Enter Alexander The Great, or maybe not

I recently discovered something called "The Alexander Technique." Here's the quick backgrounder: In the late nineteenth century, European theater actor F.M. Alexander suddenly lost his voice. He would rest for a few days, regain his voice, and then without explanation, lose it again. No one could figure it out. Since he was an actor, if he couldn't speak or sing, his career would pretty much be over. But he wasn't having any part of ending his career. Thus, Alexander began experimenting with body movement, body positioning, neck positioning, and relaxation. He went on to solve his own problem - got his voice back, and in turn, invented a technique for efficient body movement which is now used by musicians, singers, actors, orators, and yes, salespeople and recruiters. Practitioners of the "A.T." as it's sometimes called, say one must take dozens of lessons to fully learn how the system works. I'm not so sure I'll go that far. Right now I'm reading a book on the subject and I'm watching YouTube videos. I've begun practicing head positioning which is alleged to improve one's vocal delivery capabilities. Meaning, I'm working on my posture with the hope that it makes me a better speaker when it comes to my job and pretty much my life. So far, I can say with genuine confidence that I notice a difference in how I walk, how I sit, and how I feel when I use my voice. Whether or not it actually has any lasting performance improving effect will be a different story. I'll report back in a couple of weeks.

Note-to-self: only the first cold-call is difficult

I'm always flummoxed at how starting a round of cold-calls seems so bone-chilling - key term, "starting." Once you get in to the grove, which is right about the time you make your second "dial" the discomfort that comes with cold-calling quickly goes away and is replaced with genuine confidence. I probably need to do some neuro-linguistic self-programming so that when I build my call list I'm stimulated to positive responses.

I suppose it helps that I've been making these calls for several years now and I know how to properly conduct them. I recall early in my career that the very idea of cold-call activity was utterly crippling. Not so much these days.

I only get exposed to others making cold calls once in a great while. When I do get to listen to them - or be on the receiving end of a cold-call, I get so excited at the prospects of having a front-row seat. But, the problem with that is what psychologists call the Hawthorne Effect. That's when people behave differently when they know someone else is observing them. The reason I mention this is because when I get to witness others cold-calling, I'm convinced that Hawthorne prevents me from seeing the real thing. And, the variety I do get to see is usually very mediocre. So, I give people an automatic 10% advantage. Still, most people stink at it and have no interest in getting better. And, most get stuck on making the very first call.

So, with this rant soon to be published, I can now resume my task. Good day...happy calling. It only stings on the first one.

Note to self - only the first call is difficult. The rest...eh...easy.

Opportunities Update

Opportunity Update: 5/18/2010

Recruiter Todd Rogers, in his expanding effort to leverage this SEO internet marketing publishes his opportunity updates.

Currently Todd Rogers has the following opportunities he is endeavoring to fill:

Management Consultant (1 East & 1 West Coast)
Who: Client is a provider of services relating to customer optimization and experiential performance. Translation: They teach Fortune-1000 senior executives how to build and deploy a voice-of-the-customer strategy. Client traces its heritage to tier-1 management consulting firms. Client’s financials look very stable, employ fewer than five hundred.
What: This is the lead fulfillment management consultant who enables client senior executives to implement aforementioned program strategy.
Who: Who will this client want to meet with? Tier-one and tier-two MBA graduates with pre-business-school strategy experience. Current management consultants with reputable firm.
Why leave your job for this job: Probably less travel. Stabilize your career. To be part of a revolutionizing of the customer-strategy business.
Where: One opportunity is on the East Coast, near any major metro; one opportunity MUST be in the Bay Area.

Clinical Trial Sales Executive
Who: Client provides a highly efficient integration service to clinical trial sites and sponsors. Client invested his time figuring out the HOW as opposed to the WHAT that moves compounds forward. No one else is doing it and this job is the person who gets to sell it.
What: Prospect-capable Phase-one account executive – someone who knows the people and the circumstances of Phase-one trials
Who: See above – must know Phase-one, must know how to sell.
Why leave your job for this job? This company has a magic-bullet and no one else is doing anything even close.
Where: Upper east coast or RDU

Todd Rogers is a professional recruiter. Discussions with him are confidential. I’m not going to ask you to leave your job; not today, not tomorrow. You’ll have to decide to do that for yourself. I’ll simply provide access to relevant opportunities, ask you some thought provoking questions, and then give you time to consider whether or not you want to do to the next step.

If you want to learn more, check out Linked-In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/toddhrog

The SEO Experiment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Todd Rogers Recruiter has updated his Google Profile. Upon clicking, viewers are treated to a brief expose on Todd Rogers Recruiter, where he grew up, where he’s lived, and a definitive answer to the questions Why did Todd Rogers call me, where is the 317 area code, and is 773 a secret code?

“I leave a lot of voicemails and messages for people – cold calls actually, and people want to know who I am. With this new update they can do more than visit my Linked In page – toddhrog – they can actually learn that I’m NOT the other Todd Rogers you saw on T.V. I also don’t spell my name Todd Rodgers.”

Rogers says some people don’t call back for a number of reasons and that this Google Profile and Linked In page assuage a lot of those initial concerns. “People are working longer hours and are fearful that they might be the next person to get laid off. A combination of fatigue, fear, and not wanting to have their arm twisted is the difference between getting a call returned and remaining strangers,” he adds. Now people can see his wit and banter and know well in advance that he’s one of the good guys.

About Todd Rogers – Todd Rogers is a professional recruiter based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. He works with select clients in clinical trials and management consulting, among other disciplines. To the job seeker, he charges nothing. To the hiring company, his fees are reasonable and equitable.
Find him on the web by clicking http://www.google.com/profiles/toddhrog or www.linkedin.com/in/toddhrog

Even sales people dislike sales people..that's why

Today on the telephone a candidate said something that's probably been said a gazillion times: I don't necessarily hate salespeople but I really don't understand why they're here. He wasn't being impolite (given that a large part of my job is sales) he was just telling me matter of factly that in his view, a reasonably good technician - someone who's a do-er - should be good enough to get the sales done without the need of a dedicated person whose job it is to promote a good or service. I had a private answer at the time but it really wasn't necessary to share it at the time. But I've thought more about it and have an even better answer: even a lot of sales people dislike or don't see the need for sales people, which is precisely why we need dedicated sales people. Eww, ahhh, not to sound prophetic but it's true. Imagine a sales person saying, I know how to do that job, just let me make a few more calls and then I'll hurry up and install that database, or fix that gadget, or do your taxes...you name it. People are in love with whatever means they happen to be using at almost any given time. Sales-trainers say it all the time: your number one competitor isn't the other company in your industry that's eating up your market share. Your number one competitor is the status-quo. Whatever is demanding the time of the potential buyer is your competition; whatever your prospect is currently doing as an alternative to using your solution is your competition. If there isn't someone who's knocking at the door offering a better/cheaper/faster way of doing whatever it is that you're doing, then someone else will. Such is the life of the person in the influence business - for every available second that you're not out selling, you're leaving the door wide open for the competition to more deeply entrench its self, OR for the competition to drop on by just to say hello and see how things have been going. That's one of the reasons why I dislike sales people - just when things seem to be going well, and I've become the status-quo, some pesky sales person comes along and tries to encroach on my territory. HOW DARE THEY!!! I deplore, as I'm busy encroaching on some unsuspecting sales person's prized status-quo.

Good discussions are a performance art

I spend quite a bit of time on the phone. I call perfect strangers, introduce myself to them, and the attempt to gain enough rapport that they will listen and engage in a meaningful career discussion with me. It's a cold call. I've made enough failed calls and enough successful ones that I'm kind of good at them. I can typically have more calls go in a positive direction than I can in a not-positive direction.
Early On
At first I thought it was mostly luck (or lucky timing) that was the primary factor determining whether or not a call would go well. I ran with this notion for quite a while. My odds came out at the fifty-fifty mark. Eventually I gained more confidence (as it was a little lean in the beginning) and I got a little better odds.
Break-through one
As written in an earlier post, I discovered that there are narrative patterns that can be used to project information in a way that is very harmonious with a listener's existing thinking. Tell a good story that is formed a specific way and operates within prescribed boundaries and the people on the receiving end will tune in more deeply and will also resist the desire to return to their pesky TO-DO list.
Break-through two
Linguistic patterns are easily observable and easily employable. Just pay close attention to the predicates that people use. The predicates are indicative to how a person engages the world.
Break-through three - happening at this moment
Discussions are a performance art. George Clooney, for all his political blabber, is astonishing at delivering his lines. Just listen to HOW he says the things he says. His tone, his meter, his pitch and inflection - they all combine to make listening to him seem that much more entertaining. I've gotten in the habit of leaving myself voice mails from time to time so that I can hear how I sound. I'm considereing buying a digital recorder so that I can occasionally record myself and practive at delivery. It's a performance art and practice makes perfect.

Why is it that so few can say it?

I'm continually amazed at how people, when asked, simply can't tell a story about themselves. It seems to me that everyone - EVERYONE - enjoys a story to one degree or another. It also seems that the most charismatic people I've met have a unique ability to tell enthralling or at least interesting stories. Some have this as a talent and others have it as a learned ability. I used to think I was good at it. Then, I uncovered the fact that story-telling is a discipline which must be practiced and refined. It isn't just something that you do from time to time. As humans, we do it all the time. Some just do it in such a way that it seems more believable and also more captivating. Now, why do I bring this up? What job would seem most suited to good story-telling? Sales. Why, I wonder, am I on a streak right now of working and interacting with sales people who simply can't tell a good story?

Formula for a good story (not mine but a good formula):

• The Idea or stage
• En media res (it's taking place right now)
• Reversal of fortune (think Andy Dufrense "Dew-frain")
• Everyday hero - just like you and me
• Specific context - when? June of 2008, where? Phoenix Sky Harbor
• Idea of risk
• Vague (to facilitate audience self-identification)
• Positive Outcome (oh, here's the best part!)
• Relevance - connected to the listener