What’s the true cost of “Hiring Hell”?
We’ve probably all been here before… As an executive or founder, or even as an employer or employee. You’re looking at a big push into a market right now – you want to grow, to scale up in some way, to hire people to increase your sales, right? But how can you avoid a mis-hire? And what’s the true cost of “Hiring Hell”? We look at how can you get smart about addressing your hiring strategy to generate class-leading outcomes.
So, what’s the market like right now for hiring good people? What are your future employees’ sentiments, and what do they expect? We’re now experiencing the (almost) post-COVID impacts and people are used to working from home. They are working in an environment that suits them.
We have all heard about ‘the Great Resignation’ … but what does this mean, and how will it affect the hiring market? These are the big questions.
What is the hiring market like right now for salespeople, specifically? Well, we have seen some big changes in the past six months – a real acceleration in salaries, with terms and conditions increasingly favourable to employees. In some sectors this is incredibly prevalent, such as the legal and technology sectors. But can the tech founder space keep up?
You are very likely facing a background of unparalleled competition in the market. Salaries are going through the roof and you may be getting usurped at the last minute with new starters suddenly going to your competition.
Predictability in this market is really, really tough. We all know the biggest cost here is time – all this delay and expense unpredictability is a huge cost to your business or project. How do you, as someone hiring resources, really understand if the person you are hiring is actually any good? It can take three to six months to work this out, and these days everyone looks good in interviews.
In the traditional recruitment model, there is also the risk of getting the wrong person and the wrong culture. This causes friction in an existing environment you have built and carefully nurtured which can lead to good people leaving often in droves. They may leave because they don’t get on well with the new hire, especially if they’re a manager or have a strong personality. They may feel threatened; they may feel that the culture is changing around them and this can be very disruptive.
The business cost of getting it wrong can even outweigh the financial costs of the large salaries we have been seeing in the current market. It’s tough to see yourself doing all this relentless groundwork to hire people – is this really how you want to use your time?
It’s becoming clear to me, from talking to founders, executives and employees, that the consumption of the right type of discreet supplementary services is the key. It really helps to create an effective repeat business engine that can drive campaigns into weighted pipeline and sales, becoming a key part of the hiring strategy and investment profile of forward-thinking companies.
If you consider all of the types of services and functions that you could hire to run a successful sales and Go-to-Market plan, you would really need to hire a team that comprises an analysis function of all the “good stuff”. These are the assets, analogies, market proof points and people, etc. that you would use in the sales process. Ideally, you would pull out all of your company’s key resources and integrate these with your marketing, as a Chief Revenue Officer would.
You would then need a methodology and a sales process appropriate for your market push; and a business development function, using the latest technology such as SalesLoft. You would also need a really strong management layer to pull all of these elements together. Don’t forget to also look at account management end user sales and even CSM functions to ensure your customer experience is nothing short of superb.
And finally, you need to ask yourself this: who is accountable and responsible for the success of all these constituent parts, functions and services?
At Sales Growth Team, we work with you to supply the right team for your needs, as and when required. It’s all about putting the right types of resources in place at the right time. We work for you, so consider us as your team – straight from the office of the Chief Revenue Officer.
I am seeing new companies adopt sales and Go-to-Market supplementary services with great success. These services are boosting existing employee motivation and experience by making them more effective, providing scale and horsepower to develop weighted and qualified pipelines.
We’ve found that such services work extremely well alongside a longer-term, carefully considered and clinically precise hiring strategy. This is an exciting market and business for us to serve, as this approach offers excellent value with its tailored and fractional methodology, and almost instant access to services.
If you are facing these types of challenges in your business and want to avoid recruitment hell – whilst really accelerating your organisation – get in touch today. I’d love to hear from you and will be happy to respond to any queries you may have.
Sources:
“Can Tech Startups Keep Up?” – Stephanie Palmer-Derrien, November 11th 2021.
“Salary Boom Sets Alarm Bells Ringing” – BBC, January 13th 2022.
“Employees Seek Personal Value” – Gartner, January 13th 2022.
