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.