Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Dan Fisher

Dan Fisher is founder of the Menemsha Group and author of the MoshupMethodology, the only proprietary sales methodology designed exclusively for IT staffing sales professionals. Dan spent 13 years in sales and sales leadership roles within the IT services and software industry and now provides sales coaching and consulting. Dan can be reached at dan@menemshagroup.com

Articles by Dan Fisher

Uncategorized

How to Read an Industry Publication

by on Feb. 12, 2009


fordyce-default

Odd title for an article, huh? You may be wondering, “How exactly does this tie into sales and more specifically, selling IT professional services?” You would be surprised!

If you are like most recruiting professionals, you read industry publications like The Fordyce Letter to stay on top of trends, challenges, and news. And if you are a top-performing sales professional, you read what your customers read to stay connected with the events taking place in their world.

If you are not currently doing this, then I strongly encourage you to quickly adopt this exercise into your daily or weekly routine. The ability to talk intelligently about the events, pressing business issues, challenges, and industry drivers taking place in your customer’s industry and/or product space is one sure way to build credibility. And we all need credibility in order to sell value.

Let’s talk for a moment about reading the industry publications that your customers are reading and how to leverage that information to differentiate yourself from the competition and create sales opportunities.

For sales and recruiting professionals in the IT staffing and consulting space, industry publications could include ComputerWorld, NetworkWorld, CIO Magazine, or eWeek, among many others.

When reading these publications, keep in mind that not every article is going to blow you away with excitement as if you are about to hang-glide off an ocean-side cliff. In fact, you may find some of the articles boring. You may not even fully understand what the article is talking about.

But trust me on this, read them and keep reading them, because over time, it will start to make sense. You will eventually be able to connect all of the dots and make sense out of both the business issues your clients are trying to solve and the complex technology solutions they are trying to deploy as the solution.

Why is that so important? As an IT recruiter, you need credibility to attract the top consultants.

“Best-in-class” consultants don’t work with rookie recruiters and they can spot them a mile away.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Uncategorized

Strategies for Selling IT Staffing in a Down Economy, Part 2

by on Jan. 27, 2009


fordyce-default

In yesterday’s article, I explored effectively selling IT staffing in a poor economy. Today I will stress a little more how no business pain equals no sale. It’s that simple!

I learned very early in my sales career that people buy to:

  • Make themselves feel good for emotional happiness (i.e., purchasing new clothing or a plasma TV).
  • Move away from discomfort or pain.

Think of that dishwasher that has been on the fritz for a month. The repairman came and told you that you need to purchase a new one. While contemplating the purchase for the past month, you’ve been doing dishes by hand. As a result, you finally decide to purchase a new dishwasher. You don’t purchase it because you enjoy loading it every night; you purchase the new dishwasher because you hate doing the dishes by hand.

You want to move away from that personal discomfort or “pain.”

Every IT hiring manager has “pain,” and as sales people, it’s our job to uncover it and turn it into a sales opportunity.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Uncategorized

Strategies for Selling IT Staffing in a Down Economy, Part 1

by on Jan. 26, 2009


fordyce-default

Effectively selling IT staffing in a good economy is never easy.

It’s highly competitive, requirements change on a moment’s notice, candidate availability often fluctuates, and there are pricing pressures and other factors in the sales process that we have little control over. It also requires a high level of sales activity, relentless persistence, discipline, and attention to detail, not to mention exceptional sales abilities.

In a down economy, we face all these same challenges, only on steroids.

All of these challenges are now magnified because opportunities are fewer and farther apart.

Think of a pack of wolves that have not eaten for over a week hunting for their next meal. They can’t afford to waste energy so their senses and awareness for executing that next kill are at an all-time high. They’re sharp. They’re “dialed- in” to the moment.

We need to be “dialed-in” when selling in a tough economy.

This two-part article will explore a few strategies to keep in mind when selling in a recession.

Adjust Your Mindset

When making sales calls, do not lead with your product or service and do not lead with questions related to “Are you hiring?” We know the answer is most likely “no.”

Where are you going to take the conversation from that point? When no “pre-defined, budget-approved” job orders exist, you need to find a problem to solve.

The trick is to seek out problems, not job orders!

Keep reading »
1 comment

Industry News, Uncategorized

‘You Mean You’re a Body Shop?’

by on Jan. 13, 2009


fordyce-default

Admit it, at least once you’ve all heard these words come out of the mouth of your prospect.

It’s not a good feeling and it certainly doesn’t articulate the value that we deliver to our clients each and every day. Next thing you know, you are reeling to turn the conversation around and convince the prospect why you are not a body shop. Not a good place to be, to say the least.

Let me ask you another question: when was the last time you scrutinized your open job requirements/sales orders?

I decided to take a gander the other day at the open IT consulting/contracting opportunities on the various job boards and vendor websites. Based on the quality of what I saw, it’s no surprise our prospects often use the term “body shop” to typify our industry. Let me share with you what I uncovered and then provide some thoughts and insight to help ensure you’re never labeled a “body shop.”

Despite what you read in the papers and hear in the news, the IT consulting market for the most part continues to remain robust. There were a plethora of requirements posted on the Internet, but they all looked the same. Zero differentiation. And I would say at least 90% of them screamed “Human Resources”-indicating they wrote and posted the specification.

They were all simply listings of technical buzzwords. Big, long laundry lists. The postings I reviewed were often long-winded and wordy, lacking articulation or way too vague in describing the role and the day-to-day responsibilities. None of them talked to the goals and overall scope of the project or career opportunity, nor did they explain the technical challenges the consultant/employee would be expected to solve. I never saw the word “deliverable” mentioned once, in any of them!

Yes, I know staffing companies typically don’t take on deliverables. Guess what, even so your consultant is still expected to deliver work output or work product, actual artifacts, and/or functionality to enhance your customer’s business.

That is what the consultant gets paid to do — deliver results. And the person responsible for taking and writing the job requirement should understand this.

Keep reading »
No comments

How-To

Strategic, Tactical Sales Planning for the New Year

by on Dec. 23, 2008


fordyce-default
  • How do you plan for the new year?
  • How do you intend to identify new accounts and decide what market segments to pursue?
  • How do you develop your strategy and underlying tactics to ensure you hit your goals in the upcoming year?

These are great questions that require time and attention, but when? For those of you who are new to working in the IT professional services industry, you’re probably now learning that business slow downs during the holidays.

For you veterans out there, this is nothing new.

With new sales order activity coming to a halt and active orders stalling, what is one to do with all this down time? How about build a recession-proof sales plan for 2009? From my experience in selling IT staffing and consulting, I always found that a strong Q1 always set the tone for the remainder of the year.

First, a few thoughts on developing your high-level sales strategy:

  • Chances are whatever you are thinking of doing, your competitors are, too. Think out of the box. Try something new and go in a new direction.
  • Most IT staffing companies try to be all things to everyone. They often lack the discipline to “walk away” from a potential sales order. Pick a market segment or niche to pursue and commit to it. Don’t stray, because you need to build your niche and your brand within that niche. Besides, this allows recruiting to build expertise in chosen areas rather than recruiting anything and everything.
  • Make sure sales and delivery (recruiting) are aligned. You are only as good as your delivery team. Everyone needs to buy into the strategy.
  • What needs exist in the marketplace that are going unmet? Figure out how you can meet them.
  • Have you interviewed your current customers recently to understand what they like about you and your service offering? Do you understand how your consultants are impacting their business? Get your customers’ input; you will be surprised with what they have to offer. You can build a strategy around this.
  • Build a case-study library (from your client interviews). This will help you build your brand in your niche and sell more effectively.
  • Don’t just understand what type of people (skills/titles) CIOs are looking to hire in 2009 and what technologies they intend on deploying, find out why. This will help you move up the customer value chain.
  • Read business and personal finance magazines such as Kiplinger’s, Money, Fortune, and Forbes. These magazines are loaded every month with advice from the world’s best investment and portfolio managers. They will open your eyes to industries and prospective accounts you have never thought of and provide you with the insight to devise specific strategy for selling into each company they recommend.
  • Cross-sell into new areas within your existing accounts. Chances are, even with your best accounts (unless it’s a very small company) you don’t have 100% market share in that account. Work to increase your footprint within your existing customer accounts.

Developing Your Tactical Sales Plan

A very common exercise (and one that I love) in the field of sales is that of “backing in” to your number. What this means is understanding exactly what and how much activity is required to hit your goal.

Keep reading »
1 comment