I’ve done a few presentations titled something like, “HR Tech Buyers Guide”, “How to Buy HR Tech”, etc. The presentation is designed for HR and TA practitioners to help them become better buyers of HR Tech. To understand the crap that HR and TA Tech vendors do and say to get you to buy stuff you might not need, want, or will use.
The interesting thing about these presentations is that half the audience turns out to be the actual vendors themselves wanting to hear what it is I’m telling the real HR and TA leaders! It’s smart for the vendors. It helps make the better sellers as well. Well, at least some that actually listen!
Based on these interactions I decided to build a series of what has come out of interactions with the vendors themselves, aptly named “Notes to HR Tech Vendors”. Look I don’t alway have to be creative! Enjoy!
Notes to HR Tech Vendors #8 – If You Buy Today!
“If you buy today we can ensure you’ll be a part of the beta product for free, but if you wait, we’re going to be charging future buyers for that product.”
“If you buy today, we can wave the implementation fees.”
“If you buy today, I can give you the rest of this quarter for free. That’s two free months!”
“If you buy today, it’s $79 per user. I can only give you that today, next week it’ll be $99 per user.”
Look, Sparky. If I don’t buy today, and I buy next Wednesday I better still get the beta, and the two months, and the stupid t-shirt and any other crap you’re waving around to try and close me!
If you sell HR Tech like this, you suck! And not the cute, “Come on guys, you suck! #Winkyface”. It’s the “You Suck!” and hopefully bad things happen to you and everyone you know because you’re an awful person, suck!
I actually had this happen to me recently. Very good product and I definitely wanted to give it a try. The salesperson knows she has me very close to signing the deal, and then it happened. “Well, Tim, if you sign today, I’ll give you the last two weeks of the month for free!”
I said, “Thank you. I’ll let you know”, and hung up. She’s been trying to reach me almost daily since not understanding why I won’t return her messages, we were so close! Except then you did the worse sales pitch known to man, and now I hate you.
HR tech vendors stop doing this. If you’re willing to give a buyer two weeks for free, just tell them you’ll give them two weeks for free. If they buy tomorrow, or if they buy next Tuesday or next month! Also, we get your prices change, but if you are currently talking to me about $79 per user, that price better be good for a reasonable amount of time, like a minimum of 30 days at least.
HR tech buyers, if you feel like you’re being ‘forced’ to buy today! End the call. End the relationship. The company you’re dealing with is not a good company because good companies don’t sell this way. They don’t treat you like an idiot. They respect you and understand that you usually aren’t in a position to “Buy today”.
No one in HR Tech needs to be hard closing HR Pros. People’s careers are on the line for these buying decisions. It’s not something to hard sell them into. If they make a bad choice for their organization it could cost them their job. Ease up Boiler Room.