Why The Competition Wants To Hire U!

It all begun with the Colas and is currently trending hotly in the E-commerce sector – yes, I’m talking about hiring talent from the competition. One thing is for sure – this is a trend that will never “go out of style”. Hiring from the competition especially for salespeople will always seem like a no-brainer as we are inclined to believe that these employees will hit the road running.

If you have been one of those talent, what were your emotions when you were 1st offered a job with the competition?

• Elation? Finally your “worth” was recognized.?
• Accomplishment? Fancier title with bigger responsibility.
• Financial Rewards? : Significantly increased salary and perks which would have taken you at least 2-3 years to get if you continued staying with the current organization.
• Relief? Leaving behind a “clumsy” workplace.
• Fear? How do you break the news to your boss?
• Anxiety? Where and when do you begin work to start competing against current colleagues with whom you will soon go-to-war with!

Yes, I know you’ll eventually get over these feelings and most times take to biting the bullet and joining the competition but have you given a thought to why the competition wants to hire you? If you are thinking along the lines of skills, knowledge, competence, experience, etc., feel free to flatter yourself! 🙂

Now for some live experiences…

One of my colleague who was hired by the competition received a call from her “soon-to-be” boss during her notice period who told her, “I hope you are in touch with all your customers. If you are not, please do so and tell them that you are leaving. It is important to us that you keep your client list warm.”

She was shocked by the call and until that point of time, she was running around the office jubilantly with her new offer after tendering her resigning. I smiled when I heard her narration as I’ve experienced a similar incident.

When I first joined the competition, my future boss called me during my notice period and asked for some information on an existing client. To escape being unethical, I dodged him; he didn’t give up and called again the following week for information on a different client. This time around, I took the bull by the horns and asked him, “Are you hiring me for my competencies and potential or the knowledge I have about the clients of my current organization? If you need to know about my existing clients, their pricing, etc. then it would be best if you recruited our finance executive who comes with the price list” Luckily he did not withdraw the offerJ, but he stopped asking me anything of the sort again, even after I joined him!

We once hired someone from the competition because she told us “nice stories” about the millions of business she had generated for her current organization. However, she sang to a different tune when she joined us; she started complaining about not receiving the same support from the very same customers she had served in the previous organization. She was adamant that these loyal customers were not giving her the business because we (the competition) did not have similar capabilities as her previous company.

She dropped the bomb by telling us that it would require much more time and investment on our part to build those competencies and begun launching a tirade of faults in our system. And here we thought that we hired her in the 1st place to help build the business! To cut a long story short, the high salary we paid to attract her from our competition back fired!

I think the competition wants to hire you because:

• They don’t have the capability to produce somebody like you.
  Otherwise why would they attract you to their den?
• They obviously don’t have the customer base whom you’ve been rubbing shoulders with in your current organization. . Did you stop to think why your customers are not already with them? Please don’t take yourself too seriously and think that it’s because of you that relationships are won or lost!
• They know that you will bite the bait at a 30% higher salary with a new title – both of which they don’t wish to dole out to their existing staff (reasons aplenty, for this).

I feel the risk of joining the competition is worth if the money is twice as much as what you’re currently earning. But mind you, money comes only once in every 30 days and we have to endure the remaining 29 days with our new choice!