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Six Game-changing Interview Questions to Ask
7th December 2018
#Interview
The questions you ask during interview play a key role in the impression you make on a prospective employer – choose wisely... Even at the most innovative companies, interviews can follow a predictable pattern. When the interviewer is comfortable that they’ve completed their assessment of you, a familiar question rolls around: “Do you have any questions for us?” What you choose to ask can have a greater impact than you might suspect. If you produce the same questions as everyone else (“What do you like most about your job?”, “What does your ideal candidate look like?”), you might learn some valuable information, but you can’t expect to be stand out for your innovation or make yourself memorable to the interviewer. If you ask something more thought-provoking, however, you can not only set yourself apart from the competition but take the conversation into unexplored territory which the interviewer has not talked about with other applicants. Your conversation becomes memorable, and you have a chance to score points not available to other candidates by discussing things they don’t discuss. Having a selection of insightful, business-focused questions ready can help you distinguish yourself from the crowd and create a unique exchange with the interviewer. Here are 6 examples and why they work: 1. What short-term opportunities do you see for the team to improve results? Asking this shows that you’re focused on coming into the role to make an impact. You move away from typical interview generalities (candidate experience, desired skills etc.) to focus on tangible results and what actions can be taken to deliver better outcomes. At the end of the day, this is what the interviewer needs most on their team – no amount of experience or ability matters unless it’s applied to make a difference. Making the question about team rather than the individual role can also reassure the interviewer that you understand your function as being part of a wider collaborative effort. 2. What’s the best investment the team has made? This question demonstrates an appreciation of budget and resources, understanding that team results are shaped by the resources at their disposition. Linking work outcomes to the investment and platform provided by the company reveals an ability to think about team performance from a more strategic angle, showing the interviewer that you have the capacity to think beyond the immediate confines of your personal role. It also gives the interviewer an opportunity to talk about positive aspects of the team you’ll be joining - if they are the hiring manager then they may well have been responsible for the investment they choose as their answer. 3. How do you see the team in 3 years’ time? Asking questions with a time horizon creates confidence that you are thinking about your position in the long term, and expect to be part of that team after 3 years. The question implies a level of ambition, probing on opportunities that may be created as the team expands. It also invites the interviewer to talk about their own growth goals, and to share the plans they have for developing the group. You then have the opportunity to ensure that your interview performance and responses synch with these objectives. 4. Are there trends you’re worried you’re not keeping pace with? This shows that you view your role in a commercial context, and don’t expect anything outside your job description to be someone else’s problem. Rather than be a passive member of the team, you are aware of threats and challenges in business and assume shared responsibility for overcoming these together with your manager and colleagues. Raising the issue of trends also takes the conversation into a wider reflection on industry news and developments, where you can have a chance to showcase your expertise and share your opinions of where things are headed. 5. What will be the next big investment the team will make? Probing around future change to the team illustrates a potential to think big as well as small. In addition to joining the team to excel in your assigned function, you’re also interested in the roadmap for the team’s evolution. Are there any big changes coming up? What tools, infrastructure or additional talent would help the team’s performance move to the next level? You demonstrate a collaborative mindset, focus on team success and excitement for the future. 6. What are you most proud of about the team? By inviting the interviewer to talk about what they’re proud of, you switch the conversation onto their own career and contribution, which inevitably generates a positive vibe in the discussion. Putting them and what they’re proud of in the spotlight helps show that you’re aware of your manager’s own career, and creates an opportunity for you to make clear that you will be an asset to their personal development and ambitions – joining the team to give, to support and not simply to follow instructions. *** Ready to explore new digital marketing career opportunities? Adaptive Digital recruits across Europe and the USA for digital marketing and ecommerce professionals, filling roles with brands & agencies in more than 20 countries. To view Adaptive Digital’s full range of open jobs, click here.
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8 Powerful SaaS Sales LinkedIn Profile Tips
7th December 2018
#Tech
Money-maker or deal-breaker – is your LinkedIn profile optimized to help you sell? A busy sales rep’s LinkedIn profile gets views from hundreds of people for hundreds of different reasons, reaching far beyond direct prospects checking them out online. Every post, comment, like or share reverberates through the online community of 500m+ members, and building a powerful profile that pro-actively contributes to pushing new and existing prospects along the sales funnel can be an investment worth many thousands of dollars in its cumulative impact. Looking to turn your LinkedIn profile from a static bio into a lead-gen engine? Here are the essentials: 1. Photo OK, let’s get through this one fast - LinkedIn profile photos have the simple purpose of presenting you as an approachable professional. You might be amazed that this point even makes our list, but… let’s just say that there are some wide-ranging interpretations out there of what this concept might mean. Remember, the function of your photo is to help bridge the gap that exists from not meeting your customer in person. So, if your picture shows you cropped out from a blurry wedding group photo, behind reflective ski goggles or zoomed out to 1,000 yards on top of a mountain peak, you’re creating a needless barrier that can be solved with a neutral background and a cell phone camera. Easy fix. 2. Banner image Your profile’s banner image is freely available advertising space – why not make use of it? As a minimum, it should represent your brand for top-of-mind awareness – ideally with your company’s tagline. At best, have your marketing team create a banner image that delivers an elevator pitch of your offering, compelling headline sales data, an engaging screen capture or a client quote. What’s likely to move prospects down the funnel faster – a generic cityscape backdrop or a powerful customer testimonial? 3. Headline LinkedIn offers you the chance to customize your ‘headline’. This is not the same as your current job title – it’s what sits at the top of your profile, and what people will see when you pop up in their news feeds. To get the most out of it, tell people about the results you create, not your job function. Who’s going to get a foot in the door faster with target prospects in the video adtech space? 'Account Executive' or 'Helping marketers improve ROI on video ad spend' Quick hint – it’s best not to go overboard here. Remember to keep it intelligible and relevant. You’ll see plenty of quirky and well-intentioned headlines that actually confuse more than they help, e.g. "Delighting customers with awesome user experiences" OK... so what do you do? 4. Summary Your summary sits right under your photo and is the centrepiece of your profile. This is your chance to promote your solution - not yourself. As well as an engaging overview of your product and how it helps customers, remember you can drive prospects to even more compelling sales materials – product overview videos, customer testimonials etc. Use specific page links - don’t make prospects work to find good information about your offering. If you want to frame your solution with some context about the company behind your product, try and keep it concise. A deluge of stats about growth, investment, awards etc. can obstruct your key message – the problem you solve for your customers. 5. Activity This is where prospects can see what you’re up to on the LinkedIn platform. If you’re a real solutions expert in a niche community, that should shine through – what do you like, what do you share? What do you comment on, what do you say? Who do you engage with? Details like this can be the difference between prospects returning calls or answering emails… if they look for evidence that you’re engaged with your community but your profile is a ghost town – you have to work that much harder. 6. Experience When top sales reps summarize their experience, they find a way to intertwine their experience with results they’ve achieved for their customers. You can still showcase your personal performance, but take a look at the difference below: 'Exceeded sales quota by 15% for 3x consecutive years' vs 'Exceeded sales quota by 15% for the 3x consecutive years, helping over 120 accounting firms save an average of 30% on payroll processing costs' 7. Media Attaching media to your profile (in the form of flyers, product overviews, data sheets etc.) is a chance to get any visitor who lands on your profile to explore your product. It often takes weeks of emails, calls, voicemails and old-school prospecting to get a chance to show a prospect the highlights of your solution – why miss the chance if they’re on your profile, ready to learn? Just make sure it’s up to date, and work with marketing to ensure content is evergreen. Outdated market reports, product releases or company news weaken your relevance and can do more harm than good. 8. Recommendations While you’re not in control of any unsolicited recommendations graciously bestowed by benevolent co-workers or customers, it’s common practice for mutually respecting peers or business associates to request recommendations to round out their profile. If you do pro-actively seek recommendations (plenty of people do), it’s worth asking if connections can reference your business impact as well as your personal qualities. Again, the difference can be powerful: 'Helen was a pleasure to work with - responsive and professional' vs 'Helen was a pleasure to work with - responsive, professional, and helped us dramatically reduce the amount of time we spent finding key data across our organization.' *** Adaptive Tech recruits on behalf of high-growth SaaS vendors, filling roles at all levels including SDR, CSM, AE, Sales Engineering, VP and more. You can check out Adaptive Tech's SaaS sales vacancies in our job listings here.
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How to Increase the Value of your LSP
7th December 2018
#LSP
What strategic steps can localization and translation agency owners take to increase valuation at exit? If you are the owner of a language services business, you likely follow industry M&A news with a keen eye: tracking deals, monitoring buyer and seller motivations, and – crucially – observing valuation trends. In a buoyant international market there continues to be a steady flow of both small and large deals featuring trade, private equity and strategic buyers, all competing to create and capture value across a fragmented commercial landscape. Although transaction details are not always published, a substantial amount of data is available to LSP owners who have not yet set their exit plans in stone and who wish to gauge the market temperature. At the lower end of the valuation spectrum, some agencies change hands for 2-3x EBITDA, while buyers have paid as much as 10-20x in instances where a high level of strategic synergy between buyer and seller was identified. Although not ‘on the market’, and often pursuing short-term goals of growth and profitability, most agency owners have one eye on the future, and are always interested to know what decisions they can be making today to increase their agency’s valuation upon exit. Based on Adaptive’s work representing both buyers and sellers in a wide variety of M&A scenarios within the language services sector, here are some actionable tactics that all LSPs can adopt to raise their exit multiple. Focus on ‘sticky’ markets Typically among the major drivers of buyer motivation, building a customer base in a sector with high barriers to entry from competition is a proven method for developing a high-value agency. The industry has seen plenty of high-profile M&A deals done in major verticals such as Life Sciences, IP, legal and financial, but there are plenty of other niche areas available for agencies still looking to define a specialism. Of central importance to buyers is not only that an agency have a customer concentration in a particular vertical, but that this focus be supported by a unique combination of expertise, resources and workflows - making it tough for non-specialist agencies to steal market share. Penetrate accounts Deep and durable client relationships are another significant point in favour of an agency looking to sell. From a buyer perspective, having impressive client names on your customer list is markedly less impressive if those relationships show signs of being vulnerable to attack from cheaper or higher-quality competitors. Agency owners looking to drive shareholder value over a multi-year time-frame are well advised to build strategic penetration and consolidation plans for their highest-spend customers, ensuring that they do everything possible to retain their business. This typically means establishing multiple points of contact, working across multiple client business sectors and prioritizing customer service experience at every opportunity. Build unique workflow solutions An additional step to cementing key client partnerships involves anchoring the relationship in the service delivery itself. Many LSPs which sell for market-beating multiples have embedded themselves as an indispensable supplier to top customers via customised solutions, client portals, technology configurations or other bespoke offerings. While enterprise-grade workflow integrations can require significant financial investments to be made by the LSP, smaller gestures nonetheless contribute to solidifying partnerships. Wherever agency owners see opportunity to deepen their engagement with their customers’ tools and teams, it’s usually worth pursuing. Lock in key staff The stability and commitment of management teams is another item which sits high on a buyer’s priority list. As well as looking for a capable and well-organised team, potential investors will be assessing the degree to which they can depend on that team post integration. Involving upper-tier sales, technology and operational managers in equity plans which are tied to the success of M&A outcomes is a standard method of aligning incentives at this critical time, and owners who identify key personnel within their organisation should waste no time in ensuring they are incentivised to remain with the company through exit and help make that transition as successful as possible. Keep the books clean Though neat and tidy bookkeeping seldom adds to the value of a company directly, much of the M&A process is about establishing trust and confidence between buyer and seller. First impressions are extremely important and set the tone throughout the rest of the information-sharing and negotiation processes. A company whose accounts are accurate, up-to-date and require minimal explanation is on the front foot when it comes to discussing its overall value as an acquisition target. Conversely, an agency whose finances are inconsistent, unnecessarily complex or poorly presented may be at a disadvantage in other areas of the negotiation process, simply owing to the impression created. Find the right buyer While it may seem common sense, it’s a critical factor very often overlooked by business owners in any sector. The single biggest value driver in any transaction is the synergy between buyer and seller. The value of any business is only what a particular seller is prepared to pay to acquire it, and that valuation is largely subjective – based on the additional value that any given buyer believes they can unlock through pursuing the acquisition. With this in mind, it’s vital that agency owners commit as much time as possible (and as early as possible) in forming a comprehensive understanding of where their ideal buyers may come from in the market. Whilst the temptation may be for owners to focus energy on ‘polishing’ their businesses ready for a sale to a generic buyer, that time could be better rewarded in working with a specialist partner to review and engage the market in depth. The ‘right’ buyer will pay more than a less synergistic acquiror, no matter what steps an owner may take internally to tweak business processes. *** Adaptive M&A works with the owners of translation and localization agencies to maximize shareholder value at exit by identifying the right strategic match from a diverse network of buyers and investors. You can learn more about our services here. Please feel free to contact me at txema.clifford@adaptive-ma.com if you require assistance on the above.
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Seven Corporate Culture Lessons Learned from BELA 2018
30th November 2018
#BELA
Adaptive Globalization recently announced the winners of the 2018 Best Employers in Localization Awards. What did the selection process reveal about building a successful corporate culture in language services? Last week Adaptive was delighted to reveal the winning Language Service Providers across a range of employment categories in the 2018 BELA awards: Best for Employee Benefits Best for Employee Retention Best for Training & Personal Development Best for Employee Wellbeing Best for Career Progression Best for Recruitment & Onboarding Throughout the selection process, Adaptive’s panelists dug deep into the structures, processes and philosophies each participating LSP has adopted to build their corporate cultures and create positive work environments for their teams. By studying this year’s winners, we were able to identify some clear trends visible throughout the leading language agencies – factors which thriving corporate cultures have in common. Understanding how outstanding culture is built not only has value for owners and managers of LSPs but can be extremely useful for candidates looking to benchmark their current workplace and evaluate career options. From our work evaluating entrants and winners in this year’s awards, here are 7 lessons we learned about creating a successful culture. Having a voice matters Regardless of where an employee sits in the corporate hierarchy, successful cultures have channels in place to ensure that the business is receiving feedback from all angles. If team members have no structured opportunity to provide thoughts and ideas to management – be it via surveys, meetings, reviews or workshops – they’re given a passive role in overall company development and often fail to invest themselves fully in their work. Additionally, employees who are delivering services and building products (plus dealing with customers on a daily basis) often have vital insights to share to improve business performance, and failure to create pathways for this feedback to flow can stifle innovation and agility. Teams thrive when they see the bigger picture In a people-drive business like language services, talented and motivated teams are core of any successful agency. Attempting to unify effort and energy for complex teams without a shared vision of success can be exceptionally difficult, if not altogether impossible. There are natural and much-needed limitations in business concerning how transparent a leadership team can responsibly afford to be with their entire organization, but owners and managers who are excessively opaque about the mid and long-term goals of the company lose a valuable opportunity to bring teams closer together and drive performance. If large sections of the team don’t know where the company’s heading or what it’s aiming to achieve, how can they drive towards that goal? A clear financial path is a must Every business has ups and downs, and it’s not always possible for a company to guarantee fixed raise amounts or annual percentage increases to everyone in the organization (as much as a leadership team may wish to do so). Despite this, leading agencies work to ensure that staff – as a minimum – have a guaranteed opportunity to discuss earnings and to develop a path to advance their careers financially, even if that means being patient, learning new skills or helping the company reach performance goals. Employees in a role with no idea what it takes to get to the next level, what compensation will be if they get there or how long it will take can’t reasonably be expected to show the same patience and commitment as those operating within a more structured framework. It’s natural for even the most loyal team members to wish to progress in their earnings as their tenure and careers evolve, and working pro-actively to create formal dialogue on the topic can offer a vital platform for communication. Flexibility is key There’s a wide range of working arrangements across the language sector, with some agencies almost entirely made up of remote workers, some offering a hybrid in-office / home office structure and some firmly based around an office location. Regardless of the model, flexibility is on the rise as a major candidate driver when choosing new career homes. With so much investment by employers in recruitment, career development and staff benefits, it’s a major hole in the net for companies to lose well-trained and motivated team members to competitors simply because they make it easier for a candidate to do something as simple as supporting a spouse with a school run or keeping in touch with family overseas. Flexibility can take many forms, but adapting to build win-win relationships between employers and employees builds solid foundations. People notice if extra effort is rewarded There can be some stressful times in LSP life – from sales teams busting a gut to make big deals happen to PM and engineering teams working around the clock to deliver against impossible client deadlines… When that extra push goes unremarked, it can be tough for employees to swallow. Within an agency lifecycle there are times when this dedication and sheer hard work directly adds to (or even rescues) the company bottom line, and if the fruits of that effort aren’t reaching those responsible it soon gets noticed. Solving this doesn’t mean management splashing out on huge bonuses - nods of appreciation as simple as pizza lunches, half-days of vacation and other basic tokens go a long way to letting people know that their commitment in high-pressure moments is noted and valued. Investment in onboarding pays off The onboarding experiences for new hires across the translation and localization industry can vary drastically. At the less structured end of the spectrum, in some companies it takes people weeks (or even months) to fully understand who else works in the company and what everybody does. Particularly important with international companies that have multiple office locations, employees settle in faster and develop a stronger commitment when they feel oriented and integrated from the beginning. Agencies which take the time to prepare a program to help new arrivals understand who they’re working with, how they can excel in their role and what skills they should be learning to build (in addition to office basics, like where the fridge is!) see a clear reward in engagement, performance and retention. Corporate culture is a priceless investment Corporate culture impacts performance across agency life in so many ways that it is impossible to quantify its influence. From the calibre of candidate attracted to join the company (based on reputation), their mindset as they start (first impressions), their performance, resilience, commitment, team spirit, willingness to go the extra mile for colleagues and clients, propensity to innovate (and, of course, longevity), it permeates every area of the business. Beyond the scope of standard ROI calculations, culture is nonetheless a vital investment which connects all facets of successful business operations. Adaptive is proud to be supporting so many clients around the globe who place corporate culture at the centre of their organization, and welcome our annual opportunity to celebrate industry leaders and pioneers in this important field. *** Thanks again to everyone who participated in Adaptive Globalization’s 2018 BELA awards – you can read about the results and find a full list of winners here. *** Adaptive Globalization fills jobs in Sales, Account Management and Sales Leadership in the translation and localization industry around the world – browse our full list of vacancies here.
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