There are broadly speaking two kinds of sales. There is the kind of sales that takes months -- eg flogging SAP to a sap -- and there are the kinds that take minutes.
Recruiting falls into the second category, along with second-hand cars, door to door encyclopaedias, life insurance and so on.
In the short-sale field, when is the salesman ever going to see you again? If he can help it, never. There is no incentive to favour the long term. The sale is made now or not at all.
Hence high pressure sales tactics like "never take no for an answer".
When you recognise a short-sales technique, the only winning move is not to play. As logical types we want to appear fair and rational and the salesman will use that against us. Stick to your guns. Decide what you want in advance and refuse to negotiate.
I didn't say "ineffective"; I have no doubt it works for people with zero ethics, intent on barraging as many people as possible until they find a sucker. As you suggest, that tactic has no place in a rational discussion. It also seems like yet another indicator of someone entirely too clueless to provide what they claim to provide, as suggested in the original article. So, like I said, try it on me and I'll end the conversation, permanently.
Recruiting, however, shouldn't fall into the short-sales category you described. Personally, I hope I never need recruiters; ideally I'd love to go directly from "exhausted the network of smart people I know and smart people they know" to "no shortage of smart people and no problem enticing them". However, if I ever do need a recruiter, I'd like to have one that I can count on to deliver world-class people that fit perfectly, and who I'll remember for the next dozen hires I need to make. I'd like somebody who I always remember when thinking about how I ended up working with the awesome person they found.
> There is no incentive to favour the long term. The sale is made now or not at all.
As a Tech Recruiter I completely disagree. Granted a significant proportion of the recruiter community tend to favour the short term gain but ultimately the only way to succeed in the industry is to cultivate long term relationships and generate repeat business.
There are broadly speaking two kinds of sales. There is the kind of sales that takes months -- eg flogging SAP to a sap -- and there are the kinds that take minutes.
Recruiting falls into the second category, along with second-hand cars, door to door encyclopaedias, life insurance and so on.
In the short-sale field, when is the salesman ever going to see you again? If he can help it, never. There is no incentive to favour the long term. The sale is made now or not at all.
Hence high pressure sales tactics like "never take no for an answer".
When you recognise a short-sales technique, the only winning move is not to play. As logical types we want to appear fair and rational and the salesman will use that against us. Stick to your guns. Decide what you want in advance and refuse to negotiate.