ASAP Talent Services

ASAP Talent Services We recruit & hire SAP talent from the CIO level to team members in virtually every type of SAP/ERP skill set.

ASAP will shrink your recruiting cycle and ensure you have premium access to the non-active talent pool.

05/22/2026

Companies keep making the same hiring mistake.

By looking for the perfect candidate.

When they should be looking for the ALMOST perfect candidate.

A perfect candidate is 100% qualified.

Sounds great, right? Wrong.

Because if they've already done everything, there's no growth.

There's nothing new for THEM to learn.

They're bored before they even start.

They're already thinking:

"What's my next step ? How do I grow from here ?"

The almost perfect candidate is 80%-90% qualified.

That extra 10% ? That's growth.

That's why they want your role.

And that excitement translates into loyalty and long-term retention.

Plus, when you hire someone who's 90% qualified, you can often land them at the midpoint of your comp range instead of the top.

Because they're getting a growth opportunity. Maybe even a title raise.

So stop looking for perfect.

Look for 90% qualified with massive upside!

05/18/2026

The Chicago Bulls would have NEVER signed Michael Jordan if they required championship experience.

And that’s exactly what many companies get wrong in hiring today.

In the 1980s, the Bulls needed a leader.

Imagine if their hiring criteria had been:

“Must have already won an NBA Championship.”

Michael Jordan would have been disqualified immediately.

At that point, he hadn’t won anything professionally.

He was simply a college athlete with extraordinary talent, work ethic, competitiveness, and potential.

The Bulls didn’t hire based only on past achievements.

They hired based on capability, aptitude, and upside.

The result?

Six NBA championships.

A global icon.

One of the greatest athletes in history.

Yet many organizations still make the mistake the Bulls avoided.

They create hiring requirements like:

• “Must have already led an S/4HANA implementation.”

• “Must have Fortune 500 VP experience.”

• “Must have done this exact role before.”

That’s not always wisdom.

Sometimes it’s fear disguised as strategy.

The better question is:

Can this person grow into the role and outperform expectations?

Look for:
✔ 85–90% qualification

✔ High aptitude

✔ Strong cultural fit

✔ Leadership potential

✔ Ability to learn fast and adapt

Because if you only hire people who have already done the exact job before…

You may never find your Michael Jordan.

Hire for potential.

Develop greatness.

05/14/2026

Most people don't know the difference between open and closed questions.
And it's costing them in hiring interviews.

A closed question: "Do you have a college degree?"

Answer: "Yes”

Done. No insight.

An open-ended question: "Tell me about the degree you chose and why you chose it."

Now they're telling you a story. Their major. Why they picked that path.

You're learning how they think. How they make decisions. What drives them.

One question gives you a yes or no.

The other gives you a journey.

This applies to recruiting AND interviewing.

When I'm vetting candidates, I ask open-ended questions. Tell me about your proudest accomplishment.

When candidates are interviewing with companies, they should do the same.

"Tell me about your company culture and what makes people successful here."

Not: "Is your culture good ?" That's a closed question. You'll get a useless answer.

05/07/2026

I interview tech candidates who use AI every day and every week…

Here's what you need to know about AI:

Entry-level AI users think it's a content creation tool...and it can be.

Advanced AI users know it's a force multiplier.

The difference is massive.

Someone who uses AI to polish their resume is using it at a basic level.

Someone who uses AI to do the work of 20 people in a fraction of the time?

True Workflow Enhancement! That's more advanced AI use-case.

And it's NOT about technical skills.

It's about understanding capabilities and use cases.

Where can AI help? Where does human judgment matter?

How can one person use AI to increase efficiency 10-20x?

The smartest people I'm recruiting right now aren't just using AI.

They're using it intelligently.

They know how to make great prompts and the tool's capabilities.

04/03/2026

To separate good candidates from great ones. I use the 3 mini-stories framework (STAR - Situation, Task, Action, Result):

Three mini-stories.

That's all it takes to know if someone is great or just okay.

Here's the framework:

Tell me three things you're most proud of from the last 5 years.

Walk me through the situation, the challenge, what you did, and the result.

Make it measurable. Make it real.

Each story should take 2-3 minutes.

If they can't tell you three compelling stories with measurable outcomes?

They're not a top performer…

If they ramble for 10 minutes without getting to a result?

They're not a top performer…

If their stories are all about what their team did without explaining their specific contribution?

They're not a top performer…

Great candidates tell tight, compelling stories with clear challenges and measurable results.

This exercise separates rockstars from average performers.

Every. Single. Time.

03/31/2026

I got a resume last week with a title step-down.

VP to Director. Big red flag, right? Wrong.

Most recruiters would have immediately rejected this candidate.

But I asked the question that changes everything:

"Tell me the story. Why did your title change?"

Here's what I learned:

He'd been VP at a 50-person startup with no direct reports and a small budget.

He stepped down to Director title at a Fortune 100 with 15 direct reports and a much bigger budget.

Big fish, small pond to small fish, ocean.

The "step down" was actually a massive step up in scope, scale, and impact.
If I hadn't asked about the story, I would have missed an incredible candidate.

Here's what else we've learned:

Sometimes people take sabbaticals for cancer treatment.

Other times they step back to save their marriage. Life happens.

Great recruiters get to know the story before making judgments.

More information helps you make better decisions.

So… If you're rejecting candidates because of title changes without understanding why, you're missing rockstars.

03/23/2026

I had a client calculate their recruiting ROI for the first time.

It changed how they think about search fees forever.

Here's what they realized:

They paid us a $35K search fee for an SAP Sales AE hire.

That person generated $6M in sales in year one.

And they're still there 3 years later. Total sales: $20M+.

The ROI calculation was simple: $35K investment for $20M+ return.

That's a 400x return on investment.

Suddenly, the search fee didn't feel expensive. It felt like the smartest money they'd ever spent.

If you could pay $35K to bring on someone who delivers $10M+ in business, would you do it?

Of course you would. That's a no-brainer.

P.S. Think of search fees as investments, not expenses. High-level talent pay for themselves 100x over.

03/20/2026

How do you actually calculate "Total Cost Per Hire"?

40 recruiting interviews without a hire is EXPENSIVE…

Here are the numbers:

Let's say 10 hours of total executive time per candidate (scheduling, prep, interview, debrief).

That's 400 hours.

Your executives are worth $300/hour.

That's $120,000 in wasted time and the 3 months are gone…

And you still don't have the talent.

The question often isn't "Can we afford to use a search firm ?"

The question is "Can we afford NOT to ?"

03/16/2026

Money is NOT the number one motivator for job changes.

Most people assume it is. They're wrong.

I've recruited executives for 20+ years. Here's what actually motivates people to change jobs (aside from money):

Career advancement. They're stuck. They want growth.

Culture fit. Their current environment is toxic or misaligned.

Quality of life. They're burned out. They want balance.

Location. They want to move closer to family or to a better city.

All of it depends on their life stage.

Are they single? Married? Kids?

Different priorities at different stages of their lives…

Money matters, sure. But it's rarely the primary driver.

Great recruiters figure out which bucket someone falls into.

We ask:

"What do you love about your current role?

What would you change?"

They tell us exactly what their dream job looks like.

Then we position opportunities to solve their specific problems.

That's how you close deals that last 2-3+ years.

P.S. If you lead every recruiting conversation with comp, you're missing what actually matters.

03/04/2026

Only 30% of qualified talent is actively looking at your job postings.
Here's how to reach the other 70%:

If I took over hiring at any company tomorrow, I'd make two immediate changes.

First, I'd rewrite every job description with better titles and keyword-rich language. Not for candidates. For search algorithms and specialty recruiters.

Second, I'd stop using search firms for every role. That's a waste of money.
Search firms should be reserved for three scenarios:

1) Roles that need to be filled extremely quickly.
2) Critical positions where a bad hire would be catastrophic.
3) Searches where you need to reach passive talent - the 70% who aren't looking.

Here's what most companies miss: When you post a job, only active job seekers see it. That's 30% of your total market.

The other 70%? They're not on Indeed. They're not checking LinkedIn Jobs.
They're happily employed. And they need to be recruited.

That takes real work. Real outreach. Real selling.

You need someone willing to catch their attention and convince them that even though they weren't looking to move, this opportunity is worth it.

Stop treating all roles the same. Strategic hires require strategic recruiting. Passive talent requires active pursuit.

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