Nimsoft Seeking Talent, Talking at Financial Conferences
In Read's blog he mentions the current open posts at Nimsoft:
- VP Sales - Americas
- Dir/VP Eastern Region Sales
- Multiple Field Sales positions, and inside sales positions both in the US and Europe
- MSP specialist Account Manager
Nimsoft CEO Gary Read says one of his biggest challenges right now is finding talent to fill key company positions. Read isn’t alone. Many other managed service platform providers and business automation specialists have expressed similar needs to me.
In Read’s blog he mentions the current open posts at Nimsoft:
- VP Sales – Americas
- Dir/VP Eastern Region Sales
- Multiple Field Sales positions, and inside sales positions both in the US and Europe
- MSP specialist Account Manager
- SE Director
- Sales Operations
Also within the blog, Read mentions that he recently spoke at an investor conference hosted by JMP Securities. This seems to be a growing trend. As I mentioned yesterday, mindSHIFT Technologies (a fast-growing MSP) is presenting at a Capital Connection investor conference this week in Baltimore.
Ultimately, MSP platform providers seem to be in a race to find talent as they also gear up for potential IPOs (initial public offerings) or other financial moves in 2009 or beyond.
It is one of the hardest things in my opinion – to grow a business by hiring the right people.
For better or for worse we at Backup Technology have taken a very distinct track on this important issue. We have chosen to grow our own. Since 04 we have hired bright young 20/30 somethings on both the technical and sales aside. We train them to death and expect big things. Luck and timing play a big part.
So far so good. We have 100% retention (on the ones we want to keep).
This feels so much better than hiring experienced sales hacks who have BIG COMPANY experience which in our world counts for nil. On the tech side we want people to embrace a massive shift from tape to online backup – its much easier if they know nothing of tape and see it as the old school devil.
Replicating this over and over is the challenge – but we are ready for it.
Simon
Backup Technology Limited
Simon: One of my proudest achievements during the dot-com boom was maintaining 97 percent staff retention at a media brand I was running. You accurately point out that retention (of the folks you “want” to keep) is just as important as finding the right people.
And it’s not always about money. Sometimes, people are willing to earn less if they can live — and learn — much much.
Absolutely agree. We have very high retention rates throughout the company, and a lot of this is non-compensation related. We foster an incredible sense of team, and friendly competitiveness within the organization. The individuals that work at Nimsoft are building friendships with their colleagues that will last them well beyond their tenure here.
We invest a lot of money on training/education in the form of meetings that also build the team work and motivation. Last year we took almost the entire company to Spain for our “Fall Push”, the year before Miami, and this year we’re off to New Orleans.
Having highly trained, highly motivated and team oriented people makes a tremendous difference to the customer experience.
We have tried “growing our own” talent but to be honest, we’re not that good at it. Part of it is simply the velocity of the company – the growth rates that we are trying to achieve combined with the relative complexity of our “space”. This is an area that we need to improve at.
We recently won Best Places to Work in the Bay Area award, so we’re not doing badly.
Anyone had any experience with hiring an in-house recruiter?
Gary, Our best “in house” recruiter was a guy in marketing whose best friend was director of alumni relations at a local university. Alumni Relations directors are a great resource for finding any level of talent (entry level through executive) because they are in touch with the school’s board, the major donors, the recent graduates and so on. When we need to fill positions (we’re a 220 person organization) one of the first calls we make is to that director of alumni relations.
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