Tech Recruiters Hone Edge to Compete
When Robert Silver, 53, and Howard Lee, 57, were employees of a Southern California recruiting firm, they were surprised to learn that they had both started their careers as social science teachers in New York City. That kind of confluence has characterized their friendship and business relationship ever since. In 1995, they decided to form their own search firm. Looking for an arena to specialize in, they chose to hire sales managers and staff for technology companies. Though neither of them realized just how much potential their choice had, getting into the right business at the right time has proven essential to their success. Silver was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.
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When we got started, I had been placing salespeople in the computer hardware industry for 11 years and Howard specialized in recruiting tax professionals for Big 6 accounting firms. When the company we both worked for was sold, we got together for lunch and decided to share a space. I thought we should concentrate on the software and Internet industries, which--as far out as my crystal ball could see--was the way business was heading.
Neither of us has a technical background and we didn’t use computers at that time ourselves: We used 3x5 index cards and thought the system was pretty advanced if we got them in alphabetical order. But still, we knew we were on to something because of the way communication was expanding. If we could use fax machines and computers to find employees, we were no longer limited to our local market. Even prospects who lived overseas were just a phone call or a fax away, we figured, and if the Internet really grew like they said it would, it would be like they were around the corner.
We deal with placing salespeople in the aggressive software industry, and we also work for a lot of Internet start-up companies that need to hire a vice president of sales, a sales management team and support people. Many of our clients are venture capital firms who are funding the new companies and want us to build their entire sales and sales support structure.
Because we have staff members who are experts in various geographic regions, we can find regional managers, technical support people and sales reps all over the country. If one of our clients needs someone in Chicago, we know who the A-list players are and we can line up interviews for them inside of a week or two. Time is critical to these start-up companies because they’ve got budgets and deadlines and they need to get mind-share as soon as possible.
For our fee, we either take a percentage of the employees’ first-year salaries, or we take a flat fee and some equity in new companies that we honestly and truly believe are can’t-misses. Our clients are willing to pay a premium for our services because they don’t want to hire people who are posting on message boards or hitting the streets looking for jobs.
Our clients are looking for the top performers who are already stars. These salespeople are not looking for jobs, but they might be willing to hear about an opportunity where they could potentially hit a home run. Everybody in the high-tech and software sales arena knows someone firsthand who has become a millionaire because of a start-up opportunity, so we appeal to that.
In all candor, I never knew that this start-up market would get as big as it has. It is often hard to get star players to leave their positions and go to risky start-ups. That’s why, if I’m calling Salesman A with an opportunity that every Tom, Dick and Harry recruiter is working, they don’t want to talk to me. They know by now, though, that when they get a call from us, they’re going to hear about an opportunity they haven’t heard about from anyone else. That’s because our clients work exclusively with us.
Also, we’ve been very fortunate that we have selected companies that have become stars. As we add them to our portfolio, people in the industry know other people who went in at the beginning and now are worth $10 million to $15 million.
It’s no accident that we strike gold as often as we do, because we won’t take just anybody’s money. We have a rep that goes out and examines the companies who want to do business with us. We ask where they’ve gotten their money and their management team and what kind of experience they have. We also have technical advisors who analyze their products and how big their potential markets are before we agree to represent them. Our reputation is on the line.
Along with jumping into a hot industry niche at a time when it was just starting to explode, we hire and train recruiters who are good at what they do, enjoy the process and are aggressive and oriented toward doing a terrific job. We figured that two former teachers should know--if nothing else--how to teach their employees to do the job right. One reason we have all our staff work out of our Newport Beach office is so we can stay hands-on and do continuing education with them. We don’t see that happening if we were to open satellite offices.
We have an office where everybody partakes in the training and feels like a part of the team. We instill ethics, so they learn to represent people fairly and honestly, and we help them refine and embellish their sales skills so they know how to find the right people and how to excite them about the opportunity we’re presenting. The people we are calling up as prospects are getting literally hundreds of calls a month from recruiters and 99.9% of them go unanswered. We want to make our call the one that gets answered, because that’s what makes us successful.
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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or at kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.
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AT A GLANCE
* Company: Silver & Lee Associates
* Owners: Robert Silver and Howard Lee
* Nature of business: Executive search firm specializing in high-tech sales personnel
* Location: 1500 Quail St., Suite 450, Newport Beach 92660
* Founded: 1995
* Employees: 18
* Web site: https://www.silverlee.com
* E-mail: bob@silverlee.com
* Annual revenue: $6 million
