Quarterly business planning or “you running your business… not your business running you!”

Quarterly business plans (QBPs) work so well in recruitment. As with the four seasons, recruitment trends change considerably throughout the year, so planning in detail for more than 3 months at a time, can sometimes be counter productive.

Too often recruitment consultants (and managers and directors sometimes) are working day to day on their business and either don’t have or don’t take the time to step back and review what’s happening to be able to plan ahead. What happens is whatever the business dictates. This usually means inconsistency in the results and revenue going up and down from month to month.

In the last blog post – “To KPI or not to KPI…”, I reviewed that the figures can be your ally… but you’ve got to use them. So with QBPs, one of the most important parts is to analyse the activities and statistics that you’ve gained over the previous 3 months and put them into the first part 1 of your QBP using the topics that I’ve detailed below. Then repeat, but as a plan for the next 3 months.  This is covered in more detail in another of my posts – People do what you ‘inspect’, not what you ‘expect’.

The key is that you’re always planning ahead, based on the statistics and trends from your previous work. Once you have planned for your next three months, it’s important that you have checkpoints along the way to be able to identify if you’re on track. These checkpoints are your monthly Performance Reviews.

So not surprisingly, a lot of your QBP will be based around the information that you’ve gathered and created for your monthly Performance Review (click for more details).

QBP headings

1. Performance objectives
2. Revenue
3. Activities
4. KPIs / SWOT analysis
5. Client and Candidate plans
6. Training

… and then we add a couple more.

7. Special projects

These should involve things that are not in your day to day job description. They could be organising a networking event, attending a conference, being responsible for an internal company competition, organising a charity day, mentoring a new starter etc.

8. Vision

Although we’ve talked about detailing your plans over a quarter, you should have an overview of your ‘vision’ for the year ahead. You then review this on a quarterly basis to make sure that it’s still where you want to be going!

So start your first QBP by writing out what you want your desk / business to be like by the end of the next 12 months. Include things such as what you want your clients and customers to be saying about your desk / business, what levels of business you want to be doing and what would make you feel proud, if you achieved it.

9. Dates and actions

Make sure that you plan the dates for the next two Performance Reviews and the following QBP review and then sign to confirm that they’re in the diary.

Any actions and agreements should be written up (by yourself) within 48 hours or your QBP review and copied in to your manager. You’re now set to start your next quarter… ahead of the game.

I would recommend that 90 minutes is allocated for a QBP review and 60 minutes for a monthly performance review. They key is to have the information available for your manager 2 days before, so they can peruse it and then have a considered conversation with you about key parts of the plan.

Angela Cripps, MD Connemara UK

 

Objection Handling

 

One of the hardest things to master, when becoming a recruitment consultant, is how to overcome objections. Whether these come from candidates or clients, it’s still hard to not take them personally.

If you’re wondering what the picture of the little hurdle is all about, it’s called a caveletti. If you’ve ever ridden horses, you’ll be aware of it as it’s used to train them when they’re learning to jump fences.

For me it’s a visual that helps when handling objections. Rather than seeing it as an insurmountable object, the caveletti should be seen a ‘trip hazard’, just like an objection. If the horse doesn’t pay attention and pick their feet up, they’ll knock their hooves pretty hard… in other words, ignore it at your peril.

If you ignore the objection given by your customer, it’s going to trip you up and make you fall flat on your face.

Objections can of course be genuine, but sometimes they’re not…

Typical objections include: –

• We’re using another agency
• You’re too expensive
• We have a PSL (preferred suppliers list) already
• We’re not recruiting
• We do the recruiting ourselves
• We advertise our positions online
• HR are responsible for that i.e. it’s not my job
• We’ve got a headcount freeze
• I’m too busy to talk right now
• We’re too small to use an agency
• Our business is too technical to use an agency etc.
• I can’t put you through i.e. the gatekeeper

They can usually be allocated to one of 4 categories: –

1. Capability – in other words, the client hasn’t got to the point where they trust you and therefore are questioning whether you can do the job at all
2. Price – probably the easiest one to spot
3. Vague – there’s a real objection there, but they probably don’t know what it is either!
4. Irrelevant – it’s a smokescreen, such as “I’m too busy to talk right now”. This isn’t an objection to you working with them, but more likely just a way to get you off of the phone

Sometimes objections can be a tester to see whether you can cope with a small amount of pressure – to see whether you balk at the first hurdle. I’ve actually had a client admit to me, that on a Friday afternoon they would try and get as many objections as possible into a call from a sales person.

With that in mind, it’s important that you qualify the objection before carrying on the conversation. The only problem with that is that our bodies will react without our permission… the ‘flight or fight’ response (a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived attack) takes over. With the additional adrenalin now rushing around your bloodstream, it’s not surprising that the majority of consultants now feel very uncomfortable (hot, sweaty, pace of speech increased as well as the pitch etc.) and therefore the panic can set in and you are happy to get off the phone as quickly as possible – ‘flight’.

If you take the opposite approach and you’re happy to take on the client and stand your ground and defend your position – “fight” – then the likelihood is that you’ll want to ask some questions around the objection. Unfortunately, in this scenario, adrenalin is not your friend and the question is likely to come across as argumentative i.e. “What are you comparing that to?” will come across as argumentative, so we need another approach… we need a middle ground to create a neutral zone.

The Objection Handling Process

1. Listen

Leave 1 – 2 seconds silence for them to add anything more – and above all else, don’t interrupt them when they’re stating their objection

2. Acknowledge the objection

This needs to be a statement that confirms that you have listened, but is in no way inflammatory. Notice there are no questions, yet.

i.e. I appreciate why you may feel that way… OR I understand that must have been a difficult situation for you… OR I appreciate that being as cost effective as possible in your transactions is a top priotrity for your business OR I’m sorry you’ve had that experience…

3. Specify

Now you’ve acknowledged what they’ve said and made the environment less combative, you can use open and probing questions to establish the real issues. Try to stay away from closed questions at this stage as it’s not helpful for them to be answering yes / no or just a couple of words – you want a conversation and lots of information.

 As well as fully understanding the objection, the aim here is to uncover issues that you may be able to resolve in the future for them

4. Reassure

Summarise what they’ve said to you, making sure you are pointing out the key issues / needs that they’ve mentioned in their answers i.e. “so what you’re saying is that you do utilise recruiter’s services, but have found in the past that the communication has not been of a level that you would want and the quality of the service was lacking in areas”

5. Present (Sell)

It’s only now that you try to resolve the objection. It’s important to promote this in the 3^rd person i.e. hypothetical. “How helpful would it have been if a consultant had done X?”, “Would it be beneficial if a consultancy did Y for you?” Of course, excuse the obvious, but don’t point out a feature that would help to resolve the issue, if your own company doesn’t offer that service!

6. Close

The aim is for the customer to give you a “Yes” answer to your question. It’s at this point that you can then carry on the conversation and find out whether you can help the customer or not i.e. “I’m not sure whether we’re the right consultancy for you, but let me ask you some more questions and we can find out”.

Now I’m not unrealistic and I know that this process won’t resolve 100% of objections that you’re faced with – but what if it resolves even just 50%?

That 50% additional opportunity now gives you the chance to carry on the conversation with your customer and just think what that could lead to… 

Angela Cripps, MD

Connemara UK

12 Management Competencies – Sales opportunities

This is the eleventh in a series of posts detailing The 12 Competencies of a Manager. Each one will expand on the definition given, with information on what the competency means in real terms, as well as hints and tips for managers.

11. Sales opportunities

Definition: Employs knowledge gained from a multitude of sources to identify issues from the customer’s perspective and develops opportunities for business growth. The solutions offered compel the customer to take immediate action.

It surprises me the amount of managers – especially in recruitment if they’re not billing managers – that don’t see that spotting sales opportunities as part of their role.

Whilst it might not be your direct responsibility, it’s important to see this as one of your many ‘hats’ that you need to wear. It’s not just about leading by example, but for me, the key role of a manager is to create success for the individuals within their team.

This could easily start from the ‘O’ in SWOT. How often are you performing a SWOT analysis for your business and creating a plan to follow through on any opportunities that may be available?

1. Know your market

Planning time to review the market and industry that you work in seemed like not working when I was first asked to do it. There I was sitting reading a trade magazine and highlighting articles and roles and editorials that related to my clients… surely this wasn’t work?!

So have you got dedicated market research time each week / month? If not, then you’re already setting a bad example to your team. Keeping on top of what’s changing – whether that be through e-mailers, newsletters, articles, events, seminars, Expo’s, conferences etc. – is critical to spotting opportunities for your business.

2. Lead by example

The above tip is a good start, but some of the best managers that I’ve worked for in the past, made sure that they were there to support their team, when they were tackling elements of their job that might just be a little out of their comfort zone. It’s something that I utilised when managing others.

Regular opportunities for observing client meetings, presentations, even down to sales calls with detailed feedback after the event will show that you care. What’s also important is that they get the opportunity to see you performing these tasks as well. It might not be very often, but if you’ve got a big presentation to do, why not lead by example and do the presentation to the team and ask for feedback, before you present to your audience. They’ll see you in a positive light in the fact that you also practice, as well as feeling that nobody’s perfect and we all need support sometimes.

The key result you’re looking for though of course, is that they learn from you.

3. Create opportunities for success for others

This stems right from the first week that a new team member joins you. You will be asking them to achieve standards, so it’s important to show them how.

Put thought into how you can make sure that they achieve success in those first few weeks – week 3 is critical. If they haven’t felt some form of success in what they do in their first 3 weeks, then they are going to be deciding whether it’s the right job for them.

4. Be involved with the top 20% of your business customers

Even if your role is not a sales one, make sure you are aware of who your customers are and get involved – even if it’s once a year at a Christmas customer lunch. Generally, Pareto’s Law works well for analysis of this and 80% of revenue will normally come from your top 20% of customers.

It’s likely that your major opportunities will come from these 20% as well, so keep on top of them. They will share with you the issues they are facing and help you to create solutions that will compel not just the top 20% to buy from you, but the other 80% as well.

5. Analyse, plan, action, repeat

Pretty simple, but so important. This process for creating and spotting sales opportunities is a cycle, not a one off. Quarterly is usually a good timeframe to analyse and plan. It gives you time to action and then an opportunity to review monthly and quarterly to make sure you’re on track for the year.

There are 12 posts altogether in this series, with an addition of the original overview post that details all of the management competencies. I hope they’ll be beneficial for you. For the original post with a snapshot of all of the competencies covered in this series, click here – The 12 Competencies of a Manager

The full series of posts: –

1. Management Competencies – Analysing the Business

2. Management Competencies – Strategic Planning

3. Management Competencies – Monitoring the Business

4. Management Competencies – Meeting Goals

5. Management Competencies – Building profitability

6. Management Competencies – Customer Relationship

7. Management Competencies – Team Priorities

8. Management Competencies – High Business Performance

9. Management Competencies – Team Development

10. Management Competencies – Communication

11. Management Competencies – Sales opportunities

12. Management Competencies – Perseverance

Angela Cripps, MD Connemara UK

http://www.connemarauk.com

 

List of recruitment posts from Connemara UK

I’ve just finished another series of 13 posts last week, so thought I’d give myself a week off and give you the links to all 3 series from last year.

Whether you’re a new recruitment consultant and wondering what this role is all about – Series 1 (13 posts), or a manager recruiting new staff or an experienced consultant that wants to benchmark themselves – Series 2 (12 posts) or an in-house or external recruiter who wants the definitive ‘Recruitment Process’ – Series 3 (12 posts).

1. So you’ve become a recruitment consultant… what does that really mean?

1. “So you’ve become a recruitment consultant…”
2. Qualifying – working on the ‘good stuff’
3. Interviewing for Commitment
4. Organisation through Time Management and Prioritisation
5. Communication – the cornerstone to recruitment
6. Communication within Sales
7. Structuring Sales
8. The Key Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant
9. People do what you ‘inspect’, not what you ‘expect’
10. Resourcing – How can social media enhance the process?
11. Performance Reviews – What’s the point?
12. Quarterly Business Planning – Getting ahead of the game
13. Probationary Appraisals – making it an easy “Yes”

2. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant

 

1. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Planning
2. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Monitoring
3. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Analysing
4. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Sales opportunities
5. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Meeting Goals
6. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Building Profitability
7. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Communication
8. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Team Priorities
9. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Development of others
10. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Client Relationship
11. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Maintaining a high level of business performance
12. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Perseverance

3. The 12 Steps to the Recruitment Process

Step one – Taking a qualified position

Step two – Making a recruitment plan

Step three – Sourcing potential candidates

Step four – Qualifying the candidates

Step five – Interviewing the candidate

Step six – Presenting the candidate to the line manager

Step seven – Candidate preparation and briefing

Step eight – Line manager interview

Step nine – The candidate debrief

Step ten – Managing the offer

Step eleven – Resignation briefing and management

Step twelve – The post placement and onboarding plan

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK, 07789 966209

http://www.connemarauk.com                         

P.S. If anyone knows how to get rid of the paragraph spacing (3rd series of posts above), then please email me angela@connemarauk.com… always looking to learn!

7. Structuring Sales

Part 7 of the “So you’ve become a recruitment consultant…” series. Last week we looked at Communication within Sales. This week I want to write about why it’s so important to plan your sales and have a structure to what you do.

One of the key competencies that a recruitment consultant should have is planning. Having worked with a few thousand consultants in my career, I can confidently say that the difference between a good consultant and a great one is planning. Top consultants plan their day, week, month, quarters and year. They plan their sales strategies, their candidate care plans, their targets, goals and objectives,  their client meetings, their sales calls and above all else ‘themselves’… I could go on!

The following structure can be utilised for both client meetings and individual sales calls. It’s for a conversation where you wish to present solutions to your customers’ needs – in other words ‘sell’ to them. The reason that it resonated with me and I still use it today is that it doesn’t feel salesy. I can’t stand pushy sales people who don’t listen to what you say and just assume they have what you need.  With this sales structure, you won’t be accused of doing that.

The 7 Point Sales Plan

1. Plan   

Now I’ve met a lot of consultants in my time that say “Oh, it’s OK – I just pick up the phone. I know what to say… it’s all in my head” or “I’ll know what to say when I get there”

Now this is all well and good if the client says all the things that you expect them to say. Unfortunately, you’re not in control of the client and therefore, if you’re winging it, the likelihood is that the client will throw you… and then what are you going to do?!

So plan what you want to achieve, do your research to find out as much as possible before making the approach and think about possible solutions to their possible needs.

2.         Introduction

For myself I always felt that using your full name was much more professional if you didn’t know this person well. Clearly state your company and your title / specialism so as not to hide it. Be proud of who you are and what you do, then finally, your location – if it’s relevant i.e. local or prominent.

The introduction is more about how you sound than what you are saying. The client is tuning in to you, but is already making assumptions about how they feel about you. You should sound confident, strong, in control and enthusiastic. All too often we don’t concentrate on this and it comes across as sing-songy (I know that’s not a word!), repetitive, hesitant or just too quiet.

3.         Bridge

A Bridge is something that gets you from your introduction in to the part of the call / meeting where you get to ask the client questions and they are willing to reply. Get this right and the client is happy to talk to you. Get it wrong and they’ll cut you off very quickly!

The Bridge is defined as an interesting statement followed by an open question. Asking an open question early in the conversation  allows your client to get involved in the conversation and doesn’t allow them to cut you off with a “yes” or more likely “no” answer, but they will only want to do this if the statement you made was of interest to them. Therefore, talking about recruitment early on will usually do the opposite. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them.

4.         Probe

The recruitment process and current requirements are just two of the topics that you can have business discussions with your client about, but they still find them quite boring, so let’s make sure that this conversation is more of interest to them, which helps to build rapport and means that you are gathering a lot more knowledge to be able to sell the company to your candidates.

Write a list of topics and write 10 open questions next to each. This will help with the planning of your calls as you can cut and paste relevant questions from your list. I’ve been collating them myself for years and am now up to 6 sides of A4 with hundreds of questions. So many that I’ll never get to the end of them with one client, as every 6 months things will change and I’ll have to start again with some of them.

5.         Summarise

Now notice that we’re still not selling. Our aim here is to check our own understanding, show the client that we have understood their needs and wants to gain their confidence, give ourselves a moment to think, prioritise their needs if there are many and above all else, show that we listened to them.

6.         Present (sell)

We are now ready to sell to the client, but I consider it more of a presentation as we are now presenting solutions to their needs / issues that we uncovered throughout our questioning at point 4. What’s key here is that we point out the benefits of what we’re offering to the client. Too many consultants focus on their ‘features’ and sell as many of them as possible – like a shopping list. The client is interested in what it will do for them… not what it is.

7.         Close

We have now got to the close. We want to make sure that the position is clear for both sides. Never make assumptions at this point and make sure that you ask for what you want, confirm the actions for both sides and then put it in writing.

By utilising this simple structure, you will achieve so much more from your client meetings and calls than just ‘winging it!

Early on in my life as a recruitment consultant and manager I was involved in some in-depth interviews to understand the key competencies required to perform at a high level. Next week I’m going to list those competencies and highlight the key attributes of each, so that you can assess how you’re doing so far, in this new career of yours.

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK

6. Communication within sales

Here’s part 6 of the series “So you’ve become a recruitment consultant…” and if you started reading this when you joined the industry, then you’re already halfway nearly through your probation.

Last week we looked at part 5 Communication – the cornerstone to recruitment. This week we’ll take a moment to look at why it’s important to relate communication specifically to the sales techniques that you use in recruitment – whether this is face to face in meetings or telephone sales.

We all have our own personal communication style. As a salesperson it’s looking at how we can adjust,  to build rapport with our candidates and clients. There’s an age-old saying “People like people like themselves”. To be able to utilise this, it means that we have to be able to adapt to other personalities and in essence be a bit like a chameleon, blending in with our environment.

Here’s a quick synopsis of just one or two traits of four common personality types, that can help you build a better relationship and achieve more in your sales communications;-

The Actor – When dealing with an actor they tend to be easy to spot. They like to talk about themselves and their successes. They’re happy to flaunt their achievements and are therefore likely to have certificates, awards and trophies in full view.

Tip: The aim when dealing with the actor is to ask them about themselves… easy huh? They will be happy to share and as long as you mention your success rates, the calibre of other clients you work with backed up with testimonials, they’ll want to join forces and work with you.

The Thinker – The thinker is the one that will take their time when making a decision. Very frustrating to a recruitment consultant, but this is the way they do business, so don’t rush them in your communication. They will come to their answer in the end.

Tip: Give them timeframes to work to, but make sure that you’ve also given them enough data and statistical information for them to make their reasoned decision.

The Doer – the doer tends to be the total opposite to the thinker when it comes to making decisions. They are ‘spur of the moment’ people, very spontaneous and happy to cut through any red tape to get things done. This means that they will try to rush you.

Tip: Your communication has to be concise and to the point. The aim is to make sure they have all the facts before they make their decision and ask a lot of “What happens if…?” and “What would be the knock on effect?” questions, as they won’t always think through the consequences for themselves. You sometimes need to hold them back a little to get them to think it through.

The Friend – Everyone wants the friend as their customer. Lovely to deal with, happy to answer all of your questions, willing to share about their personal life, but normally more comfortable talking about you instead. Sounds ideal…? Think again. You end up doing more of the talking, which means you’re not gaining the information that you need to be able to sell a solution to their needs. The friend is also very unlikely to tell you when things are not right or if they’re using another supplier because “they didn’t want to upset you!”

Tip: It’ll be easy to talk about personal stuff and build a friendly relationship with them, so focus on asking the questions regarding the business and make sure you get an answer. The Friend doesn’t like confrontation, so make sure it’s an easy conversation and best to get in front of them as it’s easier to keep them on track with non-verbal communication signals (see part 5 – link above).

Try to analyse what your own candidates and clients personality traits are, and then adjust your approach to get the most out of the relationships that you are developing and remember, you’re the one that needs to change to make them feel more comfortable.  Do that and your sales conversations are likely to be longer and more successful.

Next week we’ll tackle structuring your sales calls and meetings to gain the most out of each.

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK

4. Organisation through Time Management and Prioritisation

Part four of my series  “So you’ve become a recruitment consultant…”  and in relation to time management and organisation, there were 5 key lessons that hit home to me as a new recruitment consultant, which meant that I could take control of my business, rather than my business controlling me. 

Tip 1 – Plan your day, but don’t plan your whole day. Leave space for the reactive tasks that will inevitably interrupt. It’s one of the exciting parts of the job that you can come in one morning and get pulled from left to right and you don’t always know what’s going to happen by the end of the day. My favourites were when, as a perm consultant I’d pick up a job in the morning, interviews organised for the afternoon and an offer and acceptance before I went home. That was a perfect day for me and it showed that I could work at just a fast paced as the temp consultants!

I always hear that “recruitment is a reactive business, so you can’t plan”. Well, knowing it’s going to be reactive, we can plan for that!

To be able to plan for the reactive tasks, it means that you need to do some analysis of your normal day/week. There will be some trends that you’ll start to identify. For example, as a recruitment consultant working in the commercial sector 80% of my average Wednesday was proactive. Knowing this, I would persuade my clients to meet me on this day, as I knew I could be away from my desk without too much reactive stuff happening for others to deal with and therefore I wouldn’t dread walking back into the office after a great meeting.

Tip 2 – Assess at the end of each day, what % was reactive and how much of it was proactive. By doing the analysis, you can decide how much to plan in and on which days, as they will be different throughout the week.

 

Each day it’s been proven that, if you spend a few minutes writing out what you want to achieve; you’ll gain that time back – and then some – by being organised.

Tip 3 – Write a To Do’s List. Have it written before you start work each day and update it with the reactive tasks throughout the day in a different colour, so that you are able to do Tip 2 easily).

Once you have your list, plan the activities into your diary picking out the important and urgent tasks first so that you can get them cleared first thing. By organising your time and getting the important tasks done when they should, it means that they shouldn’t get to the ‘urgent’ stage!

Tip 4 – When allocating time to tasks, always add more time than you think it will take. If you end up finishing early, there’s always other work to be done in recruitment – like sales calls!

Tip 5 – Create a weekly calendar whereby you have repeating tasks and copy / recur it. Identify the best times to do things and aim to stick to it. Use this as your base each week and update with your variable and reactive tasks.

Friday afternoons and Monday mornings were the most successful times of the week for me to ‘market in’ candidates to potential clients. This is likely due to the fact that people are more likely to hand their notice in at these times and then may not return or Monday morning is statistically more likely the time people tend to call in sick, so great for temporary staff cover.

By incorporating the 5 above tips into my daily routine, I was able to run 100 temporary workers per week (mostly short term bookings) when running my first temp desk and I made 112 placements in my first year as a recruiter – not a bad start.

Next week we’ll look at communication skills and how they can impact your relationships with your customers – internal and external.

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK

2. Qualifying – working on the ‘good stuff’

Following on from “So you’ve become a recruitment consultant…”  and we pick up where I finished last week – the realisation that we can all be ‘busy fools’.

It’s easy to get distracted by a job with a big salary or a candidate that initially looks amazing. The problem is that they aren’t the pre-requisites to making money in recruitment. A candidate with a great CV and top notch skills will not make you money if they are not motivated to move into the position that you are offering them. Similarly, the big salary might be because no-one else has been able to find a candidate either.

I’m going to tackle qualifying from three different angles – the candidate, the role and the client; any one of which could cause the placement to fall through.

Candidates

Spend 10 minutes in a conversation with them in order to qualify that they meet your standards. You are aiming to establish the following answers?

1. What is their minimum bottom line salary?

Push them down as far as possible. Psychologically, they’ll be thinking that’s what they are going to get offered and when you offer them more, they will take it more readily.

2. What are their motivations to make a move now?

Ideally you would want 3 – 5 motivating factors, such as location closer to home, a company that values me, an opportunity to learn new skills, a new challenge in my current market etc. Money is one, but you need a lot more for this to be an ideal candidate otherwise they will take a counter offer.

3. How motivated are they?

Are they ‘tire-kickers’ just having a look around or are they really dedicated to the job of finding a new role?

4. What have they done so far?

If they are committed to this process, then they are likely to have updated their CV, looked for roles themselves, maybe applied to companies they wanted to work for, contacted other agencies etc. the exception to this is if they heard 30 minutes ago that they were being made redundant.

5. What could possibly stop them from taking their ideal role?

You need to know now before moving forward as to whether there is something that they are aware of that will mean they wouldn’t accept your role. This can be a spouse’s interference, a counter offer from another consultancy or their present company, a health condition, or even as I heard recently, the fact that the candidate’s dog would have to go into quarantine when they came back from their assignment abroad!

6. Why would a company choose them over someone else looking for the same salary?

They need to have marketable qualities to sell to your clients, preferably 5 outstanding points about their achievements and accomplishments to date. It is your job to establish what they are, but it’s helpful for the candidate to come up with them as they’ll then remember them when being interviewed.

Once you have your answers you can now decide whether or not to interview them. The key is question, question, question.

Roles

Whether you call it a vacancy, assignment, booking, job, placement or role, taking an effective one is the same for all. The more detail you have, the better match you will be able to make with a suitable candidate. Understanding not only the day to day duties, but also the opportunities that will be available now and in the future and everything you can about the company, as well as what are the characteristics of the ideal person, and it will be so much easier to sell to your prospective candidates.

The key is to find out very early on – is the client committed to finding the right person for this position? If they are unwilling to give you 30 minutes (this time will get less the more you work with the company) to establish all of the information you require , then how much of a priority is filling this position to them?

Working on minimal briefs from the client means that you will make bad matches and the client will not value your service, which means you will struggle to earn your fee. Why should a client pay you for badly matched candidates that they could have found themselves?

Clients

It’s easy to get distracted by a client giving you some business. It’s not easy to get new clients on board, so when they approach you, it’s likely you’ll jump at the opportunity. Stop! Is this business that you want associated with your own brand?

Whether it’s a new client you are trying to convert or one that approaches you, it’s important to establish some criteria of the business that you want to partner with. There are occasions when taking positions from a company with a reputation for treating their staff badly or having a high turnover, will actually damage your business and reputation in the long run. It might be a positive initially that they have a high turnover – lots of opportunity for us, right? Wrong. In the long term your own placements will also leave and are unlikely to thank you if it was a bad experience and therefore won’t return for you to place them again.

The aim would be to have the discussion with the client, be honest. In the past, I have been able to turn around the reputation of the company by working with them. It’s worth a conversation, but if not, then it’s time to walk away.

Determine your own criteria for the type of companies that you want to work with and then go after the ones that fit that criteria. Don’t waste time with companies that are going to ruin your reputation. It’s down to you to make the right choices, don’t rely on your IT systems to qualify the information that you receive.

Next week we’ll look at key tips for interviewing candidates.

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK

Utilising LinkedIn in your sales strategy (updated)

I’ve been to quite a few seminars, conferences, events that have had social media and specifically LinkedIn as a topic. I had a really interesting conversation with a LinkedIn trainer and attended a Recruitment Society Event in London where it was the main topic. So, that’s what’s prompted this post.

I’ve been utilising it for 8+ years now, but until a few years ago I’d never had to use it for sales. So my policy was that I had always only connected with people that I knew and had actually worked with / trained. This made for a very robust network and when people came to me to introduce them to my connections, or even my connections, connections. It worked… for me.

That all changed when I got back into a sales role for APSCo, helping them to increase their membership in the Midlands. I changed my policy and started accepting invites from people that I didn’t know.

In February 2013 I launched my own business that I’ve had for 13 years, Connemara UK Ltd. I’d never used the name and although I already had quite a robust network (just under the 1,000 connections or so) I decided to set myself a target of an extra 100 connections for 4 weeks. I had work booked up until after Easter, so I thought I’d see what LI could do for me… without doing any sales calls. I made sure my profile was up to date and I had recommendations and endorsements for the work that I wanted to focus on. I’ve written 20+ different induction and engagement programmes for companies, I had lots of written recommendations, but only a couple of endorsements… so I asked for more.

On Wednesday of week 4 of my experiment, I was only 1 person off of my 400 hundred target. Amazing, especially as I hadn’t had to search for any connections… it’s all organic from the work I’d been doing in the first 3 weeks.

  

So how easy is it for anyone to increase their network like this, what was my strategy and what results did it bring?

Top 10 tips

1. Basic and logical, but not actually something that I’d done in the past, so I wonder how many others haven’t really utilised LI. I did an advanced search on MD (Title) Recruitment (Key word) 50 mile radius of my home town. With 2,236 results, it was certainly a great place to start, with nearly half either only 1 connection away or in a group that I belong to.

2. I went to the groups that I belong to and connected with these people. Just one of these groups had 125,000 members and I’m still only connected to 374 from all of my groups, so I’ve got a long way to go, because I’ve only just touched the tip of the iceberg with 1 group out of 39!!

3. I follow the group rules! I hear annoyance from so many people, including myself, whereby recruiters just fill up the discussion timeline with job postings… it’s not what we want to see or have multiple emails about.

4. I manage a group (The Recruitment Society) that is lucky enough to have about 20 people a day joining it. So set up your own group, get people interested and make sure that when you accept them, send them an additional welcome note through a connection request.

5. Send the invites in the evening, with a personalised note starting with “Good evening”. It shows that you’re willing to go the extra mile and put the work in to build your network, but also (and more importantly) it doesn’t get in the way of your sales time – although I’m doing sales calls to Singapore at the moment, so that is middle of the night stuff!!

6. Write or re-post interesting articles and discussions. Put your views and feelings on there. In other words, give a bit of yourself.

7. Comment on other people’s articles. 1 client approached me as they looked at my LI profile after I’d made a comment – what an easy way to get in front of your clients.

8. Make sure you’ve got recommendations and endorsements for the work that you want to do.

9. Be polite. Be courteous. Basic, but also missing in a lot of requests that I get. That also relates to your photo. I actually find some photos offensive! Sometimes it’s just the look on someone’s face that makes me think less favourably of them – maybe it’s because I’m a ‘visual’ type personality.

10. Above all don’t lie! Not a great way to start the relationship. I’m amazed at how many friends I’ve actually got. My initial reaction when I get a request that says someone is my friend is to want to shout at the laptop “NO, you’re not. I’ve never met you in my life!!” Delete follows very quickly. LI sent a request for me recently without me being able to add a personal note – I immediately wrote to the person’s email and apologised.

What’s been the impact? 

Well the visibility of my profile has certainly changed. I was already in the top 1% of profiles viewed in 2012 (or so LinkedIn told me), but the graph speaks for itself. 30 – 40 views was quite normal per week for me… not now.

Also, you can see the increase of appearances in searches where I started to ‘sell again’, but even with Christmas and New Year, the 3 months to Mid March has increased by 50%.

So apart from profile, what are the actual business results?

In the first 3 weeks I had 7 companies approach me to utilise my services. 2 of these were companies that were linked to recruitment, that would like me to promote their business and take a % (which I don’t do) and the other 5 wanted Connemara UK to help them with projects, that they just happened to be organising this month. So my sales calls to the Directors have actually been 30 minutes+ each time and with clients already wanting my services – how easy is that? I’ve not had one “No” from these clients.

So in summary, I can understand why everyone raves about LinkedIn for the recruitment industry. What a sales tool… it does all of the leg work for you and you can do it every moment you have some spare time.

Update: July 2016

I wrote this blog 3 years ago and am glad to say that I have still not had to do any ‘cold calling’ as such and all of my work in the last 3 years can be attributed to LinkedIn in some way, shape or form.

This year I focussed on utilising LinkedIn to create international work for me. I used the same hints and tips that I’ve shared here and in numbers terms, I’ve connected with nearly 400 international recruitment directors, and set up 25 meetings in 5 different counties this summer, with 12 proposals for work. It doesn’t matter where you’re based, this works anywhere in the world.

My connections keep growing and my recommendations and endorsements still come in every week. I think one of the biggest impacts was writing a blog of useful information each week and sharing it with my LinkedIn groups. It was always targetted to be informative and I never sold myself or my company.

I’m getting closer to 5,500 connections now and have to say no, more than I say yes, to people wanting to connect with me. I still stick to just relevant connections.

 

Angela Cripps, MD       http://www.connemarauk.com

Selling to your customer’s personality traits

Ever wondered why some client and candidate relationships are so easy and some are a nightmare?

There are many reasons for this, but as a sales consultant, the first thing you need to say to yourself is that old cliché “It’s not you, it’s me!”

For those that have studied NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), then the four personality traits of Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Digital will be well known to you. At Connemara UK we work a lot with NLP and I think it’s a fantastic tool, when you are able to incorporate it into your day to day working.

There are another 4 personality traits of a similar vein, that I remember learning on a training course as a consultant, over twenty years ago! It’s stuck with me and when I use it in my training, a lot of people have what we call the ‘light-bulb’ moment. It suddenly becomes clear as to why some clients and candidates are easy to deal with and some are definitely not.

Here’s a quick synopsis of just one or two traits that can help you build your relationship; –

The Actor – When dealing with an actor they tend to be easy to spot. They like to talk about themselves and their successes. They’re happy to flaunt their achievements and are therefore likely to have certificates, awards, and trophies in full view. The trick to dealing with the actor is to ask them about themselves… easy huh? They will be happy to share and as long as you mention your success rates and the calibre of other clients you work with, they’ll want to join forces.

The Thinker – The thinker is the one that will take their time when making a decision. Very frustrating to a recruitment consultant, but this is the way they do business, so don’t rush them. They will come to their answer in the end. Give them timeframes to work to, but make sure that you’ve also given them enough data and statistical information for them to make their reasoned decision.

The Doer – Again, the doer is easy to spot as they are the total opposite to the thinker, when it comes to making decisions. They are spur of the moment people, very spontaneous and happy to cut through any red tape to get things done. The aim with the doer, is to make sure they have all the facts before they make their decision and ask a lot of “What happens if…?” questions, as they won’t always think through the consequences for themselves.

 Watching Eddie Izzard’s documentary of  when he ran 43 marathons in 51 days, he hadn’t thought about the training required at all – he just wanted to get on and do it!

The Friend – Everyone always wants the friend as their customer. Lovely to deal with, happy to answer all of your questions, willing to share about their personal life, but normally more comfortable talking about you instead. Sounds ideal…? think again. You end up doing more of the talking, which means you’re not gaining information and the friend is very unlikely to tell you when things are not right or if they’re using another supplier because “they didn’t want to upset you!”

The last pic here is of one of my pugs – Max. A totally loyal friend who would hate to upset you.

Try to analyse what your own candidates and clients personality traits are, and then adjust your approach to get the most out of the relationship.

Angela Cripps

For more information on sales courses please visit http://www.Connemarauk.com