Friday 27 September 2013

Oh, How Sales Has Changed, Or Has It? Have Your Say!


I conducted my first short sales survey back in 2001 around the ‘changing face of sales’ and it and came to the conclusion that a 1970s salesperson was seen as ‘gregarious, loud, a networker’; a 1980’s one was ‘brash, materialistic and a buy low-sell high type’ yet the 2000’s sales professional was ‘a solution provider that was consultative and adds value’!  If I was to run the same survey today I wonder if the sales professional of the two thousand and teenies would be ‘a connecter, a ‘forum maven’ and total tweet’!

The survey I conducted back in the heady days of 2007 was, as you would expect in boom time, tales of high performance, progression and advancing remuneration.  The subsequent survey, in 2009 was a dark mirror in contrast.  Talking to people in business it has been an interesting four years since then; a time of uncertainty and optimism but most of all change. 

It’ll be fascinating to see what stories the 2013 survey springs up and ‘d be really grateful to anyone in a sales led career if they’d take ten minutes out of their day to complete the survey.  Unlike most, I hope anyway; it's thought-provoking and doesn't have any particular agenda other than to  take a snapshot of the UK sales industry to compare  to previous years and indeed against future years. 

It is 60 questions, only five of them mandatory, completely anonymous and securely stored on the servers of one of the biggest survey providers on the planet. 

So please take part in the 2013 survey and HAVE YOUR SAY!


The survey can be accessed here or by visiting: www.survey2013.org


Take Part in the 2013 Sales Survey

LAUNCH OF THE SALES SURVEY 2013.

The world of sales is changing at a faster pace than at any other any time.  We're all LinkedIn to Twitter and utilising our time to achieve sales success in a way unimaginable to sales professionals of just a decade ago.  If we contrast our roles, motivators and core to only four years ago I think we’d all agree that the shift has been huge. 

It’s been four years since we held our last sales survey and it was conducted in the undoubtedly tough times of Summer and Spring 2009.  Now in a market with hints of optimism and a whole heap of new sales and marketing methodologies to add to our sales arsenal, we are launching the survey again to gauge how sales people are truly thinking.


We have partnered with the ISMM and several other sales organisations to invite over 50,000 sales professionals to take part in the 2013 Sales Survey.  Our aim is to get response from over 1000 sales people across all levels thus giving us a true and accurate snapshot of what it is really like to work in sales in 2013.   The research will feature in the autumn / winter edition of the ISMM's Winning Edge magazine and other media.
If you take part in the survey, we’ll send you the results, prior to them being launched to the media, so you can stay up-to-date with what’s happening, what’s winning, what’s important, what’s not, working hours, holidays, money – all sorts.

The confidential and secure survey is authoritative research, and previous survey information has been used by leading business schools such as the University of Portsmouth. It takes around ten to fifteen minutes to complete and of the sixty questions, just five are mandatory.  In past surveys most participants commented on how enjoyable, and thought provoking, they found completing the survey.  The questions are designed to be a mixture of work-related and life-related questions, and we hope that you enjoy completing it.


To thank all entrants we will enter you into a draw to win an ‘ultimate experience’ - a choice of over 100 experiences ranging from a 30 minute 'Tiger Moth' flight to an overnight golf break for two to a racing experience in a Lamborghini.  You will also receive a free ticket to the launch of the survey on October 17th at the Successful Selling Conference 2013, Ricoh Arena, Coventry.  This will be presented by Toby Perkins MP and will take place in Hall 4 adjacent to the main conference.

Access to all of the surveys from the last seven years can be accessed here: http://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/sales_industry_statistics.aspx


Thanks for taking part,



Rob Scott

Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment

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Friday 23 August 2013

It's Tough to Pick the Winners

Getting recruitment right is tough.  We’ve all made ‘bad hires’ at some point in our careers be that the ‘dishonest hire’, the ‘under-performing hire', the ‘culturally wrong hire’ or the plain ‘ineffectual hire’. 
                   
It’s never easy to ‘spot the winners’ but there are management tools out there to help increase your chances of making the right hiring decisions.

Recent research from the CIPD shows that personality profiling is used in just over one-third[i] of recruitment processes.  Aaron Wallis is offering you the chance, at no cost, to investigate refining your own recruitment process by introducing personality questionnaires.Sample Interview Aid Image

Personality questionnaires are designed to strip away the interview facade of potential employees and help you to build a top-performing team.  Our interview profile is a validated and powerful eight-page report that addresses essential traits in the workplace (see image for details of the traits). 

We think you’ll agree that it will provide a clear, simple and easy to follow guide that will help you conduct a structured, more insightful and professional interview.

This is a simple invitation with ‘no strings attached’.  We’d simply like you to sample the Aaron Wallis service so that we can learn more about your business and help get recruitment right for you.

To take advantage of this opportunity and to claim your complimentary interview aid simply click here and complete the short online form.  Within one working day, we will then contact you for a five-minute  consultation to set that up for you.  The resulting report will be delivered straight to your mailbox.

You may wish to take the questionnaire on yourself to see how powerful it can be or perhaps even on a forthcoming interviewee.

So put us to the test and see how Aaron Wallis can help you to ‘spot the winners’. 

We look forward to hearing from you,

P.S. If you’d like us to set up more than one personality questionnaire just let us know.  A link to a sample guide can be found here: http://ittybitty.bz/free-interview-aid

P.P.S. Aaron Wallis offers the most inclusive recruitment service in the UK backed by a 12 month rebate scheme – click here to find out more



[i] Personality questionnaires were used in 35% of recruitment processes in 2011 (down from 44% in 2010) CIPD, A Barometer of HR Trends and Prospects 2011