I want to hear how technology works for the HR professional in the trenches, and I have two spots available for HR Tech briefings on Wednesday.
Let me know if you’re in, okay?
I don’t want to talk about marketing. I know, I know, I know. It’s all about marketing. Too bad, though. I am turning down those requests. Although I worked at a marketing agency for a hot minute, no 30-minute briefing with me (or anyone else) will help solve your sales and marketing challenges.
If we ever did talk about your marketing strategies, your problems would get lumped in one (or all) of these buckets.
- Some technology companies have unrealistic expectations about the buyer and the market. Selling to a human resources department is different than selling into an IT or Finance department. There are different players, different rules and different stakeholders. There’s also a ton of history. Burned bridges. Failed deliverables. You have a lot to learn if you want to build a sustainable business in this market. Good luck.
- Tech companies don’t always understand the buying cycle. The market feels hot. Your product may be agile, and your pricing plan may be competitive, but your buyer might not be ready to buy for a whole host of reasons. That’s a huge discussion right there.
- HR technology companies have been sold a bill of goods by analysts and marketing firms. Let me throw out a few terms for you: email campaigns, social media marketing, blogging, lists, SEO, billboards, white papers, light papers, mail drops, parties, dinners, print advertising, display advertising, enhanced demos, advisory boards, briefings. I learned one thing from working at a marketing agency: it’s always easier to spend money on external practices with an agency than to move from the core and address your broken sales and marketing infrastructure. But go ahead and spend more money on marketing.
- Your buyers are readers. It’s great that you have a content strategy. Super happy that you’ve worked on enabling your salesforce to speak to the buyer. Where is your CEO’s book?! I don’t mean an e-book that generates leads. I mean a real book that shares a vision and big ideas on human resources, leadership and professional courage. Your buyer is more likely to go on Goodreads than Google+. Get that damn book published.
I could go on about this stuff for hours. This is not some disingenuous pitch, either. I am happy to talk to you for free about marketing strategies, but I’d like to save those discussions until after HR Tech.
But if you have something to say to my audience, I would like to talk to you at HR Tech.
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A few additional items for the list. For #1 & #2; they need to learn how the corporate purchasing process works and how large corporations operate. It is very different than the consumer or small business market. Bigger companies need more HR tech and many of these new Tech companies simply do not understand them.
#3 If you do not understand your customer, then they will be at the mercy of the analysts and marketing firms.
#4. Please write meaningful & concise materials. The average HR tech white paper is just a bunch of vague banalities. If you do write about vision or big ideas, follow-up with concrete game plan on how vision that is put into action. The world is full of big dreamers that cannot execute on their daydreams. Vaporware plus a dream is still only vaporware.