One of the first business lessons I learned many years ago was that it is often better to havemany smaller customers than fewer large ones. At the time, I was learning the ropes from a battle-hardened magazine publisher. He said (in reference to my naive comment that I would rather have Microsoft as an advertiser than a dozen smaller ones), “Where are you when your big customer decides to ‘shift focus’? Your loss will be 100% of income, rather than 15% or 20%. How long does…

Does NO really mean NO? The simple art of getting to YES!

How do you feel when a potential customer, client, or recruit says “NO” to you? Is it what you expect? Often times it is exactly what we expect to hear. Why is this? Maybe it is because many recruiters, hiring managers, and sales people have been conditioned to believe that they have to get a lot of No’s before they get to a Yes? The process of trying to break down the prospect to get to a yes is not a good sales or hiring…

Look at the title, and think about whether or not you pay attention to everything said to you in a given day; or do you hear only what you want and fill in the blank spaces with noise?  In a job such as recruiting or sales, the ears are almost more important than the eyes when it comes to making decisions. Any time a decision needs to be made; it is best made when all the information is at hand, and that no nuances or misinterpretation is at hand. I have a calendar at home, and one of the…

In our last post, we outlined some of the key trends (and implications) you’re going to face in 2011. So how can you ensure that you have a great year?

1) Have a Plan

a. Define your target client – what kinds of employers are the BEST match for your capabilities and approach to service?

b. Clearly define your positioning – determine exactly how you want to be…

This is something everybody uses; yet on a number of occasions they feel silence trumps silly, or banal, or demonstrating that they don’t have all the knowledge they need to proceed. Its human nature to want to have all the facts before proceeding on a project, just as it should be human nature to want to confirm information if there is any possible chance your results will be contrary to what is expected.

Not everybody has all the skills in the world needed to accomplish every goal.…

In the beginning, there was the job board, and the candidates rejoiced. So many jobs! So many locations! So much easier than paper.

The employers liked it, too.

But after a while, candidates realized that general boards were, well….general. They discovered that many (er, most) jobs were inapplicable to their interests. So they asked the job boards to make things easier. “Help us find just the jobs we want!”

Job board operators responded in a variety of…

Back in the dark ages, when the Job Board Doctor was first learning the mysteries of sales and marketing, he was told that he should “sell benefits, not features.”

Fast forward, umm…many years. I’m still telling clients (and myself) to focus on the benefits, not the features. You think I would’ve learned by now!

It’s a tough lesson to learn. For one thing, it’s a lot easier to list the new, snazzy, ‘gee whiz’ features that your job board has:…

About Readyforce

Readyforce is leapfrogging "old school" staffing agencies and making transformational changes to a $300 billion industry that has not seen meaningful business practice and infrastructure change in decades. Our methodology is driven by a technology-enabled, yet human understanding of every candidate, a commitment to true business transparency and by leveraging modern innovations such as expert crowdsourcing, social media, web video and advanced data…

According to our research, regardless of what you do, Personal Accountability is the most critical personal skill you can exhibit.

Personal accountability, by our definition, is...

The willingness to take responsibility for one's own…

One of the important things I’ve seen in the last while, is networking with others is a contact sport. At the end of the day, though we all have the same agenda,…

Recruiting and sales; or Sales and recruiting. Which comes first and which is more important? Whether we wish to admit it, both are part of the very same industry, just at differing degrees on the scale. Just because you are a great recruiter doesn't mean you'll have a long career as a salesperson and the same can be said about Sales People potentially not doing well recruiting others. If you happen to be one of those rare few that can do both, and do them well--Congratulations!

Both…

DIVISION: MEDIA SALES…

I've been in sales since I was about 15 years old and have worked a desk since late 1999. I've had the pleasure (and in some cases nearly nauseating pain) of working with some of the best sales people around. I've had the opportunity to train fledgling salespeople and watch them grow and develop from rookies, paralyzed by call anxiety, into take-no-prisoners, hard line closers. But, the truth is, with all of the…