Marketing Headhunter

Robert Scoble on Sourcing

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- I confess, for the longest time I failed to see the value of Facebook.  Even after smart guys like Sam Decker extolled Facebook's virtues, I still struggled with it.

But tonight I read where Scoble finally got over the hump with Facebook, in part, by utilizing the click-to-call functionality it shares with the iPhone.  If someone is connected to Scoble and they list their phone number -- then >boom< ... instant access.

clipped from scobleizer.com Why do I say [Facebook] is my new business card collection?  Well, if I am looking for a contact, at, say, Yahoo, I troll through my Facebook collection.  Most Yahoo employees leave their phone numbers and email addresses on their Facebook profile.  Hint: They work on the iPhone.  So, I visit their profile and click on their phone number and I’m instantly connected.  Click here for more.

Can highly effective candidate sourcing Facebook applications be far behind?  Man.

And what's to become of executive search in ten years?  Think of the changes!  For example, think of what social networking apps like Facebook will do for diversity recruiting.

You can see from my profile that I'm a 43-year old, white, married, Catholic conservative.  Your basic Joe Sixpack.  A blessing or a curse -- depending on whether you want to do business with (or hire) that kind of person.  Perhaps I could remove (or falsify) those fields from my profile -- but I wouldn't if I were looking for a job and wanted to target companies that tended to hire and promote people of my persuasion.

What do you think about the future of social networks and recruiting?  Are recruiters TOAST?

 

The $64 Question

ATLANTA, GA - I heard a statistic today that the average consumer only visits seven websites on a regular basis.  So the prevailing "venture capital wisdom" (an oxymoron) dictates that if you have a website, you need to be one of those seven.  Evidently, we all have a handful of sites that we go to for our news, buying, etc.

But then it gets fragmented in a hurry.

I play the drums.  My sister likes rubber stamping.  My dad likes photography.  My daughter likes Webkinz.  And so on.  Pretty much everyone goes to Yahoo and Google and Amazon.com.  Like, three sites.  But what about the other four sites in your target customers' rotation?  What are they?  You have no idea, do you?

Which leads me to the ...

$64 Question:  If you could only have 1000 customers over the entire life of your business, who would they be?

1. Would they all be completely different?  A nurse + a grave digger + a first baseman + a banker + ... and so on up to 1000
2. Or would they all be exactly the same?  Say 1000 twice-divorced, childless female airline pilots between 40-50 years of age who play 36-holes of golf on the weekends with their boyfriends.

Obviously, the more ALIKE your customers are -- the more easily you can market to them in a way that truly resonates with them and establishes your brand as a central element in their lives.  You can make investments in them, and they in turn will make investments in YOU.  It's a personal thing, like a friendship, and it makes event marketing possible -- both online and off.

Consider the rock music business.

Rock bands penetrate, bind and then DEFINE the subcultural community of fans that surrounds them.  The product (music) comes first, the event (concert tour) comes next, and then the merchandise is developed to celebrate the event (tour tee shirts, etc.).  Then the product development (recording) cycle starts all over again.  The best bands are constantly leveraging their brand to re-invent themselves in a way that's new-yet-familiar to their current fan base.

Until a band gets famous, new fans get to know the band through their old fans.  They're friends of friends.  In the 90s, a good friend of mine played bass in a band called Sugar.  Like Deadheads, people used to follow them around from city to city, then pay to see their shows.

Would your customers do that for you?  Mine neither!

Hypothetically, if the King of the World told you today that on pain of death you had five years to accomplish this kind of loyalty with 1000 customers, what would you do starting today?  Please comment below.

VP's of Human Resources should re-read this post, substituting the word CUSTOMERS with the word CANDIDATE.  Please comment.

"You are a media company."

ATLANTA, GA -- Typically, I'm not what you'd call a proud person.  I've accomplished some interesting things with the life that's on loan to me from God (all of our lives are on loan).  But when you get right down to it, I have accomplished only a fraction of what I could have, given my natural talents, opportunities, and life circumstances.

I think this can be said of pretty much everyone.  What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

Nevertheless, as a blogger I have been proud to be included on Mack Collier's "Viral Garden Top 25 Marketing Blogs" list.  This is gonna sound strange, but to be included with Seth and Hugh and Ben & Jackie and CK and others is humbling -- yet it also makes me wanna puff out my chest.  What can I say?  At least once a week when Mack's poll comes out, I embrace my vanity rather than struggle against it.  Go tell Dr. Phil.

Now, a good while back a new weekly tally of marketing blogs was developed by Todd Andrlik.  Called the Power 150, this comprehensive multi-variant ranking combines all of the most popular Marketing, Advertising, and PR blogs in one very convenient, RSS-friendly place.

I confess, for the first 90-or-so days of the Power 150's existence, I was pissed that I wasn't on it.  Then I was added at # 55 and my miserable little ego stopped keeping me up at night.  Maybe I'm just competitive -- although I'm not sure when blogging became a contest, like college football.

But here's the point of this post:  Todd's Power 150 has entered into an arrangement with Advertising Age -- one of the world's most important marketing publications.  You can see the story below.

What's AMAZING to me is how effing GREAT some of these 150 blogs are.  I mean, these blogs are like mini-magazines or something.  Take a look at Adrants ... or Duct Tape Marketing ... or Marketing Pilgrim ... and you'll see just how much LOVE these incredibly talented, visionary, and business-oriented people put into their blogs.  Most of these blogs started with nothing -- no money, no readers, no advertisers, no business plan, and no overhead.  Just a helluva lotta moxie and a Typepad account.  No wonder these media titans visiting Harvard can be seen wringing their hands.

Frankly, I'd be happy just to peak in the Top 50, because any more than that would require me to invest major effort into my "publication."  And as Jay-Dee reminds me -- I make money when I place executives, not when I blog during the money hours.  He's right, of course, but the impulse to crank out the best stuff doesn't always strike at night.  Regardless, ...

If you are a blogger from outside the marketing space, check out the blogs on the Power 150.  They will force you to re-think what's possible with a blog.  And and understand that in the future, if you have a company with a website, then you are a media company (watch the 90 second video clip in this link!!).

For the record, I will always be partial to the Viral Garden's list, and as long as I'm on the list I will proudly / vainly display the Top 25 badge on the side of my blog.  Thanks to Mack for helping my blog get on the map.

clipped from toddand.com Today, the Power 150’s multimetric algorithm ranks almost 350 marketing blogs - 150 plus honorable mentions. Several hundred hours have already gone into creating, establishing and maintaining the Power 150, and this is an opportunity for Ad Age to take it to the next level, immediately creating value for readers as well as listed bloggers (considering the potential for a ton of traffic). According to the media kit, adage.com gets over 354,000 monthly unique visitors. Across online and print, Ad Age has a a total reach of more than 800,000 people including many senior agency, marketing and media executives every month.  Read more ...

Robert De Niro on Interviewing

DALLAS, TX -- This week I had the pleasure of coaching a candidate on an up coming Director of Ecommerce job interview in Dallas.  When it comes to interviewing, I am a firm believer in two things:

1. Every candidacy needs a theme, and
2. Attitude is everything.

When I say every candidacy needs a central selling theme, I mean that there should be one simple, relevant theme surrounding WHY a candidate is the best fit for the organization.  Seriously.

Abraham Zaleznik of the Harvard Business School said nearly 35 years ago that all too often, it is not the most qualified candidate who gets hired -- but the one whom the hiring committee believes can contribute something lasting and meaningful to the company's existing management mix.  Not much has changed.

Indeed, I have seen incredibly qualified C-level candidates come out of interviews in a body bag because the "chemistry" just wasn't there.  And one key element of chemistry is being able to convey your selling story to a hiring committee in a way that is short, punchy, and memorable.  Like Johnny Cochran's "If it doesn't fit -- you must acquit."  Just like in jury trials (See Pg. 5).

My client is relatively new to ecommerce, and some of their VP's are nervous that a top-flight Director of Ecommerce will bring about revolutionary change (as opposed to evolutionary change).  So I told my candidate that his drumbeat should be "With ecommerce behind it, _____'s best days are ahead of it."

Granted, this tagline didn't trumpet my candidate's name all over the place.  But humility is a key element of my client's culture, and any attempt by my candidate to sell himself so brazenly would have killed his chances.  So it was best for him to elevate the client's existing management team through his tagline.  By making himself the Best Supporting Actor, he gets himself hired.  At least that's the theory.  I'll let you know next week if he got the job ...

The other aspect of chemistry is attitude.  And as my father-in-law would say, "Stay loose and you can win."  Somehow, with job interviews, the harder you try, the worse they turn out.  Not sure why that is.  But if you try too hard, you come across as trying too hard.  And companies can smell a disingenuous candidate -- unless the company is so dysfunctional that you'd be crazy to work there.

So how does one stay loose?  Well, you simply have to keep things in perspective.

Which brings me to Robert De Niro.  Several years ago I read an article in Esquire about celebrities and their Big Breaks -- when they got them, how they recognized them, and how they handled them.

The writer asked Mr. De Niro about his Big Break -- which Mr. De Niro said was the audition for the role of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (strange, I know, since Mr. De Niro had previously won an Oscar for his role in Godfather II).

I'm not a movie buff, but the story goes that every great young actor in Hollywood was dying for the part.  And a ton of great actors auditioned.  But Mr. De Niro strolled in for his audition, read the part, and nailed it.

So the article's writer asks Mr. De Niro "Were you nervous?"

"Nope," replies the star.  "I never got nervous before auditions.  Ever."

"Why's that?" asks the interviewer.

"Because I didn't have the part when I arrived.  What's the worst that could happen?  I'd leave without the part.  The way I saw it, every audition was pure upside.  All opportunity and no risk."

 

May Cause Sex, Gambling

OK marketers, this is not your father's Oldsmobile:  I'm on my treadmill tonight, watching the news, and on comes a TV ad for Mirapex -- a new drug that treats the symptoms of Restless Legs Syndrome.  Among the  possible side-effects of Mirapex are intense urges to gamble or have sex.  And I'm like "Gee, isn't that what illegal drug dealers have been promoting in their products all along?"  I'm just saying.  See for yourself ...

clipped from www.mirapex.com

Monster Direct Mail Recruiting

BOSTON, MA -- Over the years I have blogged about Alan Rosenspan's copywriting newsletter.  Alan Rosenspan is the Tiger Woods of copywriting -- and he and his team have won over 100 awards for advertising and direct marketing, including 20 DMA Echo Awards.  That's incredible.  Anyway, I love getting Alan's monthly newsletter, which is jammed packed with great ideas.  Today's issue recaps some recent work Alan did with Monster.com ...

I just did a seminar for Monster.com, the world’s leading career network company, and they shared some of their samples with me.

Their work is outstanding – as you can imagine.  And I wanted to share one example with you because it dramatizes an important point.

Monster was trying to reach HR Professionals in the Defense industry. These people need employees who have security clearance.

The mailing arrived in a box with the words, “Classified Top Secret Confidential” printed on it.

Inside was a small combination safe.

A card invited you to “Open your safe for the secrets to procuring the best employees with active security clearance – quickly and cost-effectively.”

Inside the safe was a small brochure about Monster and the call to action.  Once you removed it, the safe could also function as a convenient bank you could keep on your desk.

The mailing was expensive – but the return on investment was exceptional because each HR Professional could hire dozens or even hundreds of people from Monster over the years.

And that’s my main point – let the value of the customer drive the cost of the mailing. Monster has set up an entire organization – Military.com – to handle this industry, and has already worked with over 5,000,000 people.

Now, if Monster would only improve their user experience by deep-sixing the interstitial ads during their users' routine job searches.  Tsk. Tsk.

As always, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to Alan's newsletter.  And if you haven't downloaded my spreadsheet on how to calculate the lifetime value of a customer, double-click here.  Be sure to check out the TABS at the bottom of the spreadsheet.  There are three different parts to it.

 

Philadelphia E-commerce Recruiter

What's it like to work with a world-class E-commerce Recruiter?

The following is an actual testimonial regarding a VP of E-commerce executive search Harry Joiner completed for David's Bridal in Philadelphia, PA.  The client sought a new Philadelphia-based VP of E-commerce -- and Ann Leyva, David's VP of Organizational Development and Recruiting, worked very closely with Harry on the project.

Here's what Ann says about Harry ...

"Harry has great depth in the e-commerce category, particularly related to marketing and general management.  He is also incredibly well networked.  He conducted our search for a VP of E-Commerce with careful consideration to the culture and skills required for a candidate to excel in the position.  He has also been a great collaborator and a reliable information resource."  Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert

Ann Leyva
David's Bridal, Inc.
Philadelphia, PA

See Ann's actual Ecommerce Recruiter comments here.

Dawg Bites Marketing Headhunter

In response to my recent post, Mock Sales Presentation Interviews, my brother Eric (who writes the popular FreightDawg logistics blog) takes me to task.  His comments were so spot-on that I thought you'd benefit from knowing how wrong I can be sometimes:

Harry,

From my point of view, [sales presentation interviews such as the ones you describe] are ineffective relative to real life.  It forces a salesperson to pitch benefits to a client he has little to no idea about -- rather than to test his capability to probe and do proper discovery in order to present a solution.  If you are hiring a song and dance man, that idea works fine -- but not in professional selling where complex products are involved and you are trying to get a customer to buy a big ticket item.

I would prefer a scenario where you tell the candidate that this is their SECOND visit.  During the first visit you probed and found out the following details.  The scenario then changes to asking the sales professional to present a solution based on client needs and situation.  That is a much more realistic scenario.

If I were the candidate, even in the current scenario, I'd start the meeting and refer to an imaginary previous meeting then carry on with presentation of a solution based on developed client need.

-Eric

Mock Sales Presentation Interviews

A friend of mine is interviewing for a new sales job.  Today he received the following instructions for his upcoming interview.  I like this format a lot.  Take a look ...

Instructions to Candidates for "Mock Sales Presentation"

Assignment:  Select a product or service you know well or have sold before.  The product need not be related to our product or industry.  It is best to select a topic that enables you to demonstrate strong product knowledge and confidence.

Prepare a 15-minute presentation intended to educate and convince prospective customers about the benefits of using your product/service.

As part of our selection process, you will deliver a mock sales presentation to an audience of 2-3 members of the Senior Sales Management Team, who will play the role of your prospective customers.

Note:  Please come ready to present.  You will not have time to prepare for this during your visit.

Objective:  This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your skill at presenting product or service information in small group settings.  You will be assessed on your performance in six dimensions:

1. Builds rapport and engages others
2. Demonstrates product knowledge and personal confidence
3. Educates the customer
4. Presents in a focused and succinct manner
5. Effectively handles objections
6. Conveys a professional image

Try to close the deal.

Guidelines:  Your presentation cannot exceed 15 minutes, so carefully select and narrow your topic.  Your presentation will conclude at 15 minutes, whether you are finished or not.  There is no separate Question and Answer period, so you will want to build some time for this into your presentation.  Seek opportunities for give-and-take with your customers rather than a straight presentation.

At a minimum, please provide your audience an agenda for your presentation.  You may use a product sample if demonstration is necessary to your presentation.  You may also prepare and use up to two handouts (e.g., related notes or charts) if you wish.  Other materials, such as flipcharts or professionally printed brochures, are not allowed. You may NOT use Power Point presentations.

My Two Cents:  I'd be interested to see how every candidate who applies for any job would do with this exercise.  At Disney, all employees are called "cast members."  When they clock-in, all employees are "in character."  In a sense, everyone sells.

Would your accounting people know how to cross-sell or up-sell your company's products and services if the occasion arose?  What about your truckers?  All things being equal, wouldn't you rather work for a company that understands the importance of appropriate yet opportunistic selling?

In a tough economy, my money's on the companies that know how to engage the client across every customer touch point.  You know I'm right.  Now ...

Can I get you anything else?

How to Calculate Sales Forecasts

Since your company’s sales are the lifeblood of the business, your ability to credibly forecast sales is critical.  Sure, the math is straightforward, but obtaining the source data can be tricky -- especially in new markets.

This hypothetical example determines the estimated retail sales for a local hardware store.  (Keep this image open as you read the rest of this post.)  As always, there are three primary ways to grow the business:

1. Passively enjoy growth in the overall market (This is the "rising tide floats all ships" effect -- where the pie enlarges for all competitors),
2. Increase the average yearly purchase amount per customer, and ...
3. Steal share from competitors.

Items 1 & 3 relate to customer acquisition.  Item 2 is a share-of-wallet issue.   Notice that a simple 5% increase in market share from 30% to 31.5% increases sales to $143,248.  Yet if all of these variables increases by the same meager 5%, the impact on sales is huge -- bringing the total revenue to $157,930.  That's why every company should engage in both "pie-rearranging" and "pie-enlarging" marketing activities.

Action item: Step through this exercise for your company as well as your top five customers.  Click here to obtain census figures.  Note the search tool that allows visitors to input a specific address to obtain local census figures.  Claritas is also very helpful:  For some high-level demographic information regarding your trade area(s), click the "You Are Where You Live" button on the right hand side of Claritas' homepage.

To obtain industry-specific trade information, visit ASAE's Gateway to Associations for a complete list of associations to contact.  (Select the "Gateway to Associations" option.)  With numbers in hand, ask yourself:

1. Are my company’s sales per customer below the industry average?
2. How quickly is the number of competitors growing in my trade area?
3. Is my market growing or shrinking?

If you don’t know, contact a local chamber of commerce in your trading area.  Click here for the Nationwide Directory of Chambers.  Now, what’s your game plan for dealing with a shrinking or hyper-competitive market?

____________________________________________

Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.