Working for a PLC during my early thirties I landed my first role in managing a sales team. I’d been with a company they acquired, had a good track record of hitting my numbers and delivering new name accounts. That seemed to qualify me as the logical candidate to take on the leadership role. Ah… that common fallacy that a good salesperson will make a good sales manager!

No interview, no assessment just a new title, a pay rise and a much, much bigger number to deliver…. oh and a team of around 20 sales people to lead. Bring it on I thought, I’m sure I’ll do a great job. Continue Reading

Recruiting and retaining good sales people is part and parcel of driving revenue. Managing and motivating them takes experience, dedication and energy. Even when your sales team is happy it’s inevitable some of them will want to move on. More money, different products, a management position. Changes to the status quo can also makesales people review their positions. Either way, at some point, you’re going to need to replace them and recruitment mistakes can be very costly

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Online recruitment is a  numbers driven fickle, fickle world. How many of you have seen a position you’re well qualified for, registered, uploaded, ignored the ‘due to high number of applications’ message and ten minutes later got a call from an enthusiastic sounding recruiter? If you’re lucky you will have got through to an interview before your recruiter went on radio silence. Often, the optimistic chat about how good a candidate you are is the first and the last interaction you’ll have.  The reason you’re not getting great job opportunities isn’t you, it’s your job seeking strategy. Continue Reading

What makes someone a great sales person? It’s a question we’re asked a lot by clients.While there is no definitive answer to the question there are personality traits we see in a lot of Kingman Lennox candidates. Inquisitive is one,some might call it plain nosey. There is a driving need for information and knowledge, a die hard interest in learning how dots are connected.They need to understand situations and business politics, how it all works. Goal oriented is another. Could be a sales target, a meeting with a certain CEO, or sitting in a chair on the board. There is always a goal and there isalways a plan in the making, working out ways to reach it. Contrary to popular belief, not every salesperson is gregarious. Their success is often based on their clients’ respecting their views and accepting their leadership. Personality traits aren’t the only thing great sales people have in common. At the end of the day character will take you so far. The rest is an approach to work that gets results. After a quick pow wow with the Kingman Lennox team we agreed on five of the ways good sales people get really good.

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Myself and the team at Kingman Lennox like the start of a New Year. December is a frantic push to get interviews scheduled before our clients are on their Christmas breaks. January, February is a month for setting out on the path we’ve mapped out at our end of year review with the energy that comes from recharged batteries and a new year optimism.

When we started Kingman Lennox we knew our biggest challenge would be attracting the calibre of candidate we wanted – consummate sales professionals. Great sales & business development people are always hard to find and businesses with great sales people are eager to hang on to them. Equally, successful sales people can understandably be reticent about taking a chance on new businesses. We had a strong client base, there were jobs we were looking to fill, we needed the right people to fit them.To attract the candidates we want to build our reputation on, we worked on the way we ran our recruitment business. We focused on selling ourselves to candidates. As with any industry there’s no shortage of stories about unethical recruitment practices.Non existent vacancies, references being used for leads, commission driven pressure, recruiters lack of knowledge about the target industry. We wanted to be chosen by top class sales people so we had to step up and deliver a service that stood out.

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Many, if not most, recruiters will say that candidates are their life-blood, therefore it’s extraordinary just how often we hear complaints from candidates about the very poor level of service they have received from other recruitment agencies.

At Kingman Lennox we pride ourselves on providing a truly exceptional level of service to our candidates.  We place genuine value on each and every candidate relationship and aim to build a relationship that lasts throughout your career.

With that in mind we have pulled together a basic guideline to follow to ensure that you get the most from your relationship with Kingman Lennox, and therefore ensure that we are advising you on the best opportunities and opening doors with prospective employers. Continue Reading

In the 1980’s, industrial psychologist Dr. Tom Janz introduced a method of interviewing called the “Behavioral Interview.” Research shows that this interviewing style is extremely effective, and as such, it has rapidly increased in popularity. The premise is that the best predictor of future behavior is your past behavior.

Whether you are a candidate looking for your next career move, or a hiring manager looking to recruit a key player, it is important to know how to accurately prepare for answering behavioral questions. This guide is designed to give you the basic structure for answering these increasingly common interview questions. Continue Reading