“Who’s Minding the Store?!!” by James Francis
Posted on 24. Nov, 2009 in Blog, Newsletter
In a time where making sound business decisions is more crucial to a company’s survival than ever before, it is quite startling how many sales organizations these days are putting their future in the hands of the wrong people. People who are not in tune to what sales managers really need, to take the production of their regions to the next level. People whose methods and motives are at best, questionable. Who am I talking about? I am talking about the so called “Internal Recruiter. “
Known also as the “Recruiting Coordinator“, “Contract Recruiter“, “Hiring Consultant” or simply the “HR Person”, these individuals have become the central cog in most sales organizations hiring process in recent years. The problem is that they have also become the central reason why most sales organizations fail to attract the right candidates. There are several reasons for this.
One, since most internal recruiters, etc. are relegated to looking for candidates on the job boards, they get to choose from the best of the unemployed. Whether it’s Monster, CareerBuilder, or Dice the majority of sales candidates that are available at these venues are individuals desperate for a job. Even with the advent of LinkedIn finding a true “A” player here, that will positively impact a sale team’s numbers, is not feasible. Most top flight sales people use LinkedIn to network, not to look for a job. As a result, the inability of the Internal Recruiter to go out and directly recruit the top talent out of a company’s competition, insures the subpar level of talent that they must then settle for by using the boards.
Two, the interview process or hiring criteria that Internal Recruiters utilize does not serve to attract the very best candidates. It only alienates them. When the # 1 sales producer in a specific region, with years of relevant experience and a rolodex of clients to call on, cannot get passed an internal HR screen because he or she does not have the proper college major listed on the education part of their resume it results in that candidate never wanting to go to work for that company anytime in the future. It also begs the question, “Why? “ Is it because most Internal Recruiters cannot distinguish the difference between a professional sales person and a “professional interviewer?” Or is it because filling out the blanks on a preprinted form takes precedence over actually listening to a candidate’s answers? One could even argue that job justification may in fact supersede their desire for results. For if all the open positions get filled, then what’s the need for the internal recruiter anymore?
Lastly, the overall insecurity that most Internal Recruiters carry around drives them into having adversarial relationships with external search firms. More often than not Internal Recruiters will go out of their way to “freeze out “ an external search firm for fear that the firm may produce a candidate who will vault to the top of the list. Sometimes this manifests itself by the Internal Recruiter claiming “We have no need to use outside agencies at this time.“ Other times, the external search firm will not have their calls returned, even when they are representing a superstar player. In the mind of the Internal Recruiter, it’s much better to extend the search time indefinitely rather than risk having to answer the question, “Why couldn’t you find this person?” Once again, the sales manager’s needs and the company’s goals take a back seat to the Internal Recruiter’s job security.
You might be asking why companies allow this to go on. The truth is sometimes, they just aren’t aware of the severity of the situation. Other times, the hiring manager will tolerate some level of ineptitude because at least their Internal Recruiter will offload much of the minutia associated with hiring, like filtering through resumes, conducting initial phone screens, etc. that the hiring manager has no interest in spending time on. Years of experience tell us that hiring is the least favorite task of sales managers because it is a non revenue producing activity. Regardless of the real reason, questions remain.
“Managers……..what is the price of convenience?!“
“Internal Recruiters…….What is your purpose if you can’t or won’t recruit?!”
“CEOs………Do you really know who’s minding your store?!“
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