Making the Most of Today’s Labor Market Changes

Still adapting to the current market? 

Sifting through the decisions you’ve made over the last three years? Coming out of COVID, business in the tech space was excellent; we were all moving at the speed of light, and there was little time for much other than cranking through the endless mountains of work. Last year got a little harder for most of us. 

New business was more difficult to acquire, and layoffs began to dominate the headlines on LinkedIn in the tech sector.

Although there is always renewed optimism at the beginning of a year, this year is going to be about capitalizing on market changes and adjusting to another round of “normal.” 

It’s clean-up time. It’s time to reassess decisions that were made in former eras, unwinding some formerly strong decisions, and completely dumping others. The people hired who haven’t contributed enough or brought in under circumstances that have changed may need to be re-inspired, migrated to different groups, or even moved out. 

These are the tough decisions of surviving long enough to fight another day, the ones that can bring sleepless nights and hard conversations.

Labor Market Shifts – Continuing Adjustments

So, like any opportunistic business, how do you take advantage of the current labor market conditions?

Adjust for the Market

It’s time to upgrade, overhaul, realign, and set the course of your ship. 

With the perception that there are a lot more people on the job market, and there are, it’s certainly a good time to hire. When talent was hard to recruit and ultra-competitive to bring on board, a lot of companies selected for sales experience, not necessarily specific industry or domain expertise. 

Companies needed help processing all the business and they needed it quickly.

And 2024 should be a great year to reconcile, realign, and bring in more knowledge and specialization. 

Most of the specialized talent you’ll want to hire moving forward will need to be headhunted, especially if you’re looking for an Enterprise rep who’s closed 1M or more in new business or a sales leader who can keep teams focused, happy, inspired, and closing deals.

Review Hiring Criteria

It’s also a great time to review hiring criteria with sales leaders who haven’t hired in a more employer friendly market. 

Once upon a time, in the very near past, interviews were brisk, and job requirements were generalized. Those days should be over. Now it’s time to select specialized skills: top-of-funnel builders, domain expertise, ICP experience, etc. 

Note all the areas in which your sales team struggles and strengthen your team with folks who can contribute in some of these areas.

Fill In Skill Gaps

Develop your existing team and shore up gaps. 

Put that mentorship plan in place. You know, the one you created but half-heartedly implemented until it completely fell apart. What’s that you say? Mentorship is dead? 

People don’t stay long enough to mentor? 

Remember, more often than not, good people leave for two reasons- they aren’t learning enough or they have a troubled relationship with their boss. Employees also leave because they aren’t meeting expectations and begin eliminating themselves. But when you lose a high-impact employee, it hurts. 

Help prevent this by investing in your employee’s development. 

One way to do this is to pair them with colleagues who inspire them. Keep this up, and your employees will accomplish more, learn more, and turnover less.

Shore up The Breakage

Fix your most damaging out of control element– You probably have a few things in your sales org that are out of control. 

You know what they are, and you probably play a part in creating them or keeping them alive. Now’s a good time to fix these issues that have the potential to bite you later. Get ahold of these elements and put them back in order so you can continue to advance and prosper. 

You will feel happy about your business to the level you are in control of your business. 

So, get to fixing!

Don’t Write off Strong Progress

It’s a mistake to think you can’t advance the business in 2024. 

With a little reflection, strategy, and patience, you can. There are a lot of areas you can improve. It’s time to be savvy; it’s time to be strategic, and it’s time to up-level your sales game to meet the demands of the current market. 

If you would like to discuss your sales team and the kind of talent you need to move forward and dominate your market, let’s connect.