Hire Humans First, and Sales Experts Second | Ross Halliday, CRO of Human Made

Ross Halliday, CRO at Human Made, joined James on our industry-leading podcast, Tech Salescraft. Having a natural affinity for leadership, Ross has developed a clear vision and understanding of what it takes to manage and guide exceptional teams through every stage of the growth journey.

“Consistency is critical. In times of challenge, we often go and change our behaviours- but I think we should be doing the opposite of this. We should be consolidating our strengths and staying consistent to those.”

No matter which firm you approach, they will have their pain points, their challenges, and their hurdles. Fundamentally, it is your response to the latter that dictates the next step your firm is able to take. Whilst it is frequently believed that changing tact is the appropriate response to adversity, Ross stresses how crucial consistency is. Establishing core and recognisable behaviours creates stability through the turbulence, and a point that people can fall back onto when necessary. Consistent change of tact creates more issues: a poor brand identity; misaligned vision and mission; and insecurity within your firm. Ross has seen it all through his career but his response has not changed, keeping his belief in consistent excellence steady.

“We are firm supporters of example modelling. Rather than just taking the CV at face value, we want to hear about your experience; we want to hear about your learns, life and personality from you.”

Identifying exceptional talent is one such obstacle many firms face. And the industry is increasingly coming to appreciate that accepting candidates at face value is not sufficient enough, especially when trying to find someone who is the right cultural fit. That is why Ross stresses how important it is to hear about experience directly, in the candidates own words. Understanding the nuances of language and how that translates into added value for your firm is something you can’t truly get from a CV. Build an interview process that brings out the person in the process. Dehumanisation is far too common in the tech space- avoid this pitfall and see beyond the constructed papers.

Thank you Ross for joining us on Tech Salescraft. The insights you brought to the show have been invaluable, and elevate every element of the professional growth process.