The Proposal Guys Jon and BJ's proposal blog
  • Home
  • About
  • SP Website
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • About
  • SP Website
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Book it Dano*

10/1/2008

5 Comments

 
Picture
Posted by BJ
One of the books I’ve read recently is “Topgrading for Sales: World-Class Methods to Interview, Hire, and Coach Top Sales Representatives” by Bradford D. Smart, PhD. and Greg Alexander. (I also just finished “Boomsday” which I’ll tell you about in another post soon!).

To paraphrase one of the quotes on the book’s back jacket reads, “The most valuable management skill a person can have is the ability to produce high-talent teams.” The same definitely holds true for proposals. “It’s about the people and the team.”

This very readable book presents a process for hiring the best possible sales reps. It teaches the reader how to hire top talent, coach others to become top talent and also how to “weed out” poor performers before they do damage. I think the latter probably hits home with many of us.

Having done a fair amount of hiring over the years, I found the questions presented for use during interviews to be very interesting. These questions really “dig deep” and get at the real issues. Being a “process guy” I also liked the “step-by-step” approach throughout the book.

As a proposal professional, I found it most interesting to understand better what makes for great sales people. I also found many of the concepts, processes and questions to be very relevant to proposal and will modify and us the process for future hiring of proposal team members.

I’m not sure of all the outlets where Topgrading for Sales can be found but I do know it’s available through Amazon.com and additional info can also be found at its website.

*Who said it? 20 points for the name of the show, 30 for the actor’s name. 50 points for the character’s name.

5 Comments
Roisin
3/26/2016 03:14:01 am

Jack Lord – aka Steve McGarrett, Hawii 5 -0 !!!

*Takes a bow*

:)

Reply
BJ
3/26/2016 03:14:17 am

Congratulations Roisin. You knew the answers to all three parts of the question. Well done.
I’d give it one star.
Why only one? Read on…

Never one to pass up an opportunity to play “proposal coach” and offer my opinion as to how the answer could be better (and recieve a higher score!).

The question asked is, “Who said it? 20 points for the name of the show, 30 for the actor’s name. 50 points for the character’s name.”

Your answer is – Jack Lord – aka Steve McGarrett, Hawii 5 -0 !!!

You provide the correct information, but not in the order requested. The information requested, whenever possible, should be presented in the order it was requested. (Why risk confusing the reviewer/evaluator?)
Also, there is additional, relevant information that would demonstrates your understanding, experience, etc.

As a rewrite, I offer the following,

The phrase, “Book ‘im Danno”* was said by Jack Lord/Steve McGarrett (actor/character portrayed respectively. ) The name of the show is Hawaii 5-0 and the actor’s name is Jack Lord. He played Steve McGarrett, a police detective.

Steve McGarrett’s partner on the show was Danny “Danno” Williams (played by James MacArthur). McGarrett’s nickname for Danny is “Danno” and the phrase, “Book ‘im Danno” is something McGarrett says often in any episode. Many episodes endwith McGarrett saying: “Book ‘im, Danno!” Another phrase often used by McGarrett is, “Okay, what have we got?”

(The answer is presented in the present tense because the show, having run for 12 seasons [from 1968-1980], is in syndication and conitinues to be shown on a regular basis.

A reviewer would give an answer like that at least two, possibly three stars!

Reply
Roisin
3/26/2016 03:14:30 am

BJ, you are utterly correct and I am suitably chastened.

A clear case of ‘I need to practice what I preach!!!’

Perhaps I shall sign up to your pre-conference seminar after all, I clearly need a refresher, and perhaps some ritual humilation to teach me a lesson!!!

Reply
BJ
3/26/2016 03:14:53 am

My comments were meant as coaching, offered to a fellow proposal professional. There was no intent to chastise. My apologies if the way I presented my comments caused you to feel that way. :-)

Dictionary.com defines the word chastise as:
1. to discipline, esp. by corporal punishment
2. to criticize severely
3. Archaic. to restrain; chasten
4. Archaic. to refine; purify

The only one of these that applies to my comments is definition #4, part 1. “refine’

———————————————————————————————————-

Take 1/2 a point off my answer (proving answer can always be improved!)
I noticed in my rewrite I neglected to explain the ‘*’ after “Danno”. I put the ‘*’ there bacause I changed the spelling of “Dano”, as presented in the title, to “Danno” which is how it is shown on wikipedia.
———————————————————————————————————–
Re: Attending a workshop
We’d love to see you in one of our workshop. As you point out, all of us can benefit from courses – whether it’s a refresher for someone with lots of years of experience or new information for someone just starting out.

My comments were coaching

Reply
Roisin
3/26/2016 03:15:05 am

They were taken as so, and much appreciated!! :)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Articles by Topic

    All
    APMP & Accreditation
    Interviews And The Panel
    Musings
    Processes & Best Practice
    Proposal Guys News
    Proposal Panda
    Proposal Training
    Purchasing Insights
    Word Play & Writing

    Authors

    BJ Lownie and Jon Williams are the co-founders of Strategic Proposals.

    Subscribe



    * Required fields

    SP News

    Strategic Proposals News

    RSS Feed

Picture
Website by Digital Media Design, Inc.