How to Find Real Talent (Go Beyond the Resume)

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 15, 2011

Resumes are poor predictors of people performance.

“Even the most rigorous interview process and entrance exams can only provide a small snapshot of how a person performs in an organization.” Christopher Collins, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. (in an article in the WSJ about how companies try to lure back former employees.)

Help Wanted

LeadershipIQ found the vast majority of new hires were so-so and almost as many failed

within 6 months in their article:

Companies Are Doing a Lousy Job of Attracting Great Talent

Just a tiny group were “exceptionaL” But if resumes don’t predict the future, what does?

Dan Paulson of InVision Business Development wrote this great post. (We reviewed his new book on company differentiation, Apples to Apples, here.) Learn more about Dan here.

We share a brief except here, but we invite you to read the full article at How to Find Real Talent

By Dan Paulson

Believe it or not, there are still companies that are hiring. As they seek out talent, there might be some things that surprise you. I was reminded of this after viewing a recent article in the Wall Street Journal Small Business (http://on.wsj.com/best_recruits). Our best talent often isn’t the person with the best technical skills. Instead it is the person with the best attitude. (Amen, Dan. Can you find “attitude” on a resume?)

Here are Dan’s recommended steps:

Determine desired behaviors - what would you like the candidate to do (behave)?
Conduct interviews around past experience - not hypothetical. Focus on real activities.
Using assessment tools - one more approach, but don’t rely on it too much. Only use it to validate facts or behaviors
Let them work with you - have them work with your staff for a few days and pay them for their time. Let your staff analyze them.
Look for measurables - look for results. What has this candidate produced?
Establish strong communication - set clear expectations and follow-up. This is an area where most companies fail.

Studies have shown that most new hires are so-so, and a lot fail. But very, very few are exceptional. Dan’s great advice here will help you find exceptional candidates.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the way they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

16 Marketing Terms to Ban Today

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 14, 2011

B2B Demand Generation | 16 Marketing Terms to Dump Now + Bonus

A good friend, Paul Dunay, who writes the popular blog Buzz Marketing for Technology once told me that B2B marketers are in an “Arms Race around Content.” This means that companies are one-upping each other on content.

One of the keys to great b2b lead generation content is to make it engaging for your reader. This means to use terms readers use - not terms your industry uses. But what words are the worst?

The great book, Content Rules by Ann Handley and CC Chapman, had a superb list of words used in BtoB marketing that need to go away. The use of these words is egregious in technology. They drive me nuts!

I share this list below, as well as a bonus list of common mistakes.

Impactful
nonsense word. Try influential or powerful instead.
Leverage
a noun morphed into a verb. Try influence, enhance, rely on or just use.
Learnings
a word for an idea that somehow became plural. Makes no sense.
Synergy
A snazzy word that means nothing. Try cooperation, or help, or join.
Revolutionary
A stairway to the Moon. Overkill. Kill it.
E-mail Blasts
Are you a spammer? Only spammers blast prospective customers. (Unfortunately, the marketing automation software we use has a menu titled “Email Blasts.” I cringe every time I see it.)
Proactive
The opposite of reactive. It’s pompous and should not be used. Try active, anticipate, forestall or foresee.
Drill down
A sin of software firms. Try in-depth or detailed.
30,000 Feet
A high level overview. Doesn’t that sound better?
Incenting/incentising
This smelly one belongs to sales. Try encourage.
Almost any word that ends in -ize
monetize, socialize, etc. As the book says, it sounds like it comes from a robot.
Solution
This is the word used when you cannot explain your product.
Users
Dehumanizing word that strips people of their identity. Why not people, customers, friends?
Any word applied to technology, such as
ping for follow-up
bandwidth for capacity
Offline for not working
Use words that describe what people do
Overused words
Granular
Robust
Strategic
Mashed together words of any kind
Buy-in, mission-critical, value-add, face-time, win-win, low-hanging - can you say bore-ring?

Remember, you are talking to human beings, not robots. Write as if you are meeting on old friend for drinks. The way you talk to her is the way you should talk to prospective buyers.

Your Bonus

Here’s a bonus for you English majors. Common writing mistakes from GlobalCopyWrite. Contact Sarah Michell at http://www.globalcopywriting.com

Public Service Announcement
As a service to anyone interested in evading the ire attached to the usage of these words, I’m providing a list. Use them at your peril. The overriding sentiment about non-word usage is it demonstrates lack of intelligence, education or attention to detail. If these words are appearing in your normal business communications and marketing collateral, my advice is to get rid of them and do it quickly.

The Top Offenders
Two words were submitted repeatedly. Obliterate them from your vocabulary.

incentivise
agreeance

Other non-words peeving the pets
In no particular order:

supposably
ideation
positivity
onboarding
de-train
de-plane
onforward
verbally facilitate
unpacking (as in “unpacking the issues”)
disaggregations
misunderestimated
conversating
embiggened
learnings
irregardless
anonymize
operationalize
Westralia

Errors in Usage
Plenty of people complained about real words being used at the wrong time or in the wrong context.

enormousness vs. enormity
thankyou vs. thank you
round vs. around
penultimate vs. ultimate
hone vs. home
momentary vs. momentarily
phenomena vs. phenomenon

The evergreens in this category:

lose vs. loose
chose vs. choose
there vs. they’re vs. their
its vs. it’s
On contractions, just say them out loud. For instance, on it’s, say “it is” Or on they’re, say “they are” Does that fit in your sentence? If not, use the ones without the apostrophe.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Read my blog on Kindle

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

The top 50 in sales lead management: Whom do you pick to be on the list?

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 11, 2011

Don’t miss your opportunity to vote for your top three candidates to be among the “50 most influential people in sales lead management” in 2011.

Why? Because the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) is closing the polls at Midnight Pacific Time (UTC-8) on Wednesday, November 30th.

Both members and non-members can vote.

So why don’t you click this link to cast your votes right now?

http://salesleadmgmtassn.com/50most2011/top50_vote.htm

Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers is proud to be included among this year’s nominees, and I sure would appreciate your vote.

Thank you.

Find New Customers Fan of the Month - Arthur Germain

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 11, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | Find New Customers Fan of the Month

Each month we recognize a special fan of Find New Customers. This month our fan of the month is none other than Arthur Germain of the Communication Strategy Group.

Arthur is an expert in company messaging and is based on Long Island. He can be reached at agermian at gocsg.com. He is also on Twitter at @arthurgermain.

Why don’t you follow him?

Arthur is a great guy and loyal fan of Find New Customers and our weekly B2B marketing show, Laugh and Learn featuring @fearlesscomp.

Thanks for your support, Arthur. We really appreciate it.

Congratulations on being our Fan of the Month, Arthur!

Who wants to be named fan of the month for December? We’ll also select our Fan of the Year! It can be you if you care for Find New Customers too. Subscribe to this blog, Like us on Facebook or follow Find New Customers on Linkedin.

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“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

Mad Marketing TV premiers in just one week (+ 1 day)!

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 9, 2011

One week from today is the premier of the B2B Marketing show Mad Marketing TV

Ever feel like you’re being pulled in a thousand directions at once? With the various projects and challenges facing marketers today, just figuring out where to start can prove challenging. Add digital and new media tools and you might be wondering how in the world to make sense of it all!

Mad Marketing TV seeks to provide straight forward marketing insights that you can apply to your business today.

Join our guest host, Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers, as he interviews marketing experts and provides constructive business information you can start using now.

The Host of Mad Marketing TV

The sponsor of Mad Marketing TV is Act-On Software - marketing automation software for the Fortune 5,000,000.

The first marketing expert on the first (and second) show is Buyer Persona expert Adele Revella of the Buyer Persona Institute.

You will find the show at Mad Marketing TV on YouTube and www.madmarketing.tv.

—

Tune in every Thursday at 9:00am Pacific and Noon Eastern for a new episode of Mad Marketing TV.

Trust and the Big Lie of Lead Generation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 9, 2011

B2B Lead Generation: Capturing Accurate Information on Forms

Last Friday, someone filled out this form to download content. It’s exactly the theme of this post. People lie.

(By the way, we no longer deliver the content after the form is completed, we email a link to the content. This ensures they use a valid email address.)

First Name : zxzx
Last Name : zxzx
Email (valid corporate email address is required) : [email protected]
Job Title : Sales Leader
Phone # : sdsd
Web Site URL : dsds

Vince Giorgi writes the blog TouchPoint City and he recently wrote a very

provocative post called The Big Lie of Lead Generation.

I wish to comment about it there.

The big lie Vince cites is this.

People put fictitious information on registration forms on your landing pages. Why? They don’t want to opt in to your telemarketing and email campaigns.

More than 1/2 admit to faking phone numbers. When asked why they put in fake information, almost 3 out of 4 cited “Avoid follow-up sales calls or marketing contacts.”

Even IBM screws up. In a recent CMO study, they ask for not only name and email, but phone number, company size, street address and phone number.

I abandoned it and I bet a lot of other people did too. Really dumb move by IBM - asking WAY too much.

What’s the marketing take-away here?

Earn trust and use progressive profiling.

It’s not enough to capture information - a people who don’t trust your company don’t provide accurate information. Your brand is important, people must trust it.

This is why you need a good, frequently updated blog (this blog posts 7 days a week) and to be active on social media - listening and sharing.

Becoming a thought leader and establishing a trusted company, like Find New Customers, (who’s motto is “Always be helping”) is key in getting accurate information.

What do you think? We love comments and our subscribers.

How many leads will you need to make your quota? Use our free calculator.

Please note that our wonderful free “cheat sheet” on lead nurturing “The 7 Keys to Lead Nurturing Success” is a small taste of what you get in our terrific white paper, How to Find New Customers.

Jeff Ogden is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies rapidly grow revenue by transforming how they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or by emailing sales at findnewcustomers.com.

Under Construction

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 8, 2011

This blog is being upgraded this week - from the public service WordPress.com to a hosted platform, WordPress.org. For you this means a better blog with plugins, new templates, new commenting capabillities and much more.

With over 77,000 life-time readers, this is long overdue. Please bear with us on Wednesday and Thursday.

7 Ways to Take Your Webinars to the Next Level

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 8, 2011

B2B Demand Generation | 7 Ways to Take Webinars to the Next Level

If you want to know how to find new customers (click the link for our awesome white paper) for your business, webinars play a key role

Jim Burns

- they’re one of the best ways to create compelling marketing content. But how might they be made much better?

I always love it when we look at something we all know, like webinars, and we think we’re experts - we know it all. But then someone shocks us by using a fresh approach to make them vastly better.

Webinars are a key ingredient in your b2b lead generation and content marketing programs to help you find new customers.

Jim Burns at Avitage has done this with his blog article, 7 Ways to Take Your Webinars to the Next Level.

In most webinars to date (and the Fearless Competitor has done many) you practice and pray — hoping the technology works as advertised. Before the event you email, Tweet and blog about your webinar, attempting to drive up attendance. And you record it to share with your attendees. All with the goal of helping you find new customers. But Avitage has taken a fresh and innovative approach, which I wish to share with the readers of Fearless Competitor.

In his blog article, Jim explains how to pre-produce your webinar, create a 90 second trailer, develop an executive version, create a fully indexed version, build a companion microsite and enable snippets for sales and marketing.These are all great ideas and I hope you check out the article and use Avitage to help you in your next big webinar.

7 Ways to Take Your Webinars to the Next Level

Are you ready to improve your webinars?

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Read my blog on Kindle

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

The top 50 in sales lead management: Whom do you pick to be on the list?

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 7, 2011

Don’t miss your opportunity to vote for your top three candidates to be among the “50 most influential people in sales lead management” in 2011.

Why? Because the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) is closing the polls at Midnight Pacific Time (UTC-8) on Wednesday, November 30th.

Both members and non-members can vote.

So why don’t you click this link to cast your votes right now?

http://salesleadmgmtassn.com/50most2011/top50_vote.htm

Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers is proud to be included among this year’s nominees, and I sure would appreciate your vote.

Thank you.

I’ve seen the future. No, actually I’ve listened and spoken to the future.

Posted by Jeff Ogden on November 7, 2011

As one who has used an iPhone 4S for a couple of weeks, I can declare I see the future. It’s verbal.

Siri is fun and kind of witty. See this example:

Face it, it is much easier to say “Set my alarm for 6:30am” than to touch the clock icon, touch alarm and configure it - hour, minute, tone. Something so easy will undoubtedly become our shared future.

Interfaces have gone through punch cards, keyboards (characters then icons) and touch (iPad, iPhone). The next interface is voice - just like on Star Trek. (Captain Kirk talked to computer.)

Imagine a future where you will say things like:

“Turn on the Dallas Cowboys game.” (On my 80 inch internet connected HD TV)
“Start my car.” (My new 2016 BMW)
“Turn the left front burner on the stove to medium high.” (Our new solar powered range)

Those days are coming — very soon. Siri is an infant wearing a diaper, but it will grow up very quickly and put pressure on every other smartphone maker.

What do you think? Do you agree or differ? We love people who share our content.

Read my blog on Kindle

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy Find New Customers and is a passionate observer of trends. He’s also the host of the B2B marketing show, Mad Marketing TV.

Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the way they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.