larger scale. How many accumulated followers/friends/connections do you have that are not actual friends, family, or associates? Like the rest of tons. We connect, play games online, chat to have a friend at the time and in the situation of our choosing.

Now how does this relate to being a professional sales representative? Simple, your potential clients coming in want a single serving friend. A person that is there strictly to be nice to them, listen to them, agree with them. When people feel this they keep coming back, it builds loyal clients. Consumers coming in to your business want to be able to have a relationship on their terms, as they want it. That could be anything from formal to extremely personal. A great salesperson adapts and allows the client to have this indulgent friendship.

P.S. If anyone would like to be my single serving friend I am always looking for one. Send me a connection request, or find me on twitter @hggershman

Gregory Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

Hiring in sales departments can be an exhausting and frustrating experience. Whether it is marketing for applicants, fielding resumes, or the actual interviews. Each of these are time consuming.

The biggest problem we find in our clients is that the job of handling all these time consuming activities falls to the sales manager. A typical hiring campaign can take upwards of 18 hours of real work to complete, and that does not take into account the need for training once a hire is made. Of course, who is responsible for training the newbie? Yep, the sales manager.

Most sales managers are both judged and compensated on production, and training takes away valuable time that could be dedicated to additional sales. So why strain the business? Why not just do what many sales organizations do and either farm out the entire training process or skip it all together?

There is one decisive answer, your manager needs the training. Who is keeping your sales manager sharp? When we get tunneled into simply reacting to sales on a daily basis the actual information and material we use to manage our sales staff and process falters. The act of training material is as much a sharpening tool for the manager training as it is for new sales staff.

One of the key things that drives increased sales after a hiring, is not only the added personnel serving clients, but management being refocused after being involved in training the staff. It may seem near impossible but it is necessary for your management to either conduct or be intimately involved with the training of your new staff. The hours will gain amazing results.

Gregory Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

Hiring in sales departments can be an exhausting and frustrating experience. Whether it is marketing for applicants, fielding resumes, or the actual interviews. Each of these are time consuming.

The biggest problem we find in our clients is that the job of handling all these time consuming activities falls to the sales manager. A typical hiring campaign can take upwards of 18 hours of real work to complete, and that does not take into account the need for training once a hire is made. Of course, who is responsible for training the newbie? Yep, the sales manager.

Most sales managers are both judged and compensated on production, and training takes away valuable time that could be dedicated to additional sales. So why strain the business? Why not just do what many sales organizations do and either farm out the entire training process or skip it all together?

There is one decisive answer, your manager needs the training. Who is keeping your sales manager sharp? When we get tunneled into simply reacting to sales on a daily basis the actual information and material we use to manage our sales staff and process falters. The act of training material is as much a sharpening tool for the manager training as it is for new sales staff.

One of the key things that drives increased sales after a hiring, is not only the added personnel serving clients, but management being refocused after being involved in training the staff. It may seem near impossible but it is necessary for your management to either conduct or be intimately involved with the training of your new staff. The hours will gain amazing results.

Gregory Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

The Federal Courts recently made an important decision concerning employee pay, while engaged in screening, or outside required activities.

Here is the case:

A warehouse required it's workers to undergo a security screening at the end of each day.  They would have to punch out and submit to screening, that would take approximately 25 minutes to go through the process.  The employees submitted a complaint to the Labor Department, stating that since the activity was strictly to the benefit to the employer that it must be compensated.

This is covered by the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), which states that any activity that is an "intergral & indespensable" part of performing the principal work an employee is required to perform must be compensated.  The Court decided that screening does not fall under this, since it is not an actual part of performing ones job.

So, what is the upshot for a dealership?  First, this means that when a dealership asks an employee to go for drug test, as an example, even if it is outside of their scheduled hours this does not have to be paid.  On the other side, training would be required to be compensated, whether or not it was during normally scheduled hours.  Training is indespensable part of performing the job, so any training much be paid.

Follow my blog for more info on hiring, and managing your staff

The Federal Courts recently made an important decision concerning employee pay, while engaged in screening, or outside required activities.

Here is the case:

A warehouse required it's workers to undergo a security screening at the end of each day.  They would have to punch out and submit to screening, that would take approximately 25 minutes to go through the process.  The employees submitted a complaint to the Labor Department, stating that since the activity was strictly to the benefit to the employer that it must be compensated.

This is covered by the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), which states that any activity that is an "intergral & indespensable" part of performing the principal work an employee is required to perform must be compensated.  The Court decided that screening does not fall under this, since it is not an actual part of performing ones job.

So, what is the upshot for a dealership?  First, this means that when a dealership asks an employee to go for drug test, as an example, even if it is outside of their scheduled hours this does not have to be paid.  On the other side, training would be required to be compensated, whether or not it was during normally scheduled hours.  Training is indespensable part of performing the job, so any training much be paid.

Follow my blog for more info on hiring, and managing your staff

The latest US job report is making its way around the web. Here is the long and short of it. Good news first:

The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that US employers added 252,000 jobs in December, better than expected.

Unemployment dropped to 5.6%, another good sign, the lowest unemployment percentage since June 2008.

Now some disappointing news for those that got hired, the average rate of pay actually dropped from November to December by .02%. Sounds like a small number, but considering that living costs always rise it is a tremendous drop for the actual buying power of the American workforce.

What does that mean for employers?

As unemployment rates drop, the available pool of active job seekers diminish, meaning online job boards have a shallower pool of applicants.

So if you need employees what is the answer?

When pay rates and unemployment is low the best answer is to resume database search to reach passive job seekers. People that are not willing to be unemployed in what is still a topsy-turvy economy, but have been under-employed for a long period of time now and have abandoned their active job search.

Gregory Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ

The latest US job report is making its way around the web. Here is the long and short of it. Good news first:

The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that US employers added 252,000 jobs in December, better than expected.

Unemployment dropped to 5.6%, another good sign, the lowest unemployment percentage since June 2008.

Now some disappointing news for those that got hired, the average rate of pay actually dropped from November to December by .02%. Sounds like a small number, but considering that living costs always rise it is a tremendous drop for the actual buying power of the American workforce.

What does that mean for employers?

As unemployment rates drop, the available pool of active job seekers diminish, meaning online job boards have a shallower pool of applicants.

So if you need employees what is the answer?

When pay rates and unemployment is low the best answer is to resume database search to reach passive job seekers. People that are not willing to be unemployed in what is still a topsy-turvy economy, but have been under-employed for a long period of time now and have abandoned their active job search.

Gregory Gershman - Managing Partner - Recruitment HQ