Technology Sales - the need to understand a customers needs.

People will know by now that I make a living selling technology solutions in the Human Resources/ Talent Management / Human Capital Management space. I have been selling a range of solutions in this area for a number of years and one thing still surprises me. Most of the people I meet with are Human Resource professionals, they are very nice people and many have come to understand that technology can help them remove a lot of the administrative burden associated with recruiting good quality people for their organisations.

Where Sales People in this area let themselves down is assuming that the people they are meeting with are technology people. They are not and if sales people do not understand this simple fact they risk what could be a long term partnership relationship before they start.

The need for technology in the corporate recruitment sector is now greater than ever. There are around 2.5 million people 9 depending on which politician you believe) unemployed and this number is going to rise over the next 18 months, the real number may be higher and it will no doubt be over 3 million before long. This is bad for the people involved and many of them will have lost their jobs for the first time so they want to get back to work quickly ( I know when I was made redundant in January I was shell shocked but went directly to organisations I wanted to work with looking for a new position as soon as I could) .

But have you looked at a lot of corporate careers sites recently, organisations are getting a bigger response and the admin burden is growing, automating elements of this process saves time and money and gives employers the opportunity to build their brand and manage the expectations of potential applicants.

So why do so many technical sales people go to a meeting, open their lap top and start a demo with out actually asking what the HR people want to see and what they want to achieve from the meeting ? the answer is a lack of understanding of the market they are selling into, if you do not know what your prospect wants or needs how can you sell them something that is going to help them over come the challenges they face ? you will not !!

Now from my point of view I hope people continue how they are but beware the HR community is starting to become a very discerning group of people to sell to so I wish you luck.

Recruitment Agency experiment - Now ended

So it's been about 3 weeks since I started this totally unscientific experiment and the simple fact is that many of the recruitment consultants in business today do not have the business development skills needed to survive in a competitive market.

The fact is that there are a number of good candidates on the market at the moment and this number will continue to rise as unemployment continues to rise. But a good consultant will take time now to make contact with good candidates and build a talent pool of people for when opportunities arise. After all this is what good corporate recruiters are doing and the companies that do this will be the ones that benefit when the economy comes back which it will because you know what it always does.

So if you want a good job apply direct to the companies that you want to work for, do some research , pick up the telephone and tell them you want to work for them, you have nothing to loose and you may get the job of your dreams.

Have a good weekend

Update and progress

I have left this a week to take into account the back holiday and give people an opportunity to come back from their holidays etc. The result Nada, Nothing, Zilch, naff all etc I am beginning to suspect that recruitment agencies now know who I am or they have all gone bust.

However respect is due to the direct corporate sector, I got invited to an interview ( bear in mind that yen company did not let me know anything in advance they just invited me to an interview. They are ( wait for it) and American company looking for people in London to sell their corporate lettings service this if you have not twigged yet is a posh way of saying that they felt I have the right credentials to be an estate agent !!!

On that note this experiment will have 1 week to go from today.