J Patrick + Associates Blog

When the U.S. economy crashed in 2007, much of corporate America went into a spending freeze.  The Information Technology, security, and audio/visual (A/V) industries were especially impacted.  Today, the IT and U.S. economy as a whole appear to be on the rebound with industry pundits suggesting consumer confidence is back, especially after a strong second quarter that has economists believing we will close 2014 on solid footing. In fact, the gross domestic product expanded at a higher than expected 4 percent annual rate after shrinking to just 2.1 percent in the first quarter. Consumer spending, which amounts to two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, grew by 2.5 percent, another sure sign that the U.S. economic picture is improving.

Security, A/V, and telecommunications services are just a few of the industry sectors that are beginning to capitalize on the increased flow of consumer dollars. Confidence and competitiveness are returning to the market as evidenced by the large number of mergers and acquisitions that have occurred during this year alone. Companies are expanding in new directions, and the smarter ones have or are acquiring firms with the additional expertise needed to grow in new areas. For example, Carousel Industries, which integrates and manages a wide range of technology solutions, unified its A/V and video conferencing services after acquiring OmniPresence, an A/V integrator. And all signs indicate that confidence will remain high in this sector for the foreseeable future.

Market improvement has caused business leaders to once again resume spending on research and development (R&D) of new products and services. Spending on industrial equipment is also on the rise, as businesses look to upgrade infrastructure and core networks while maintaining A/V and improve security.

More private sector companies are hiring IT professionals to oversee the purchase and installation of new projects and these critical upgrades. Companies are broadening their service offerings, switching from interconnects to PBX and changing the way they communicate with themselves and others – adding display and A/V equipment for sales, meetings, presentations, and collaborations while updating security, wireless local area networks (LANs), structured cabling and low voltage power.  As more organizations incorporate A/V into sales, the market has barely kept up with the demand for experts specializing in A/V installers, project managers and lead installers.

If you are an IT professional looking for work in the aforementioned sectors, J. Patrick & Associates wants to hear from you. With over 20 years of executive recruiting experience, J. Patrick & Associates has the resources to connect you with the right organization. Click here to contact a representative and get started in the recruiting process today.

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When your organization needs to quickly source multiple candidates across multiple disciplines and even multiple geographic markets, securing the services of a specialty firm has clear advantages.  An experienced recruiter has a long track record of success doing just this for numerous clients.  Now, you are probably thinking (correctly) that using a recruiter to fill multiple positions will net you a discount on a per hire basis. Yes, this is true, and not to be understated. However, the requirements of a hiring firm that needs to fill several positions nearly simultaneously to facilitate, say a major expansion in to a new geographic market, are considerably more complex.  Understanding these dynamics is JP&A’s bread and butter.  Let’s look a bit further and see how a specialty recruiting firm can offer you both lower costs and speed to market, without sacrificing quality.

Stressed out Internal HR Systems

We’ve blogged about the increased pressure on the HR department in a typical mid-sized IT firm before.  Your labor resources continue to shrink while demands continue to pile up in both hiring and other core HR functions.  Now, you have to find and onboard a whole raft of new-hires.  In the case of a single hire, you’d already need to commit valuable internal resources to sorting through dozens or hundreds of resumes from job seekers.  Now magnify that by an order of 10, or even 20.  After all, it stands to reason that to hire more people, you’ll need to be looking at a much larger pool of candidates.  A specialist recruiting firm like JP&A can take this off your plate, allowing you to allocate internal resources to other mission-critical tasks.  Now let’s compound volume with time constraints.  Say your firm could search through an immense pool of candidates.  Could you still expect to find the best potential hires within a tight timeframe?  Your firm is better off engaging a firm like JP&A, which is already prepared and positioned to do the legwork for you.  Then, after screening and interviewing, you choose from only the top candidates available.

Benefits of a Specialist Firm

What does a firm like JP&A bring to the fight?  Here are a few of the key factors effecting the hiring cycle for which a specialty firm had already developed a process:

• Identifying Sources of Candidates: JP&A sources the available applicant pool using traditional sources of candidates but also leveraging a continually growing proprietary database that gives us unique reach into a reservoir of new potential hires with focused, specific skill sets that meet your needs.  Our track record is a testament to the fact that we access the right candidates, and place them when and where our clients need them.  In fact, many of our former job seekers are now in hiring positions.  We didn’t just help them get hired, we built lasting relationships and now, when they need both quality and speed - many of them turn to JP&A.

• The Hiring Calendar: JP&A is ready and able to meet your target dates. Responsiveness, agility and dedication are fundamental and inherent in everything we do.  Securing a firm to provision multiple hires requires a commitment.  In order to facilitate your success, we are prepared to dedicate our firm’s resources to a time commitment that far exceeds that required by other, single-hire recruiting processes.
• Market Insight: JP&A has been around nearly two decades. Over this time, we have developed a clear vision of the IT business environment and workforce landscape; not only as they stand today, but where the industry is heading in the future. Trust us to know the hiring and job requirements in your industry,  helping you find the right candidates for your mission-critical positions, and ensuring your business is poised to meet the larger requirements of an evolving business environment.

Opportunity is a fleeting thing.  If you’re not in position to take advantage of it, it will pass you by. Don’t sacrifice speed, quality, or cost. When you need to find the most qualified candidates to fill key positions, it’s time to consider a firm with proven expertise and resources, like J. Patrick & Associates, to provide the winning outcome your business demands.

We've had a lot of demand lately for highly skilled sales reps from our Valued-Added Reseller/ Systems Integrator (VAR/SI) clients.  Not only are they expanding their sales teams, but they are also experiencing turnover from competitive pressure and the (predictable) lower quintile under-performers changing teams before they get canned.

Sales Manager hiring for Unified Communications sales people are looking for a variety of skills.  In many ways UC is still selling network infrastructure, but instead of the value being "strong, faster, more secure", sales reps are pushing the business transformation story, i.e. they're selling an application that will change the way you do business through interaction within firms, and with customers, partners, vendors, etc.

So which is it?  Do you need a Telecom sales rep who has led his sales with network services, or an equipment guy where telco connectivity is "not his bag"?  Or are they looking for an applications software sales rep, who has handle complex sales with multiple decision-makers on mulit-year product and services deals?  Or do they want a salesman from an channel partner, or consulting firm who has sold integration, professional services, or managed services?

Naturally, the answer is yes, yes, yes and yes.  Our clients tell us that their Unified Communications offerings can be sold from a variety of angles, and so the sales reps who can adapt quickly, adjust to new market demand and who have overcome the usual barriers to sales success are going to be hired into this burgeoning market.

Sales management wants good sales "blocking and tackling" more than ever. A good track record of quota achievement, good sales tactics (and oftentimes requiring some type of structured sales methodology experience, if not in fact training like Miller-Heiman, TAS or SPIN Selling) as well as high-performance, low-maintenance mentality are the elements most in demand. And these requirements are particularly crucial in a virtual office situation, where managers see their sales reps infrequently.  So skills such as strong use of CRM, pipeline/funnel forecasts and sales activity reporting are must-haves for technology vendors and reseller sales teams.  If you look at our current Sales and Pre-Sales Engineering searches, you will see that again and again.

Aggregate demand for sales reps is accelerating as generational technology change in the form of Unified Communications deployments are happening.  Corporate America is sitting on a ton of cash and needs to deploy it wisely, to compete and thrive.  

If you are an outstanding sales rep with characteristic we've discussed here, let us know!

Time to get started on the next big technology sales opportunity!

In another encouraging sign for hiring demand for Information Technology candidates, I have seen multiple examples of Sales Engineering managers loosening their requirements for new hires, and looking outside their traditional talent sources for exceptional candidates.

A number of recent searches have cropped up where companies hiring sales engineers have been asking for candidates outside of traditional pre-sales support roles, such as post-sales account manager, project managers, and product delivery/implementation types.  Even technical trainers and some sales reps with the required technical depth.   This openness means that hiring managers are exhausting the pool of available strong candidates, many of whom have simply withdrawn from interviewing for new jobs because they are making or exceeding their sales targets (and the accompanying commissions) and have a strong pipeline of sales prospects for quarter-end/year-end sales accelerators (where the scores can really change!) as well as for Q1 2012.

A window of opportunity has opened for external and internal candidates in highly-technical customer-facing roles to leverage the mix of technical depth and personal communication skills and land a lucrative Sales Engineering position, even from outside of a particular firm.

If you are looking to make a transition into Sales Engineering but don't know where to start, check out our Sales Engineer Jobs page.  Our Telecommunications, Applications, Information Security and Systems Integrator customers are hiring aggressively, and I foresee this trend continuing. 

Just make certain that you have a strong technical base in the product or services area that the hiring firm when you apply.  Technical and market domain knowledge, as well as a strong personal presence, and communications skills (for product demos, webinar, presentations, RFPs, etc.) are the ingredients for successful Sales Engineer.

Good luck!

Dan Sullivan

Check out all our current available Sales Engineer Jobs by clicking here.  

Also look at our recent Sales Engineer placements here. 

We are excited to announce that our friend Ilissa Miller has launched her own agency, introducing iMiller Public Relations (iMPR).  Daniel Sullivan introduced Ilissa to the telecom arena, and helped launch her fifteen year career as a proven leading tastemaker in the industry.  

Ilissa provides a different perspective than your average marketing consultant by filling the need specifically for the telecom industry to every integrated marketing aspect of a company. The key differentiator in Ilissa’s business acumen is that she has a proven insight and understanding of the telecom industry. She calls herself “a translator” between technical speak and business speak with the ability to break down the telecom industry and build it up through marketing that everyone can understand.  

"This is such an exciting endeavor for me.  I truly love what I do," Ilissa Miller, CEO iMPR says, "Couple that with relationships that run deep and far, it is both heartwarming and exciting to create this new venture that can provide the strategic vision that many telecom and IT marketing departments need.  Our goal at iMPR is to deliver our clients messages in the most effective and broadest ways possible."

iMPR is more than just public relations, it’s your outsourced partner for PR, marketing and business strategy that will get your business noticed and heard.  Newly founded in 2011 by Ilissa Miller, a telecommunications industry veteran, iMPR offers industry insight to help propel your messages, brand and products to the next level.  With clients like Global Capacity and FiberMedia, her new venture is expected to grow exponentially in the coming year.  

Key areas of service include the development of a comprehensive and strategic marketing communications plan that encompasses press releases, case studies, media outreach, speaking opportunities, award submissions and social media outreach.  With your core communications effectively deployed, your marketing efforts will fall in place.  Your messages will be integrated throughout your entire organization from your website to sell sheets, brochures, advertising campaigns, promotions and implemented at tradeshows, conferences, corporate events and beyond.

Ilissa is located in the New York City metro area, but has clients stretching from London to California.

Looking for this kind of service for your company?
Contact:
Ilissa Miller
CEO, iMiller Public Relations
email: ilissa@imillerpr.com
office: 1 866 307 2510