Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

Want to get hired? Then drop the fishy handshake!

  

  

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Success can be measured in a number of different ways. This year we can another great year in the telesales training business, but I measured our success in another way this year, too. We helped a whole bunch of people get hired.

Inside Sales Execs and Reps that have taken my courses know I'll always help them when they're looking. We even helped place several people that weren't involved in my classes, because they had stellar referrals from people that did. The secret is we're not a recruitment firm, and don't charge anything for placement calls, so companies will always talk to me.

We went beyond just making calls, reviewing and occasionally fine-tuning résumés, getting them to have more robust profiles on LinkedIn, you name it, we did it. The high tech telesales world is skewed when great people aren't working. Reps who have never been under quota were laid off this year. Sales execs with proven track records went months without a position. The last couple of months have been pretty successful for us, in terms of getting great people placed.

I told you that story so I can tell this one. All of the above I did by telephone. But several weeks ago I attended a conference, and met a young man, an associate of a friend of mine. When I shook hands with him, it was like shaking an eel, it was that limp and fishy. It gave me a cold shudder, and for the life of me, I can't remember anything he said. But I do remember that handshake!

It wasn't my place to do any on-the-spot mentoring. But I figured that fellow will close a lot of doors before they have a chance to get opened, and until he fixes it, he'll be aced out in the job market. Handshakes aren't trivial in Western countries. People tend to form snap judgments on introductory handshakes. Firm handshakes are the gold standard of introductions. They don't need to be bone-crushers, but they have to have substance. With all the terrific books on interpersonal skills out there, it still surprises me that some people just don't have the handshake bit down yet. While we're for the most part telesales people, we still meet occasional customers and prospects. And we shake hands with our fellow employees all the time.

So here's the bottom line. I'll bet all the readers of my blog have handshaking down to an art. But you probably have friends and colleagues that don't. In this volatile business climate, people need all the help they can get. It's tough enough to get hired if one has all the tools and great recommendations, and a poor handshake could scotch everything. So do a favor for your weak-handshaked friends. You're a friend, so you can tell them. Or you're a manager, and you can do some mentoring. Or even easier yet, point them to this blog post.