eCommerce & SaaS Hyper-Growth – Roles you need to hire in-house ASAP!

eCommerce & SaaS Hypergrowth - Roles you need to hire in-house ASAP!

After working in eCommerce/SAAS environments both as an in house recruiter and agency recruiter, I have seen a lot. I have seen failure and success, and I attribute it 100% to hiring strategies. So you have an amazing technology or products for sale…now it’s time to hire the infrastructure to make your organization grow and scale to that next level!

#1 is MARKETING: At one eCommerce company, I saw tremendous growth when I hired an ex-President of one of the stronger ad agencies to come on board as a CMO. We obviously, as a startup, could not afford a typical CMO salary, so we were able to put together an equity, bonus and compensation package that intrigued the move. This CMO changed the nature of our marketing strategy which enabled crazy growth. A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a crucial hire and needs to be focused on almost immediately. Allow the CMO to invest in PPC, eMail & CRM, SEO & Social strategies. This is very important.

*Trick to hire these people: Taking them out of ad agency settings is always ideal. They are usually paid less then brand side at the agency and really have a desire to get to brand side too. A lot of agency candidates are highly motivated to get into a start up too!

#2 is SALES: First start by hiring a very strong Sales Manager that has a mentor type personality. Someone who understands KPI’s, CRM, sales strategy and is very hands on. Someone who is not afraid to jump on calls and can teach the “close”. Do not hire the aggressive intense, red face sales guru - the decline in morale and culture is soon to come when these guys are on board.

Everyone wants a cold calling inside sales team. Especially in the beginning, to draw in revenue ASAP. We target people willing to make next to nothing with a crazy strong commission program and promises of grandeur to increase output. This model creates high turnover and sometimes can hurt the culture of your company almost immediately. The most ideal situation to make this work is to turn on lead generation marketing efforts and get your sales reps to start closing on leads vs making 100% cold calls. Make sure to have a CRM in place, goals, scripts and contact data. Without this, Sales Reps will not be efficient or successful.

*Trick to hire: Hire Sales reps by doing college campus recruiting. It’s a great place to find amazing talent that is not discovered yet. Save on recruiting fees and just hire a mentor type manager who will teach grads to do sales. Don’t just hire someone that was already in sales, paid a $28k/$30K base salary and is looking to leave due to XY&Z or else they will be looking to leave you too.

#3 TECHNOLOGY: I sometimes think of this as #1, since without the right tech in place, your company probably cannot even exist. I list it as #3 since most companies founders in eCommerce start by hiring a company to create the technology, application or website and then focus on building a company around it. I think hiring an in house CTO who has a strong hands on development background is crucial for any SAAS or eCommerce organization. You need someone that understands the code and really can figure out if your development and tech teams are doing it right. Too many times CTO’s are hired without a coding and development background, which can be a huge problem if you don’t have a strong internal development and coding team already in place. A lot of co-founders are the technology backbone of the company, so make sure to build a team of developers and analysts under you to ensure your scaling your company’s technology.  Hire individuals coming from big companies who are looking for a more entrepreneurial setting, I find these tech gurus to be the best and most motivated.

*Tech candidates make a lot of money. Before you go and hire a developer, figure out exactly the experience you need and understand that anyone working at a big company in a development role will probably be looking for $80K-$100K+ to move. If this is out of budget, hire someone 1-2 years out of college, with 6 months or so of eCommerce/SAAS experience… they will be closer to the $60K-$70K salary range.

#4 OPERATIONS:  A Strong Admin or Operations Manager can make your life so much easier. You have to do payroll, pay invoices, inventory, clean the office, get food for the sales floor, plan events, etc. etc. etc. There are too many odd ball things to do in a day, and without a solid operations team, you will go insane. Make sure to start off with a right hand “man” so to speak. Hire a high level Admin who can really handle an operations type job. These people will make your office run very smooth.

*Hire individuals that are coming from very stressful, fast paced situations. They will be able to handle the crazy growth that happens in a start up office and not get freaked out when the work load doubles as your company grows. Candidates coming from light industrial, distribution, logistics, law firms and the like are great to hire. They can handle crazy insane situations as if it were an everyday normal occasion. Do not be afraid to hire older operational people – I personally think they are the best, both in admin and operation management roles.

#5 PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: This is my favorite hire. I love hiring individuals who are in charge of merchandise (in settings of eCommerce merchandising) or technology (SAAS environment). These people are smart, operationally savvy, understand marketing, sales, technology, software and systems and is able to tie all the layers together. They are great with customers, understand strategy and really are the people that make your client and customer support team look good.

*The Trick to hire: Make sure to hire individuals who are already working with a product or technology similar to yours, so the learning curve is minimal. These roles need to be individuals who understand your product or technology so well that they are the smartest person in the room when it comes to your product. These hires take time, but are well worth it.

All of the above hires are crucial, and yes there are other roles, but focusing on these 5 areas can take your company to a whole new level. Make sure to you have someone in place that can focus on interviewing and dedicating time to recruitment. Without Human Capital, companies would not exist. For any hard to find hire, make sure to use a contingency recruiting firm. If you want to hire the best or compare the applications you have to others, it is ideal to have a recruiter making cold calls and presenting your company and opportunity to the best talent already in a job doing exactly what you need to be done. Posting a job ad and hoping to god that applicants will flood in, just isn’t smart. We need to be proactive in every element of building a company - recruiting needs to be a focus at all times.

The Perfect Interview Process Timeline - 5 TIPS

The Perfect Interview Process Timeline - 5 TIPS

The perfect interview process really depends on the role and the complexity of the position. In the eCommerce,  SaaS & Digital Marketing world, among many other industries, the interview process is crucial for success! I like to base the timeline to hire off of salary/level of role. For roles that pay under $40,000 per year, hiring processes should be about 1-2 weeks. For roles that are $40K-100K, ideally 2-3 weeks. $100K+ roles, typically 3-6 weeks. Here are 5 tips:

1. Some candidates who are more passive in the job search, make sure not to scare them off with trying to interview and hire within a week. This can be a huge red flag in the candidate’s mind.

2. Make sure to check references after the first in person interview if there is interest. Reference checking can clear many of our concerns fairly quickly.

3. “A strong candidate that has the desirable skill set is like an ice sculpture in 90 degree weather”, Brian Binke, one of the largest managers in construction recruitment nationwide. If you wait too long, they will melt away- because another company will hire them or they will lose interest in a company that is stalling when they know how solid their experience is.

4. Make sure to understand salary expectations and figure out where the candidate is in the interview process with other companies. You may lose out on a candidate if they get hired before you finish your process. Candidate transparency is key.

5. Make sure Managers allow time throughout the week to interview. The biggest pain is scheduling! We need managers to really work around the candidates schedule, since most top candidates are currently employed and really need managers to be flexible so they can actually interview without the candidate's current employer being suspicious.

5 Tough Questions to Ask Candidates

5 Tough Questions to Ask Candidates

Asking the tough questions produces the best candidates at the end of the interview process. Don’t be in fear of asking the hard questions. Its all about your company and hiring the best; a bad hire could cost too much of a loss culturally, monetarily as well as emotionally.

1. Is it about the effort or the result? Those who focus on the effort, are not looking for results and are thereby, more interested to show someone they can do everything under the sun but when it comes to results, its NOT their fault if they cant produce…since they are doing X,Y and Z. We need result oriented individuals.

2. How would you describe the Sun to a Blind Person? This question really helps with understanding the candidate’s creativity, communication and putting the candidate on the “spot” to see how they think on their toes.

3. Accomplishments? They have been working for 3-5 years and they cant list a real solid accomplishment? Hmmm….well, I think its safe to say you don’t just need someone with a pulse, rather someone that can actually make things more efficient, create new streams of revenue, has the ability to be promoted quickly due to taking on more responsibilities, etc. Don’t ever settle for someone that is just average, hire the smartest & best and surround your organization with talent that makes a difference.

4. Digging into reasons for leaving: If you are hiring a Sales Rep who bounced jobs every 1-2 years, figure out the why. Dig in…don’t take the answer “ mutual decision” and “layoff”, figure out what happened. There was a layoff? What happened internally with the company, was there a financial problem? Howe many others got laid off? Was it just that candidate in a large 500+ employee company? Hmmmm…….be smart and really search for the true answers. Ask if they would get a positive reference from their former manager. How many times have we hired the job jumper and we now clearly see the reason why they never worked out…don’t be fooled by simplistic candidate answers!

Why are you looking to make a change? Everyone is going to tell you, “for growth”. But sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. If a receptionist applies to a receptionist role, how much growth is there actually going to be. We need to expand on it and really figure out the true reason for these individuals to be looking. Sometimes we all waste our time interviewing candidates who get to the end of the interview process and decide not to leave their current employer since they are actually happy and this role is just a “lateral move”. What happened? What is really the true reason for these people to go on an interview in the first place!? Figure out where they are compensation wise and where they need to be, align where they see themselves in 5 years with this potential role. Really make sure it all makes sense, because if it doesn’t, I can guarantee you, these candidates will decline the offer, take the job and leave, or take the job and you realize they are bad at what they do and that is why they decided to leave their former role thinking the same role will actually be different in a new company.

4 tricks for Recruiting the non-job-jumpers!

4 tricks for Recruiting the non-job-jumpers!

We need to constantly hire the best talent, and usually these talented individuals are not the most active job seekers, which makes it tricky to “hunt” them for your open position. If an employee is doing a kick butt job, and is compensated well for it, why would they ever leave? Here are four key things to consider when going after the stable professional, those who have been with their company for 7,8,9 or 10+ years….

1. Understand who they are: They get recruiter calls all the time, so if you are preparing to email or call a potential candidate, make sure you really look into their resume and profile, see what they have done and get a feel for their career path. These individuals will only switch jobs if it makes 110% sense to do so. They need to feel confident you understand the industry, their resume and what the right next step in a job would be.

2. Pay Increases: These individuals who have been stable are usually people that are paid very well  or on the rare occasion severely underpaid but unbeknownst to them since they are so out of touch with the job market and what others are paid due to them being happy and not actively interviewing in years. Pay will play a big role in defining a job jump for them. If a candidate is making $100K now and you offer $120K, that extra $20K + the potential bonus you are offering, can really be enticing. Do not offer these individuals roles at the same level with the same pay they are at now…who wants to leave a stable situation for an unknown at the same pay!

3. Sell the Opportunity: Do not hold back…once these individuals are on the phone, they need to feel like everything aligns. You need to sell the opportunity…. Differentiators about your company, your success stories, the ability to grow, the benefits, work/life balance, culture, executive team, management style, etc. You need to make it seem like it would be insane not to interview for this potential role.  Have this spiel planned out and ready to go. Do not forgot what message you are trying to create about the company. Type it out and bullet point it – this will be crucial, as we only have one chance to sell a candidate on the opportunity. Although you will have screening questions to ask to really make sure they fit what you are looking to hire, there needs to be a balance throughout the whole interview process of screening and selling the candidate on the job.

4. Take it SLOW! These candidates are not in a rush and if they feel rushed to make a decision they will back out. Make sure to check in with the candidates throughout the process and make sure they are comfortable and excited to move forward. Take time and do not rush the interview process where they need to make a decision within 1 week of the first interview. Allow the interview process to take about 2.5-3 weeks, so the candidates feel like they have time to really come to a decision. If you make them feel rushed, they will think the opportunity is either unstable or being forced upon them.  Really act as their hand holding HR partner throughout the process so they feel taken care of.

Empowered Staffing's Recruiting Expertise

Empowered Staffing's Recruiting Expertise

Empowered Staffing connects the fastest growing companies within the digital marketing, eCommerce, SaaS/Tech, manufacturing & healthcare space with the top talent they need! We are committed to finding new and creative ways to attracting the best talent to fit your needs!

The success of your company is all about the people you hire. Empowered staffing finds the talent that not only has the skill set but fits the environment and culture of your organization.

We focus on what our clients want in a candidate and only send them the talent that matches their criteria.

We have worked with some of the biggest names in the digital advertising space along with huge retailers, eCommerce & SaaS/Tech companies. Our clients range from 10-1000 plus people and VC backed startups as well. A lot of our clients have been with us since the beginning because they know we get them the results they need in their most crucial times.  It is our priority to create long lasting partnerships with our clients by giving them the personal attention they deserve!

• Empowered Staffing focuses on contingency recruiting

• We work with VC funded Startups to Fortune 1000's

• 95% of our clients have come back after the first time they worked with us for their hiring needs

• We have placed over $50 million dollars in salaries in the last three years