Ken Sundheim

 

Contrary to popular belief, technology in many ways has made it harder for any business owner or sales professional to sell. The competitive landscape in many industry verticals has risen mainly due to the rise in popularity of the mass emailing system which essentially can turn any company into a commodity competing against 100 other firms for the same clientele.

 

Unless the business owner or sales representative differentiates him or herself from the competition, they are going to get caught in a pricing war that will squeeze margins and lengthen sales cycles. That is, if they get a response at all.

 

Here are 3 sales tips on how to make more money, mitigate the odds of your business becoming a commodity and to gain a competitive advantage in your industry:

 

1. Determine What is Different About Your Offering – Upon approaching potential customers, determine what is…

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How to Spot a Reputable Headhunter

by Alison Ringo

There are plenty of executive headhunter firms out there who work strictly by the numbers. The more job applicants they can churn out for a particular job, eventually one will fit the bill. If they end up wasting countless hours of people’s time in the search for that one, so be it.
 

Understandably, firms that work this way frustrate job seekers. Unfortunately, some of those frustrated job seekers go into all interactions with headhunters assuming the worst.
 

There are a few things you can look out for to tell whether a recruiting firm is worth working with, from the job seeker’s perspective.
 
 

Hiring Companies Pay the Fees – At least twice a day we’re asked what our fee is… by job seekers. It should go without saying, but somehow it still doesn’t: The recruiting firm’s fee should be paid by the hiring party, not the applicant.
 

Some job seekers have the impression that a recruiter will work harder to find them the right job if the recruiter is taking their money. But this isn’t how hiring works. A recruiter cannot magic a good job into existence for an individual job seeker.
 
 

The Firm Has a Specialty Focus – As a job seeker, your best bet in finding the right headhunter for you is looking for one who specializes in either your discipline or your industry.
 

For instance, we concentrate only on sales, marketing, and related media so we can make expert-level recommendations to both the hiring client and the job seekers. We are not CPAs, so we wouldn’t feel ethical advising on the best match for accounting positions. With insiders’ perspectives on all things business development, we only make placements we understand and stand behind.
 
 

You’re Not Interacting With a Secret Agent – Recently we interviewed a candidate with a specific position in mind, only to learn that another headhunter had submitted his resume to the same company, without his prior approval, and without identifying the firm to him. How is an applicant supposed to properly prepare for an interview without even the company website?
 

We hear stories of headhunters sending people in to interviews with only an address and a time – not even sharing the hiring company’s name, lest the job seeker share the info with someone and the headhunter lose out on a finder’s fee.
 
 

There are disreputable headhunting firms out there, but they’re easier to spot than you think. When making contact with a recruiter for the first time, keep an eye out for the above three things and you’re likely to see that you’re simply working with a fellow professional.
 

How KAS Placement Was Started As A Company
Executive Level Questions To Ask On a 2nd Interview
Ladies: Dressing to Interview Post-Power Suit
 

3 Things I Thought I Would Never Have to Do to Get My Business Off the Ground

I feel that the biggest difference between successful entrepreneurs and the ones who blog about their business all day (me being the latter) is not intelligence nor dedication: it’s the willingness to put yourself out there via focusing on achieving a goal and doing everything possible to achieve it.

This perseverance, which eventually turns into resiliency (a key component of business success), comes about despite the fact that I would put myself in situations that were above my head, but somehow managed to swim, since I considered it my only option (another necessity for successful entrepreneurial endeavors)….continued 3 Things I Thought I Would Never Have to Do to Get My Business Off the Ground

 

Video Understanding How Recruiters Work

 

 
 
 

Ken Sundheim – Different Jobs I’d Pursue If I Wanted a Rewarding Job

Video Ken Sundheim on the Different Jobs that Employees and Job Seekers Should Hunt For

Ken Sundheim on Twitter

From Stem Cells to Sermons Why Eric Cartman Defines Entrepreneurship

Emulating Eric Cartman on Business

Fat, foul-mouthed, racist? call him what you want, but Eric Cartman is, without doubt, an entrepreneur.

What traits make the young Colorado inhabitant both so lovable and so entrepreneurial?

Here is where Cartman excels where most entrepreneurs fall short:

Cartman is no stranger to hitting the phones and making the sale.

To some, the term cold calling is a bad word that amounts to unfocused marketing in order to blindly sell a product. Not so to Eric Cartman, who focuses on its positive aspect and knows that sometimes you have to hit the phones to get the word out regarding your newest product…

Article Continued: From Stem Cells to Sermons Why Eric Cartman Defines Entrepreneurship

 

Headhunters New York City, Recruiters New York City, Recruiting Firms New York, Headhunter New York, NY

Staffing Agencies San Francisco Recruitment Firms San Francisco

Sales Recruiters Seattle, Marketing Headhunters Seattle, Seattle Headhunters

5 Interviewing Dilemmas and How to Breeze Right Past Them

Many job seekers have similar problems that hinder their job search and push back their career progress.

Funny enough, the main deterrent that prevents people from achieving the results they desire from their job search is self-fulfilling: Paranoia that they will not get a job coupled with a steeply declining level of self-confidence can be a vicious circle.

Here are some common situations that lead to a rough job search. These challenges are mentally wearing on even the toughest personalities. Along with the problems, I’ve proposed logical, proven solutions.

1. Potential employee has been out of work for 3+ months

The top mistake that job seekers make when they are out of work and it kills me inside is that they don’t spend the time bettering themselves. Job seekers with big employment gaps don’t necessarily need big resume gaps. Just because they aren’t working doesn’t mean they can’t be doing something resume-worthy.

When laid off or fired, job seekers should take a week or two to do some research to narrow down the field they wish to be in. Keep one or two backup fields for risk management measures.

Job seekers need to take the 8-10 hours a day that they would be working and put it into learning everything there is to know about their target fields. Then, when asked questions such as, “Have you used x software?” they can answer, “Ten hours a day for the last 70 days.”

Industry jargon is huge both on the resume and during the interviews…

Article Continued: 5 Interviewing Dilemmas and How to Breeze Right Past Them

SEO Recruitment, SEO Recruiter, Recruiting Search Engine Optimization

Marketing Recruiters Pittsburg Headhunters

Sales Recruiters Denver Headhunters

3 Variables That Can Fluctuate What Compensation You Are Offered

3 Variables That Can Fluctuate What Compensation You Are Offered.

via 3 Variables That Can Fluctuate What Compensation You Are Offered.

Ken Sundheim’s Blog is KenSundheim.com

Ken Sundheim discusses KAS Placement executive search and recruiting firm. Ken is the founder and CEO of the company.

What You Need to Be a 10 / 10 Sales Rep.

Not every sales professional born with the gift of gab becomes an all-star at business development, however just about every all-star at sales and business was born with a knack for carrying an engaging conversation with people from all walks of life.

This is not to say that someone who was not born with this skill cannot become an 8 or 9 / 10 with a great deal of practice, but in sales and people oriented jobs, the 10′s will make proportionally far more money than an 8 or 9.

When one analyzes the differences between two inherently gifted people oriented individuals who end up being a 10 and 7 in sales and business, there is one monumental differentiator:

An acquired, acute knowledge of business which turns one into a 10 while the 7 remains stagnant in his or her career never getting out of the sales pit to transition to the C-level jobs.

A 10 sales and business professional knows what makes companies money (on a macro and micro level) regardless of industry. This knowledge allows him or her to understand how each employee thinks and behaves within any given organization and can use his gift of gab to be a chameleon, alter his or her speech and gain enough trust within a company to land deals that 7′s could only image getting past the RFP stage.

Read the rest of What You Need to Be a 10 / 10 Sales Representative

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement Executive Search and Staffing Agency a recruitment firm helping job seekers throughout the U.S. including Boston Headhunters, DC Recruiting Firms.

The search agency was started in 2005.

Being Recruited at a Small vs. Large Company

There are vast differences between working at a larger organization and a smaller, more entrepreneurial firm. Just like anything else in both employment and life, each has its pros and cons.

Here are a couple of each when you choose to work at a larger, more established firm.

– Pro: Formalized Training:

For those who are just entering their career, taking a job at a larger company may be a good bet, in that larger firms typically hold more formalized trainings. Smaller companies sometimes overlook the importance of hands-on employee training.

This is not always a rule of thumb, however many small companies lack the resources and time to provide training sessions, which often assist the employees in the firm when executing their daily tasks.

– Con: Bureaucracy

Although unwieldy bureaucracy is not exclusive to larger companies, many bigger firms carry this less than ideal setup. An overly complex internal bureaucracy often does not bode well for employees who are less savvy at interpersonal politics.

Many employees at larger firms will wait years and years prior to even getting the smallest of promotions. Worse, some will wait and consistently get passed over.

As a job seeker, what is one of the best ways to gauge how bureaucratic a company is? Find out how long certain individuals have been at their particular roles. Remember that there is usually a direct relationship between number of years each employee has been at their current role and the ease of advancement within the organization.

– Pro: Name Recognition

Read the rest of Working at Small vs. Large Company

KAS is a recruiting firm SEO recruitment, SEM headhunters NYC, SEM Recruiter Los Angeles and Chicago helping job seekers throughout the U.S. including Chicago Headhunter Marketing, Media Headhunters in Chicago, IL as well as New York executive Search and executive recruitment in NYC

Consultative Selling Part 1

Sales Recruiting, Job Search Headhunters

In the business development / sales world, an abundance of individuals toss the all too commonly used phrase “consultative selling” around as if it were a slang word simply referring to “people who can produce.” Frequently, you hear sales managers bark phrases such as, “We want a sales representative with a consultative approach,” or “Our sales team has a consultative selling motto.” Sadly, in a large amount companies, slang is what the term remains both currently and in the foreseeable future. That is, until it is changes.

When you take a look deeper and attempt to solve the aforementioned slang to definition issue, you will soon find that people who know how to implement and execute a consultative selling technique with proper closing strategies are easier to locate and change the current status of an office. Through the below explanations, examples and descriptions, we can uncover as to what true consultative selling is and look beyond the rudimentary description as the “opposite of an overly aggressive sales approach.”

Consultative Selling Is Not The “Sweet Talk”

Some people are natural salesmen and saleswomen. It is in my strong opinion that you can only teach some sales and the aforementioned are easiest to mold. However, the biggest hindrance that prevents these “naturals” from becoming great is that they rely on their natural gift of gab. It’s almost as if a youth football coach sees a youngster with a great arm, but has to tweak his grip on the ball.

While the inherent ability to persuade propels them above many others in the office, they never really get the job done. The smooth talkers are like robots. As soon as somebody calls, they automatically switch on and give a nicely flowing, intelligently sounding pitch. Their pitch is so down that they cannot vary or have agility when given objections. They rely on average.

This is not consultative selling. It is often considered to be, but is far from it. Throughout the initial conversation with a new client, the consultative sales expert should be asking more questions and speaking less.

Then, once the prospect is done conveying their needs, the consultative sales expert leverages those needs to show off his or her expertise and solves the client’s problem nearly all of the time. Robots, as good as they are, are yet to replace human beings and somebody who knows how to actually sell can run laps around them.

Consultative Selling is About Research and More Research

At this point, basic knowledge of consultative selling is set, thus allowing us to graduate from our first definition of “opposite of an overly aggressive sales approach.” Going forward, let’s define consultative selling as the ability to uncover a client’s problem(s), then be able to come up with intelligent, effective and creative solutions to help the client and generate revenue for the company. Well, it is quite hard to come up with effective solutions unless you know what the client does. Agree?

Conversely, it is very hard for the sales professional to do research on every firm as they never know who will call in, but if done “on the fly,” the consultative seller will ask the right questions and learn the ins and outs of that particular company. Just like in life, not everything in sales is perfect, but this is where the inherent sales skills and intelligence give the sales professional enough backup until full clarity is reached.

However, the best salesmen and saleswomen, prior to throwing out quotes or going into their pitch, will ask the right questions to learn about the industry. Without this knowledge, a true consultative sales call and, subsequent sales close cannot be effectively implemented on a frequent basis.

On the flip side, if the sales representative is making outbound calls, to be effective and really adhere to the rules of consultative selling, that individual is going to have to do hours of research. Consultative selling experts understand and embrace that, more often than a sales person would think, people do not buy on price. Instead, they buy on expertise. The best sales professionals are the ones that implement consultative selling techniques, and consultative selling techniques can only be implemented after hours of company research.

Therefore, the consultative seller, instead of making complete cold calls to the masses, hones in on certain targets, leverages their knowledge and expertise, establishes the right relationships and closes the deals that matter in the long run. No true consultative selling expert goes for the quick sale. They go for the relationship.

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