Twitter Updates for 2008-09-20

• Totally geeking out. surrounding by 3 computers, rebuilding a media center, reading up on some SEO and doing a hardware check on old PC. #

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Tight Markets and Great Salespeople: Sales Tests Driving the Real Estate Hiring Process

As the market continues to decline, the pot of potential salespeople grows.  My desk has a stack of resumes of agents that see our products moving (and even a few newbs that want to crack the real estate nut) and want to be a part of the action. Of course, I write a good bit about the demise of the traditional six-percenters, but a majority of my business is in building a marketing and sales machine for whole residential developments in East Tennessee. Here we rely upon the strong skills of our salespeople that is not always transparent in the first interview.

For example, a good friend and renowned sales speaker, Lance, helped me fill a critical gap in our sales process. We were generating a number of leads and passing them off directly to the sales agents, but the sales agents were focused on closing the deals with their current clients and paid little attention to the new leads with long lead cycles.  Lance suggested that we conduct a sales personality profile / test to recruit this person before ever interviewing a person.  We found a few candidates, and we had them take the Craft Profile, but they simply were not a fit.  With their high goal orientation, these candidates differed little from the sales people in the field.

Finally, we found the perfect candidate. She had a high Social Drive, low Goal Orientation, and a high Need to Nurture, which meant that as a telephone marketer, she was going to be incredibly outgoing and she would stay on the phone engaging leads for a very long time ensuring their needs were met–exactly what I was wanting.

After seeing her success on the job, and proving that the personality profile helped us weed through some of the less desirable candidates, we immediately profiled our remaining sales staff.  Based on the results, we reshuffled the deck, moving our salespeople into positions that better suited their strengths. Now, our whole process is running much smoother.

Twitter Updates for 2008-09-19

• Listening to a VOIP guy instruct users on the use. I can feel the drool hit the table in front of them. #
• Thinking that people that concatenate Congratulations and Graduate to Congradulations are stupid. #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-18

• @ryanirelan just because NC is tight, don’t think that you are going to cast that deciding vote. #
• following the lead of @stoweboyd I am totally distracted now and just keep looking at all of the action on my desktop. #
• @dougfloyd that is perhaps the weirdest thing that has distracted me today. #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-17

• Air Sharing may be the coolest iPhone app that I have used. Mount a svr on your PC and drag files directly to the iPhone, um sweet-free now. #
• If web 2.0 applications were whiskey, I’d be sick this morning. #
• Showing off ping.fm. if you haven’t tried it, you don’t know what you are missing. #
• Really appreciating this article by Chris http://ping.fm/MxEC1 #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-16

• Planning my strategies as a farmer. #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-15

• Fully restored. Home and happy. Love to see people connect over the wedding vows. Humanity is good. #
• If you are using Expression Engine, you should visit @ryanirelan on Wednesday for a free chat with the EE Expert (E3) IMHO #
• Knoxville Gas Most Expensive in NATION…http://tinyurl.com/5nyvnu #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-14

• http://twitpic.com/bjz2 sitting @ the daily news cafe in Carlsbad eating waffles and drinking latte. Love the food here. #
• @ryanirelan I am sure that was a hard sell. #
• SAN to PHO to CHL to TYS. Two layovers sucks. #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-13

• getting ready to apply 2.1 to the iPhone. #
• @dgrussell nice to see you on twitter. #

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Twitter Updates for 2008-09-12

• @ryanirelan you have hate in your heart. sp brings a message of love for you. #
• Just cleared security for a 6 am flight-cutting it a bit close. Westward ho! #
• San Diego bound. Have a row to myself, which is good because I am tired of humanity this am. people get bitchy as they age. #
• Sunny California? maybe before I got here. Not so sunny today. #

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