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Consultative Sales by Jeffrey M. Williams Are you secure in your ability to provide a service? In the world of VOP, CVM, etc. I was drawn to the opposite end of the spectrum. What could you do, what services could you provide that would insert a layer of separation between you and EVERY other recruiter out there? We all know about adding value, we are all going to start/ continue to set ourselves upon a pedestal that other recruiters cannot touch. Nevertheless, you say you want more. Would your clients continue to utilize your relationship if you were not going to provide them with candidates, ever? Say you pick up the phone and call a client that is in the middle of a mission critical search and say, "I will not present any candidates to you for this position." Would they slam down the phone and think "the nerve". Alternatively, would they seek your council in hiring trends, interviewing techniques, and candidate specific questions for pending interviews? Obviously, we would put ourselves out of business if you actually made that call, but consider the thought as a valuation exercise. The point is are you transactional or are you consultative. Do you provide resumes or do you provide expertise? If you are a provider of said expertise, then what do you use to measure your relationship with your clients? Convey the current market changes directly to who needs them the most, the hiring managers. My client relies on me to provide them with the current market trends and fluctuations. You are a wealth of valuable information just waiting to be released. This information comes directly from the source, the candidates. If our market is the employment industry, then our candidates are the conduit to the marketplace. How many candidates did you interview last year? A typical third party recruiter in the technical space would hit 100 to 200 per year. All of those candidates are qualified within your particular market niche. Most your the clients will hit around 20 - 50 interviews the same year. Compound this over the course of a career, and you are the overwhelming expert in comparison to your clients and do not let them forget it. When you are talking to a hiring manager that has an upcoming need, assimilate into the team. This client has not hired anyone in 3 months and has not interviewed anyone in the same timeframe. The manager needs your experience. This is the type of information your clients need to know at any given time and inevitably pays you for:
The problem lies within an old guard that built up agencies by creating a stockpile of candidates and matched them to a slue of job orders. I picture a grocery store; only this one is stock up with candidates. Down every isle is a selection of candidates segmented based on their various skills. Hiring managers casually stroll the isles selecting the freshest candidate and proceeding to the checkout line. Where you, the recruiting checkout person, bag their order, smiles, and say, "have a nice day". This would epitomize the transactional relationship. Too many companies have this transactional mentality to the market. In fact, the training is conducive to establishing this type of relationship. We use things like usage and history to determine when the opportune time would be to contact a client. It is possible to even dissect this down to the exact week that a client would use our services. However, this facilitates a transactional relationship. Conversations with a hiring manager not directed towards a particular candidate are based around determining the 'next business date', virtually solidifying the next transactional encounter. It is to the point of expected by the manager to answer such questions. When we visit our clients, they offer this stuff up like coffee. We found ourselves to be so close to the important aspects of the relationship that we could smell it. Ever heard this, "Mr. Manager, this is Joe, with Joe's Recruiting. I have a candidate with an exceptional background." "Let me stop you right there, we don't have any needs at this time. Call me back in 2 months." So you take a faux consulting approach to this conversation and ask, "What is your current headcount?" Continuing with, "When was the last time you had a need?" If the answers to this hypothetical conversation were 12 and 2 months, respectively, then you could surmise that the manger would need your candidate in two months. You use an average of 25% attrition, therefore the manager will loose three people per year and if he brought someone onboard two months ago he is two months away from the next hire. So you hang up, schedule a call back, and think to yourself how cool you are. There is more to this industry than that. Think of it as another way to sell groceries. Establish yourself as an expert. Go and sit down with them, become granular. Since you know the style of sales that your competitors employ you can differentiate yourself through your approach. Talk to your clients about everything relating to hiring and firing. Share war stories and compare scars. You have to understand the client's perspective, Dr. Freud. Begin with current staff, who, where, why. Where each team member came from is where the commonalities begin. Human nature makes people surround themselves with like-minded people. The important question here is, "Who is your best performer, your protégé?" and even more importantly, "Why?" These answers place you above and beyond every other recruiter that might attempt to place someone at your client. You would have the ace in the hole, the 'profile'. In all the information gathering frenzy, do not forget that consultants solve problems as well. "Tell me about the last employee that departed." Let the healing begin. This is where you can not only gather great information about past experiences but also help. Additionally, you will here about past episodes with recruiters, take heed and learn. Your knowledge of the employment market will help the manager understand why retention rates are where the are, how there compensation and benefit packages stacks up with competitors, how their interviewing and offering processes can be tweaked, and how they can tap into parallel industries. The latter is something that comes up a lot, especially when you have a client in a restricted or niche market. Your expertise in recruiting for the same segmented skills that your client needs can be shared. Look for similarities deep in the profile of the team members and make suggestions to the client about similar industries that seek those peccadilloes. We have some clients that work on medical devices which are heavily regulated by the FDA and after consulting with our client they have seen great results in hiring employees from the aircraft and defense industries. Look for those quirks and present solutions to your clients. There is more to this industry than calling clients and asking if they are hiring. Take a consultative approach and solidify the client relationship. You will find that adding value means more than increasing headcount and they might even pick up the phone more often when you call. Jeff Williams, CPC/CTS, is a professional headhunter specializing in the Analog and Digital design realm of Electrical Engineering. He runs an active recruiting desk providing top engineering talent to his clients and uses the articles as a channel to the industry concerning personal philosophy and daily issues arising from recruiting. Jeff has been in the industry for 8 years and has been fortunate to experience the many different facets of recruiting; from independent headhunting though corporate recruiting departments. Additionally, he has served many functions, not only as a headhunter but a regional and branch manager. Although Jeff is originally from Texas, he currently resides in the Chicagoland area with his wife and three children. Feel free to comment or provide feedback concerning his musings or recruiting issues in general at jeff@jkbcorp.com. Or 847.340.5459.
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