Ask Dan

Question: Regarding Sales Operations consulting, is there a common thread in all your work with clients?

 Answer: There is an old maxim that goes something like this, “If you have seen one client, you have seen ONE client”.

While many organizations have common threads such as product type, industry type, service type, etc, each is unique in one way or another. And that’s a good thing, because it’s this uniqueness that gives the organization it personality and competitive value proposition.

One common thread is: When a company wants to increase productivity in a specific part of their business, they face an initial question: “Should we try to do this in-house - or hire outside expertise?

Question: Why should we hire you for Sales Operations consulting?

It's often easier and more cost effective to bring in an organization like ours. Leveraging our skills and relationships to accomplish your objective affords you a high probability of success.

Why? Many of your people are already engaged in other projects connected to your core business. Funneling internal resources in staff, money, and time often adds too much risk that may ultimately impact the business’s bottom line in a negative way.

No so when working with my company. Without exception, all the work we've done with our clients began and ended as the sort of work we've already successfully accomplished multiple times with other organizations. Thus, while there is always risk in trying something new to drive more business, the risk is significantly reduced when working with us.

Question: Dan - I’m an experienced executive-level person looking for a job. I’m finding that working with executive recruiters today is never been more difficult. How do I get their attention?

Answer:
Hard Times Change the Scenario

There is no doubt that with our present national economic situation, things have changed for the worse when you’re looking for a new situation. And guess what? It's also rough for the agencies like us, whose job it is to place talented individuals. Our client companies need to do more with less (people, support, money, etc) than ever before.

I can think of no better time for an company to upgrade the quality of their employees than right now. We are seeing a little of this out there -but for the most part what we are seeing is companies adding more work responsibility to their employees while at the same time they are staying pat in the income/salary range. The net effect is the employers are burning the “trust card” with their employees and they are burning their employees out.

For the short term, this is not good news for employees out there; expect more of the same for a time.

For the long term, when the economy turns around, organizations who’ve taken this “Work them till they burn out.” route may find their employees looking to provide their services elsewhere - where they’ll be more appreciated.

To your question – why is it recruiters are so much more difficult to work with? The answer is very simple – supply and demand.

Agencies are presently swimming in a glut of resumes of qualified candidates. In many cases they’re pouring in by the hundreds weekly. So many, in fact, the average person doesn’t measure up nearly as well anymore.

From the Company’s Point of View:

When employers engage agencies to find them a certain skill-type person who resides in a certain location, they are never looking for folks who CAN do the job. What they want are people who DID do the job! No exceptions. This way they have very little risk that the new employee will fail in their duties, and they’ll also have very little training investment to make in them. The employer is in a “win-win”.

So, when you send your resume to the agency to help you improve your situation, unless you have a skill that one of their clients are looking for, they’re unlikely to invest any time in helping you. Remember, the agency is not paid by the candidate, but by the employer. The employer calls all the shots.

Nevertheless, Get Your Resume In!

That said, it is good to get yourself (your resume) plugged into the agency’s database, as one day an employer is sure to be looking for someone just like you - located just where you are. When the agency is engaged to find someone like you, the first thing they do is dive into their database of qualified candidates to present to their clients. You want to be sure that when this happens; your resume is one that rises to the top! That will never happen if you are not already in the database.

These are indeed difficult times, but it won’t stay that way. Right now, today, there is someone looking for you to help them with their problem/opportunity. Our challenge is to find you both and to put you together.

Question: Dan – Are Recruiters Worth What They Charge?

Answer: I read an article not that long ago by a guy named Paul Hawkinson. I can hardly articulate a response to your question better than the way he answered it:

“When I need a heart by-pass, rest assured that I won’t select
my surgeon on the basis of what he charges.”

Why then are corporate executives so “thrifty” when dealing with what is commonly thought of as the “heartbeat” of their companies . . . top-talent?

Companies think very little about paying the often excessive fees charged by their outside accounting and legal firms . . . or even to the gaggle of consultants who promise cost-cutting and streamlining miracles in other areas of operations.

Yet, when faced with brain drains, talent deficiencies, or the need to replace one employee with a better one; their thoughts too often turn to parsimony. This K-mart mentality belies and contradicts their stated objective to “hire the best” - especially at levels below the “big picture” executive suite inhabitants.

Of course, recruiting fees can vary from firm to firm, but when they do, those on the low side are likely to exclude some key ingredients of the process, all of which are vital to providing the satisfying the needs of the employer.

So why are recruiters worth what they charge? Just a few of the reasons are:

	Expertise
	Cast a wider net
	Cost
	Unbiased third party input
	Confidentiality
	Speed
	Post-Hire Downtime
	Realitic Expectations
	Negotiation
	Prioritizing company resources