Another Friday, another edition of the Sales Roundup. As always, below are a small helping of the excellent sales bloggers from around the web:

- Robert Terson observes the ways in which a buyer’s objections send a signal to salespeople.

-Friend of the blog Mark Hunter shares 4 Things Reps Can Do Right Now to Get Better Prospects

- Lastly, Dave Stein comments on The State of Sales Training

Welcome to the HR Roundup, a new feature on The HR Cafe. Every other week, we highlight some of the best stuff from the best sales blogs on the Web…

- Suzanne Lucas, better known as The Evil HR Lady, offers 5 ways to shake up your new team’s culture.

- Tim Sackett shares 7 Secrets that only HR Pros Know.

- Finally, Mike Haberman at Omega HR shares the story of a New Jersey company instituting a policy wherein employees are hired with term limits

Do you know of a blogger that deserves to be featured on a future HR roundup? Send me an email about it.

Check out the Compliance & Management Rapid Learning Center FREE for 30 days. Get instant access to a collection of 6- to 10-minute modules perfect for training supervisors and managers throughout your organization.

Supervisor Jim Barr had just stepped inside his office door when he realized Akili Delvecchio had followed him in.

“Just get back to work, Akili,” said Jim. “I shouldn’t have sworn while reprimanding you a few minutes ago. I already apologized to you right there in front of your co-workers. There’s not a lot more to say.”

“I don’t care if you apologized or not,” said Akili, moving closer. “You can’t talk to me that way.”

“Settle down,” said Jim. “Just fix the safety issues on your forklift. If you’d done that the first time we discussed it, we wouldn’t have had any trouble.”

“We’re done discussing anything,” said Akili. He pushed Jim against a wall and tried to hold him there.

But Jim pushed back and punched Akili in the face. Akili smiled slightly and said, “Dude, you can’t hit an employee – you just got yourself fired.”

Doesn’t return to work
Akili filed a complaint with the company. The next morning, he called and was surprised when Jim answered the phone.

“You’re not fired?” asked Akili.

“I’m not getting fired,” said Jim. “I defended myself against your attack. The company’s not happy, but has agreed not to fire either one of us. So we’ll see you at the usual time?”

“Uh, I’m going to the doctor today,” said Akili. “I’ve got a migraine.”

Akili called in sick for two weeks, then was fired for insubordination for not returning to work. Akili sued, saying he was fired in retaliation for complaining about a supervisor who assaulted him.

Decision
The company won, but only on the fourth try. A state appeals court said a worker isn’t protected against retaliation when he created the safety hazard (a fight, in this case) that he complained about.

Bottom line: You can hit back, if you have the stomach for four levels of courts scrutinizing your every move.

Better: Don’t escalate confrontations. If you get too hot under the collar and say something you shouldn’t, apologize and walk away to cool down. But if you walk away, don’t get caught alone with a worker you’re having a tough time with.

If workers refuse to fix safety problems, be prepared to use progressive discipline. Suspend them for the day, if that’s what it takes to restore calm.

Cite: Dept. of Labor v. Si-Nor, Inc., No. 27497, Hawaii App.

Looking for something different to put on your business card? Why not change your title to “Minister of Happiness”?

After all, isn’t that your #1 job in sales? You work day in and day out to make people happy. Happy with your product or service. Happy with your organization. Happy to see you walking in the front door. Your job is to spread sunshine wherever you go.

But what happens when you run into a prospect who’s already happy – with another vendor?

Some salespeople try to dislodge an entrenched competitor by becoming the Minister of Pain. They poke and prod, looking for some little area of dissatisfaction that they can enlarge upon: The current vendor’s products are obsolete. Or they break a lot. Or word on the street is that they’re cutting back on client service. And for sure they’re costing you money or missed opportunities.

Sometimes that approach works, of course. But often it just makes prospects dig in their heels. They told you they were happy – so why are you trying to prove them wrong?

You could take a different tack: Brand X is a wonderful product. Its people are terrific, too. Of course the prospect is happy. As the Minister of Happiness, you’d just like to make them a little more happy.

‘How to Unseat an Entrenched Competitor: Selling Techniques That Work’

Here’s what that means for your selling effort: You don’t want to emphasize the differences between you and Brand X. You want to emphasize the similarities. If they like what they have, you want to give them more of it. Make them happier by making it better — but not that different.

Consider this scenario:

Your workforce is predominantly Hispanic, while most of the managers — including you — are non-Hispanic. One of your Hispanic employees is working toward an MBA, taking evening classes at a local college. She’s also taking English lessons to improve her spoken fluency, accent and vocabulary.

The problem is the woman’s Hispanic colleagues frequently speak derisively about her educational efforts, calling her “guera” (a derogatory term for “white”) and suggesting she’s betraying her origins. The woman comes to you and asks for help. She wants the company to put the kibosh on her co-workers’ taunts.

If you just suggest that she shrug off their sneering remarks, does she have a legitimate complaint of racial or national origin discrimination? And if you do act, aren’t you risking legal trouble if you’re seen to be cracking down on all those Hispanic workers?

Free Training Video - "Racial and National Origin Discrimination: What Every Manager Needs to Know"

The answers are Yes and No. Yes, she may well have a legitimate complaint of hostile work environment based on race. It makes no difference that members of her own ethnic group are responsible for the taunting. It’s still discrimination under the law.

And No, you’re not risking legal trouble if you insist that the woman’s co-workers cease harassing her on the basis of her perceived desire to “act white.” You’re just making sure the law is respected in your workplace.

A line worker rushing to keep up with production starts skipping the daily equipment check at the beginning of her shift.

A construction worker, thinking about an argument with his buddy, absentmindedly ties off his safety harness to an unanchored beam.

An office worker rushing through a crowded parking lot steps in front of a delivery truck.

Three random safety lapses? Not entirely. These are all examples of workers under stress.

Stress and safety
Over the past 20 years, the number of people reporting that stress affects their work has increased fourfold. Yet stress is often overlooked in safety programs. After all, there’s no OSHA standard, and it may seem to be an issue for HR. But it’s worth your attention for two reasons:

• Stressed-out workers will have more accidents. Look closely at any injury or near miss, and there’s a good chance you’ll find a stressed worker. They’re the ones who get distracted, cut corners and put safety on a back burner.
• Stress makes people sicker. People who take time off work for stress miss an average of 20 days. Stress creates more lost workdays, and the absenteeism creates even more stress on other workers.

‘Cycle of distress’
According to Ted Boyce, a behavioral scientist who specializes in workplace safety, the psychology of stress at work is subtle and insidious.

Unless people are made aware of its causes and symptoms, they may get caught in a “cycle of distress” – where stress leads to fatigue leads to more stress – before they can figure out what’s happening.

Managing it
So what can you do to manage and mitigate stress in your workplace?

Boyce says there are both macro- and micro-answers. The former have to do with overall workplace culture, the latter with employees’ daily routines.

Let’s look at the big picture first. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) sees five big stressors in the workplace:

• Lack of participation in decision-making, leading employees to feel their work lives are out of their hands.
• Lack of support from co-workers and/or supervisors, creating feelings of isolation.
• Conflicting or unclear job expectations.
• Physical environment problems like noise or crowding.
• Job insecurity.

Most Safety Directors can’t address these issues directly. But you can bring them to the attention of senior management and point out the potential safety consequences.

Also, you might want to organize a companywide initiative to look at stress, in partnership with HR, operations and facilities management.

You can start with NIOSH’s research (www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/stress) to help persuade other managers that stress is both a productivity and a safety issue.

Changing it up
Where Safety Directors can have the most immediate impact, however, is by helping employees “bust stress” through healthy changes in their routines.

Here are some of those changes you may want to encourage:

• Be punctual. Employees can reduce their feeling of being rushed – a major contributor to stress – by arriving at work on time, and returning from lunch and breaks on time as well.
• Enjoy R&R. Employees need their regularly scheduled breaks. Anybody who frequently works through breaks is a high-potential stress candidate, and thus at risk.
• Break the monotony. Even an efficient routine can become stressful if it’s never varied. Encourage workers to mix things up a little.
• Monitor physical responses. Help workers heed the physiological signs of stress – such rapid breathing or heart rate, tenseness and headaches. When these symptoms strike, even a two-minute break for fresh air and deep breathing can help a lot.
• Take control where possible. Encourage people to personalize their areas, and also to keep their workplace clean and organized. Frustration at an inability to find materials or tools adds substantially to existing stress.
• Say “no” when appropriate. The pressure of conflicting expectations, one of the big stressors, can be more easily managed by employees who know how to say “no” at the right times and in the right way.

This could be a can of worms, so you’ll need to educate both employees and supervisors on this one. The key is to educate workers to use their judgment and who recognize conflicting expectations when they arise – and ask for help, rather than stress out and wait until it’s too late to report a problem.

Source: Boyce, www.cbsafety.com

The most dangerous assumption a salesperson can make is to believe a customer is satisfied, loyal and not looking elsewhere, says sales coach Michael Le Boeuf.

It’s more accurate to view customers as free agents who are constantly making new discoveries and getting information easily, and who do not feel beholden to a salesperson. You’ll keep more customers if you really understand where their heads are at, and why they might want to switch.

What about the 96%?
You may have heard that only about 4% of your dissatisfied customers will tell you about their unhappiness. But what happens to the other 96%?

A survey entitled, “Why customers quit” revealed the following:

• 3% simply move
• 6% develop other relationships
• 9% leave for competitive reasons
• 14% are dissatisfied with the product or service
• 68% leave because of a perceived attitude of indifference toward the customer by the owner, salesperson or other employee.

Free Training Video - "Account Retention: Little Signs of Big Trouble"

The survey also found:

• The average business spends six times as much to attract new customers as to keep old ones.
• Seven of 10 complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. Resolve it on the spot and 95% will do business with you again.
• A satisfied complainer will tell five people about the problem and how well you resolved it.
• A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to 10 people about the problem.
• It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident.

Source: “How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life,” by Michael Le Boeuf.

“Never explain, never apologize.” It’s a dictum that may work for the commander of a military combat unit, or the dictator of a small, impoverished country.

But for most managers, it’s bad advice. There are times when you absolutely should apologize. Apologies don’t make you look weak — the fear of some managers – but can actually make you look even stronger, smarter and more credible in the eyes of most employees.

"Leadership Credibility: The Fallibility Paradox"

Apology time
So how do you know when it’s apology time? And what do you say? Bob Rosner, who blogs at Workplace911.org, advises an apology in situations like these:

• You make a mistake in procedure or process that inconveniences others.
• You set an unrealistic goal that team members can’t – and don’t – meet.
• You lose your temper or resort to sarcasm about a subordinate.

Rosner also notes that it’s important to apologize as soon as you become aware of your mistake. Don’t wait for the offended party to complain. Exception: If legal issues might be involved, get advice from HR or company counsel before apologizing.

How to do it
What’s the best way to apologize?

First, make it unconditional. Don’t suggest the mistake was in another’s perception of what you did. Wrong: “I’m sorry if you took what I said as an insult.” Right: “What I said wasn’t kind or fair, and I’m sorry I said it.”

Second, issue the apology in the same forum in which you made the mistake. In other words, if you humiliated someone in front of her colleagues, apologize in front of them.

Third, resist the urge to pledge that you won’t make the mistake again. Sure, you’ll try not to, but we’re all human.

Welcome to yet another installment of the Selling Essentials Minute.

The Selling Essentials Minute is a series of videos that offers one sales idea in about sixty seconds. You can use the Minute to kick off a sales meeting, push an idea out to your team, start a discussion or reinforce your training.

Today’s episode gives you key insight into the most effective times for reaching out to sales prospects.

Do you have other ideas or tricks for knowing when to reach out to a sales prospect? Feel free to share them in the comments!

Free Training Video - "Time Management for Sales: The Golden Hours"

By the way, in case you’ve missed any episodes, or if you want to watch one again, you can find the complete collection of Selling Essentials Minutes here.

Do you know the difference between a dispute and a conflict? It’s more than just a matter of dictionary definitions – it’s about avoiding disruptions that can gut the effectiveness of a team or department.

Workplace mediation expert Timothy Keator points out that a dispute is typically a short-term difference over issues that can be negotiated. Example: Julie thinks the product team should spend two weeks making site visits to customers before finalizing new packaging. Frank adamantly disagrees, arguing that the team can get all the info it needs, much faster, through a phone and online survey. The team leader can negotiate this difference of opinion, perhaps by blending a limited number of site visits with phone and e-mail contacts.

But what if Julie and Frank have had unresolved disputes over timing in the past, such that Frank now believes her caution presents an obstacle to the team’s success, and thus to his bonus?

Free Training Videos - "Leadership Training for Managers & Supervisors"

Non-negotiable issues
Then, if you’re the supervisor, you may find yourself with a conflict on your hands. Keator defines a conflict as a long-term difference with deeply rooted issues that are non-negotiable – because each adversary sees them as rooted in the other party’s very nature.

Action step: Address disputes as they arise. Don’t let them fester – and morph into hard-to-manage conflicts.

If you’re concerned that you don’t quite have your ergonomics program down pat, take heart: Ergonomics is a young, inexact science.

There’s no “magic bullet” that will prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), or any miracle cure – the equivalent of penicillin – that will quickly knock it out.

So safety directors like you often proceed by trial and error, cobbling together an ergonomics program based on MSD injuries and perceived hazards specific to their own facility and job requirements.

Problem: The trial and error approach can be expensive. It can take too long to “mature” and, even more troublesome, it can miss important ingredients because it relies too heavily on guesswork.

Better: To get the biggest bang for your ergo investment, compare your current program with the latest research, to see what’s working and what’s not.

What falls short
To begin with, the latest science shows that companies don’t recoup their investment in ergonomics programs if the program isn’t comprehensive enough:

• Offering workers rest breaks. Rest breaks are a good thing. But rest breaks are only one part of an ergonomics program.
• Training alone. Researchers found that the least effective method of preventing MSDs was offering training alone. That’s because training can go off the rails three ways:
(1) Workers don’t know how to apply training that’s too general;
(2) It’s too tool-specific or job-specific and workers don’t understand why they should make these small changes to how they do things;
(3) Training cannot substitute for technology. For example, manual lifting, even correctly performed, will cause more MSD injuries than if workers use lifting equipment.
• Adjustments to workstations. The science shows that most ergo-friendly workstations aren’t used properly unless workers are taught how to adjust them.

The investment goes to waste as workers use the settings from the last operator or choose what feels right to them – and ignore the science of correct positioning.

So what works? The latest research suggests that high-payoff ergo programs include the following characteristics:

1. Training is broad-based
Workers learn the big picture of MSDs as well as their job-specific requirements. They learn how to set up their ergo workstation and adjust it properly for their size and body type. And they understand that specific working techniques are part of a bigger injury-prevention plan.

Suggestions:

• Give workers the fundamentals of good ergonomics – reasons, proper movement and balance, understanding center-of-gravity, reaching, and awkward, repetitive movements.
• Give them specifics about their jobs. You may want to have work crews share their ideas (such as, what movements require too long a reach, or an awkward posture). Then work with your supervisors to create job- and task-specific solutions.

2. Change workstations
The highest performing ergonomics programs are those in which the company provides adequate technology and equipment when necessary.

Often the biggest results come when companies offer equipment or configuration changes – as long as workers know how to use and adjust the ergo equipment.

Example: Ergonomic chairs are a great idea for office workers, but they need to know the correct height of the chair, how to adjust it, the correct height for a computer screen or keyboard, and the correct sitting posture. Otherwise, workers will make assumptions that defeat the ergo design – and rob you of your investment.

3. Organization policy support
Even training and technology together don’t add up to a successful ergo program. For example, researchers found that in nursing homes, ceiling lifts combined with lift training didn’t work. Reason: Workers wouldn’t use the equipment often enough or follow the procedures.

They needed an external policy to motivate them to change. In this case, a “no-lift” policy that required the use of ceiling lifts.

At one company studied, the policy was enforced by supervisors. When workers saw that management was serious about enforcing the policy, their behavior changed. Ergo injuries dropped accordingly.

Companies with the most successful ergo programs have a policy that the organization expects workers to follow. It’s supported by senior management. And it contains provisions for enforcement.

Source: Benjamin Amick, scientific director, Institute for Work & Health, Toronto; Shirley Brewer, chemical loss control specialist, Chemplan, Inc., Sarasota.

We all know the best way to increase sales: sell more to existing customers.

Landing a new account is fun and exciting. But your current buyers are where the real money is. They’re qualified. They’re reachable. They pay their bills.

So if we all know that, why don’t we act like it? Time and again, when salespeople are faced with an opportunity to upsell their customers, they back down.

They offer plenty of reasons: Upselling is cheesy and unprofessional. They don’t want to rock the boat. The customer will tell you when she’s ready to buy more. The relationship is worth more than a few extra bucks.

Or, in a nutshell: If I ask for the upsell, my customer will get mad and never buy from me again.

‘Upselling Without Fear: How to Get More From Almost Every Sale’

You’re right to be afraid
If you think I’m going to tell you this fear is unfounded, you’d be wrong.

In fact, someone tried to upsell me just the other day, and guess what happened? I got mad and will never buy from him again.

But it wasn’t the upsell that made me mad. It was the intent. This salesperson tried to sell me something I didn’t want or need. There was no value in it for me.

On the other hand, if we approach the upsell like we do the initial sale – with the intent of delivering more value to the buyer – it’s hard to go wrong. If this seller had presented me with some options and shown how I might get a lot more value for a little more money, why would I be mad? Even if I didn’t say yes, that conversation – in and of itself – would be valuable to me.

Properly handled, upselling can be a relationship-builder instead of a relationship-killer.

When it comes to improving time management, the advice I hear most often is to avoid “shiny objects.” People tend to lose their focus and get behind on their core projects because they get distracted by stuff that “shines” – that is, seems more interesting than the boring but essential task at hand. Resist that temptation and you’ll be more efficient.

Shiny objects is a great metaphor, but I recently heard another one I like even more: squirrels.

Squirrels are those small, urgent tasks that fill up your day. They aren’t shiny. In fact, you may hate them as much as I hate the real-life squirrels that chewed up my garden furniture. But they’re always running around, chattering that they absolutely positively MUST get done.

Any one squirrel isn’t likely to throw you off deadline for the major strategic project you’re working on. But if you’ve got a lot of squirrels chasing you, they’ll take you down.

Free Training Video - "Time Management: Why It's Not About Time"

So the solution is simple, right? Postpone squirrel projects until you get your primary task done. There are two problems with that:

1. Squirrels multiply quickly. If you ignore enough small problems today you could end up with a whole bunch more tomorrow
2. Very often it’s your boss who’s throwing squirrels at you. What are you going to do, ignore your boss?

You can’t turn your back on squirrels. But you need a squirrel-management plan. Pregnant squirrels — the ones that are on the verge of producing a litter of new problems — have to be dealt with right away. For the others, maybe you need a squirrel-wrangling day. And maybe some will go bother someone else if you do ignore them (with your boss’s permission, of course).

The point is, we all have squirrels to deal with. But we need to deal with them on our own terms. If you let the squirrels set the agenda, it’s going to be squirrels all day and every day — and you’ll never get to the stuff that matters most.

“Johnny’s widow is suing us,” said Safety Director Frank Carbone. “She says that she hired an occupational-disease expert, and the expert said Johnny was exposed to so much off-gassing from wood dust over the years that it eventually killed him.”

“He never complained to me in the 38 years we worked together,” said Supervisor Mark Tiplinsky.

Under OSHA limits
“Johnny wasn’t the complaining type,” said Frank.

“And there wasn’t much to complain about,” said Mark. “All the dangerous stuff was done in a different part of the plant. Here we just polish products and package them.”

“Well, packaging has its own hazards,” said Frank. “But I’ve never seen a lot of wood dust in the packaging area.”

“There usually isn’t much,” said Mark.

“I tested the air after he got sick, just to make sure,” said Frank. “Until the results came back, I was worried. But we turned out to be well under OSHA limits for chemical exposure.”

“That’s good,” said Mark. “But what happened to Johnny? He went home with what looked like a cold, and two months later he died of emphysema. He wasn’t even a smoker….”

“Johnny had diabetes, multiple infections and, yes, emphysema,” said Frank. “But the doctors never figured out exactly how he got any of those. The expert who blamed us couldn’t identify any chemical in our plant that got Johnny sick.”

The company fought the widow’s workers comp claim, saying that there wasn’t enough evidence that Johnny got sick at work.

Decision
The court agreed and didn’t award benefits for a job-related death. The state workers comp commission noted that doctors couldn’t identify exactly what caused the symptoms that led to his death.

The strongest evidence for the company: The company’s testing of the air showed the indoor air quality was well within OSHA standards.

Take home: In some areas of a work site or plant, workers may face exposure to chemicals and dust that you might not always suspect – such as a packaging area, or a loading and unloading area. Even if workers aren’t complaining (as in this case), talk to them to make sure they aren’t experiencing any signs of occupational illness.

Cite: Johnson v. Thomasville, No. COA080-610, NC App.

You already know that you have to sell yourself before you sell your product or service.

Once customers buy into “you,” they’re ready to hear you recommend effective solutions to their problems and challenges.

So what’s the most powerful way to sell yourself? Sales gurus Kevin Corcoran and Laura Peterson conducted research that identified three major factors that can help you stand out from other salespeople your customers deal with every day, and consistently improve your chances of selling yourself as a consultant:

1. Knowledge: Beyond products and services
Because customers today are under pressure to accomplish more objectives using fewer resources, they rely on salespeople to help them make effective decisions. Most customers don’t have time to educate you about their specific needs. They expect you to come prepared to discuss issues relevant to their organization.

This is one of the greatest challenges you face. To add value for your customers, you need to know a significant amount about the customer’s business before you even walk in the door.

The good news is that a lot of the research you need is a keystroke or two away. Some options available to you:

• Search trade publication or industry association websites to get a feeling for industry trends or hot issues prospects are facing.
• Use Facebook or LinkedIn for background on your prospect executive and other decision makers at the company.
• For further insight on “the lay of the land,” try connecting with other reps who sell into the same company.

2. Attitude: Beyond positive thinking
Skills can grow over time, but the right attitude has to be there from the beginning. The “right” attitude goes beyond positive thinking. For many customers today, your attitude and approach to problem solving is the most critical element in the sales process.

According to customer surveys, here’s what characterizes the most effective sales consultants:

• They are sensitive and perceptive – able to react and respond to subtle signals or nuances.
• They behave more like colleagues than salespeople, keeping the human needs of the prospect in mind.
• They are able to give up preconceived attitudes. Flexibility is their way of thinking.
• They are always enthusiastic. They think around the situation and know how to turn a problem into an opportunity.
• They have high integrity. They are ethical and professional.
• They help customers achieve goals based on their own clear vision.

3. Communication skills: Beyond persuasion
Communication skills are a must for every sales consultant, of course. No matter how brilliant and knowledgeable a salesperson might be, the information brought to the customer must be clear and valuable.

This is not simply the ability to use compelling words. Customers value salespeople who can ask effective questions, listen, demonstrate understanding and express themselves clearly.

Top-notch sales consultants never stop asking questions and digging deeper to uncover the real issues.

"Sales Discovery: The Five Whys Technique for Uncovering Hidden Customer Needs"

One of the most critical barriers to clear communication? Unexamined assumptions. It’s easy to assume you understand the customer’s business so well that you don’t need to check their assumptions at every opportunity. That’s risky. You can’t check in too often to make sure you’re in in sync. That’s especially true when developing solutions to business problems. It is particularly deadly to presume that a solution that worked for Company A will work just as well for Company B.

Source: “High Performance Sales Organizations: Achieving Competitive Advantage in the Global Marketplace,” by Kevin Corcoran and Laura Peterson, ISBN 0786303522.

Based on the facts presented below, how do you think the court ruled on this employment law case?

“You’re firing me because I used the f-word two whole times?” employee Marlin Bergstrom asked incredulously. “Do you have any idea how many times people say that word every day in this plant?”

“I have a pretty good idea,” supervisor Ted Yost replied. “But you used it while talking to me, and you told Rich Matthews to f-off. That amounts to gross misconduct, and we don’t have to tolerate it, even from an old hand like you.”

“First off, I didn’t tell Rich to f-off,” Marlin said. “I told him I didn’t give a f…. Not the same thing.”

“Second, if you remember our conversation so well, you also remember telling me guys didn’t like me working short weeks to rest up from my diabetes and liver problems,” Marlin went on. “It sounds like you’re sorry you agreed to it.”

A foul mouth
“It has been causing some problems,” Ted admitted. “But that’s not the point. The point is that you were insubordinate in your conversation with me, and your foul mouth started a big argument with Rich over nothing. I’m not going back on this.”

Later, Marlin sued for disability discrimination, claiming he was fired not because of his conduct but because supervisor Ted no longer wanted to accommodate him.

Check out "ADA Accommodations: Supervisors and the Interactive Process" for FREE and arm your team with the knowledge they need to protect worker rights and avoid legal trouble.

Did the company succeed in getting Marlin’s lawsuit thrown out?

What do you think? Did Ted do everything he was supposed to in firing an insubordinate employee, or was this firing Marlin on account of his disability? Sound off in the comments or on Twitter, then check back here later today for the answer.

Welcome to the Sales Roundup, where every other week, we highlight some of the best stuff from the best sales blogs on the Web…

Lori Richardson offers some advice about building your sales pipeline.

Alan Majer gives you 5 ways to handle price objections.

Finally, The Accidental Negotiator explains that in order to succeed in the next big sales negotiation, sales reps need to put in more time focusing on the details.

Do you know of a sales blog that you’d like to see featured on a future sales roundup? Send me an email about it.

Check out the The Selling Essentials Rapid Learning Center FREE for 30 days. Get instant access to a collection of 6- to 10-minute modules perfect for reinforcing the fundamental selling skills of your busy reps.

If a rejected applicant sues you for discriminatory failure to hire, you may be able to strengthen your case by rechecking his or her qualifications.

That surprising point emerged from a case in Alabama. A woman who wasn’t hired for a truck driver’s job sued for sex discrimination. The employer won by showing that she wasn’t qualified because of two recent speeding tickets.

She wasn’t qualified
The counterintuitive part: The employer didn’t know about the tickets when it decided not to take her on. It found out later, during the lawsuit.

The frustrated applicant said the employer couldn’t use material it discovered after the fact to prove she wasn’t qualified. But the court disagreed. What mattered was the existence of the speeding offenses, not the employer’s state of knowledge, the court said. The hiring supervisor testified that he would have rejected the applicant on the basis of her driving record if he’d known about it. Indeed, the employer had never hired a truck driver who had a speeding ticket.

So suppose you consider, and reject, a candidate for sales manager, and in the process contact only her latest employer. Then the applicant comes back at you with a discrimination suit. You might want to call another couple of references to check her qualifications. If they’re lacking, you have additional fodder for your defense.

Cite: Underwood v. Perry County, No. 04-11713, 11th Cir.

Check out the Compliance & Management Rapid Learning Center FREE for 30 days. Get instant access to a collection of 6- to 10-minute modules perfect for training supervisors and managers throughout your organization.

photo credit: wwworks