I’m an HR Pro. Have you ever wondered what that really means? Like what images come to mind when someone says, “I’m an HR Pro”? My guess is for most people outside of HR it’s probably a combination of: hiring/recruiting, training, employee related paperwork, payroll, discipline, rule maker, party planner, community relations, therapist, etc. And if you’ve been in HR for a while – you’ll recognize all of these roles.
But I think there’s one role that nobody would typically jump to picture us as, and we don’t picture ourselves as – but in my estimation, it’s a role that we spend the majority of our time in: salesman.
“OMG – Tim – I hate Salesman – I went into HR so I would never have to be in Sales – I’m an HR Pro – I’m NOT a Salesperson!” -says the collective readership of FOT all at the same time…
Okay, I hear you, but let me clarify – if you’re good at HR – the majority of the time you spend is as a Salesman. (Oh, that made it better!) Here’s the key though – I’m not talking Used-Car-Crazy-Saleslady-at-Chicos-Televangelist Sales – I’m talking about sales in the way a teacher sells an idea, your pastor sells a belief, or a coach sells a goal. We tend to have this belief (In America BTW – it’s not the same throughout the world) that selling is negative – and that the process of selling is at best a suspension of the truth.
But in HR, we sell – no wait, let me take that back – in HR the great HR Pros sell. And here’s what we sell:
- I sell to a candidate why my company is better than my competition.
- I sell to my employees why our company is a great place to work.
- I sell to my executives why we should invest bottom-line dollars to develop our employees.
- I sell to my employees why staying at our company is the best thing for their career, for their family, for their life.
- I sell to my hiring managers, why the candidate I presented is the best fit for their position and for the culture of our company.
- I sell to my CFO why we need to pay our people more this year, to stay competitive within our market.
- I sell to the community our companies support, hoping it will lead to better perception and better hires.
- I sell to universities why they should push their graduates to our organization.
- I sell to my executives why we need to invest in a suite of HRIS systems to better manage the performance of our workforce, to get more productivity and eventually more profit/margin.
- I sell to our union why they should give concessions in the contract, to help our organization survive and thrive.
When I was on the corporate side of HR – I spent 90% of my week selling. I was like a walking infomercial through the halls of the organization. Many nights when I got home from work, I felt as if I’d been running for mayor all day. From meeting to meeting, hallway showdowns, cafeteria handshakes, awkward bathroom replies, parking lot conversations… I was selling.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. Becuase that’s what I do. I’m an HR Pro… and I’m a Salesman. How about you?
If you Google “Tim Sackett” you’ll find our Tim, and a truck driver chaplain. Our Tim is NOT the truck driver chaplain, although how awesome would that be if he was!? He is a prolific writer in the HR and TA space who just happens to also run an Engineering and IT contract staffing agency (HRU Technical Resources) out of Michigan. He also writes every day at his own blog, the Tim Sackett Project. Weirdly, he’s known as an expert in workplace hugging, which was kind of cool years ago, but now seems painfully creepy, but we still love him and he’s fairly harmless. Tim is also on the board of the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals (ATAP), lifetime Michigan State Spartan fan, husband to a Hall of Fame wife, 3 sons, and his best friend Scout. He also wrote a book with SHRM called The Talent Fix, you can find it on Amazon.