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#YourCareer : 5 Ways The Over 50 Worker Can Benefit From The Great Resignation. Over 50 and Think that it’s Too Late to make a Career Change?? THink AGain!

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A new survey by Resume Builder shows that this hot job market is causing the over 50 worker and even retirees to consider new career moves. Resume Builder surveyed 1,100 aged 54+, both retired and employed, and found that:

·       40% of the employed have considered switching jobs;

·       34% of retirees have considered going back to work; and

·       20% of retirees have been asked to return to past employers.

If you’re over 50 and have been thinking that it’s too late to make a career change (that’s just one of five common myths), these survey results are a bright green light to reconsider old assumptions and move forward with your desired changes. You don’t even have to leave your job.

1 – Negotiate for more money

News about the Great Resignation is causing companies to worry about retention. This gives you leverage, even if your manager doesn’t think you specifically are a flight risk. Your company doesn’t want to lose anyone because they worry they can’t replace workers quickly enough — or ever.

If you’re getting recruiter calls, find out what your market value is. Don’t issue an ultimatum to your manager (they may call your bluff). Instead, let them know how much you enjoy working with them, but tell them what you’re hearing about the market and ask what can be done. Remind them that hiring costs real money in lost productivity and recruiting fees. Remind them about your proven results and unique value. Have alternatives ready if the salary is non-negotiable – a retention bonus or a perk (e.g., a course you want to take) you would otherwise pay for.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

 

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2 – Start consulting on the side

If you’d rather not rock the boat with your own employer, focus on the other companies who are having difficulty hiring and looking to consultants, freelancers and temps to fill the gap. If it’s work that can be done remotely and/or off hours, you could build a side consulting business. Target companies in a different industry or geography so there is no conflict of interest. Or target companies of a different size or with slightly different needs.

You may find that your employer will even help you get established. I once worked with a recruiting firm that only hired at the executive level. To keep one of their star performers challenged and engaged, they supported her in building her own practice to hire at the middle management level, even going as far as funneling leads to her. It benefited the company in two ways: 1) it kept that star performer from leaving them and 2) it brought their large clients closer to them because instead of just saying No when they had a middle management need or referring them to outside agencies, they could refer them to one of their own.

3 – Start your career change with a lateral move

If you don’t want to continue at your current job, by all means take advantage of the hot job market to explore leaving, but also consider making a lateral move within your current company. A lateral move means that you move into a new department, giving you the chance to work in a different role or with different clients or in a different location. It’s a way of changing your career but in a less disruptive way, since you’re still keeping your tenure at the company. This means your length of service, your relationships and your credibility remain intact, but you still have a chance to stretch and learn something new.

Some companies are better than others about supporting lateral moves. You may have a selfish manager who cares less (or not at all) about your career development and just sees your leaving as a disruption to them. However, some managers are supportive, and some companies have lateral movement baked into the culture. They recognize that they’d rather retain good performers somewhere in the company.

4 – Start your career change with a new business

If you don’t think your company will support a lateral move, or you’re at a small place with nowhere to go, then build a side gig that focuses on whatever you were hoping to do with a lateral move. You could start on a pro bono basis. If you’re thinking about a sales career, volunteering to fundraise will give you much-needed practice developing prospects, talking about money and making the ask. If you’re looking to consult, subcontract with an established consultant who has more work than they can handle and can perhaps be a mentor to you.

If you’re not sure which direction to go, at least start blocking your calendar for the days and times you’ll work on that new business whenever it’s defined. You can use the time blocks for research into opportunities or creative exercises to figure out what to do next. If the time reserved for your new business means you spend less money going out, then you can earmark the savings to your dream fund.

5 – Negotiate flexibility or a sabbatical to try something new

If you’re not sure what you should do as a next step, negotiate for time to think about it. Negotiate a part-time schedule so you can use the extra hours to build the side business or take classes in different areas of interest. Negotiate a sabbatical if you need to get away and clear your head.

At the very least, you’re practicing much-needed negotiation skills. You’re breaking up your everyday work routine, which might unleash new ideas for what to do next. If the new schedule affords you time in a new location, you can explore geo-arbitrage (living in a low-cost area on a big city salary), which may allow you to retire earlier and on less.

 

Forbes.com | November 3, 2021 | Caroline Ceniza-Levine

 

#Leadership : #EmployeeRetention – Plan your New Hire’s Next Job from the Moment they Start… Here’s how Here are Three Ways to Start Preparing your #TeamMembers for New and Different Roles Inside the Company (before they find other opportunities outside it).

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Remember when staying in a job for less than a few years was considered a stain on your resume? That’s no longer the case. By one recent estimate, the average length of time people now spend in a given role is just a little over two years among workers ages 25–39. And who can blame them?

Baseless millennial stereotypes notwithstanding, it’s people earlier in their careers who tend to fill lower-level positions, which typically involve at least a few unexciting tasks. I’ve noticed entry-level employees at my own company getting anxious to take the next step in their careers even sooner than they’d used to. Many of our sales reps now start eyeing their next internal moves after just six to eight months.

So lately I’ve had to think creatively about ways to keep new hires engaged while extending their professional lives inside the company. Here are a few methods we’ve come up with.

BREAK ROLES INTO TIERS

The most employee movement we see here at Vidyard is in our sales department. As with a lot of front-line jobs, it’s hard to keep this area dynamic because sales isn’t necessarily a role where you can rotate people through varied projects, like we do with our developers. So instead we’ve introduced tiers to certain sales positions, transparent step-ups that come with added responsibilities and pay. Importantly, these aren’t promotions out of a role that somebody has only started to master. Rather, we’re building discrete new functions into that role.

A higher-level tier might include new responsibilities like mentoring newer hires, taking on bigger accounts, or shadowing more senior team members. Yet each new level comes with commensurate pay increases to reflect the advancement.

Having clear tiers for sales jobs lets our new hires see from the outset that they’re never “stuck” in an entry-level role, and it shows them exactly what they need to do to make it to the next level. They get the support and encouragement to add to their skill sets while also getting better at selling–the critical function they were hired for. For now, we’ve limited this “slice-and-dice” approach to sales, where there are clear, repeatable duties. But it’s not hard to see how it could be useful elsewhere.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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ASK AMBITIOUS EMPLOYEES TO SELF-ASSESS

As any manager knows, dealing with an employee who’s pushing for a promotion before they’re ready can be a tricky (and common) situation. The challenge is to be realistic without dismissing their desire to advance. Simply telling someone they’ll have to stay put will only breed resentment and accelerate a move–likely outside your company.

So we’ve tried to develop what I think of as a readiness pulse-check. Flip the tables and give eager team members a chance to assess their own readiness for a promotion (or lack thereof). A little while ago, one new hire joined Vidyard as a “concierge,” helping direct customer inquiries to the right place, but his heart was set on getting into sales. When he pleaded with me after just a couple months to make the move, I assigned him some homework: I asked him to spend some time with other leaders in the company to learn exactly what his dream job entailed.

He soon realized he still had some work to do, but he now knew exactly which skills and qualifications he’d need to move forward. Within little more than a year, he successfully made the switch and has continued to move up the ranks. In fact, using this same approach, he went on to segue into a product manager role, where he’s in charge of bringing our tools from ideation to market.

Putting the onus on your ambitious employees to figure out whether they’re truly ready for the next step is a great way to give them some control over their career paths. Some may resent the perceived roadblock. But those that rise to the occasion will be doubly dedicated to their jobs, and double their value to you by learning more about how the company works.

EXPERIMENT WITH SWAPS AND LOANS

Indeed, sometimes the best ways to keep team members happy is to encourage internal mobility across functional areas. Jumping to a new role or department can revitalize enthusiasm and preserve institutional know-how while also busting up silos.

We recently began experimenting with a loaner program to let employees cross departmental lines in their work, something that other tech companies have been doing for years. Right now, our initiative is admittedly small and operating on a four-month trial, but I’m excited to see where it leads in the future. Other times a change of scenery is all it takes to renew someone’s enthusiasm for their job. We have a satellite office in another city on the West Coast, and we’ve had a few team members request to make the move. While this doesn’t always entail a change in job description, the shift in setting is often a welcome change, with the added benefit of strengthening our company culture through cross-pollination between offices.

In my opinion, keeping a good employee for many years is important; it’s the goal of every great leader I know. The key is to creating a climate where people hungry to amass new skills can genuinely see a path forward. In the end, a stifled, inflexible workplace only leads to the exodus of your best and brightest. The earlier you start thinking about where your newest hires might be headed, the sooner you’ll start seeing them maximize their potential and make your organization stronger–no matter how long they’re there.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Litt is cofounder and CEO of the video marketing platform Vidyard. Follow him on Twitter at @michaellitt.

 More

 

FastCompany.com | July 20, 2018

#Leadership : Why Nearly Half Of Workers Globally Could Leave Their Jobs In 2017…Managers can Help Retain their Staff by Applying these Five Strategies.

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Enjoy spending time with your coworkers this holiday season, because many of them are likely to be gone by this time next year.
man-at-computer-sending-email

According to a recent survey of 3,300 employees across 14 countries by Dale Carnegie Training, 26% of U.S. employees say they will look for a new job within the next 12 months, and 15% are already actively looking for a new job. In total, more than 40% of all employees are at risk of leaving their job in the coming year.

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According to this study, a primary reason for leaving is poor management. Researchers found that an employee is nearly 10 times more likely to be very satisfied with their job when they are led by someone they feel is honest and trustworthy. Those who feel that their superiors do not exhibit such behaviors are four times more likely to be looking for a different job. This squares with results from a 2015 report by Weber Shandwick that found a chief executive’s reputation influences employees’ decisions to remain at their company.

The Dale Carnegie study revealed a wide variety of discrepancies between the leadership attributes they want to see in their supervisors and the characteristics they actually exhibit. For example, the study found that 84% of U.S. employees believe it’s important for supervisors and managers to admit mistakes, yet only 51% of U.S. workers say their employer or supervisor takes responsibility for their own actions.

Similarly, 85% of employees believe it’s important for managers to show sincere appreciation, yet less than half say their supervisors do so consistently. Expressing gratitude can be a powerful agent for retention while promoting well-being, according to a meta-analysis of several studies by Harvard Health. The researchers concluded, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

Based on the study, authors suggest five strategies for employers and managers who want to retain some of those staff members that are currently looking for the exit sign.

1.ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO SAVE FACE IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS

Sixty percent of U.S. respondents say that great bosses give employees who have made a mistake or feel embarrassed the chance to recover and do better moving forward.

2. ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OWN MISTAKES BEFORE CRITICIZING EMPLOYEES

Sixty-eight percent of workers said they are motivated by supervisors who are bold enough to recognize their own shortcomings and don’t jump to criticize others.

3. RECOGNIZE IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

Seventy-two percent of respondents say this is one of the most important traits a manager can have.

4. GIVE PRAISE AND APPRECIATION

Seventy-four percent of respondents say great bosses praise and express appreciation for an employee’s work.

5. ENCOURAGE IMPROVEMENT

Nearly 80% of respondents say that inspiring leaders encourage and help employees improve.

It is important to note that despite the percentage of employees looking to quit, more U.S. employees are highly satisfied with their jobs than the average across the 14 countries examined in this study, which include Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.K.

An average of 18% of employees across these countries indicated they were very satisfied with their jobs compared with 24% of Americans. Furthermore, while 41% of U.S. employees are looking for a new job or intend to within the next year, that number rises to 45% among international respondents.

Related: Take This Job And Shove It, Say The Majority Of Employees Who Quit

FastCompany.com | JARED LINDZON |  11.21.16 10:52 AM

 

#Leadership : Why My Company Started Helping Our Best Employees Quit…This Company Sits Down with Every Employee who’s Stayed for Three Years to Plan their Career Options—within the Firm and Without.

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 In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Superbosses author Sydney Finkelstein argues that some of the most successful leaders encourage their top-performing talent to leave. He also observes that some of the most transformative executives have the shortest tenures at the companies they reshape.
Free- Lock on Fence

The reason, Finkelstein says, is simple: It’s difficult to acquire and hold onto outsize talent, but far better to house it within your organization for a short time than not at all. Rather than fight turnover, companies may do better to embrace it—and instead focus on improving the quality of the people who cycle through its doors, as opposed to reducing the quantity of those who do.

THE CASE FOR BUILDING AN EXIT DOOR AND OPENING IT WIDE

This a concept my own company is taking to heart. After all, more money and bigger titles can only go so far, particularly for talented employees who aren’t primarily motivated by extrinsic incentives like those. Sometimes the next level up simply doesn’t match an employee’s aspirations, skills, or career timetable.

So the best thing for an employer to do is to help them find another great opportunity, instead of pouring time and resources into trying (and failing) to get them to stay. The companies that succeed will build reputations for launching leaders’ careers, which can help them attract the next wave of promising talent.

 

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That’s the theory, anyway, that recently led us to formalize the exit route as a key part of our staffing plan. The way it works is this: Throughout their tenures, we ask our employees to consider (and reconsider) their desired career goals for the next five to 10 years. We discuss possible paths to help them achieve those goals, and the skills and experiences they’ll need to acquire along the way.

Because we hire many younger professionals with limited work experience, we often have to invest heavily in developing their skills and expertise. Generally speaking, we hope that all high performers will stay with us for at least three years, both so our investment will pay off and so they’ll have time to thoughtfully consider what they want next in their careers. After that period, though, we work with them on advancement opportunities—inside the company and out.

To do that, we work with our employees to define three potential paths: two within the firm and one beyond it. If they choose the exit route, we make introductions to potential employers, serve as references, write LinkedIn recommendations, and even coach employees through the search process. Sure, these are resources we could be putting into retention efforts instead, but the preliminary results suggest we’re doing the right thing.

WHAT COMPANIES GAIN BY HELPING EMPLOYEES MOVE ON

Here are a few of the benefits we’ve already begun to see.

Increased employee engagement and retention. Being able to openly discuss career routes is a great relief for many employees, and this openness contributes to a supportive, transparent culture. The program also encourages managers to think more like career coaches than micromanagers preoccupied by short-term needs. Managers learn how to engage with team members in thoughtful, authentic ways, building trust and loyalty and improving overall employee engagement.

And since managers actually understand their employees’ career objectives, we’re better equipped to assign meatier projects—even if they’re not directly tied to employees’ roles—to help them build their desired skills. This can help increase the odds that our most talented employees stick around longer, because they feel valued and see tangible advantages to doing so.

More predictable succession planning and smoother transitions. When exit paths are discussed forthrightly, managers can gain more time to plan employees’ departures. There’s plenty of runway to document all their projects and processes. There’s also more time to think carefully about contact changes for customers and partners, making the handover smoother and more thoughtfully carried out.

Outgoing employees benefit as well, getting to leave the company on a high note, feeling celebrated, appreciated, and grateful to the company for helping them land their next big role. Nobody’s blindsided or left feeling bitter.

Employer branding and recruiting benefits. In the age of Glassdoor, Yelp, and Quora, it’s more important than ever that employees leave feeling like their time with an employer was well spent. Companies that have built reputations not just for hiring well but for supporting talented people can get a major recruiting boost. Former employees are potentially some of your most powerful assets—people you can leverage for referrals or even consider rehiring later in their careers.

It’s far from intuitive for most companies to invest heavily in recruiting and professional development, only to actively facilitate employees’ departures. But after years of thoughtfully considering our employees’ needs as well as our own, we’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes the best path forward is out.

 

FastCompany.com |  MATHIDLE PRIBULA |  10.25.16 5:00 AM

#Leadership : 4 Truths You Need to Know About Millennial Job Hopping…Employers are Failing to Create a Supportive Work Environment that Considers the Unique Needs of Millennials.

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It’s time to stop blaming millennial job hopping for poor employee retention. Especially when employers are failing to create a supportive work environment that takes into consideration their unique needs.

It’s no secret: millennials are job hoppers. A 2016 Jobvite survey of 2,305 Americans found that while only 18 percent of the total workforce changes jobs every one-to three-years, 42 percent of millennials do.

workaholics-2

That’s made employee retention a nightmare for employers in recent years. There’s constant chatter about how the millennial job hopping tendency makes them difficult to work with. Older generations go on and on about how they wish they’d leave their wandering ways and just settle down.

But what if the root of the problem isn’t millennials? What if it’s actually employers who are failing to create a workplace that meets the needs of the generation? So they go from one company to the next looking for an organization that can fulfill them professionally.

Here are four reasons it’s employers, not millennials, who are behind the job-hopping phenomenon:

1. Lack of career advancement.

Employee engagement is an issue with employees of all ages, but it’s particularly bad with millennials. My company, Quantum Workplace, recently released its “2016 Employee Engagement Trends” report. It surveyed more than a half million employees from more than 8,700 organizations and found that employees between 26 and 35 are the least engaged age group at just 67.3 percent engaged.

The report also found that seeing a chance to develop professionally was one of the top drivers of engagement for millennials. This suggests that one of the main reasons the generation is becoming disengaged at work is because they aren’t getting the career advancement and development they want. Eventually, that causes them to look for a job elsewhere, creating a job-hopping cycle.

The only way to end the pattern is to provide millennials with clear career paths and development opportunities. Talk with them to find out what their goals are and how they can meet those goals with the company. Show a willingness to invest in their future in order to keep them around.

Related: 5 Ways Millennials Are Like No Generation Before Them

 

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2. They can’t use their best skills.

Looking at the millennials who do stay with one company for a long time shows they have something interesting in common. The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey of 7,700 millennials from around the world found that 86 percent of millennials who worked with a company for more than five years felt they were able to make good use of their skills in that job. Only 62 percent of millennials who left a company within two years agreed.

Regularly doing what an employee is good at gives them a better connection with the work. It shows that all the hard work they did to develop their skills was not for naught. Unfortunately, most entry or lower-level jobs don’t give employees the opportunity to dig deep and use all of their skills. It’s less clear how what they’re doing contributes to the company as a whole.

Challenge millennials. Give them a chance to show what they can really do. Ask them for their ideas and input on a variety of projects so they can stay engaged and feel of value, rather than like a paper-pusher.

Related: 3 Things Businesses Can Learn From Millennials

3. The benefits package doesn’t interest them.

Aside from job hopping, something else that has defined the millennial generation is crushing student debt. A 2016 Citizens Bank survey of 501 American millennials found that 60 percent of adults under 35 don’t believe they’ll be able to pay off their loans until well into their 40s. Thirty-six percent said if they had known how much college was really going to cost them, they never would’ve attended a university.

Student loan debt therefore becomes a huge weight for millennials when it comes to choosing a job. And one that can help them tackle their educational debt is a huge draw. A 2015 Peanut Butter survey of 400 respondents between 20 and 35 years old found that, on average, millennials with college loans would stay with a company 36 percent longer if it offered repayment assistance.

By making loan repayment assistance part of the organization’s benefits package, it becomes a lot more appealing to younger professionals. It gives them a reason to stick around, resulting in improved millennial employee retention.

Related: 4 Strategies to Connect With Millennials

4. Their hard work isn’t being recognized.

Nobody likes feeling under-appreciated. Yet it seems like millennials’ hard work in particular is being ignored. In a 2015 LeadershipIQ surveyof more than 3,000 employees, only 33 percent of employees under 30 were confident that their performance was at the level it should be.

There is clearly a major lack of feedback and recognition for so many young professionals to be unsure of how they’re doing in their role. And that lack of communication makes them feel less important to the organization. Without that connection, it’s easier for them to leave in hopes of being appreciated elsewhere.

Make sure all employees, but especially millennials, are acknowledged for their hard work. Start having regular one-on-one meetings with employees so their performance can be discussed. That way, millennials will be confident in the fact that they are doing a great job and their work is of value to the organization.

It’s time to stop blaming millennial job hopping for poor employee retention. Especially when employers are failing to create a supportive work environment that takes into consideration their unique needs.

 

Entrepreneur.com | September 16, 2016 | Greg Harris

#Leadership : How Leaders Can Engage & Retain Top Sales Talent…Turnover: Minimum 20%. Fact: 71% of Companies take 6 Months or Longer to Onboard New Sales Reps; & at a Third of All Companies it Take 9 Months or More.

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According to Glassdoor, professionals working in sales can make well into the six figures and are one of the most popular positions companies seek to fill. But retention tends to be low with the pressure to meet numbers, lack of adequate training and inevitable rejection.

question mark signs painted on a asphalt road surface

71% of companies take 6 months or longer to onboard new sales reps; and at a third of all companies it take 9 months or more (source: ClearSlide and CSO Insights).

And there is a minimum 20% annual turnover in Sales—and it’s up to 34% if you include both voluntary + involuntary according to Bridge Group research.

Millennials are even more likely to turnover:

 

What’s happening here?

I pondered this recently with Dustin Grosse and Michael Shultz of ClearSlide, and here’s what we came up with—based on both research and our decades of experience in the world of Sales and Sales Management.

Here are the top 4 Reasons Why Sales People Quit—and what to do about them:

  1. They don’t have coaches and mentors. New salespeople, and especially millennials, need strong coaches and mentors to find long-term success. When they’re left on their own without adequate support, they’re likely to hit a roadblock after a period of initial success.

According to CSO Insights, sales leaders spend only 20% of their time helping their team close deals. If your sales leaders are “too busy” to help, nobody wins. Make supporting your team a top priority. Give them best practices, be available for questions, ask how things are going and offer advice. Set up a mentorship program, pairing veteran sellers with new recruits. The initial time investment will motivate and inspire newer reps to commit and persevere, even through the rough patches.

According to the Deloitte and CEB studies above, Millennials cite lack of professional development, coaching and mentorship as top reasons why they transition out of companies.

Retention of millennials requires 2 things: continuous feedback so they can have insights, and an Individual Development Plan (career path with clear skills building plan) so they can aspire.

 

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  1. They don’t have the latest sales tools. Millennial salespeople are typically tech savvy and eager to embrace modern sales technology. When they don’t have the latest tools and modern platforms, that can hurt morale and impede productivity.  

Many salespeople — particularly younger ones — conduct business on mobile devices, but it can be impossible to access the content they need to close deals on their smartphone or tablet. In fact, according to a CSO Insights survey, 88% of sales professionals are unable to find or bring up critical sales material up on their smartphones, and 60% of sales organizations report a longer sales cycle due to a lack of proper tools. This hurts the sales professional’s long-term productivity and success. Companies that want to set their sales team up for success should move away from general purpose tools and invest in more modern sales-specific tools and platforms.

ClearSlide, for example, offers an engagement platform that helps companies to offer content to support the sales process (a video, a whitepaper) and then track which content is consumed: how and when. ClearSlide connects to the top CRMs, and real-time viewing stats and alerts are provided so the sales people can connect with the prospect as they are in process of consuming the content. This dramatically increases the quality of engagement.

  1. They don’t understand that data and insights are their secret weapons. Salespeople need to embrace the advanced analytics that can give them an edge.

Today, there are more people involved in the buying process than in the past. Buyers are typically more sophisticated too since they can conduct research online before they ever respond to an offer. According to research from CEB, the average B2B buyer is at least 57% through a purchase decision before ever connecting with a salesperson. This means sellers need to engage with prospects very differently – selling in a way that maps to the buyer’s journey and expectations. Give young sellers data that help them identify, target, and interact with the right context at the right time. Sales Engagement Platforms allow sellers to track genuine customer interactions across channels, giving them the insights they need to accelerate sales cycles

    1. They don’t have a playbook. Salespeople need to ramp up rapidly, and have a clear playbook to navigate prospects and the selling process.

Our clients find that the key components to a sales playbook are:

  • Sample messages for each persona – Providing sample email messages and scripts for outreach, follow up, nurturing and revival are key. When a salesperson sees how to most effectively communicate with a particular persona they can simply edit and send the message. This saves them hours each week and keeps them focused on what they do best: prospect, nurture and close. LinkedIn, for example, has a Perfect Pitch Library which is a library of videos of actual prospect interactions from a video call.
  • Tools and resources per sales stage – New salespeople need to have quick and clear access to tools and resources (such as content) to move prospects through the sales process swiftly. Guiding the sales process with content helps both newer and experienced reps to reduce the sales cycle base on the best practices of their top reps.
  • Industry fluency – millennials struggle to understand the industry that the prospect works in. For example if selling into financial services and having no background there, have industry executive summaries, key pains in the industry, key trends and buzzwords, internal case studies and use cases. This helps the prospect have the experience of “same as” and helps the salesperson build both rapid rapport and to do reference selling to get rapid credibility with the prospect.

Also it’s key to note that inside selling and field selling are converging. Insiders are now expecting to get out into the field, and field reps are doing more video conferences and “inside” work than ever before. Both need to learn new tools and techniques.

How is your sales force doing?

Christine Comaford is the author of SmartTribes: How Teams Become Brilliant Together.

 

Forbes.com | June 18, 2016 | Christine Comaford