If you ask even the most successful business leaders (at least from an external measurement perspective) to explain their biggest challenge, they I expect — and in experience have noticed — would say: “If only we could find some more really good salespeople (or business developers in the AEC world) . . .”
Services have been developed to solve this problem and, reflecting its importance, rarely come cheap. ?You can contract with recruitment services, or psychological testing organizations, sales consultants and others, who will generally price their services at (to me) the dreaded “enterprise pricing” levels — in other words, high.
(I shouldn’t complain about third-party vendor pricing; the advertising we sell isn’t inexpensive, as well. But I balk sometimes at the costs; looking for options — and occasionally discover them, such as the $50 (one time fee) email management tool that has more capacity and fewer restrictions than other services that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and often require expensive monthly subscriptions.)
In this regard, I don’t know how much ?– you can’t see a pricetag on its website. You can post a job through the service for $398.00; but the Clearfit’s secret sauce is its tool that allows you to assess your top performers, develop ranking criteria, and use that to screen potential applications for the work.
Is the price worth paying? I admit I cannot answer the question, but expect it may be, if you have the resources to pay those enterprise-price fees or, if you are really struggling to find the cash, the determination to pay the price and follow the plan through its conclusion. Few things impose self-discipline more than your perceived sacrifice in making things happen.
However, I like the concept, and realize that most businesses probably need some sort of external Clearfit-type service?to peek into the mindsets of your best performers, because these individuals will be somewhat proprietary about their own talents if only to subconsciously protect their place as leader of the pack.
