Pulse HR: Why Most HR Tech AEs Lose Deals Before They Even Start

Good evening, world. AJ here bringing you getting very different episode of the Business of Alignment podcast. And we're going to call these episodes the E1B2 collective Sunday brief. Now here's what we're going to do. We're going to pick random questions from my guy Denzel, our head of creative. Let me just first shot out this guy. Let me let me tell you a little bit about this guy. This young man came into this organization three months ago with not one Iota of understanding of what we were doing, what we were building and how we were navigating. And within three months, he's completely changed the aesthetic, the energy, the feeling, the perspective, the nuance of what I believe so many new customers, partners, employees, fellow executives are feeling and thinking when they see anything associated with the E1B to collective and anything associated with all the different verticals within this brand. I cannot tell you how thankful I am. I cannot tell you how proud I am and I cannot tell you how hard this young man has been working in. So I just want to give him a shout out. I need to do more of this. I need to shout out all of my partners, all of my colleagues, all of my supporters, all of the people that have frankly been around me the last three months helping me redo, be craft, restructured what we know and what we have with the E1B to collective. Now very uniquely, we're going to start doing different content per vertical because many of you don't have a full understanding of what the E1B to collective is turned into. We have the research on our business, which we are essentially putting out probably 14 to 16 pieces of deep research and thought per month talking to many executives across the world, many different problems were tackling at a workforce and technology level across the world and understanding learning, diagnosing and unpacking how different leaders are navigating the decisions these leaders are making, the technology these leaders are using and the things these leaders are doing to make a change within the workforce at a global level. We're obsessed. We love it. Now, we also have policy char. Now not too many people know about policy char and that's intentional. I didn't want to share too much about policy char because frankly, there's so many different pockets about how I'm trying to solve a few core problems that I don't think a lot of people are fully up to speed on how policy char is really being shaped in structure today. So I'll give you a little hint and a little stink peek. Policy char is three verticals. Policy char, which frankly, many vendors in the space knows is kind of like my right time, my right place business model where I've always tried to support vendors to understand more uniquely what it means and what it feels to build product to build product sales experiences and partnership and ecosystem movement with and through and for our HR counterparts in ways that are productive in ways that are healthy in ways that are nuanced, fulfilling, impactful. Now, we all know of the technology company that is aggressive. We all know of the technology companies that have A E's that are just so out of touch around what real workforce technology looks like and feels like. You know, I had a deep conversation with an HR leader just a couple days ago and she was mentioning how she had to put a young A E in their place and let the young fellow know listen, this is not how this tool actually functions. I use it every day. You just know that a surface demo level. And I think I'm giving these, you know, somewhat funny examples because at a very surface and macro level, but it's meta many, many, many technology A E's do not know how to frankly meet HR leaders where they truly are in the buying cycle and process. Many vendors holistically don't have leaders and founders and CEOs and revenue leaders that have any realm of understanding of the most accurate and the most impactful ways of selling, of integrating, of merging, of blending, of building outbound and inbound and just frankly productive sales experiences with our HR counterparts. And it's because they're so out of touch with the reality of how HR leaders are truly thinking about technology spend truly are navigating the buying process entirely and truly are looking at the tools and the stacks and the opportunities that we have in this world which is many. And so my job has always been and I've loved doing this and now it's turned into an entire company which I'm proud to say now what I love to do is I love to help vendors understand how to frankly not just navigate the HR buyer ecosystem and I can share more of a point of view around that in a moment, but really how to navigate the partnership ecosystem. I no longer believe this is to my vendors. I no longer believe that outbound and inbound is the way. I no longer believe that just creating content and brand and going to the local events, the macro events and the global events is the way. I no longer believe trying to sponsor some sort of HR community is the way I no longer believe that. What I believe and listen, when I say I no longer believe that I no longer believe that that's how HR leaders are buying your tools and services. Now how do I know this? Now I know this because the E1B2 collective and what we really do and who we are at the foundation is we are researchers. We are thinkers. We are builders. And what I know is I've literally had we have literally had 80 conversations, unique conversations every single month with as many HR leaders from all different scales and sizes of companies that you can imagine. And these conversations have been based in one simple route. These conversations have been based in trying to truly understand how HR leaders at scale at the biggest companies in the world. And then how HR leaders at a micro level at the smallest companies in the world are making technology decisions. And for us, we've done that by literally just being researchers. We've done that by literally just building a relationship that is based in truth, that is based in research, that is based in honesty, that is based in true practicality of how to be intrusive, not be rude, not put anyone in a tough spot. And we're proud of that. And we're proud of that because a lot of leaders that navigate the HR technology world have never known to do that. Have never known to put research in understanding and knowledge in updated information at the center of the strategy. And for me, I just call that strategic empathy, but it's become so natural because the E1B to collective Anthony Vaughn here, we are those HR leaders, we are those operators, we are those change management leaders, we are those TAs, we are those CPUs, we are those recruitment leaders, we are those organizational psychologists, we are those change management thinkers, we are the Adam Grant, we are the Christine Cummah Fords, we are the Keith Ferrisis, we are the Ferrisis Greenlights, we are the Deloits, we are the McKinsey's, we are Gardner, we are that, we feel and live and breathe in that mindset. First, we eat and breathe and live and experience employees first. It's our DNA and our job to find the best organizations in the world that are doing the best that they can to put employees first, display them, highlight them, learn from them, research them, extract their tactics and tools and frameworks and understand them and understand them at a natural human being level. Understand them at a level that truly is fulfilling. Understand them at a level that truly puts the employee emotional and strategic rhythm at the center of everything that we do is who we are. And so we have the privilege, we have the honor, we have the capability of extracting and sustaining 80 plus conversations with HR leaders daily. Now why do we do or monthly? Why do we do this? We do this for one very simple goal. We do not give out emails, we do not give out low goals, we do not give out phone numbers, we do not share data. Let's just get ahead of it right now. she knows what we will do. do, we will have our HR leaders backs. That's what we'll do. We will actually understand and go to back for them as it pertains to being the team, the folks that really want to help them make the best technology decisions, but internally in their own world for a moment. And so Paul C. Charf, you look at it has the entire vendor restructuring of their sales process and how they interact with HR leaders arm. Then we have our arm that's fully focused on helping redefine the HR leaders full business acumen, analyzation of the full business problems and tech stack that supports the DNA of the org from a workforce perspective and that relationship with the CFO and that and that briefing and knowledge and just going through the motions and really figuring out when is the right time and the right place to present a new presentation, a new moments, a new opportunity, a set of new vendors for technology to redefine this org. And then finally, you know who we are. We're a company that wants to talk directly to the AE directly to the revenue leader on the revenue side, with the individual, not the entire company itself. And our message to you is very simple. Our message to you is to teach you the Paul saw the Paul's HR way. The message to you is to understand that the only way to be consistently great as an AE in this space is to truly understand everything that I'm saying. To truly not only understand how your product works in and out and to be a practitioner of that and a product lens and perspective. To truly not only understand how an HR leader may be seeing the product from their perspective and their shoes. But to do enough due diligence about the macro business problem that the organization is encountering at the exact moment in time that you are trying to find some way somehow to earn your quota. Do so in a way where you can meet leaders, you can meet orgs where they actually are. And do so by putting yourself in the best positions to be thoughtful, to be empathetic and to be wise. So frankly, what we're trying to do with Paul's HR and that vertical of the E1B2 collective is we're trying to help everybody because the HR leaders need better tech, need better relationships internally, need many things. But at the same time, what I'm noticing and I'm feeling is that there are so many different vendors that need better strategic leadership, that need better understanding of how to build go-to-market strategies by building true partnerships and integrating with each other because that's really the spaces and the pockets and the ways that the HR leaders are allowed to purchase at this particular time and they've always done so. And then for me, if you look at that whole rant, then that scale is out to how we see the AEs, how we see the individual revenue leaders, and how we frankly can stop the two-year churn and burn. It's scary to say that when you get to two years in, they're looking for your next replacement. They're looking for the next great AE. They're burning so much cash. They've raised so much rounds. They've done so much of X. They've input so much of Y. And they've never spent enough time on the true energy of it all, which is being a practitioner of the research, being a practitioner of the most up-to-date and current data. They never want to do it. And it's because the investors aren't talking about it. It's because the board's not talking about it. It's because the best AEs, it's because the best partnerships executives, it's because the best revenue leaders, it's because the best product leaders, and the HR technology and workforce technology market aren't talking about it. But it's happening. We are seeing so many great mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, practitioners, professionals, losing their jobs, losing their homes, being laid off, all because people do not want to spend a little bit of time to build accurate and competent and true forecasting. Before we make that next round, before we make that product, with Justin, before we spend that next ticket on that HR conference, trying to hit some quarter that we know is never going to be hit. Before we try to make that last phone call, just to save our lives at this org, to show the org that we're being busy at work when really we know the tactic, it's not going to work. Before we just do a bunch of that anxiety-rilled energy, let's all be a bit more thoughtful. Let's all be a bit more calm. Let's all be a bit more productive with our time. So that's the DNA of Paul C.R. That's the DNA of each one of the three verticals. We are here to educate. We are here to support. And we are frankly here to redefine how we think about this entire space. I was just talking to a dear friend and advisor in a true partner of this entire organization. And he said, we're in a really uncomfortable space when we look at workforce technology from an internal vendor sales perspective, a culture perspective. And just frankly, how organizations are even making these decisions with the rise of AI, with the confusion and the overwhelming data, it's hard. So we're trying to help. We want to help. We will help. So as always, just a few thoughts, just a few perspectives. This is Paul C.R.