RecruitingSavvy

Rachet Up Your Skills - Follow-up

Never call a client "to see if you got my email" or "if you have any questions." Always call with ideas, and suggestions. For instance, "Sent you the proposal yesterday, but I just wanted to mention our "terminate temps" program. Have you heard about it? Well, in a nutshell, the average hospital can save $1m to $6m by simply eliminating temporary staff. We guarantee complete replacement with permanent placement and an immediate savings of 600-800k. How about if I send you a one-pager on the program?"

Follow-up calls have been defined as "checking on your money." So, don't ask stupid questions like "have you made up your mind yet?" (Wouldn't they have called you?). Rather, think of ways to shine - information of value to the client and not just how to fill your wallet.

Attitude is Everything

 
 
 
National studies have shown the reasons sales professionals fail....

• 15% improper training
• 20% poor verbal and written communication skills
• 15% poor or problematic boss or management
• 50% attitude

Which is to say, 50% could succeed just by changing their attitude! Proof again of the biblical principle "As a man thinks in his heart so is he" or "you are what you think."

But how do you change what you think? Sounds simple, but think about other things! You can't stop ingrained thought patterns, but you can replace them. Begin the day with Leadership Gold by John Maxwell or listening to The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley. Remember...garbage in, garbage out.

Focus - The Key to Remarkable Achievement

Focus is key to execution. Anyone who has ever had to get ready to go on vacation knows the truth of that statement. It is incredible what you can get done in a short period of time when you have to get it done so that you can leave for vacation!

Our ability to consistently complete predetermined objectives on time is completely dependent on our ability to focus. These predetermined objectives include such things as getting paid every month, delivering candidates to clients in a timely fashion, etc...

That being said, focus does not come naturally. It is a skill that must be acquired through practice. Here are some steps to getting started:

1. Become aware of the need - track your time (what you actually do) for seven days. You will be surprised at what ISN'T happening.
2. Make a decision to invest time in learning new skills by eliminating distractions (My List: email, in-bound calls, office banter, unplanned or unscheduled opportunities, failure to plan the day before)
3. Practice the new skills - by scheduling actual practice sessions (I have suggested 90 min call blocks)
4. Make the new skills routine (Keep it up for 7 days and you will see such dramatic results that it will be hard to go back to the old ways)

Acquiring this skill will make your career. But here is a little more motivation for the practice. What is your "practice time" really worth? Assuming that you want to bill $250k this year. That would be my minimum goal for a recruiter since that will get him or her over the $100k mark in commissions. They key to achieving that goal is your ability to focus for three 90 minute practice sessions each day, five days per week. That means that you only have 60 hours per month or 720 hours per year of "practice time." Here's the math: $250k divided by 720 sessions = $347. 

So, every day you fail to practice one hour; every call block you miss costs you $347. Every day you fail to focus costs you $1,041. So, go ahead and spend your time responding to inane email, or reading the MSN news page....but know that every hour you lose costs you big time!

Isn't that enough motivation to acquire the skill of focus?

NOTE: In his book, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everyone Else, Geoff Colvin, demonstrates based on real research that the key to being world class has little to do with talent and everything to do with the right kind of practice (and coaching).

No Edge. No Play.

"If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete."

Jack Welch, Former Chairman of General Electric

Successful recruiting is not about luck (send out lots of people and hope somebody gets hired), but design. While there is no way to ensure the outcome of a sendout or an interview, it is possible to ensure that the "odds" are tipped in your favor.

A competitive edge is whatever tips the odds of success in your favor. Having a competitive edge is like a double-edged sword because advantages can be internal (your personal gifts, abilities, and expertise) and external (such as technology, information, or partnership). Take Lindsey Vonn, downhill hopeful for the Winter Olympics next month in Vancouver, B.C. and the first woman ever to win two, back to back World Cup Championships.

She has some internal (personal) advantages, her father and grandfather were both competitive skiiers. And she grew up in Minnesota, not noted for its mountains. This meant that she grew up in a situation where she did little free skiing and lots of reps. She is also a bit taller and a bit heavier that her other female competitors giving her a speed advantage.

But she also has some significant external advantages - she travels with two personal trainers (provided by Red Bull), a ski technician and her former U.S. Ski team member and Olympian husband, Thomas Vonn. And she trains harder than any of her competition; often showing up an hour earlier than anyone else. Cutting edge surgical techniques recently put her back together after a nasty accident.

While none of this will ensure her victory in an event that is typically determined by a hundredth of a second, she has certainly done what she can to tip the odds in her favor. And, oddly enough, it is working as she has logged her 25th straight career victory. 

What is your competitive edge? Here's the motto: No edge, no play.

Are you an employee or a business owner?

One of the unique differences in our relationship with recruiting consultants at One Source is that we do not view them as employees, but partners. Unfortunately our consultants are often limited by their own perception of the relationship. Our commitment to provide the most lavish and well integrated recruiting platform and support available anywhere is only really appreciated if a team member views themselves as a business owner rather than an employee. Here is the important question: "Am I a sales person in business or a business owner making sales?" This comparison helps to demonstrate the difference between these two mind-sets:

Recruiter Thinking	Owner Thinking
Pays only for what can be reimbursed	Invests money to make money
Calls on anybody	Calls on the right people
Reacts to interruptions	Makes sure interruptions don't occur
Keeps safe clients	Terminates unprofitable relationships
Is busy and action-oriented	Is productive and results focused
Makes lots of calls	Makes placements
Thinks quantity is important	Knows quality is more important
Puts profit before people	Puts people before profits
Puts revenue before reputation	Puts reputation before revenue
Prioritizes schedule	Schedules priorities
Succeeds by accident	Succeeds by design

Successful recruiters take responsibility for their own success and stability. They realize that the firm owner can only provide an opportunity and cannot guarantee their success. As a friend of mine once said of recruiting consultants: "Sooner than later thay have to make something happen on their own, just like you did and I did."  Consistent income is the result of both good planning and good execution. Or to put it another way, inconsistency in sales income and success is the result of failure to plan for sales success. Far too many people believe that sales success is the result of luck or "getting a break." 

Noted recruiting trainer Scott Love was a card counter in Vegas until he was banned from the casinos. Counting cards taught him an important lesson whether gambling or recruiting. He says, "I learned that if I continued to work the system I would make money." Whether it is blackjack, poker, or recruiting - luck has little to do with it....

Recruiting - You have all the time there is...

Someone once said "Let no one say, ' I haven't enough time', because you have all the time there is!" Successful people know that time management is really a matter of self-management since time can't really be managed. Here are some sobering facts about (sales personnel) recruiters and their time:

• The average sales person is distracted every 11 minutes and it takes an average of 25 minutes to get back on track (University of California, 2008).

• The typical inside sales person is making 8.12 calls per day and logs an average total talk time of 33 minutes/day.

• 80% of sales calls result in leaving a voice mail.

Fact is that we all know that we need to make an average of 85-100 calls per day to experience success in the recruiting space. We don't need a university study to tell us that we frequently fail to meet that goal. Here are some suggestions for success:

1. Have a plan - The number one reason for failure to achieve call goals is that our lists are not prepared when we sit down to work in the morning. Investing the last hour of the day in preparing for the next is the best spent hour of the day. Better yet, why not get all your lists organized on Friday afternoon (no one is answering their phone anyway)?
2. Schedule call blocks - I recommend three call blocks of 90 minutes each with 15 minute breaks in between. These blocks should be balanced between sourcing and marketing, follow-up and cold calls.
3. Hit it hard first thing in the morning - Get your three blocks done early in the day to ensure that they actually happen. This will build your momentum and confidence as well as ensure your routine success.
4. Eliminate interruptions - Top three interruptions: (1) email, make it wait until noon, (2) telephone, send it to voicemail, (3) coworkers, inform them to leave alone until 12.30 PM every day.

Almost everyone knows what they need to do. Successful people actually figure out a way to routinely get the mission critical tasks done. Change the equation. Take draconian measures if necessary. Your future depends on today.

Metric - Not "Just" a Numbers Game

 Recruiting is all about being in the right place at the right time. Of course, to be in the right place at the right time, you have to be in a lot of places all the time. So, every recruiter worth his or her salt is very aware of how many calls they must make to put enough candidates in the pipeline in order to expect a certain level of return. In our office a hundred calls generally nets 8-12 potential candidates.

But it is not just about the number of calls. According to Skip Miller in Knock Your Socks Off Prospecting, success depends on a number of factors. He suggests that our metric for successful cold calling should include at least three elements:

• Number of Calls or emails where we actually connected with someone or receive a response

• Talk Time - There is a direct correlation between time on the call and successful conversion (1-3 mins is normal, 3-7 is good, 8+ minutes = high dollar)

• Next Step Calls - where a real conversation occurs, agreement is secured from the client for taking the next steps, and the client meets the agreed upon goals.

So, be sure to give your candidates homework before you get off the call - one simple assignment (send me a resume, send me a reference, etc...) Then set a date to reconnect. Your success rate will go way up.

"Leave a message and I will return your call." Yeah, right!

Nearly everyone in my experience who has this message on their voice mail is a liar. The truth is more like this: "I'll return your call if I know you and there is some compelling reason I should." Here are some keys to getting calls returned from sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer:

• First name and phone number only - Calls are returned in inverse proportion to the amount of information left.
• Be funny. Clean wit will get a response.
• Be indirect. "I was going to email you important information and I wanted to confirm your email address."
• Offer fun. "I have two extra tickets to the Eagles game and I thought you might be interested." Or, "Please call me if you can't go so that I'm able to give the tickets to someone else."
• Remind the prospect where you met if it was a positive first meeting.
• Dangle the carrot. Leave just enough information to entice, e.g. "My boss wanted me to make sure you got a free copy of our annual report on DON salaries."
• Ask a provocative or though provoking question. 

Thomas Elijah III suggests an alternate approach: "Leave a partial message that includes your name and phone number, then pretend to get cut off in mid sentence as you getting to the important part."

Examples:

• "I'm interested in your...."
• "I have important information about your..."
• "I have your...."
• "We wanted to be sure you didn't miss the opportunity to..."
• "I was talking to Joe and he recommended we talk about...."
• "Calling to get an email address to send your free....."

NOTE: There is never a reason to leave a sales pitch on voice mail. No one is there to say yes. Your objective is to provide just enough information to get a call back.

Still can't get through? Click on this link, register and type CREATIVE POWER into the Git Box

"The Cold Call is Fun...If you think it is"

So says Jeffrey Gitomer. He argues, "a cold call is a crap shoot anyway. Why not have fun?" Here's his eight point plan for cold-calling success:

1. Be exceptionally well prepared - Know your best targets. Have a purpose. Know what action step you are after from the call. Have a memorized script including answers to objections and "sizzle" points of your candidate.
2. Don't apologize for anything and don't make excuses. When you get there, get to your business. Dont say "I'm sorry to interrupt your day." Just deliver your pitch.
3. How you deliver your first line determines your success. Have a good one.
4. Don't pay any attention to reluctance or fear issues. Cold call reluctance is another way of saying, "I don't know how" or "I can't plan." Develop your plan/pitch and believe you can succeed.
5. Not everyone you call is a sale. Be prepared for rejection. They're not rejecting you, just the offer you're making.
6. Learn from those who tell you no. Find out what caused them to say no or to not be interested.

Check out this link for some examples of good and bad openings: (register and then enter the key word OPENER in the Git Box)

Never Give Up, Never Give Up, Never Give Up...

No doubt you have heard the story about Wintson Churchill's speech to gathering of high school students following the War. When the time came for him to speak, he walked to the microphone and said: "Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!" and then sat back down.  It was this indomitable spirit that enabled him to instill courage in a nation in the face of almost certain defeat during World War II.

I am frequently asked by new owners how long it takes to get contracts with clients in place. To frame my response, I usually begin by telling the story of my first national contract which was awarded after 87 separate contacts. Their shocked response sets the context for a conversation about persistence and client development.

This morning I was reading the 2nd Edition of the book, RainMaking, by Ford Harding. In a chapter on cold calling that is focused on client development, he notes that most sales people give up too soon. He describes the pathology that sets in even for confident, generally successful sales professionals; how they begin to feel undervalued and assume that they are making themselves a nuisance to the prospective client. He then provides a diagram of two of his own client development projects that illustrates the number of calls both directly to the client and also ancillary contacts in an attempt to get through to the client. Both projects were successful in the final analysis, but required 28 and 30 calls each respectively including 10-12 calls to ancillary individuals within the organization.

Greg Doersching reminds us that...

• You have to make contact with a person 3 times before they remember you name
• You have to make contact with a person 5 times before they remember what you are selling
• You have to make contact with a person 7 times before they are ready to buy from you

Fact is that 85% of recruiters call a single client 3 times or less before they give up on getting their business. Our client development process assumes that we must touch base with a choice client more than seven times (and creatively) if we are to be really successful.

You will notice a new checklist under the client "fields" tab in our database entitled "Process Checklist." This checklist outlines our nine separate steps to winning new clients. We will be fleshing out this process over the next week or so.

Suffice it to say that the key to client development is, to quote "Bull Dog" Winston Churchill, to "never give up."