Don't be a Caterpillar

Don’t be a Caterpillar


Let’s face it. Times are tough all around. Business is down in just about every industry except bankruptcy attorney’s and “repo” men. Every time it looks like things are improving, something happens to slow things down again. What can you do?

I remember an old adage that goes, “find a need and fill it”. It used to work for you. Why isn’t it working for you now? The answer may be that the need you used to fill doesn’t exist anymore or, the demand for it has diminished to the point where there isn’t enough business for all the providers. In other words, the pie is smaller but there are still as many people at the table.

My partner and I have had this happen to us in our business. We are knocking on every door we can find to fill business orders but, our customer base is just not interested in engaging either because they have no need for new resources or, they are going to sources that offer what they perceive as the same service for free or at a very low cost. It doesn’t help us to tell them they are losing the professional consulting, screening and time saving we have always provided. They aren’t interested in the value proposition. They are only interested in minimizing their cash flow today. They will worry about the consequences later.

Having encountered this new situation for our business, we put our heads together and came up with a plan. We polled our customer base to ask them what they really needed to help them survive and even grow in the current economic environment. We gathered this information and came up with a model that addresses their stated needs. Next, we prepared a presentation for the executive team of a major corporation (largest Application Software Company in the world) where we presented our concept and our plan to propose it to their resellers. Bingo! We got an enthusiastic response with a commitment to help us refine our offering and a commitment to help us select and close a pilot site. They saw this as a win for them because it would increase their business by increasing their reseller’s volumes. The reseller’s would also increase their business and profitability and we would also see a win from a new revenue stream.

Is this our core business? No it isn’t but, it is finding and filling a need within our customer base. It allows us to continue to serve our customers and it creates a new revenue generating business. It also allows us to maintain the positive relationship we have with our customers and when this storm passes they will need our core product again and we will be there to fill that need.

SAP and Silver Creek Partners announce huge succes of the Partner Recruiting Assistance Program. http://ping.fm/LM65g

Cold Calling HR Departments

Cold Calling HR Departments

I am new to blogging and as part of my naiveté in writing about recruiting; I have started reading other blogs by those in the recruiting world. I have found some very good articles and posts and unfortunately I have found a whole lot of noise. This may be adding to the noise, fair warning!

I came across a post in the blog Fistful of Talent. It is an interesting article that really shows the huge emotional divide between internal recruiters and agency recruiters. Agency recruiters need to find new business and internal recruiters need to justify their own existence. What I find fascinatingly absent is the loss of the focus on why both sides exist, which is to rapidly identify, attract and retain talent so hiring managers can meet their business goals and objectives. So if we are trying to solve this problem for hiring managers, why is anyone cold calling an internal recruiter, who by their very existence and justification of their own job is to not use outside help unless as a last resort or as directed by a hiring manager?

Generally speaking it just doesn’t make sense to me to approach an internal recruiter for anything. I can think of a many more productive things to do with my time like trying to understand how I can solve a specific problem for a hiring manager (which may include the VP of HR). What problem am I going to solve by calling an internal recruiter?

I say to all of the agencies out there to keep smiling and dialing HR, and while you’re talking to HR, we are talking to the hiring managers and solving problems.

Here is the post that I reference.
http://www.fistfuloftalent.com/2009/02/wax-onwax-off-the-corporate-recruiter-rant-against-bad-cold-callers.html

The team at Silver Creek was recruited specifically to allow us to have peer to peer conversations with the executive leaders we support. Our Principals and LP’s include: Former VP Sales Xerox, VP of HR at Tier 1 global companies and highly successful startups, President of global communications company, CEO of 3 startups all with huge exits, CEO of 2 startups with 1 big exit, and a host of others.

TEAMWORK

I often think back to events in my life that helped shape my character. Some were positive, some were negative and some were a mixture but, all helped shape who I am today. These cumulative events shaped the values and beliefs that guide the decisions I make every day. I want to share one experience with you that instilled my belief in teamwork. It’s a short story and I hope you will enjoy it.

I grew up in Miami, FL before it became the cosmopolitan city it is today. At the time I was growing up there were still Seminole Indian villages in the Everglades. These people lived a subsistence existence off the bounty the land provided. They lived in what are called chickees. A chickee is ideally suited for the everglades. It is four posts supporting a platform with a thatched roof overhead. They also used dug out canoes and cooked community meals in a big pot in a separate kitchen chickee which served the entire village.

My father always had an extended community of friends. I remember a host of eccentric characters coming to visit my home and one of those characters was a Seminole Indian named Mike Osceola. Mike was always coming by with game to share. One time he invited my father to go hunting with some of the men from the village and he encouraged my father to bring along a couple of his friends. My father eagerly accepted Mike’s invitation and invited two of his friends. One was the owner of a swamp buggy and the other was a friend who had a son my age. Before I continue with my story, I should describe a swamp buggy. It is an open air automobile like contraption with over size tractor tires and it sits very high off the ground. This allows it to go through the water in the Everglades without drowning out the engine and the tractor tires give it additional traction in the boggy swamp.

We left before dawn one morning and rode the swamp buggy about five miles off the Tamiami Trail to the village. It was on a hill surrounded by water covered with sawgrass. This is called a pine hammock. The pine hammock was high ground and had a forest of trees which provided shade and shelter. The village was a collection of chickees and it was made up of about a dozen families. My father and the other men left me and my friend in the village with the other children while they went into the everglades to hunt deer, hogs, turkeys and other game. During their absence my friend and I were cared for by the women of the village and we spent our days with the village children. We fished, gigged frogs, paddled around in the dugout canoes and played games. What a great time we had! When the men returned from the two day hunt, we packed up our gear and headed back across the Everglades in the dune buggy. As I said before the Tamiami Trail was about five miles away. After about three miles, we blew out a tire on the dune buggy and we were stranded in the middle of the “sea of grass”.

What were we to do? At that time there were no cell phones and we did not have a radio to call for help. The only option was to get into the swamp and walk two miles to the highway where we could find help. The water came up to my chest and sometimes as high as my neck. My friend was about my same size so he had the same difficulty. The walking was hard because the ground was not firm but had a thick layer of decomposed grass on the bottom that we call muck. It would suck at your feet with every step. We also had to carry our .22 caliber rifles over our heads. This is when I learned about teamwork. My friend tired first and I offered to help him by carrying his rifle along with my own. This allowed him to recover some of his strength. He then asked me if he could help by carrying both rifles for awhile. I readily agreed as my arms, by that time, were burning like they were on fire. After awhile, I took back the rifles and so we alternated for the two miles we had to walk. We also helped each other by pointing out where the drop offs were in the swamp and we both looked out for snakes and alligators. Most importantly, we kept each others spirits high by relating stories, telling jokes, sharing riddles and singing songs. By the time we reached the highway we were exhausted, but our spirits were high because we had accomplished something together that may not have been possible if we were alone.

Where were the men during this hike? They had their own challenges because they were carrying their own rifles as well as critical gear. Most importantly though, they recognized they did not have to help us because we were helping each other. They saw we were practicing teamwork and they knew that would be enough to keep us going.

The same is true in business. Building an atmosphere of teamwork can result in success for all. A team can help each other get through the rough spots and provide a synergy of resources by shared experiences and talents. It is important to build an environment in your business that nurtures and encourages teamwork. That is one of the foundations of our company, Silver Creek Partners. We not only work together as a team but, we build teamwork with our customers. We feel we are part of their team and their corporate culture. Whether we are providing recruiting assistance to attract, hire and retain key employees or, if we are providing consulting assistance, we are part of the team. Our values are fundamental. Find what helps our customer and do it. I hope this story helps you focus on the value of teamwork. We welcome the opportunity to be part of your team.

http://www.scpartnersinc.com/

Jedwards@scpartnersinc.com

Strange Days, Strange Days Indeed

Strange Days, Strange Days Indeed!

This week has been interesting in that we have signed several new customers and engaged with several existing customers and like everyone else had several push farther out. Fear and uncertainty continue to dominate the marketplace. The net new customers were those we have developed relationships with over the course of the past year but have not engaged in any formal business.

We have spoken with many leaders this week who are just about equally divided on how their internal recruiting teams are supporting them. Many feel their teams are effective and delivering the value and support that is needed and expected. I applaud these teams and their efforts to bring high quality people into their companies.

Just as many feel their teams are ineffectual, providing the same low quality resumes from the boards with an occasional gem (just enough to justify their contract) and delivering no added value. I recently spoke to a Recruiting Director who has a new mandate to deliver the high quality candidates his hiring managers require. He inherited a recruiting team that admittedly flung resumes (in the hundreds) to the managers they were supposedly hired to support. He has kept this same team of slingers and has tasked them to become solution oriented executive level recruiters overnight. Good Luck!

The good news is there are leaders that recognize the value of solution oriented recruiting. This is why many of today’s executive leaders continue to partner with external resources that they trust to add great people to their teams and do so with a process that doesn't waste their time. Balance external relationships with some fiscal responsibility and you have a match made in heaven. This is why agencies exist and why firms like Silver Creek Partners will weather this storm as we have weathered all of the others.

Look out for several press announcements towards the end of February. Great things are happening!

I have heard the following this week:

“The position is a critical hire and we can’t function without it" It's been open for a year.

“I would introduce you to our internal recruiting team but I like you too much.”

“We would like to retain you for this search but for only 6K as I got a call yesterday from an agency that said they would do it for 5K. Oh and please make that fully refundable with a 180 day guarantee”. Click! You got to love the no barrier to entry market that recruiting has become. I guess all the contract recruiters that were bleeding budgets dry have found themselves out in the real world.

“We are going to hire him despite the fact that he sells and advocates the use of marijuana”.

“I’m a Talent Acquisition Specialist” ,… what does this mean? What happened to headhunter or recruiter?

“There’s lots of people on the street, we’ll hire one of them as they are cheaper” You get what you pay for.

“Oh those 65 positions on our website, they aren’t really real, we are building up our database”

Contact us to learn how we can help without wasting your time.

Zach

Smart Companies are Hiring

Is it as bad as they say it is?

Phrases I have heard over and over the past weeks and months: A nuclear winter, an economic Armageddon, as barren as a Siberian landscape, the perfect economic storm.

We all know that almost 600k jobs were lost in December, 500k+jobs lost in November and so on. Budgets are frozen, new project development is limited to core projects, teams having to do more with less, sales and marketing teams reduced. I have even heard of some executives’ travel budgets slashed and now travel only in coach! I actually did hear this a few weeks ago.

We all know it is really ugly out there, however, smart companies are still hiring, smart companies are still looking to expand their customer base, smart companies are still looking to increase market share and smart companies are still looking for ways to beat out their competitors.

Who are these smart companies you ask, let me tell you. These are companies with strong and decisive leaders who are not paralyzed by fear. These are companies with leaders that will not succumb to “paralysis by analysis”. These are companies with leaders that aren’t afraid of taking calculated risks. Most importantly these are companies that recognize that NOW is the time demonstrate and deliver value and service and deliver a positive ROI.

In talking with my mentor (whom I have leaned on a lot in the past few months) who has experienced several down cycles professionally (going back to the 70’s) he has said more than once that some of his and his team’s best sales years were in down cycle years where he and his teams would clearly demonstrate and deliver value.

We signed several new customers in the past few weeks whose leadership teams are the embodiment of this approach. If their track records are any indication of their continuing and future success, I am hugely optimistic of the coming year. l look forward to demonstrating our value, providing exceptional service, and delivering a positive ROI to smart leaders in smart companies.

Zach

Closing business in challenging times

Over the course of the past few months, we have been asked by many of our customers how to drive more business in a down economy. Although there is no silver bullet, there is a common theme in that companies that are going to be successful in this down cycle are going to be the companies with the right people on their team doing the right things.

What does the “the right people” and “doing the right things” really mean? We will share what we think it to be in the coming weeks starting today with a commentary on sales people “doing the right things”.

I have asked John Edwards a principal in Silver Creek Partners to bring us back to sales 101. John is a 30yr veteran of enterprise software sales success as both a direct contributor and Global VP Sales. Not only has John weathered these down cycles but has over performed and exceeded quotas during previous tough economic down cycles.


CLOSING NEW BUSINESS IN CHALLENGING TIMES

I often hear my customers say they are having trouble closing new business because their customers are reluctant to commit the funds to buy the proposed solutions. The prospects understand the value of the solution proposed and they are convinced that they can obtain that value but, they are reluctant to commit funds in these uncertain times. How can you overcome that objection and move your proposal to closure?

The answer is often overlooked because you have broken the sales process. What do I mean? Very simply, sales is a science not an art. There are logical steps that must be taken in any sale. If those steps are skipped, the sale will probably not close.

Everyone knows that you must first qualify a prospect.

Qualification is defining the prospect’s needs and determining if you can fill those needs.
Next, do they have a budget? If not, can they secure the funds?
Do they have a plan in place on how they will determine which solution best fits their needs and which vendor can successfully implement the solution?
Finally, do you have access to the final decision maker?

If the answers to any of these questions is “no”, you do not have a qualified prospect. If the answers are “yes”, then you are ready for the next step.

Your next step is to lay out a plan with the prospect on how you will jointly proceed through the sales process. This is probably the most important aspect of eventually closing the sale. It creates a partnership between you and your prospect. You are laying the foundation for a “win/win” relationship.

The plan should be straightforward.
Define each step in the evaluation,
Determine who is responsible for the completion of each step and set a time line for each step.
Finally, print this plan as a document and both you and the prospect should sign it. This makes a mutual contract between you and the prospect. You each agree that you will do each step, have the resources available for the completion of each step, the timing of the completion of each step in the process and what step follows each completed step.

Now, you have a plan. But, wait! Let’s assume you have completed each step and now it is time to close. The prospect is reluctant to close because they are uncertain of how this current economy is going to affect their business and revenue. What do you do now?

Take time to understand the prospects’ concerns. Are they real or not? It doesn’t matter. In your prospects eyes they are very real. Overcome these concerns with facts. When will the prospect begin to see a return on their investment?

What is the potential reward for implementing your solution now rather than waiting until the storm passes?
What is the cost of delay?
How can you structure your contract to meet the prospects needs and still give you a reasonable return?
Do you need to set up a delayed payment plan or, does it make more sense to allocate additional resources to implement more rapidly thereby, reducing the time it takes for your prospect to recover their investment?
Can you implement the part of the solution that provides the highest and/or most certain return on investment now, at a lower cost, and implement the rest when business conditions improve?

These are only a few of the ideas you would present to your prospect. There are most certainly others that are specific to your prospects needs. If you have truly partnered with your prospect through the sales process, you will know what best serves your prospect.

In summary, it all comes back to the beginning. If you truly qualified your prospect and if your prospect agreed to the written sales process, you should have a solid understanding of your prospect’s business. By following that process, you and your prospect have entered into a partnership. When your prospect pushes back, go back to the process you jointly created. Understand the value you have offered. Restate that value and, most importantly, propose the solution that best addresses your prospects current needs. Create a solution which solves your prospect’s needs. Remember, he who serves best gains the most.

About Silver Creek Partners

In addition to solving real world talent /recruiting problems, we offer our portfolio companies a variety of support services including the development and review of sales and marketing strategies, human resources, providing access to SCP’s network of portfolio companies, limited partners and contacts within the business, financial and academic communities.

http://www.scpartnersinc.com/

zpiester@scpartnersinc.com

Is Opportunity Or Fear Driving Your Business?

Is opportunity or fear driving your growth strategies? Now more than ever it is critical to climb out of the bunker and align your business and growth strategies to capitalize and take advantage of your competitors hesitation.

To succeed in this business down cycle requires an aggressive and decisive action plan.

Do your answers to these questions define your pending success or failure?
• Can you define your sales cycle and various milestones in the cycle?
• How well does the sales team manage their pipeline?
• Is your sales team developing enough prospects to convert to qualified opportunities?
• Is your sales team following a methodical approach to driving deals through the sales cycle?
• Is the sales team confusing activity for productivity?
• Do you know what is going to happen, or are you going to be asking “What happened?”

Climbers who have scaled or attempted to scale Mt Everest will tell you that when on the mountain if you panic you die. This cycle is not unlike scaling Mt. Everest.

You can’t afford not to grow, you can’t afford to not take advantage of your competitors hesitations, you can’t afford not to add the right resources, you can’t afford not to maximize your probability of success.

Please email me at zpiester@scpartnersinc.com to learn more on how we can help you succeed.



About Silver Creek Partners
Silver Creek Partners has been engaged by domestic and international clients (both publicly-traded and privately-owned) on diverse assignments, delivering our core capabilities to evaluate, build or acquire mission-critical teams or to architect and execute business growth roadmaps to achieve strategic goals. We are well known for our ability to deliver in highly complex environments according to aggressive timeframes.

http://www.scpartnersinc.com/