• WHAT’S YOUR WORKOUT
• May 6, 2013, 6:58 p.m. ET

… Continue Reading

Xtra Effort has noticed candidates are receiving multiple offers and often in a timely fashion. Specifically, two Xtra Effort clients recently lost later stage candidates because the candidates received more timely evaluation processes with other attractive employers (not Xtra Effort clients).

We would suggest we all be aware of this trend.

Timely employer to candidate feedback and an efficient ability to screen candidates is becoming increasingly important (with or without a third party recruiter).

This is a polite way of saying don’t take good candidates for granted, they are going fast. It is expensive to invest your company’s resources in 3/4 of an evaluation cycle … Continue Reading

Below is a recap of Xtra Effort client hiring activity for Q1 2013.

The data may help you with your own planning, or at least provide a comparison.

As a frame of reference, Xtra Effort clients are small to medium sized enterprise scale technology companies (products and services) that hire Sales, Sales Engineers, and Professional Services personnel throughout the USA.

LINK TO RECAP

Observations:

• Hiring      sales staff has increased among professional service companies. These      companies are hiring because they are reaching their targets

• Cloud      infrastructure, Big Data and BI companies are experiencing considerable      growth and/or have significant funding for expected growth – hence hiring

• Hiring      … Continue Reading
  

Xtra Effort’s client is provides marketing database building, cleansing, and other services to help businesses improve their marketing effectiveness and ROI.

They asked Xtra Effort to help them identify and hire an accomplished upper Midwest sales executive with deep success selling marketing solution solutions to business-to-consumer companies.

Ken Michalak obviously knew exactly what we were trying to articulate relative to our client’s needs. He referred us to a candidate with almost two decades of experience selling marketing automation and database content.  The candidate was hired and within three months is already poised to deliver a new client for a noteworthy amount of revenue.

Thank … Continue Reading

Thank you Julie for referring a top Sales professional.  Xtra Effort’s client is a $300m+ high growth technology solutions firm. They are organized by industry, including healthcare, telcom, media, insurance, retail, and financial services. Their solution offerings include Big Data/BI,  Web Content Management, Cloud/Mobile Development, Quality Assurance, and Software Development.

Their Healthcare practice needed a seasoned sales executive experienced in selling $1m+ solutions.

Julie sent the perfect candidate, and both the client and candidate are pleased with the outcome.   It’s terrific when it works out the way “it suppose to”, huh?

Thank you Julie.

Xtra Effort assumes many of you are immersed in reaching your personal sales objectives or implementing sold solutions. Others may be three quarters heads-down and one quarter looking what is on the 2013 horizon.

Regardless of your current circumstance, you may find this LINK to be informative. It is a spreadsheet with Xtra Effort’s current client hiring requirements, including:

1) Role

2) Compensation

3) Location

4) Technology

5) Travel… Continue Reading

During this morning’s cereal and coffee I was reading the Boston Globe magazine and was disappointed that it was not the typical format, including Tales of the City, Dinner with Cupid,  houses with porches by the water (or some other strange attribute), and reader comments from the most liberal and right wing zealots. 

Instead, this week’s issue was dedicated to recognizing  “Top Places to Work companies”.  Seeing our clients (some active, some inactive at this point in time) Kronos, Globoforce, Imprivata, and Click Software make the list  featured created a big smile, knowing Xtra Effort helped them grow over the years with critical … Continue Reading

Xtra Effort’s client required an experienced executive client account manager with a background in risk management, property and casualty insurance, business process, and client management/growth.

Chuck Saulino was thoughtful enough to recommend the perfect candidate.

Our client hired Chuck’s recommendation, and this morning he was issued a $500 Amazon.com electronic gift certificate from Xtra Effort. Just in time for the holidays.

Thank you Chuck!

Today, Xtra Effort Solutions issues Joey Moawad a $500 Amazon.com Electronic Gift Card for referring a Technical Consultant.

Xtra Effort’s client provides enterprise field service management and mobile communications software. They required a consultant (“permanent”, full time, salaried hire) with hands on .net skills and customer-facing experience to define client requirements, configure, implement, training, manage expectations, etc.

Joey came through with a referral to the perfect candidate. All parties are happy, most importantly the client and candidate.

Thank you Joey!

Michael Skok is a general partner at Northbridge Ventures. He spoke at the 2012 Future of Cloud Computing conference and provided us with survey results. I retained four key messages:

1) Mobility is the biggest driver of cloud computing

2) 84% of new software development is creating SaaS applications

3) 75% of applications will be built in the cloud and PaaS MAY have great potential, but IaaS and SaaS (Amazon and Salesforce.com as examples) providers may ultimately provide cloud based software development solutions, possibly making PaaS a thing of the past

4) Enterprises will have an increasing desire to scale across itneroperable clouds.