Sales: We’re Bringing Authenticity Back. Yeah!

Hey everyone out there! I am Ethan Bloomfield and I am BACK! 

Some of you know me; others might not. I’m going to give you a little background before I explain why sales has never been harder than it is now in recruitment advertising. You’ll notice I’m writing this like a conversation, not loaded with corporate jargon, because that’s where most sales and marketing fail. We lose our authenticity. I’m bringing it back.

Quick Background on Me…

I live in Costa Rica and have for the past 6 and half years. I’ve been in HR/TA tech since 2003 when I was looking to escape the dot-com bubble. I stumbled into a company doing hiring assessments (HRD Press) and thought, “Why not?” The reasons? A four-minute commute, minimal travel, and no dress code. The job offered about half of what I earned during my worst career years, but I wanted a change. Turns out, it defined the rest of my career. 

At HRD, we built an ATS with assessments built in (JobTarget was our partner back then) and saw success with over 200 installations. We partnered with Monster and CareerBuilder as well, so users could auto-post to their sites and any of JobTarget’s niche sites. The rest? A bit more modern history:

• 2006: Joined JobTarget to build OneClick, a competitor to eQuest and Arbita, growing from 10 to 100+ employees and gaining a reputation (mostly good!) in the industry.
• 2012: Got recruited by ZipRecruiter to grow ZipAlerts (when the team was under 20 people) and stayed for three years leading sales biz dev and having a hand in product. Left when the team was 250 strong.
• 2015: Launched VitalFew with ZipRecruiter as my first client and worked with about 30 others in the space.
• 2016: Founded a sales automation platform, Outbound.ai (it worked… but didn’t last).
• 2018: Helped TruckersReport 8X their MRR over a few years.
• 2022: Returned to JobTarget as an internal consultant.
• Now: I’m back consulting with VitalFew and working with some really interesting folks in this space.

I know that so far this sounds a bit self-promotional, but remember: Authenticity is everything.

Alright, let’s talk about sales.

READER NOTE: I never use AI to write my content unless I am making a point about AI…but I do ask for tips and edits after I have written the piece. This keeps me authentic (read on for more on that) but takes advantage of great technology. This is the essence of today’s chat. 

Those of us who have been in sales in this industry for a while have seen the rise of amazing sales automation—cadence-based email, calls, social touches, and applied data-driven matrices. We have used tools like local presence dialing (when you get a call from your home area code that’s really from California) and many others to create massive volume and automation in our outreach attempts.

Most importantly, we taught our salespeople that they didn’t need to know much about a prospect before reaching out—volume always wins. Build templates and process, push the go button and money comes out of the other side. The premise was: 70-90% of your outreach will go unanswered, so just get that interaction going, and you can learn about them later. The math worked, and for a while, it was good math.

But Here’s the Problem.

In the past 3-ish years, the market wised up. We were all using the same tools and tactics, and buyers got flooded with calls, emails, and connection requests from people saying things like, “I’m not sure if we’re a good fit, but here’s what I do…” And people like me as a sales leader and consultant feel like we have hurt sales strategy by helping everyone do the same thing (sorry!). Even early team members at unicorn Outreach.io, one of my go-to tools, have apologized for “ruining sales” and are introducing new solutions.

We’ve lost all authenticity, bringing the wrong ideas to the wrong people at the wrong time—just trying to hit our marketing-based or SaaS-based metrics. Prospects can see automated cadences a mile away. Meanwhile, cell phones and email providers are doing everything to block these messages, and regulations like GDPR are making it tougher.

The Solution? Authenticity.

To stand out, we must adopt a more genuine approach. It doesn’t mean throwing out technology and automation—it means doing much, much better.

My most recent LinkedIn message (I was all for the public shaming, but Julie said no.):

• “Jenny from Sales” doesn’t seem to know anything about me—yet messaged me on LinkedIn, where its easy see what I’m working on.
• “Jenny from Sales” mentions XYZ Company (never  even heard of them), nothing about how they do what they do, who they work with and ZERO about me and my business.
• The approach is all about volume connections, hoping someone clicks the links in the message. 

#delete.

A more authentic message might go something like:

“Hey Ethan! I saw you’re working on some cool projects like vitalfew.ai, Aspen Tech Labs, and JobTarget. In my work at ThinkFISH, I’m actually working with XYZ Startup, and I think they have a lot in common with you. Before I ask for any of your time, are any of your projects in need of funding? I help clients find investors. If that’s not a need for you, no problem—if it is, let’s chat?”

Pro Tip: if they say, “No, thanks,” move on. You’ve given them what they need to check you out. No need to push for the meeting.

It’s simple—stop talking about what you want and start talking about what I might want.

5 Things You and Your Team Can Do Right Now to Improve Results

1. Use website de-anonymization tools: Tools  like RB2B.com can try to ID a visitor, then send you their LinkedIn profile if it matches. DO NOT say, “I saw you visited my site.” Just connect and interact on LinkedIn naturally.
2. Get better customer data: Many of us have complaints about Apollo and ZoomInfo. Try something new like Clay.com—a data marketplace with clever AI and a different business model that might give you better, more accurate data and more insights for actually speaking to prospects with knowledge. 
3. Leverage sales signals: Companies like Aspen Tech Labs scrape job data and provide insights. My favorite example? They spotted Tesla removing all jobs from their careers page. Seven days later, Tesla had layoffs. Imagine sending a horribly ill timed templated email to Tesla’s HR saying, “Hey, you should advertise your openings with us.”? Ooops…
4. Maximize LinkedIn: LinkedIn has two types of power users—salespeople and recruiters. If you’re in TA tech or recruitment advertising, your team should be there all day, every day. Post authentic content, comment on others, make connections, and share insights. But most of all be you. We can talk more about why Gen Z thinks we are cringey and why LinkedIn looks like Facebook for old timers (funny since Facebook is like Instagram for old timers!)
5. Work with a sales expert to revamp your process: This isn’t about ditching automation—it’s about making it work authentically. (Yes, I’m plugging myself here, but you don’t have to use me. Find someone who gets it!)

Well, Julie said I had 600 words, and I’m way over. If you want more insights or just to chat about your experiences, reach out. I also accept 99.5% of LinkedIn connection requests. If you read all of this I doubt you are in the .5% that I reject 😉 

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