Part II: Analyse Sales Models

>> Part I: Sales recruting, Easy or Difficult?

I’ve already stated my belief that the sales recruiter is essentially a salesperson who sells the company and its’ career opportunities instead of a product or service. Because I’ve put a stake in the ground about this paradigm let’s take a moment to discuss the parallels between sales and recruiting.

The recruiting process corresponds to the major phases of most complex sales cycles – Planning, Prospecting, Qualifying, Evaluating, Negotiating and Closing.

Recruiters, like their sales counterparts, must be thoroughly versed on the opportunity and be able to articulate its’ value; plan how to attack their territory; leverage multiple lead generation sources; prospect relentlessly for viable candidates; quickly qualify candidates in or out; engage and thoroughly assess the candidates suitability while managing & coordinating the interview process; negotiate the terms of employment and close the candidate.

The analogies to sales dictate a more sales oriented profile for recruiters because the activities demand essentially the same behaviors.

The Complex Sale, an Atlanta-based sales force effectiveness and methodology consultancy,has defined several sales “types” that offer good insights to the recruiting model we’re discussing here. These models correspond to different kinds of selling environments and roles.

Sales Profile Models

Used with permission from The Complex Sale, Inc.©

As I’ll describe later, the “Teller” and “Farmer” models reflect two of the recruiting styles common to today’s recruiting world. For our purposes the “Hunter” or “Partner” models are preferable because of the critical role sales recruiters play.

For them to function as agents for and “trusted advisors” to hiring managers they must possess the abilities and skills that effectively make them a peer; therefore, we’re seeking to raise the bar and the level of sophistication of sales recruiters.

The complex selling environment of Information Technology has many characteristics that require a more sophisticated and talented form of salesperson. A commodity or transactional sales person will find the transition to a more complex selling environment difficult because the increased complexity requires more skills.

Sales recruiting in Information Technology is no different and is characterized by several conditions that warrant a different approach and a different type of recruiter:

• Sales recruiting is fundamentally a relationship-based activity.
• Talent trumps experience and assessing talent is the single most important aspect of recruiting.
• Successful recruiting favors the company (and recruiter) whose process is perpetually in motion.
• The demand exceeds the supply of experienced, talented sales professionals.
• Candidate pipeline development and cultivation requires a dedicated commitment of time.

Why Is the Ability to Judge Talent So Critical?

A year ago the supply-demand imbalance was so acute that the people shortage was considered the single greatest obstacle to continued growth and expansion.

Often, due to the diluted pool of experienced talent, companies were forced to compromise their “Experience” standards and hire people whose pedigree was far less than desired. It is a given that adherence to candidate quality is a function of the size of the candidate pipeline and the pressures to hire.

Couple this with a tendency to give greater weight to “Experience” over “Abilities” or competencies and you have a formula for disaster. Experience has always been the traditional focus of recruiters and hiring managers and yet, experience alone, is the least reliable and predictive of future success.

An historical example can illustrate. In 1940, while the United States attempted to stay out of the Second World War it was still preparing itself for the eventuality of fighting. President Franklin Roosevelt and General George Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff, began identifying the officers who would lead the Army should the US enter the war. Marshall had, over the course of his career, kept a little black book in which he recorded thoughts and observations about each and every officer he encountered. He returned to that list in assembling the group of officers who would lead the US Army in World War II.

Interestingly enough he ignored the “resume” and sheer years of experience and reached down into the ranks of the officer corps to tap officers who displayed great promise...those who had impressed him with their drive, intellect, energy and skill. Had he relied solely on experience soldiers like Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton would have retired from the Army in the days before World War II and our armies would have been led by the same generals that led the Army in World War I, likely to defeat.

Marshall’s discernment of the situation and recognizing who and what was required to build an army that could fight and win was the key to ultimate victory. The world may not hang in the balance over a technology sale but the keys to winning are the same.

While the recruiting situation has changed dramatically in a few short months the basic problem of hiring hasn’t changed one bit. Hiring talent is still the key to competitive superiority. The current “buyer’s market” may lead companies to believe there is an abundance of talent available and that choosing talented sales professionals is now an easy task. This belief is dangerous.

The last five plus years have witnessed a remarkable growth in technology and almost unchecked capital spending. Given driving factors like decentralized client-server computing, Y2K, the emergence of the Internet and unprecedented economic expansion technology sales people enjoyed a period where selling was certainly easier than today’s tight-money conditions.

Sales people today must be as adept at creating opportunities as servicing demand, in almost every respect, the current conditions are requiring sales people to flex muscles they haven’t used in a long time or never fully developed.

The hazard for recruiters and hiring managers who rely solely on experience is that factors like “performance track record,” “over-quota achievement,” “W2 earnings records,” as well as other measures are not totally reliable indicators of the candidate’s true ability.

Recruiters have to be better today because they must dig deeper and be more accurate in assessing sales competence. The “Discerner” trait I referred to earlier, as well as, a thorough understanding of the industry and a systematic, methodical approach to evaluating talent are the keys to winning the competition for talent.

Comming soon: Part III - A Recruiter Portrait

Source: By Ross Rich, Managing Principal, Selection Strategies, Inc.