The highlights of a great training video by Rapid Learning about how to start a cold phone call.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlVBwasfc78
https://rapidlearninginstitute.com/sales-training/blog/
Question: Is it okay for a 15 year old to complete a SIP?
Answer: There are no age components in the Sales Inventory Profile or SIP.
SIP will give you as accurate a result regardless of how much experience in the business world you have, including none. The test has been developed to a middle level of English comprehensive so a native English speaking 12 year old will be able to fully understand the questions.
I asked my family and friends with teenage children to do the test some years ago when we were validating it before the launch in 2008 and so I know it works for teenagers. The legal age for working is, I believe, 14 and ¾ years, so again a 15 is ok. I don’t think there is anything on the SIP site that specifies age limitations. We do ask for their birthday as a way to validate their identify but it is not used in any way for the calculations. I don’t tell my clients to think about the age as such when considering people for job applications, rather the life circumstance of the individual and how that impacts their ability to perform your job.
I encourage our clients to offer the program to all local high schools and TAFEs (or any other full time school institutions in your area) whether they are themselves hiring or not as a community service for free. The process includes the families to come to your office to pick up the reports in person so we can verify their identity and we are not releasing reports to the wrong person or allowing them to be read by others.
I suggest you staple a ‘with complements’ style page with your branding over my report as this document will most likely end up in being saved in the house for years as the kids finish school and start applying for jobs.
Want to know more about SIP? Watch our short video or learn more about SIP’s Value and Advantage, a video on SIP Reporting or have a look at our pricing list here.
I love this quote from Einstein:
Everything is Energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not Philosophy. This is Physics.
Long before he and many other Physics Scientists proved this to be the truth and said so in public, we have known this to be intrinsically true because…well it is true. It has become part of our consciousness long before anybody was able to articulate it quite so elegantly.
We know it as affinity or being able to relate to each other and being on each other’s wavelength. If you’re on somebody’s wavelength, you’re intuitively able to connect with them and understand them. There are lots of great phrases from the past such as “Walk a mile in my shoes” that tell us it’s important to be in sync with somebody.
How does this relate to selling?
Certainly, there is a very special definitive level of energy required for people to make purchases and sales buying decisions. A Sales person needs to be able to bring a prospect to that level of energy first before they start to close or for the prospect to be confident to buy. If a customer is confident and clear about what they’re doing then they will proceed with the sale and make a decision without having second thoughts and withdrawing later.
But if your prospect is confused, fearful and anxious or just nervous, they will resist making any decisions. If you, the sales person is able to force a decision in that moment, maybe because of some extraordinary technique or external circumstances are forcing them to act faster than their abilities to confidently choose, that decision will be unstable. That customer will withdraw from the sale as soon as the circumstance, or the sales person, has changed. This is why many legal contracts now have a seven day ‘cooling off’ period.
In order to bring a customer to a level of confidence and clarity, there are lots of great sales processes to be followed. But any salesperson who attempts to close a prospect where that particular clarity or energy level isn’t present will in fact be creating more grief than it’s worth for themselves.
Using Einstein’s Theory of Energy, selling then becomes a process of ‘energy matching’ starting with recognition of the prospect’s level of certainty or uncertainty at the start of the sales conversation and effectively leading the client to the confident energy state required for buying. As Einstein said, when you help your client “match the frequency of the reality (confidence) you want and you cannot help but get that reality (sale).”
Considering a career in sales?
You must read this article and check out what Eliza, our sales team member has to say about changing from being a Business Analyst to a Business Development Manager
Q: WHAT IS THE QUESTION THAT AFFECTS PROFITS AND IS ONE OF THE TOP ISSUES FACING BUSINESS OWNERS TODAY?
A: HOW CAN I HIRE SALES PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT FAIL WITHIN THEIR FIRST YEAR.
Today there are normally two ways of looking for staff, either by advertising yourself or using a recruitment company/employment agency. There is always the “friend of a friend” method of recruiting but the rules for engaging any member of staff should apply in all three cases. A typical scenario when searching for new sales staff (in fact any staff) is figuring out the need for hiring someone new, writing an advert which is placed in the local paper or online and waiting for responses. Alternatively you ring an agency which takes down information about what you are looking for in an employee and they go off and look for someone for you. All this takes time and effort on your part. Some of this is essential as a precursor to hiring; some is not.
Starting off with a rough idea of what you are looking for in the needed position, you write a job description and then make several attempts to write an advert which will attract the right “caliber” of applicant.
Let’s take Real Estate as an example. A typical advert for a real estate sales person looks like this:
Real Estate Sales
Applications come flooding in! They say things like “five years selling software”, “highly motivated and a self starter”, “a degree in Computer Science”, “retail selling experience”!
You think this is great until you have to start creating a shortlist of people you may be interested in. You don’t have time to go through them all, but what choice do you have? Maybe you should have hired a professional after all?
So, what does reading all those CV’s tell you?
Conclusion: RÉSUMÉS Drive Poor Recruitment Practices!
Having spent all that time and money trying to hire someone yourself you decide to use the services of an expert. So you spend even more time going through yellow pages or word of mouth to find a suitable recruitment company that says they will do it all for you. I know from personal experience (on both sides of the fence) this is not always the case! There are many excellent recruitment companies around (I’ve worked in at least four myself) but psychometric testing is not always used and if it is, it’s used as a last check rather than a way of creating the shortlist.
First of all they will want to clarify in their minds exactly what you need. They will develop an advert to attract the most suitable candidates for the role, a unique marketing campaign is created and appropriate candidates targeted. Typically, a tailored marketing campaign can involve a range of specialist services such as:
Then they qualify; drawing upon a broad list of potential candidates. The recruitment consultant will then conduct telephone interviews that will consist of qualifying questions designed to indicate suitability for the position.
Then they justify—up to around 8-10 appropriately skilled candidates will be shortlisted for face-to-face interviews. Alternatively, overseas or interstate candidates will be extensively interviewed by phone or video conferencing sessions.
Then they verify—a complete background check will be conducted on the most highly rated candidates to confirm their qualifications and professional work history, as well as clarification of residency status and criminal history.
Then we have simplify—a shortlist of 2-3 highly suitable candidates will then be submitted to the client for the purposes of the formal interview process.
Next comes satisfy—should a candidate meet with your expectations and an offer of employment is made (subject to references), the recruitment consultant will conduct two final reference checks and submit the results to you.
Almost finished—the employment offer is confirmed in conjunction with the candidate’s acceptance. As the contract of employment is finalized, the candidate is prepared for the resignation process.
Finally—an appraisal with yourself and the successful candidate is conducted 6 weeks into the probation period to determine success.
Phew!
Question: What’s wrong with all this information?
Answer: Everything!
The failure of a high percentage of new start sales people in the first six months is alarming. This failure can cost you, the business owner, up to $20,000 dollars in direct or indirect expenses like training, printing etc for each unsuitable candidate chosen and then there’s the lost sales opportunities! It all adds up when you think about it in these terms.
Even worse, reading résumés can mean throwing away the sales stars of tomorrow because their résumés are poor, or don’t have the right clues, or maybe (and here’s the big one) there’s nothing in their past worth putting in a résumé. We all know great real estate sales people whose past gave NO clue to their future sales potential!
There is an easy solution to this problem!
Using a specialized psychometric testing process which is done before you even get to see résumés allows you to go about the business of making money without the frustrations associated with hiring new employees.
You can then read the CV and set up interviews with people you know are able to sell, fit in with the management style for your organization and feel confident about the choices you make as they are based on extensive research and backed up by results.
The bottom line is that specialized psychometric testing undergone right at the beginning of the recruitment process saves you time, money, frustration and ultimately gives you sales people who can sell and who will achieve BETTER SALES RESULTS.
PLEASE STOP READING RÉSUMÉS—THEY ARE BAD FOR YOUR BUSINESS!
Author: Lesley MacKenzie
WHO CAN SELL? Find out by emailing lesley@salesinventoryprofile.com
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives—William James US Pragmatist philosopher & psychologist (1842 – 1910)