Two decades of selling & implementing enterprise content.  What has changed, and what remains the same?

From an enterprise technology recruiter’s perspective,  Xtra Effort has seen LOTS of change.

We originally helped enterprise technology companies in the content market segment hire Sales Engineers, Account Executives, and Professional Services personnel with capabilities related to document management, workflow, and … Continue Reading

Candidates with Business Intelligence backgrounds may benefit from being aware of related technology trends where their skills may be better appreciated.

How can the term Business Intelligence be viewed? Many different technologies and projects can be tightly or loosely related to the “BI” ecosystem. 

Data needs to be extracted, housed, manipulated, interpreted, and shared.   Depending on the size of the company and project, each of these phases can represent different technologies and discussions. Traditional technologies associated with these different phases include data warehousing, data modeling, dash board, performance management, financial reporting, OLAP, and ETL.    Some aspects of this continuum include highly technical discussions and … Continue Reading

Thank you Kevin for referring a strong inside sales acquaintance.   He is now with an Xtra Effort client, a high growth enterprise security software company.

Enjoy the gift certificate. It is now in your email box.

All parties seem psyched.

Thanks again Kevin.

Xtra Effort.

CLICK HERE  to access a list of Xtra Effort’s most current list of client hiring requirements. It includes compensation, location, title, travel, and technology type.

Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Consulting Services, and Security enterprise technology companies are growing and adding headcount.

Separately, Constant Contact seems to think 22 spam reports out of 10,000 emails is too many.  Xtra Effort now needs to have all its candidates, clients, and partners proactively ASK to be on our email list.  So the ball is in your court if you want to receive future email updates: … Continue Reading

You may recall reading a previous blog post related to why and how enterprise technology companies are hiring more inside sale people.

This trend only seems to deepen, particularly with infrastructure technologies.  Current day examples include:

1) Database technology

2) Security technology

3) Privilege management technology

Field Sales exceptions include consulting services sales positions, such as solutions for the utility smart grid initiative,  and for Cloud Application Development. 

Companies that value the NY market, have deals that exceed $100k, and are selling new technologies, always seem to value “feet on the street” and want field sales people.  Application Performance/User Experience Management … Continue Reading

THE MODERN DAY ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE SALES CAREER

 Years ago, enterprise sales jobs often started in one of three ways (with plenty of exceptions)

 1) A college graduate with a business degree would join a large information technology company such as Computer Associates, IBM, Burroughs, or NCR. Many of these companies and Software sales jobs started in Massachusetts, with such companies as Prime Computer, Data General, Digital Equipment Corp, and ComputerVision.   This fresh college grad’s first software  sales job would include … Continue Reading

Sales Engineers are in great demand because have developed both technical acumen and communication skills. The more current a Sales Engineer’s technology skill sets, the greater the demand for his candidacy. Earnings potential is driven by the candidate’s sales and business acumen and business acumen, but you first must ante up with the technology and communication skills.

Sales Engineers careers had stereotypically been associated with a utility role, often only performing demonstrations and answering technical questions. Now Sales Engineer careers often include more ownership of the prospect relationship and sales cycle.

Today’s PreSales Engineers more often are considered partners to the sales … Continue Reading

Xtra Effort is growing because our client base is expanding. We are therefore looking to hire a recruiter from the technology sector with two to ten years of professional experience since graduating college, including two years of commission based recruiting or sales experience.

We need your assistance.

 Would any of your recruiter or inside sales acquaintances appreciate a firm with a favorable reputation for subject matter expertise and integrity, a progressive culture and investment in search technology, a rich compensation plan, and a Westford location?

 … Continue Reading

This short Selling Power magazine editorial may put “Social CRM” into perspective and clarify its potential relevance to you as a leader, sales person, candidate, or employee.

I suspect some of you will say “duh”, while others – like myself – may say “Aha”, now I (further) get it.

Professionals who answer a question with content that excessively explains the rational or circumstances behind their actual point are not considered great communicators.  Xtra Effort has seen many high quality and capable professionals not reach a sale, job, promotion, or  adequate client satisfaction because their answer’s best content is lost among other non essential information.  

Example: 

Question: “How did you secure the Citi account?”

Answer: “I always knew a lot about financial service operations,  the banking industry has been plagued with security concerns for years,  our technology could easily be deployed without a lot of professional services, we secured a meeting with their … Continue Reading