What is the added value of recruitement companies?

I asked myself this question a few weeks ago. I was visiting a network event for sales professionals and during one of the presentations I sat next to an agent of a well know & respected recruitment office in the Netherlands. She was a nice young woman, very bright and told me enthusiastic about her job. She told me she screened candidates for sales functions for her clients. When I asked her based on what she made the decision to introduce a candidate to a client she told me she did that only by the feeling she got from an interview that lasts less than 1,5 hours. When asking what she was looking for she replied: I try to discover if this candidate will fit in the culture of my client.

In other words, these clients were paying a fee of 25% of the annual salary (10-20K€) for an assessment by someone who had no sales experience at all that selected these candidates based on a feeling and only looking for a cultural fit. Where is the added value that justifies an expensive fee, knowing that you have to add yourself a lot of work in selecting the right candidate from the almost randomly introduced candidates?

Do I use a recruitment company? Yes I do. For me the added value is that I do not have the time to find suitable candidates. However I will not accept candidates to be put forward only based on their CV and an interview.

Each sales job is unique, based on the company, portfolio and market that it is connected to. My advise would be to carefully define a number of pre selection criteria that are relevant for your sales position. Then ask the recruitment company to select based on that. Remember that those companies have an interest in putting forward as much candidates as possible only to hope that one of them will be hired. Therefore do not trust them by word that the candidates matches your criteria. Whenever possible, design & implement an objective test or assessment to screen for your criteria.

I myself use an on-line assessment that takes 30 minutes to complete and looks for some very basic sales skills based on a pre-defined profile. The recruitment company I selected will seek candidates they feel might be suitable and will then ask them to complete this on-line assessment. Only candidates that pass this assessment are introduced to me after which my own selection process takes over. This is true cooperation and adds value, and for this I’m happy to pay my fee.

What is the added value of your recruitment company?

Author: Remco Rijnhart

Communicating value vs Creating value

This week I was asked to respond to a statement from Mr. Ed Peelen, Professor of (Direct) Marketing at the Center for Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Nyenrode Business University (the Netherlands). His statement was that many salespeople, when facing a customer, too much depend on communicating value instead of creating value. The intention was to create a discussion but I’m afraid I couldn’t agree more. Although the well-known  Kotler value delivery process only talks about choosing value, providing value and communicating value (see image below), this is only valid on company/portfolio level. As a company, and in particular if you are in a competitive market, it is absolutely necessary to focus on specific segments in order to distinguish yourself from the competition and avoid competing on price, leading to lower margins.

Source: Kotler & Keller, Marketing Management 12e edition

On individual level however, when facing a customer, it is very dangerous to assume the value of your offering. Especially when selling abstract services which cannot be captured in hard objective specifications. Services are often flexible and minor adjustments to the exact composition of your offer can increase the value significantly. For instance in the case of ICT Services, customers can often choose between various service windows and response times. Also the possible benefits of a service to your customer are theoretically unlimited, meaning you cannot communicate a benefit/value without knowing what the exact problem is your customer is facing. Only when you have explored in depth your customers problem, root cause and impact it is appropriate to build and position your solution knowing exactly what aspects need to be emphasized to maximize the value. That to me is creating value and it is essential for many sales interactions involving complex solutions.

Of course this is not applicable in all selling situations. If Amazon tries to sell you a book it will not phone you to discover any potential problems that they can than convert in a buying motive. Many tangible products are sold by communicating the value (promotion), however this is increasingly done in ways that do not need the interaction of a salesperson (for example via webshops). In other words, if you are in sales, make sure you are able to create value, or find another job soon!

Author: Remco Rijnhart

New business selling in a recession

Recession does not mean your customers will stop buying. They will buy less and their decision to buy will be carefully taken. More then ever your customer is comparing the value of your solution with the price he’s paying. Value – price = cost perceived, so particularly in today’s market, your salesmen need to be able to increase the value of your solution perceived by the customer till he/she thinks it’s worth paying the price (value – price > 0).

Besides increasing the value of your solution, it is also vital to exactly know who is going to be involved in the decision process at your customer, as well as the process the customer intents to follow in order to make a decision.

If you need to generate new business, the first meeting with your new client is key! Many salespeople use their first meeting to introduce themselves, promote their portfolio and build a relation with the person sitting in front of them. The best result achievable this way will be a meeting in a positive atmosphere and your salesperson running back to the office stating he/she had a very good meeting. However, most of the time no, or very little, concrete results have been achieved, let alone an agreement with the customer for any follow-up actions. Bottom line, only very few of these visits will result in a sales cycle.

How do you challenge your sales force in order to improve this? Very simple, make a check-list of all the things you want the salesperson to discover in his first meeting with a client. As a minimum, the following should be on there:

• What problem does the customer have, implicit or explicit, for which your company can deliver a solution?
• What is the impact of that problem for the customer? What is it costing him financially, but also impact in any other way such as his personal image/career.
• What is the added value of your solution, specifically for this customer?
• What budget does the customer have to solve this?
• How is the customer going to buy? What steps is he intending to take in order to decide on a solution?
• When is he going to decide/buy?
• Is the contact person the buyer/decision maker or only the advisor?
• What is your next step?

After every meeting with a new client consequently ask for this information from your sales person. New business is difficult and not every meeting with a new client will result in a salescysle, but by strickly managing your salespeople on this checklist you will soon see your results improve, even in a recession!

Author: Remco Rijnhart