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John Hamilton

Recruiting a full sales team

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

recruiting sales team

A B2B supplier of high value, capital goods asked us for support in recruiting a team of sales people for a specific project. The business was launching a new range and needed to rapidly increase awareness and achieve penetration in its target market. We were asked to suppor the compnay in recruiting a full sales […]

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Filed Under: case study, recruitment

Local government leadership: council bosses lead the way

Last Modified: December 23, 2022

Image showing a town hall facade - working with local government

The results of the latest leadership research carried out by bfpeople shows that bosses in local government have better leadership judgement than those in other industries or professions. Council chief executives achieved the highest overall leadership judgement in the analysis of more than 17,000 professionals who completed the Leadership Judgement Indicator (LJI) a psychometric test widely […]

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Filed Under: leadership, views & opinions Tagged With: local government

Why is it so hard to recruit good candidates?

Last Modified: May 16, 2017

recruiting sales team

Despite the economic uncertainty, some notable business failures in the industry and the vast increase in candidate registrations on CV database websites, many organizations find it difficult to attract and recruit good candidates. This is nothing new.  Companies have always had to compete for the best, but there was a time, when I started as […]

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Filed Under: recruitment

Sales training for technical specialists

Last Modified: December 8, 2019

Sales Training post it on a desk

How we provided sales training for technical specialists without calling it “sales training”. When a large software company decided to move the responsibility for selling maintenance and upgrade packages from the sales team to the technical project management staff, it didn’t expect the outcome.  The board of directors decided it was important to keep the […]

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Filed Under: case study, development

Bad sales calls

Last Modified: November 28, 2020

bad sales call

It’s early in the morning and I’m in the office – the only one here. The office phone rings, so I answer it: Caller: “Mr Hamilton, please”Me: “Yes, that’s me.” There follows several minutes of scripted monologue from the caller about how I “can’t afford to miss” the opportunity of entertaining 10 guests at a […]

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Filed Under: views & opinions

Remote working: Food for thought or recipe for disaster?

Last Modified: May 15, 2017

remote working

Flexible and remote working is a topic that is often in the news and a Virgin Media Business Survey shows, not surprisingly, that “most employees would prefer working from the comfort of their own homes.” There is also a big drive from the government to extend the right to request flexible working for a wide range of […]

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Filed Under: leadership Tagged With: remote working

A sensitive leadership restructuring

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

talent community

The one where we managed a sensitive leadership restructuring process A public sector organisation needed to undertake a significant leadership restructuring at the most senior level, bringing about major change and reducing the headcount of the operation. In a changing political environment and with drastically reduced funding, it was clear that “what worked before” for […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study

Creating a talent pool

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

talent pool

The one where we created a talent pool of staff to build capacity A UK university had an ongoing requirement for high quality administration staff for the various faculties and departments across the large organisation. It found it was advertising for the same types of skills in the local press every week with considerable duplication – there […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study, recruitment

Improving leadership effectiveness

Last Modified: December 23, 2022

leadership effectiveness

When the management team got more than they bargained for.. The new Managing Director of a large manufacturing group requested our help in understanding and improving leadership effectiveness among his board and senior management team. On the face of it, as the client saw it, this was a fairly straightforward leadership development engagement – with a focus […]

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Filed Under: case study, development, leadership

Resolving office conflict

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

resolving conflict

When the MD nearly fired the new Sales Director An IT Consultancy appointed a new Sales Director. It quickly became apparent that there was a clash of styles between the Sales Director and the existing Operations Director. Their frequent conflict, and the tension this created, began to affect staff and other members of the board. It also had […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study

Are you “untouchable” at work

Last Modified: September 3, 2017

jose mourinho - untouchable

Jose Mourinho has said today that none of the Chelsea football team should think they have a permanent place in his team selection, saying “At this moment I don’t have untouchables.” Mourinho has been talking about “untouchables” for at least 9 years: in December 2006 he said: ‘Claude Makelele is untouchable because of the way […]

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Filed Under: leadership, recruitment

Company values and mission statements – do they matter?

Last Modified: April 2, 2021

VW logo

Do company values and mission statements mean anything anymore? As another highly successful and previously exceptionally well-regarded business – this time an auto manufacturer – is in the news for the wrong reasons, it’s a reasonable question to ask. We have witnessed heads rolling recently at many successful businesses –Deutsche Bank, Tesco, Petrobras and Toshiba are […]

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Filed Under: leadership Tagged With: values

Assessment for reorganisation

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

company reorganisation - don't throw the baby out

When we made sure a reorganisation didn’t lose good people. When making cuts or restructuring, it’s possible that you might have to lose some good people along the way. However, it’s important to check that you are making the right decisions. Otherwise you run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water. A […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study

A tight recruitment brief

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

recruiting for your business

When a client needed specific skills in their new appointment. A high profile Business to Consumer service organisation was recruiting a Director of Communications and Customer Services into a “lion’s den” of an appointment. The company was making the headlines for all the wrong reasons, there were significant industrial relations issues and customer satisfaction was […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study, recruitment

How soon do you fire a new employee?

Last Modified: September 3, 2017

You're fired

How long do you give new members of staff to perform? It’s a question I get asked frequently when recruiting and on-boarding new people into organizations. The easy answer is that “it depends”, but what are the factors to consider when making that crucial judgement call on individuals. Trigger happy society? In recent times there […]

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Filed Under: leadership

Recruitment Lessons from the Scottish Referendum

Last Modified: December 6, 2019

recruitment lessons from the referendum

In 48 hours or so, I (and around 4 million others) will cast our vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum. A simple “Yes” or “No” stating whether we believe Scotland should be an independent country. I make binary, Yes or No decisions every day. Many are important – my decision whether to reject or shortlist someone […]

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Filed Under: recruitment, views & opinions

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