Candidates Blog
Tips for Sales Professionals – Interviewing, Resumes, LinkedIn, Job Searching, Negotiating, & more
Why Your Linkedin Profile Picture is Costing you Job Opportunities (and How to Fix it)
Do you know how favorable of a first impression that your Linkedin Profile photo makes? If it’s less than excellent, your Linkedin profile picture is costing you potential career opportunities, and we’ll explain how. We’ll [...]
Interview Follow Up Email Template
What you should include in a follow up email after an interview depends on your situation. The best approach will depend on the company's culture and the feedback you received during the interview. Adding to [...]
4 Zoom Sales Interview Tips
One of the ways our society will be forever changed by the COVID crisis is how we meet. Prior to the crisis, zoom sales interviews were much less common than phone or face-to-face interviews. [...]
3 Advanced Linkedin Profile Tips
Everyone who is anyone in corporate America has a Linkedin Profile. Having viewed hundreds of thousands of them (no exaggeration) over the years, our sales recruiters can share that 80+% of them leave a [...]
2018 Sales Hiring Forecast
With 2017 behind us it’s time to look ahead and project sales hiring for 2018. As there aren’t any specific sales hiring forecasts, each year we build our own by looking at the overall hiring [...]
6 Steps to Prepare for a Job Search
Many sales professionals we work with are shockingly underprepared for a job search. They don’t particularly enjoy the experience and spend as little time as possible on the topic. To help ease the process, we [...]
Can You Answer This Sales Interview Question?
The B2B sales landscape is dramatically more complex than it was even 5 years ago. Buyers are better informed and more sophisticated requiring sales professionals to change their sales approach. Interestingly, sales interview processes [...]
2017 Sales Hiring Forecast
At the start of each calendar year, I look to CareerBuilder, Manpower and Linkedin's hiring forecasts to project sales hiring for the year ahead. For 2017, I reviewed those resources and a few more with [...]
Can Mountain Biking Teach You How to Sell?
(from left, Simon Lawton, Andrew Carges and author - Duthie Hill Park) Early this fall, my friend Andrew Carges and I spent a day with Simon Lawton (the owner and chief instructor of Fluidride) to [...]
3 Ways to Get Noticed by Sales Recruiters
If you ask the average sales recruiter what the number one problem they face each day, their answer will invariably revolve around one thing. Noise. We simply have too much of everything we don’t want [...]
10 Career Tips for Rookie (and Senior) Sales Professionals
In a recent interview Kobe Bryant was asked what advice he would give to his 17-year-old self about money. This led me to think about the career tips I would share with myself when I [...]
Situational Interview Questions for Sales – Advanced Tip
In Sales Situational Interview Questions we cover the basics of how to use the SAR model (Situation, Action and Result) to answer situational interview questions. Should you find yourself interviewing for a life changing sales [...]
5 Sales Interview Basics That Help Get Offers
We’re big believers in preparation at Sales Talent. This is especially the case with interviewing. Done right, it makes it easy for the person on the other side to pick you. As with most things [...]
3 Tips to Land the Best Sales Jobs
Most sales professionals start preparing for an interview right after the interview is scheduled. Stick with me for a minute with this, but that’s far too late. To consistently win the best sales jobs; your [...]
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Sales Interviews – How First Impressions Lead to MishiresSales Interviews – How First Impressions Lead to Mishires
Candidates - Sales Professionals, Employers - Sales Leaders / HR, Evaluating Opportunities, Evaluating Talent, Interviewing, Interviewing, Sales Career Tips, Sales Management Career Tips
Sales Interviews – How First Impressions Lead to Mishires
To a large extent, sales professional and Sales Manager alike place a heavy emphasis on their “first impression” of the other when deciding whether they want to work together. Evidence of this is the frequency [...]
3 Dumb Ways to Get a Job Offer Rescinded
Until a job offer is signed and the background check comes back clear, you are at risk of having your job offer rescinded. Although this isn’t common, we do see sales professionals lose an opportunity [...]
Sales Resume Guide – 4 Things to Leave Off of Your Resume
Research shows that the average recruiter spends less than 6 seconds scanning a resume before making a “fit / no fit” decision. Six seconds! The takeaway from this research is clear. Avoid anything that makes [...]
Does Micromanaging Sales Reps Cause Turnover?
A common complaint I hear from sales professionals is how much they hate being micromanaged. It’s often a main driver compelling them to look for a new sales job. It seems intuitive that micromanaging sales [...]
The Classy Resignation – 4 Tips
About a year ago, one of our senior recruiters decided to move onto greener pastures after four extremely productive years with Sales Talent. For a company of our size, this constituted a huge loss. Despite [...]
Steve Young on How to Reinvent Your Career
I’ve written before about Once In a Lifetime opportunities that my membership in EO has afforded me. On October 17th, 2013 I experienced one of the bigger ones - meeting Super Bowl MVP, 2x NFL [...]
How to Stay Positive During a Job Search
At some point in our sales careers most of us have found ourselves out of work or out of love with our sales job. The psychology of this situation is 180 from the good vibes [...]
How to Win the Phone Sales Interview
When I am vetting and trying to select elite sales talent I start the process at 50,000 feet and work down. I prefer to start this process with a phone interview and recommend that my [...]
One Trait ALL Top Sales Reps Possess
I’ve read article after article written by “experts” that promote the ONE question they ask or the ONE trait top sales reps possess that will ensure hiring success. Many of these approaches do correlate with [...]
Sales Career Mistakes – 3 Big Preventable Ones
Almost all professionals’ careers are full of solid choices and regrettable mistakes. Just how successful your career will end up will be a function of hard work, luck and learning from mistakes. Fortunately, the wise [...]
2016 Sales Hiring Forecasts
At the start of every year I look at what I consider to be the 3 most credible sales hiring forecasters (2016 Reports - CareerBuilder, Linkedin and Manpower) to project the year ahead. As each [...]
Do You Have a Sales Career Plan Mapped Out?
Early on in my sales career I had exactly three goals that I wanted to achieve before 30: earn six figures, get promoted and buy my first house. Although I had clearly defined “career goals”, [...]
6 Fatal Sales Interview Mistakes
Recently one of my clients passed on the strongest candidate that they interviewed due to a very preventable sales interview mistake he committed. The candidate simply failed to send a follow-up email after the interview. [...]
Aron Ralston – Life and Career Lessons
(Aron and myself, Denver, CO) Two weeks ago, I found myself seated next to Aron Ralston for lunch. Aron is the remarkable man who famously cut his right forearm off with a dull pocketknife to [...]
Lance Armstrong – Career Management Lessons
This past Friday Lance Armstrong appeared before 300 fellow entrepreneurs and myself for a one hour, no-holds barred Q&A. Earlier that day, about 15 of us had the opportunity to join him for an early [...]
How to Leave a Fantastic Interview First Impression (HBR Research)
The January 2015 Harvard Business Review article - Managing Yourself - A Second Chance to Make the Right Impression - shares the science and the thought processes that go into how first impressions are made. [...]
Haven’t Interviewed in a Few Years?
Sometimes my job as a recruiter feels a lot like that of a career counselor. Case in point, working with candidates that haven’t interviewed in years. These candidates often have a big case of the [...]
Three Tips That Show How to Reduce Sales Force Turnover
Given the high cost of replacing a sales professional it never ceases to amaze me how little focus is placed on getting the hiring process right. A major ingredient in an effective hiring process is [...]
The Most Important Part of an Effective Sales Presentation
Despite hours of preparation I often find myself feeling anxious the day before a big presentation. Did I include the right information? Should I take out slide 7? Is my message on point? I know this [...]
Why You Must Send Follow Up Emails After an Interview
I find it remarkable how little effort many candidates put into a career search. In my view, if it’s worth the time it takes to prepare for, drive to and interview with a potential employer, [...]
Does a College GPA Matter in Sales?
In Glassdoor’s Annual “Employee’s Choice Awards 2015” Google came out as the #1 Best Place to Work in the U.S for employers with 5,000+ employees. Because of this, Google finds itself in the driver’s seat when [...]
Do College Degrees Matter in Sales?
The subject of whether having a college degree is correlated with success in B2B is a hotly debated topic. Unfortunately, there is a lack of reliable data to settle the question. What isn’t lacking is [...]
How to Get Your Voice Messages Returned
One of the key skills in sales is the ability to break into an account. This holds true whether we are talking about prospecting to new accounts or penetrating deeper into existing accounts. And yet [...]
Cover Letters – 3 Reasons They are Dead and the 1 Exception to That Rule
A recent email I received from a job applicant prompted me to write this post. In this email, the job applicant wrote “I applied to a job but it appears that my cover letter didn’t [...]
Floyd Mayweather Can Teach You About Career Management
Let me begin by sharing that I flatly reject Floyd’s treatment of women. He has shown abhorrent behavior which should have put him behind bars. But this blog isn’t about Floyd the human, it’s about [...]
5 Ways to Determine if a Recruiter Has Your Best Interests in Mind
I believe that every sales professional’s worst nightmare is ending up a mis-hire. That fear prevents many from even listening to a recruiter. Rather than miss out on a career changing position, I’d like to [...]
You’re Really Asking Me For My W-2’s?
As a rule, we ask candidates for their w-2s. Without question, this is the request we receive the most pushback from candidates on. If we were recruiting for roles outside of sales, I would agree [...]
How to Negotiate a Job Offer
Negotiating a Job Offer can be the most tense part of a job search. Having watched the process unfold literally hundreds of times I wanted to share a few tips to help you achieve the [...]
Starting Your Search for a New Sales Position? Here’s 6 Must Dos.
Perhaps you’re considering following through on your New Year’s Resolution to find a new, better sales position. Before you jump in, heed the 2nd habit from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits and “Begin with the end [...]
2015 Sales Hiring Forecast
The 2015 sales hiring forecast points towards a great year for sales professionals looking for a new sales role and a frustrating one for companies trying to hire them. Based on annual hiring surveys, both [...]
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Perfecting Your LinkedIn Brand to Hire, Get Hired or Sell More (Part 2)Perfecting Your LinkedIn Brand to Hire, Get Hired or Sell More (Part 2)
Attracting Talent, Candidates - Sales Professionals, Employers - Sales Leaders / HR, General Business, Interviewing, Sales Career Tips, Sales Management Career Tips, Sales Tips
Perfecting Your LinkedIn Brand to Hire, Get Hired or Sell More (Part 2)
This week’s blog will wrap up our 2 part series on LinkedIn Branding. In Part 1 I shared 5 Goals for your LinkedIn Profile or Company Page. In Part 2 below, I’ll delve into how [...]
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How to Use LinkedIn to Hire, Get Hired or Sell More (Part 1)How to Use LinkedIn to Hire, Get Hired or Sell More (Part 1)
Attracting Talent, Candidates - Sales Professionals, Employers - Sales Leaders / HR, General Business, Interviewing, Interviewing, Sales Career Tips, Sales Management Career Tips, Sales Tips
How to Use LinkedIn to Hire, Get Hired or Sell More (Part 1)
With the New Year upon us it’s time to get to work on our resolutions. According to most polls the top 2 resolutions are to get in shape and get a new job. To that [...]
How to Explain a Blemish in Your Background During an Interview
Some of us have a mistake or blip in our background which invariably will come up during an interview process. A DUI 6 years ago? 7 month employment gap? One year below quota? One of [...]
How to Prepare for a Sales Interview
If you are interviewing for a sales position that is a step up from your current one you'll likely face competition that is already selling at this level. Separating yourself from the field and winning [...]
The #1 Reason Why Candidates Get Rejected in a Sales Interview (and What to do About It)
Having conducted literally thousands of interview debriefs with hiring managers, I can confidently say that there is a #1 reason why interviewees get passed on. They simply talk too much. This is sales 101 stuff, [...]
How (and Why) to Use a Brag Book During a Sales Interview
If a sales opportunity is good enough to interview for, it’s good enough to put in the proper effort to win the position. Separating yourself from your competition during the interview process has multiple steps [...]
Career Tips for Sales Leaders & Professionals
My name is Chris Carlson and I’m the founder and President of Sales Talent. This blog grew out of my desire to document and share what I’ve learned in my two plus decades of sales recruiting and leading Sales Talent.
We post a new blog once a quarter on the 3rd Thursday of every January, April, July and Oct. These posts are aimed at sales professionals and leaders that speaks to talent selection, team building, or career advancement. If you have a topic that you’d like my take on, please reach out to me.
You can find Chris Carlson on LinkedIn or contact him directly at:
[email protected].