| Marketing for any enterprise level technology tends | | | | Find Features that you know will make you more |
| to follow a common formula. The product sales team | | | | efficient |
| will generally stress "powerful" features, showcase | | | | The point of buying applicant tracking software is to |
| high-profile clients and emphasize simple integration. | | | | make your recruiting staff more efficient at recruiting. |
| While these sales principles ring true for many | | | | Our test recruiter went into the buying process |
| industries, they are often more stringently applied to | | | | looking for specific features that experience showed |
| enterprise software products. Recently, I attended a | | | | would make recruiting easier. One of the biggest |
| group sales presentation from several vendors in the | | | | headaches he had faced during his career was closing |
| applicant tracking software industry. During the event | | | | the loop with candidates. His company required high |
| each company presented their product using | | | | volume searches and his personal standards dictated |
| PowerPoint slides to walk through their products. As I | | | | that he would have to send thank you letters to |
| closed my eyes and listened to the speakers, each | | | | each candidate in the pipeline. This conundrum had led |
| presentation ran together into an amorphous cloud of | | | | to a significant amount of time being applied to emails |
| hollow marketing lingo and statements worn out by | | | | not directly related to finding the best candidate for |
| years of repeated use during sales calls. During the | | | | each position. In the purchasing process he |
| event a sinking feeling began to set in. How are | | | | intentionally targeted vendors that offered a solution |
| potential customers supposed to differentiate | | | | to his longtime problem. One of the applicant tracking |
| between these products and formulate a purchasing | | | | software vendors offered push button automated |
| preference? Fortunately, I was seated next to a | | | | emails that insured he could still professionally close |
| corporate recruiter who was in the final stages of | | | | the loop with candidate while spending more time on |
| the decision process. Here is some insider anecdotal | | | | higher level prospects. |
| research he offered up during the networking event | | | | Look for features that open your eyes |
| that followed. | | | | Our recruiter's biggest piece of advice was perhaps |
| Litmus Test the Features that peak your interest | | | | his most obvious; keep your eyes open for useful |
| When it came to examining product features, our | | | | feature that you may have never thought about. |
| test recruiter had some invaluable information. During | | | | One applicant tracking software vendor highlighted |
| the course of several sales presentations he put | | | | their automated equal employment opportunity |
| together a select list of the features that peaked his | | | | compliance feature. The system basically captured |
| interest. One vendor mentioned recruiting analytics to | | | | reasons for each time they decided to pass on a |
| help analyze inefficiencies in the recruiting process. | | | | candidate and it also generated an automatic report |
| While the recruiter was familiar with status reports, | | | | matching the EEOC standards. While my new |
| the visual analytics seemed to offer a new dimension | | | | recruiting friend had experience with spreadsheet |
| to examining the recruiting funnel. In order to test | | | | tracking for EEO compliance, he was the first to |
| the value of the analytics feature, he decided to | | | | admit that the in-house records were not very |
| place a quick phone call to some of the company's | | | | organized or up to date. The EEO Tracking feature |
| clients to see if they had positive feedback on the | | | | offered a benefit to a problem that he had never |
| product and more specifically the recruiting analytics | | | | faced, an EEOC audit. While his team had never been |
| feature. Sure enough, one user was quick to report | | | | audited in the past, the feature would provide some |
| that the analytics feature had helped them improve | | | | serious peace of mind in the event that the EEOC |
| their recruiting funnel by providing visual information | | | | came knocking at his door. |
| about a process bottleneck involving a hiring manager. | | | | Walking away from the event I learned that often |
| Once the HR team was able to show the hiring | | | | times industry experience is the best weapon for |
| manager a visual graph of the unnecessary time he | | | | selecting the proper applicant tracking software. |
| was adding to the recruiting process, the hiring | | | | During a long career in the hiring industry you learn |
| manager improved his response time dramatically. | | | | certain truths about the process. Look for products |
| This testimonial evidence helped convince our test | | | | that address the need of a corporate recruiter. If the |
| recruiter that the feature did in fact add value to the | | | | software is made by recruiters, even better. Either |
| process and was not merely an extra set of bling to | | | | way, bounce your choices off of someone with |
| help sell the product. | | | | experience and you are sure to come out on top. |