What is
CRM? If I buy CRM software will I be a better recruiter?
Should recruiting software have CRM features? Do recruiting
software vendors include CRM in
their
product?
I think CRM is a lot of
smoke created by some very good marketing people who could
sell ice to Eskimos.
A common definition
for CRM is “The process of using information to find, secure
and keep customers. The people, events, and questions
associated with marketing, sales, and service”. Yikes! I
thought that is what recruiting is?
Why am I on such a soap box?
Because I talk to about 50 different recruiters and
recruitment firm owners a week and every once in a while I get
asked does this software contain CRM. A few years back when
the question was asked I was at a loss for words. I had no
idea what they were talking about. I was terribly concerned
that after 25 years in the recruiting industry putting in 10
hours a day seven days a week I had completely missed
something and an entire process went right over my head.
So I went to work reading
and studying everything I could find on CRM and came to the
conclusion that CRM and recruiting software are one and the
same. If your recruiting software does not have the
characteristics defined by CRM then you do not have recruiting
software.
First of all, who are the
customers of an executive recruiter? Candidates and clients
are! As any recruiter knows the product of a recruiter is also
the customer, the candidate, one unique characteristic of the
recruiting industry.
Let’s go back to that CRM
definition above. “The process of using information to find,
secure and keep customers”. Your recruiting software must be
used to find and track candidates and clients. Once found the
software has to keep them available to you through periodic
contact.
Next, “The people, events
and questions associated with marketing, sales and service”.
Ok, if your recruiting software cannot help you market to
different demographics of clients and candidates then why are
you using it? What are you using to market to clients and
candidates? Do you have a separate system for this? Do you
have a separate database for marketing to clients, a separate
database for marketing to candidates? Do candidates sometimes
become clients? Do clients sometimes become candidates? Is
candidate John Smith repeated in the client Database and then
again in a separate marketing system? How silly these
questions are! If you answer yes to any of the above I suggest
you reconsider your whole approach to recruiting. And if you
have this separation how in the world are you ever going to
keep track of the events and questions? Perhaps if they are
all separate I can sell you business idiot consolidation
software that will pull all these desperate systems together
for you.
So I will answer the leading
questions. If I buy CRM software will I be a better recruiter?
No, because you’re an idiot for having recruiting software that is not also CRM. Should recruiting software have CRM features? Of course, CRM and recruiting software are one and the same thing. Do recruiting software vendors include CRM in their product? Yes, if they don’t they are not a recruiting software vendor.
