Sales and Recruiting 2.0

There is a new buzz phrase being tossed about in the market by a few vendors, analysts and industry pundits: Sales 2.0. With all of the chatter over the last few years about “Web 2.0” I was sucked right in when I first read about it. Turns out it’s quite simple – it’s a combination of applying Web 2.0 concepts and technologies along with sales strategy and execution that is in direct alignment. The approach can be directly applied to both sales and recruiting in our market. So what is it?

• It’s about sales and recruiting not being able to be in front of their prospects as easily in this day and age – or even as a requirement at all – and leveraging technology to make the experience more personal.
• using email in creative ways to generate demand, interest, or drive traction with prospects (clients or candidates),
• integrating your database and CRM with your website to fuel more targeted experiences, displaying and capturing more dynamic content,
• tracking every interaction and having visibility to every activity to make better sales and recruiting decisions,
• at a higher level, leveraging blogs and other technologies to differentiate you and your firm and attract prospects.

This is great news for anyone using Bullhorn. If the above is the essence of Sales 2.0 – then Recruiters and Sales Pros using Bullhorn are living in Sales and Recruiting 3.0! The staffing and recruiting market pushes the limits on Sales and CRM like no other niche as far I can see. Techniques and technologies that are just starting to show up on the desks of our peers in other markets have been fueling our day to day for years.

I recently listened to a point solution vendor pitch me on their “Sales 2.0 optimized solution”. After a few minutes he paused and asked me for feedback. “Sounds like 1999 to me.”, was all I had for him. The truth is I’m spoiled. We get to use Bullhorn to sell Bullhorn. Bullhorn’s integration into our Marketing Engine, seamless lead tracking, direct marketing empowerment, sales activity management and measurement, integrated groupware, configurability, etc. etc. etc. help make my sales team one of the most efficient and effective I’ve ever had the pleasure to manage. Have you optimized your Bullhorn for CRM and Sales and Recruiting 3.0? Can your existing non-Bullhorn environment get you to Sales and Recruiting 3.0? Ask yourself these questions:

• Can you see everything you need to know to have an intelligent business conversation with your client or candidate with just a click?
• Can you develop recruiting and sales campaigns based on segmentation/organization of your database that will drive calls (inbound our outbound) to your team that have higher odds of converting to revenue than just hitting the phones?
• Can you tell me what your best source of candidates is? Based on ROI? Based on Revenue? Based on number of placements?
• At any given client can you tell me which contacts came in through your website and which didn’t? (without any data entry to make it possible)
• When you update a field in your database, does it automatically update content on your website? (Not just jobs – almost any field)
• Can your prospects or candidates interact with you on your website, and can you track it?

If your answer to the above list of questions is, “Yes, and so much more.”, then I know your using Bullhorn and leveraging it – probably crushing your competition as a result. If you can’t say that – then give my sales team a call, challenge us to prove it. We do it every day – using Bullhorn.