Flexible working is making a come back and businesses are realising more and more that the need to be open minded and more flexible when hiring new recruits or trying to retain valuable employees is ever more  important.

Legislative changes in the past and planned for the future, means that employers have to be more open minded, however the demand for skills in a candidate or skills tight market has meant that employers are having to be more competitive when offering employment to high demand individuals.

We have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of skilled, management positions which combine remote working or part-time working with the responsibility of a senior manager. There is also an increase in the number of  fixed term contracts offered to candidates who no longer want to commit to permanent work.

Employees are gradually gaining more and more control of the working conditions they are prepared to commit to and the balance of power is gradually changing.  

In addition technological advances have impacted dramatically on businesses and work is not always seen as something that can be done in the “office”  Work is more about a thing  you do as opposed to a place you go.

Anyone who works in sales understands  that revenue accountability is fundamental  to measuring the success of an individual. This could be divided into new business and existing business. This could include Account Management or revenue retention as well as new / additional revenue

The range of roles within sales & business development are very broad and our database has seen increases in roles for marketing consultancies, online businesses, media and professional services clients. Roles have a risen as a result of the need for businesses to find new revenue in reaction to a tough economy and a change in business culture > Companies may be looking to expand into new geographical markets as a result of client demands, or launch new products into existing clients.

The most common mistake made by people who want to work in sales ; whether they are applying for a role focused on strategic new business development, or they are applying for a role which focuses on account management ; is the lack of information on the cv to outline this.

The job market is much more dynamic and aggressive in many instances, in the sense that businesses cannot afford to get it wrong with their sales people. They are the face of the company and, in the case of new business activity, they are often the reason why a new company will buy into the business. They reflect the style of business in the way they present themselves.

We are surprised at the lack of accountability shown in many of the cvs that we receive in response to an application for a business development role we are handling

As a matter of course clients want to see the following information :

What kind of sales have they been responsible for : new business or account management?

What type of sale: consultative or product?

What revenue was achieved in total?

What were the targets and how did the applicant fare in relation to them? Targets may be linked to revenue and activity.

Sometimes they ask how other people in the team did. to gauge how successful the applicant was in comparison to the department ?

How much revenue they brought in as new business or even how many new clients they brought in?

Where did they get their leads from?

How long was the sales cycle typically (a week , a month , a year)?

The day in the life of a Presentation Scheduler”

By Lorraine Plumb

You never know in the morning if it’s going to be a manic day or run like clockwork.  You can have days and weeks where everything seems to go wrong, commercial, promo and programme changes all seem to come at once so,  the key to pres scheduling is organisation and a slight obsession with stationary is always as a good sign that you have the right mentality.

Most mornings start, after a large coffee processing as runs, looking at over night data and prepping the schedules, so adding all your promos and secondary events in.

The afternoons tend to be timing up schedules and sending them off to TX, making your channel look as strong as you can by placing promos in the strongest part of the schedule. Changes come in at any time and one of the skills is to juggle everything at once and keep on top of things, normally starting with a cup of tea to make a plan of action.  There is a lot of repetition as its one of the few departments that has deadlines everyday that need to be hit so you have to like a bit of predictability but be able to role with all the changes as and when they come in and not crack under the pressure so times it can get pretty hectic.  That’s part of what I like though and I am one of the odd people who loves the challenge of never knowing what the next day can bring.

July 2011

A very volatile week weather wise which seems to have had an impact on everyone’s moods last week. Torrential rain was not expected and a few of our candidates decided to put their job search on hold til after the weekend.

Let’s hope they don’t do it again as i think the weather isn’t forecast to be much better this week .

The job market is still very buoyant with many firms keen to back fill a range of roles very quickly.  The emphasis when looking at cs within the research/ marketing and broadcast team still seems to  focus on stability and longevity with an employer.

Very disappointed not to receive tickets for the Olympics, am sure am not the only one but am definitely going to out my name down for round 2, although messages are very confusing with everyone having a different version of the process.

Anyway job hunting can be a bit less of a gamble if you are clear and about what you want and don’t want and work closely with just one or two consultants in achieving that aim. To choose the right partner in your search ask your consultant  them what they think is the likelihood of finding a suitable role realistically and whether they think it is worth using other resources.

It’s been an up and down few weeks and this is probably because new hiring budgets have kicked in April 2011 and there have been quite a few bank holidays since then. We think the job market is back on track now and much busier however companies are still being extremely picky about who they hire.