Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the blog written by and for members of Human Resources UK.
I have to apologise that due to a rescheduling of the writers rota you’re going to have to put up with me again, but then you’ll have 10 weeks off from me! It has becoming increasingly apparent to me in recent years that good HR is comparable to good sales and this is my post about unleashing your sales side! (Ed Scrivener)
Sell, sell, sell!!
If I asked you to give examples of a poor sales experience I am sure each and every one of you could give me numerous. We’ve all had the pushy cold caller that won’t take no for an answer, or the salesman that completely ignores what you want and tries to sell you something you have no need for. I dare say a few of you would have a few examples of your dealings with recruitment consultants to add to the mix!
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| I'd sell my mum for that fee! |
If I asked you to give examples of a good sales experience I am sure you would struggle. The vast bulk would only be able to give a small handful of examples and I firmly believe the remainder would consider they have never had a good sales experience! The truth of the matter is that a good sales experience should leave you not knowing you been sold to. This doesn’t mean there is some covert or unethical approach taken by sales people, but quite simply a good sales person will listen to your needs and identify what it is you need, which isn’t always what you initially thought it would be. The key to being a good sales person is to engage with people and build a rapport. Which leads me on to my point, sales professionals and HR professionals are actually quite alike. We need to interact and engage with people; we need to negotiate and persuade others; we aim to ensure all parties benefit, but with our employer always as the main stakeholder. HR professionals show many traits of a good sales person, which is why it never ceases to amaze me why so many HR professionals cannot sell.
Many of you will be immediately thinking “well how many HR people are actually required to sell?” I am sure very few of you have made the career transition from HR to telesales for example, but sales is so much more than being pushy on a phone! To put this into context I want to look at 3 areas where I feel HR professionals come up wanting in sales ability – but this is an ability all of you should have due to your current vocation.
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| Darth Vader moved into sales |
Firstly, I have seen countless people make the move from being employed to becoming a consultant. They have these wonderful dreams of moving from company to company solving problems whilst also incorporating a great work life balance. The cold reality is that many consultants fail as they cannot manage the sales element. When you look closely it is clear because they have misunderstood what is involved. It seems many believe they should be undertaking cold calling and sending marketing material to countless organisations. Clearly this is not the trait of an HR professional. What they should be doing is taking a far more personable approach. They need to utilise their network and seek referrals; listen to people and identify needs and view these as opportunities. To put it into HR terms, identifying sales opportunities is no different to TNA. One area in particular that seems to attract a lot of attention is providing HR support to SMEs, as there is a belief that HR will strongly benefit these businesses (which is very true). The reason so many people fail to develop this market is that they just tell the companies what they offer, rather than listen to what the company needs! If you were conducting TNA you listen to what is needed and then develop the training to suit – sales is no different.
Secondly, is the ability to sell oneself. I am sure a number of you will have said this in the past, but when you use a recruitment consultant you trust, you are doing so because of the person and not the business. The recruiter has successfully sold themselves to you. In your day to day job as an HR professional you have to do exactly the same. You may be attempting to persuade a hiring manager to utilise and develop existing talent rather than going externally. You will put forward a business case to persuade them of the benefits. If achieve this it is because the manager has bought into you and your ideas because you have presented what was needed. So put this into your own terms when you look for new employment. You need to present yourselves in a way that appeals to the hiring manager. HR professionals read countless CVs, so take on board what stands out for you. The biggest failing I see in HR CVs is a lack of achievement. When you scratch beneath the surface it is clear the individuals have numerous achievements to shout about, yet these choose to write a CV like a job description. This is what will make an employer stand up and notice. Similarly read the job advert, (i.e. listen) then deliver what is needed – so tailor your CV to each individual application highlighting the relevant points ensuring you meet the employer’s needs. You can all tell when a sales person approaches you and they have made no attempt to research you or listen to your needs – well it works exactly the same way with CVs and applications. You already will know this as you don’t buy into the CVs that don’t hit the mark, yet you fail to transfer this to your own terms.
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| The infamous Gerald Ratner |
Third and finally, one of the key traits of any business is to ensure your brand and integrity are of the highest standing. You only need to think of the impact Gerald Ratner had when he described his products as “total crap!” Everyone stopped buying his jewellery overnight. Recruitment agencies are rightly criticised for lack of feedback and poor processes, but as we all know employers are just as bad. You are just as unlikely to receive feedback from a direct approach as you are via an agency. Equally, the method of communication during hiring processes can lack empathy for the candidate. I recently heard about someone who had been for three 2 hour long interviews with a company and was then rejected via text! This is just one of many examples I can cite and what so many people fail to realise is that a poor recruitment process is just like a poor sales process. HR can be very good at focusing on employee engagement, yet they forget too easily about the employer brand and engaging with external talent. There are a couple of businesses in my area that have such a bad recruitment reputation that hordes of people avoid them like the plague, surely this is not good for the fortunes of these businesses?
At this point I should make it very clear that there are many HR professionals who are exceptionally good at sales. These are the people that completely understand sales is about engaging, listening and delivering solutions. Many of these people will be completely unaware what they are actually doing is selling, but they are successful in this field because they are true “people” people.
So remember, whether your selling yourself as a consultant or jobseeker, or representing your employer listen, identify and deliver – you’ll soon realise you do this every day already, but you just hadn’t realised it’s sales!
About the author
Ed is an HR recruitment specialist and social media trainer. He holds over 8 years industry specific experience recruiting mainly for middle and senior HR management positions. He stumbled upon social media a few years ago and has since become passionate about the subject. He now trains job seekers and independent consultants in social media techniques. He is the Group Manager of Human Resources UK and Editor of Discuss HR and occasionally his humour will creep into articles!
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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK. Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 3rd November when we will welcome back our guest writer, Wendy Mason. There have been a number of public sector focused discussion within the group recently, so I felt it very apt that Wendy returns!
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