A Memo for HR Technology and SaaS Solution Buyers (Oops Did I Think That Out Loud #3)

Ever since I accidentally stumbled into the world of HR Technology Selection and Roadmap projects during my time at Deloitte, I have been buying, recommending, and building HR tech for the last 8+ years in various forms. Having managed a $30M+ HR vendor portfolio previously, I have seen my fair share of vendor-customer interactions. They range anywhere from “wow, that was a really tough but highly productive conversation” to “I’m going to turn my camera off because I’m cringing, and I don’t have a good poker face”.

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When it comes to relationships, partnerships, conflict resolution, etc. I borrow my views from a Chinese proverb that roughly translates to ‘you can’t clap with one hand’ (trust me, it sounds better in Mandarin!). In practice, this means that in any sales conversation / partnership, it takes both parties to create a pleasant (or poor) experience. Stated more bluntly: you, and not your sales or support team, may be the problem!

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So, in no particular order, here are some things that I think we, as buyers or decision influencers, can do better to have more productive conversations with our vendor partners:

• Please don’t Ghost; “No” is a valid response: This is an interesting one because I think it sets the tone for the rest of this article. Often, I come across HR leaders and function owners who are kind of interested in the solution but aren’t quite sure if their organization is ready for it yet. For whatever reason, instead of politely saying “no, thank you; not right now”, they choose to ghost the conversation afterwards. While I’m not in sales, I do think the ability to offer closure and reason is important; and I’d also like to think that most sales teams will handle a “no, and here is why” a lot better than the mysterious ghosting. If it helps, my typical approach to this is a quick: here is the situation we’re in; here is what has changed; here is where our thinking is right now; and this is when we should catch up again. 10/10 times that has gotten a positive and understanding response.

• A signed contract isn’t a relationship: I should make t-shirts for this one. I don’t know what/when/how/why buyers do this, but for some reason we feel that after a contract is signed, we don’t have to talk to our sales team or customer support team ever again until we have a problem or until the contract is up for renewal. Let me put it this way: when you get married or engage in a civil union, you don’t just sign the contract at the courthouse and then say “see ya later at the vow renewal” to your partner; you put in the time and nurture the relationship. While a sales contract isn’t a marriage, it is still a relationship between two organizations that needs to be nurtured. If you ever wonder why some customers get better treatment than your organization, it’s not always because of the size of their spend. Sometimes it could just be that they have a better relationship with their teams on the vendor side than they do with yours. P.S.: this should be the worst kept secret ever, but the relationship you build during the contract usually helps you with the contract renewal conversations (yes, financially too!).

• Figure out a system of engagement: admittedly, this one took me a WHILE to figure out (sincerest apologies to those whom I accidentally ghosted while I was figuring out my system!). We are all busy, and during the day our priorities will always be our day jobs. This usually means that any vendor introduction or follow up meetings will be the first to get rescheduled. Because I have the memory span of a goldfish, sometimes by the time the actual conversation happens, I would have forgotten why the meeting was scheduled in the first place. So, to spare myself from the chaos of rescheduling and to spare others from the awkwardness of needing to remind me what their companies do, I have started putting dedicated calendar placeholders for vendor conversations and intros only. They are usually just before or after my working day, so I know I can give these conversations my full attention. To further spare everyone from awkward interactions, I have also started the practice of politely letting someone know if I am not interested in their solution or if I don’t see a business need for it. I’d like to think this is working, so if you are reading this and we’ve recently connected, please let me know if my system is actually working or not.

• They are your thought partners: here is a little secret, and I am sincerely hoping that it is the worst kept secret ever: your solution partners can make you infinitely smarter about a topic faster and in a more customized manner, than what GenAI solutions can offer. It’s my experience and perspective that there is a lot of wasted thought partnership potential when HR functions put their blinders on and ignore conversations with vendors. At the speed at which the HR ecosystem is evolving, it is almost impossible for HR functions to stay on top of the latest and greatest on their own. This is when a thought partner who lives and breathes different niche areas in HR can help with their experience and knowledge of your organization (also how you can tell a good thought partner from a bad one). Full disclosure: I sometimes treat these conversations as a way of making myself smarter about different areas of HR and market advancements.

• Don’t be a Tailgater: I just learned what a tailgater was yesterday in the sales world (thank you ChatGPT), and once I found out, I may have snort laughed at the fact that there is a name for this category of customers. According to ChatGPT, a tailgater is someone who “…expresses interest in a product or service but does not take any concrete steps towards making a purchase…Essentially, tailgaters are individuals who linger around the sales process but do not commit to becoming actual customers.” So, basically someone who ‘dates’ but doesn’t ‘commit to the relationship’ in the professional / sales world. Here’s my take on the situation: 1) If you are really interested in the solution but need help with a business case, ask for that; 2) If business situations have changed and now is no longer the right time, just say so; 3) If you really aren’t interested and this conversation was forced on you by someone on your team, just say no or pass the conversation onto a more suitable contact. Yes, it’s really that easy to exit the conversation. Also, if you are curious to learn more about the solution and may be not make a purchase, just tell your sales team upfront. The good ones won’t treat you any differently and usually appreciate the honesty; and if they do, I would question if it’s the right partnership to begin with.

• This is NOT a Sales Rack: we all know pricing is important, and I would be delusional if I said that HR isn’t constantly under pressure to do more with less. That said, let’s not open EVERY conversation around a tech solution with “how much is this going to cost?”? This isn’t the clearance section of a store where if something is cheap enough, we may buy it even if we don’t fully need it. Let’s please look at the overall solution, value proposition, potential ROI, etc. before we dive into the “how much is it?” and “can we do it for less?”. Also, I’m personally not a huge fan of ‘let’s see how low we can bargain this deal to’ approach. My philosophy is that your vendors also have a business to run and paychecks to sign; you get what you pay for, so just make sure it fits in your budget and move on.

• Get involved in the purchase process: this might be an unusual one. A lot of times I see HR buyers fully engaged in the process, find the solution they are interested in, and when they are asked by the sales team about next steps, it’s just crickets! If you take anything away from this article, I hope it’s this: you need to understand the procure to pay process within your organization first. This will help you become a much better partner to your sales teams. So, here’s a quick drill on what typically happens in a few bullets; thank you for coming to my “HR P2P 101” talk (if you work in Procurement please skip this section, because I probably just oversimplified your world):- If the vendor isn’t already working with you, you will need a Master Services Agreement (MSA). Your Legal / Procurement team will need to review this document- After the MSA is created and approved, you will then need either an Order Form or Statement of Work (SOW) signed for the particular item that you are buying. Your Legal / Procurement team will also need to read this in detail, and you should probably read it too because it will make you smarter about what you just bought- Your Procurement team will likely have different levels of approval needed for different spend amounts. Find out about this early so you can plan for the cycle time- If it is a SaaS solution, your IT team will likely want to do a security risk review. Figure out how long that usually takes, because that also adds to the cycle time- You may need to onboard your vendor into your internal payment and procurement systems; that takes time and paperwork- Once the contract is signed, you will need your Finance team to generate a Purchase Order (PO) so your vendor can actually get paid

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Ok, so another lengthy article. Thank you for making it thus far. To all the Account Execs out there: what did I miss? What would you add?