Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball hitters of all times, once said that the secret to good hitting was getting a good pitch to hit. He could just have easily been talking about successful cold calling. The first step in effective cold calling is segmenting the marketplace. Just as you need to know your [...]
Archive for the ‘Strategy’ category
A Cold Calling Sales Method
July 6, 2010Over the past few months, I have taken on the responsibility of sales through a cold calling project. To be candid, I have never been a fan of cold calling. My personal belief is that you grow sales from the inside out, that is, you leverage existing relationships to create warm leads that result in [...]
Completing the Leadership Assessment
June 29, 2010As with all interviews, and particularly interviews of this type, the key is to get to know the candidate. Therefore, as the interviewer, you must be engaging and energetic. Yet, you must also be a good listener. Always take notes during the interview. It will allow you to “mentally record” the candidate’s responses and then [...]
Establishing the Foundation for the Leadership Interview
June 22, 2010A leadership interview is a little more delicate. In fact, I would categorize this discussion as more of a conversation than an interview. There are several reasons why this is so. The candidate being interviewed is typically more mature. Usually, this person has managed departments or divisions, if not other companies. Therefore, this applicant is [...]
Determining the Candidate’s Leadership Profile
June 17, 2010One of the challenges in the interview process was the need to capture information in a meaningful way. The plan was to interview five candidates in one day and the risk of blurring responses, characteristics and attributes was fairly high. Effective data capture was therefore important. The tool that was built had a section for [...]
What to Evaluate When Hiring Executives
June 16, 2010There are certain items that are prerequisites when hiring an executive. Ideally, the candidate should be either knowledgeable in the industry or the skills that are required by the organization to fulfill its mission. Typically, when I enter the hiring process, the candidates have been vetted in these areas. What I look for are the [...]
Hiring Leadership
June 13, 2010When you think about it, the amount of time devoted to the hiring process is pretty insignificant. This is ironic given that it is one of the most critical decisions made at any company. Perhaps, there are a few hours, or at best, a few days devoted to screening, interviewing and reference checking. The process [...]
