The Old Model — Why We Know It's Broken

A client called me yesterday and told me how happy she was that she used my new model of hiring. She said she was so glad she listened to my suggestion on an alternative way of Hiring. She was a President of a Title Company, and she said she had spent so many fees on candidates that looked good on paper but didn't work out. What she said was music to my ears. When I hear stories like hers, it makes me realize I might be on to something. This new method works. And she also said the owners of her company were so happy she changed direction and was finding people that wanted to come to work and would stay. She also told me her industry had gone thru so many changes. With the housing market collapsing a few years ago, and her industry going through so many changes, she also had to change the way she was hiring. I asked her what she meant by all of that. She said:

“So many people got out of the Title Market in recent years and the ones that had experience from years past and looked good on a resume, were functioning on the old ways of doing business. They didn't have a clue to how things were now.”

She said when she would hire people that had experience in the boom days, they didn't want to work hard to develop clients. She said hiring the people I had suggested she consider that had passion and desire to do the job and no directly related experience, made so much better employees. When economies change and we go through severe changes in the marketplace, we also have to change our methods of hiring. That is what this book is all about. I also made a placement that illustrates why the Old Model is Broken. I had a client that wanted to hire a salesperson that sold software to the pipe industry. The software was a pipe traceability product that ensured the pipe was properly identified and and labeled correctly. They were very strong about wanting a person that had a software background, a degree in IT was what they thought they needed, and could explain the technicalities of the software. I listened carefully to what the client was telling me they wanted, and I knew right away this type of profile of a person probably wouldn't work in this industry. As I've been working with the pipeline service industry for over 30 years, I know this culture well. A technical person without the relationship skills to be able to relate to these people probably would not be successful. The people that would buy this product are oilfield people, and most don't have a strong technical aptitude. Someone going into their office and only talking about software applications, would be like a person trying to have a conversation with them in a foreign language. They would not understand their method of communication. But I listened to the client, and I suggested we see a variety of people. I told them their product was somewhat unique, but what I thought we should do on this search is talk about our options. I started sending them resumes for their review. The resumes they initially reviewed were people with technical backgrounds with sales experience. They interviewed them and told me they wanted to see more. I interviewed a candidate that had worked in this industry in an Inventory/Sales Support role that was degreed in Business with a very strong technical aptitude. She had a burning desire to do outside sales, and was not able to progress to that role in her current company. Her job entailed inventorying pipe, finding the pipe that had been damaged, or surplused because of not having the traceability product that would have alleviated this problem. She knew well from first hand experience what happens when you DO NOT have a product like this in place. When I told her about this job, she immediately got excited. She told me she wanted to go on the interview as she knew the need for this product, as she was on the other side and saw the results when a product of this nature had not been utilized. The client was reluctant to see her, but after my spiel on why she might be a good fit, they agreed to interview her. She had also been interviewing on her own before she came to me, and had recently received a whopper of an offer. Almost 20K more than her current salary. I told the client we needed to move fast. After her second interview, they told me the President wanted to see her before they made the final decision. They were still on the fence as she didn't have strong outside sales ability. What this applicant decided to do on her own, was put a Powerpoint presentation together about the advantages of this product. She also illustrated in her presentation contacts she had already established that would be interested in buying this product. They flew her up to the main office to meet the President and he was very impressed with her presentation. The candidate had passion about this job, but also had established relationships she could bring with her immediately. That meant faster investment return for this client. This meant more instant results than any person with a strong technical aptitude but no industry contacts. They hired her and both parties are extremely happy.

This new method works. The old method of hiring is broken and I hear about it every single day. Why is it broken, you might ask? Because we have a changed economy, a changed employment market and a supply and demand problem when it comes to applicants. We don't have a choice. We need to consider alternative methods of hiring. Our new employment market is here to stay and if we don't get on the bandwagon and change how we hire, the results will be directly affected in our bottom line and the way we do business.