The Need for Speed

I have some good news and bad news…The good: The market is back in a BIG way, and organizations are spending money to make money- anywhere from expanding their staff, to upgrading equipment and investing in new software. If you’re in the software business- your company is probably growing by leaps and bounds!

The bad: There are now more good open jobs out there than there are good people to place in them, as great talent has more options than ever before.

So if you’re looking to make some new hires, how do you beat out the competition when you’re all actively recruiting the same “A” Players? The answer is… SPEED!, or as all good recruiters learned on their first day of training…TIME KILLS DEALS!

Assuming you’re a VP of Sales representing an “A” Job in the market today, the only way you can hurt yourself is by being the last to know about great talent or the last to act on it. Either way, it’s on you.

So how do you get ahead of it all?

First Step: Align yourself with the right NICHED recruiting firm. One that knows your specific space, the companies that play in it, the right contacts and how to reach them directly. Ultimately next to your own network (which is a lot smaller than you think), that firm will be the shortest distance between you and your next smart hire. Now they may not be the lower bidder, but it will absolutely be worth it to know you got the job done in the shortest possible time without leaving any resumes on the table.

Second Step: Set up an interview process void of all bottlenecks, bureaucracy and misalignments among those involved in the process. This means getting everyone on the same page in regards to what exactly you’re looking for, what the ‘need-to-haves’ are versus the ‘nice-to-haves’, and where you can be flexible. This also means defining the quickest possible route through an interview process without being left waiting days or weeks without either feedback or a next step. In short, quickly determining who you want and hiring them before anyone else boils down to first knowing what exactly you want and being able to move on them fast.

The “NEED for SPEED” is real, and being able to demonstrate your urgency and understanding of that is all the motivation any good recruiter needs to commit themselves completely to your search until the job is done!