I am a child of the 60s. I wore Pucci and fishnet
stockings when they were first in style. I loved Peter
Max and I wore my hair straight and clipped a la
Carnaby Street. And, I "grooved" to songs like "I'm a
Soul Man" by Sam and Dave and "Satisfaction" by The
Stones. There's another Stones song that was a hit
back then and I've been singing it to my clients lately
– "You Can't Always Get What You
Want," a sentiment immortalized by Mick in 1969
and dug up by Betsy in 2006. Here's why.
Unless you are living in China (my Chinese readers
need read no further) there's a shortage of qualified
people to fill the open positions in your company.
(You'll notice I said qualified. More about that later.)
The reasons for this are myriad and everyone has an
opinion as to why, but suffice it to say, it's true.
Recently, The Boston Business Journal asked on-line
subscribers, "Are you finding it more difficult to
recruit in the Boston area today than it was one year
ago?" The findings… 69% of respondents
said it is harder to recruit now, 14% said no, it's
not more difficult, and 16% said it's about the same.
As someone who recruits every day, put me in the 69%
category.
If it is more difficult to recruit today, that means
the pool of possible candidates to choose from is
smaller. And if it is a smaller pool, that forces
hiring managers to interview and hire candidates who
may not be "100% perfect" for their job.
Life Is Choices
Hiring is like most everything else that we do. During
the hiring process, we have to make choices.
Similar to the house-hunting process and the
car-hunting process, we make our pros and cons list
and
we make choices. We expect to do those things and
we're fairly comfortable with the process.
You can be comfortable with it in your hiring too. It's
just a matter of making that pros and cons list and
knowing what you must have and what is
a "nice to have".
That's where the 80% Rule comes in
handy.
Simply put, I believe that if you find a candidate
who fills 80% of the requirements you have listed for
the job, you should grab him! (Let me qualify. If
you're in the market for a brain surgeon, this rule does
not apply! I am not talking about super technical
positions where the skill level has to be state of the art
or 100%. Here you employ the 100% Rule.) Many hiring
managers don't want to hear this, but your job
probably isn't brain surgery and for most sales and
marketing positions, this rule works very well.
And while it might mean that you have to bring your
new employee up to speed on a few things, be
realistic on what can be learned. Instead, look for
good habits when you interview because those
are harder to instill.
So, how do you determine what's 80%? Here
are a few tips…
Sales
- Make sure your candidate has sold a product that
has the same sales cycle that you have.
Don't hire a base-hitter when you need a home-run guy
or vice versa.
- Make sure the candidate has carried a
quota and is comfortable with hitting the
numbers.
- If you have an inside sales job, hire an
inside sales person; if an outside job, hire an
outside person. These two usually don't cross.
- Look to see that the candidate has been
in an environment that is fairly similar to yours. If
you're a start-up, you may not want that IBM guy
– the cultures are just too different.
Marketing
- Look for matching skill set but not necessarily
matching product set (i.e., you can hire a product
manager who has launched enterprise products for your
web-based applications – skill set is the
same).
- Look for good writing and communication
skills – this is a must – and they
don't necessarily have to be in your industry.
- Look for instances where the marketer has been
in the same environment as your company, be it
start-up or mature market.
Remember Two Things – Smart
and Gut!
Above all, look for smart and trust your
gut! Smart people will pick up product knowledge
fast. They'll "click into" your company and your
culture. They'll instinctively know what to do to make
the transition and segue their skillset into your
company.
And, as far as your gut is concerned, trust in
the "Wisdom of Mick"…
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometimes you just might find,
You get what you need…
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