HRTech Interview with Michael Pawlyszyn, EVP, Chief Revenue Officer at Cornerstone

Michael Pawlyszyn, EVP, Chief Revenue Officer at Cornerstone chats about the most effective ways in which HRTech revenue and GTM teams can boost organizational growth in this short chat with HRTech Series:

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Hi Michael, welcome to our HRTech Interview series: we’d love to hear about your GTM and Revenue journey across the HRTech realm.

Thank you for having me, and I’m excited to share my experience. Most recently, I served as Chief Revenue Officer of SAP SuccessFactors North America where I was responsible for driving Human Experience Management sales and the go-to-market strategy, as well as operation of pipeline development, demand management, revenue growth and customer success. Prior to SAP, I was SVP at Salesforce in Healthcare and Life Sciences, and the Human Capital Management Area VP at Oracle.

I’m blown away by the momentum Cornerstone has been gathering in the market and how they are thinking about the strategic role workforce agility plays. I’m thrilled to be joining the company. As a sales leader, I appreciate Cornerstone’s flexibility and commitment to meeting organizations where they are, along with offering a truly open platform, aligning people development and organizational goals so organizations can future-proof their workforce. This is exactly the mindset needed as we set our sights on continued growth.

Given your experience driving demand and revenue goals for HRTech brands, what key takeaways would you share with HRTech peers here?

With HR Tech, measurement is often tied to meaningful outcomes that can be thought of as “soft ROI” or “benefits,” which is why outcomes must be front and center. Why do we spend so much time replacing existing or legacy systems? It’s occasionally because there is a product issue or gap, but, more often than not it’s because value is not being realized or outcomes have not been quantified. This should be the basis for how we engage in programs and manage associated risks. Confidence in a risk-mitigated path to a successful outcome will accelerate demand and revenue growth.

Read More: HRTech Interview with John Deal, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Phenom

Specific to growing an HR Tech brand, what are the biggest challenges that sales and revenue leaders face?

The alignment between corporate goals and the impact of having the right people to support them is often missed. Take the manufacturing industry, for example, where people capacity is just as important as having the raw materials or inventory on hand to execute your daily tasks. Yet, operational planning rarely considers the human element to the necessary extent – ensuring the right people with the right skills are working on the right tasks. HR Tech, in general, needs to cover a broader stakeholder group to better align on business outcomes in which HR Tech directly impacts (or impedes) but is generally thought of as soft ROI.

When driving enterprise tech demand and strategies: what myths and misconceptions do sales and revenue teams still struggle with?

There are two that immediately come to mind, especially when one looks at a broader portfolio technology company. For instance, pipeline coverage models are not equally weighted. Coverage in HR Tech needs to be 5x, which is materially higher than the normal 3.5x – 4x pipeline generally attributed to providing cloud solutions. The reason for this is simply that HR programs often get paused or delayed because they are prioritized beneath those with a hard ROI. It’s not that the loss rates are higher and thus require greater coverage. Instead, the delay factor is exponentially larger in human capital programs.

The second is the weighting of ecosystem influence. Whether it is the GSI’s, industry influencers or consultancy, the alignment to overall strategic imperatives and the context of all programs across an enterprise are gating factors. These can be difficult to truly uncover and influence, unless working in alignment with trusted advisors to the customer. The investment into the ecosystem and the accountability by which those relationships are managed is critical to growing a mutually beneficial ecosystem that positively impacts the employee experience in the market.

If you had to share a few thoughts on the future of HRtech and demand gen in HRTech: what would they be?

We are at a point of unprecedented change and complexity. AI and automation, remote and hybrid work and demographic differences with five generations in the workforce are transforming the way we work. While data and technology make things easier, they also add complexity, with many HR professionals managing multiple tools in their ecosystem. All these factors force us to rethink how we drive workforce productivity and engagement. I don’t see this complexity and rate of change slowing down anytime soon. What drew me to Cornerstone and making my own career change was this future vision as part of their solution. Organizations need an agile, flexible platform that doesn’t lock them in, but rather, grows with them through future changes. As customers continue to be their own advocates for open platforms that offer the flexibility they need, I see other HR Tech providers following suit, opening and loosening the lock-in strategy.

Five revenue optimization tips you’d leave us with before we wrap up?

Revenue optimization has so many components, but there are a few I recommend focusing on from the outset.

First, align with your customer programs on the quantifiable outcomes that can be used to govern the program and partnership. Without this alignment and an engagement model by which progress or problems are being consistently measured, the question of value will invariably arise. Then, prioritize focusing on retaining revenue or avoiding attrition, before expanding a revenue base.

Second, be proactive in how you invest into customer programs to mitigate risk, inclusive of your partner ecosystem.

Third, it is important to work transparently with those that sell into and support customers, so they understand where their pipeline focus should be, how they are measured and how they are held accountable. Far too often, there are disconnects between where the company needs customer-facing teams to focus versus where they spend their time.

Fourth, be clear on expectations!

Finally, continually communicate impact and progress. This is critical to ensure everyone is aligned on the revenue optimization journey.

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