Brainware and Hiring
March 6, 2010
I was genuinely puzzled when I read “Brainware Continues to Hire the Industry’s Best Sales Talent.” Brainware is a company that straddles scanning, optical character recognition, and search. In my first overflight of the company, I came away with the notion that the firm’s trigram technology gave the firm an edge in search, particularly the legal eagle type of query. In the last year, I have formed the impression that the company has moved down the information food chain to document scanning and forms processing. Now, I think of the company in the context of integration vendors who sell high-speed scanners and related software. One of Brainware’s PR people called me, but I am not too keen on telephone briefings, so I only know what I read in the news releases.
Here’s the main point of this news story I saw on March 3, 2010. I quote:
Brainware, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions, today announced the appointment of two new executive sales veterans to the company’s leadership team. Todd Hicks, formerly of Thomson Reuters Corporation, joins Brainware as the company’s Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Stephen Xeller, formerly of Experian, joins the company as Vice President of North American Sales.
Now here’s my impression of this type of headline and the phrase “hire the industry’s best sales talent” and the news release that provides mini-biographies of these sales professionals. First, I don’t know how to judge if a person is the “industry’s best sales talent.” I can accept “effective sales professionals” but I balk at “best.” I don’t consider either Thomson Reuters or Experian among the Top 10 information companies, maybe not even the top 50. Second, if a person is the best at sales, I think that person would be giving one of those talks along with Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins. Those are sales guys who appear cheek by jowl with Colin Powell and similar high profile sales motivators.
My other concern is that Brainware is focusing on sales, not technology. I admit that I relate to news stories about a nifty innovation or a breakthrough in content processing technology. Hiring sales professionals is most a job for the sales and marketing side of a company. I steer clear of that group. What I take away from the story is that Brainware is investing more in selling and maybe not so much in technology. But without context in the news story or a rich flurry of tweets and blog posts to keep me up to date with Brainware’s R&D, I see sales only.
I would be a happier camper if the word “best” did not perch in the headline like a crow in my wife’s garden. Maybe “accomplished sales professionals?” Just my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, March 6, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since Brainware is located in the DC area, I will report a freebie to the Virginal governor who may have more free time than the governor of New York State.
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