I know it wasn’t my job – But,  I am pretty sure that SOMEONE for got to tell the HR Technology Vendors about the bad economy?  I mean what else would explain the results seen (and published) by some of my favorite vendors in the space.

The twitter wires were buzzing this morning with the links to the 2nd Quarter Results for SilkRoad as well as the results for Ultimate Software, an HRIS system. Both had positive results with Silkroad having its 24th consecutive period of sales growth!  Ultimate Software reported a 14% sales increase vs. same quarter numbers the year before!

Lets combine that with the fantastic results that privately held Talent Acquisition/Talent Management/Applicant Tracking/ATS/Whatever we are calling it now is Companies like HRMDirect and ICIMS and it makes you stop to wonder if we are starting to see the uptic – and it happened 2 months ago!

My thought on why these companies are doing so well and some tips to the rest of you vendors that may be struggling.   Here we go:

1.  They are not the most expensive products on the market – They are not the absolute cheapest.  They are robust products with a great value proposition to an organization so it is easy to actually find the ROI

2. They have great sales pros.  That doesn’t mean that they are smooth talking, high pressure, angry closer types of sales people.  They are consultative – want to provide value and respect your time (not call every day to check in on you and if you made a decision yet).  (I worked w/sales reps from all 3 when I was consulting and always appreciated this aspect of their sales process)  They also give enough information on their website for those of us with fear of forms issues (actually – icims – a touch more info would be great, but love the screenshots!) feel like we know what we are jumping into.

3. They are proactive when it comes to the market – when things need to be adjusted – they just do it.  They don’t feel the need to brag about every single client they sign or every step along the way.  They have taken on social media/twitter and are learning to use it – ahead of the other guys. ICIMS has recently started iblog, HRMDirect’s blog (New one launching this fall) is-  believe it or not actually writen by our CEO.  Himself. Seriously. No help.    They are also on Twitter – learning the ropes still – but on nonetheless – their tweets are not slams on other products (Umm…you know who you are – mystery vendor that will remain unnamed but I see through my tweetdeck search) rather an insight into their organization or the industry.   If you are on twitter make sure to follow these vendors – every once in a while, they tweet something cool. @HRMDirect @ICIMS @SilkRoadTweets

I admit, I have a fear of commitment on so many things and an unwavering loyalty to certain things that I commit to.

Example #1  Commitment Fear – I am almost OCD when it comes to making decisions on no brainer things in my life (at work, no issues w/this – odd?  yes)  like flavor of ice cream (do I do vanilla, vanilla bean, french vanilla? AND YES there is a difference) where to go on vacation, etc. because I don’t want to commit to any one thing and always be questioning if the other option was the right decision.

Example #2 Loyalty – TV Shows – I can’t stop watching a show after I commit to it – I call it being a show deserter and if it gets cancelled, I feel it was my fault all those people were out of a job.  You have NOO idea how hard it was to watch those last few years of Dawson’s Creek!  Yikes!  Now that Pacey (My first real TV Crush), I mean Joshua Jackson,  is on Fringe, I automatically become committed to that show as well…you see the crazy cycle?

Anyway, my point is – before I make a commitment, I like to explore all of my options.  Learn (in detail) about what I may be giving up and missing out on as well as determine the long term potential there.  I like to research and learn and make sure that I am making the best possible decision at this moment.

Once you fill in a form on a vendor’s website – you are commiting to a product.  Well, not the product so much, but the sales reps and email campaigns and everything that goes along with it.  You are putting your name on a proverbial dotted line of commitment that I just don’t like to cross until I am really, really interested in something.

So why are vendors making it MORE difficult to learn about their products right now?  Seriously – We are in a recession – they should be doing backflips that someone still is considering buying from them.   HELLO Vendors, no one wants to fill out forms to see some really basic information that your competition is offering up for free on their site, then get hounded by your sales people forever.

Believe it or not, my idea this morning was to write about the new performance management solution that Success Factors was offering for “emerging” businesses (Apparently, “Emerging” means you are under 50 employees which is what it takes to be considered a “small” business. UGH!! More terminalogy to learn!) I think small “emerging” biz is a really under focused on, yet important market and I was excited they were going to play ball in that area.  I was also excited that it was built on the cloud technology.   Then I got to the site and while there is some (limited) information – if I want to see so much as a data sheet of what the product even includes I have to commit to “the form”.   I can see for the online demo, pricing, etc – but to see what is included in the product?  Really???

My favorite part on the form was the statement:  “We will not share your information with 3rd parties.”

My immediate thought – It isn’t the 3rd parties we are concerned with…its your sales team!

I seriously started laughing out loud to myself at the irony of that statement.  Maybe someone without such a fear of commitment would have just filled out the form and gone on where there lives.  Me?  I see who else is doing the form thing (I am adament not to have it at HRMDirect) via some quick research and am proud to share some vendors that actually appreciate commitmentphobe’s learning about their product - HRMDirect, Taleo, PCRecruiter, ICIMS (to a lesser degree), SilkRoad, Newton