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The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


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Focus on Top Client Retention Strategies

by on Dec. 30, 2009


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Customer retention is defined as the percentage of customer relationships that, once established, a business is able to maintain on a long-term basis.

Your database is your most precious asset in this current sales economy, so managing it appropriately can exponentially increase sales and profits. We all must remember that your current clients are only as valuable as the quality of the relationship you have with them — quality judged by that client’s opinion of your relationship.

The old saying that your customers are always right (even if they’re wrong) still rings true.

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7 Steps to Boost Your Confidence

by on Dec. 29, 2009


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You need confidence when you deal with high-level decision-makers, strong candidates, and even stronger gatekeepers. If you don’t sound like you have it, they won’t even take your call. And if you do get through, they’ll think you’re an amateur.

Have you ever heard a mousy recruiter on the phone? It’s so sad and sounds something like this: “I’m sorry to bother you, Joe, but you aren’t interested in exploring other opportunities, are you?” What’s even worse is that those recruiters who are doing this don’t even know they sound this way. They think they sound great and confident, but really they don’t.

Here are the seven steps to make confidence a core competency.

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Focus on Client Development

by on Dec. 23, 2009


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One of the most common mistakes we all make is to fail to prospect on a regular basis. Your actions are priceless and as a result, we are the recipients of irregular revenues and inconsistent fees or commissions.

This happens when we’re extremely frustrated or engaged with following many hot leads, and prospects who demand lengthy proposals, multiple meetings, conference calls, presentations, and references. It is this time when we need to be out there prospecting and focusing the key activities that produce new clients to ensure that a steady sales flow doesn’t suddenly disappear.

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Aussie Military Looks to Manpower RPO To Fill Ranks

by on Dec. 22, 2009


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manpower logoThere’s an interesting discussion going on over at the Video 2.0 for Recruitment blog about the U.S. Army’s $33 million investment in a recruiting video game.

Ernest Feiteira picked up on an item I posted and started a conversation about the value of such recruiting tools. A couple others chimed in about the ROI, something I’m looking into for a future article.

At this point in the discussion, there’s no resolution to the question of how you would calculate the ROI.

However, Down Under, the Aussies must believe that outsourcing their military recruiting pays off because they have been doing it for some years. I know that because I talked with a Manpower spokeswoman about a press release announcing that the Milwaukee firm just won a $200 million recruiting contract from the Australian Defence Force.

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Twitter: Silver Bullet or Time Dump?

by on Dec. 22, 2009


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Here is my own definition of Twitter:

Time

Wasted

In

Trying

To

Escape

Rejection

Take ownership of your success and quit trying to find the silver bullet. In the world of sales and recruiting, your prospects have to be interrupted. Recruiting is based on interruption marketing, not permission marketing, which is the foundation for social networking. With other types of marketing endeavors, such as selling information or services, Twitter might be effective. If you market a message to an audience that cares about what you have to say (except for time-wasting tweets about your latest meal), then yeah, it makes sense to communicate with them.

But to get the attention of a high-level prospect or a passive candidate who doesn’t want to move (the candidate who is worth a full fee), you have to interrupt them on the phone with an effective recruiting call, not a tweet that they’ll roll their eyes over.

Here’s an exception: As a rule, you always want to go to where your clients and candidates are. If you know for a fact that your candidates and clients are on Twitter and are actively reading your tweets, then give it a shot. For example, those who are in IT recruiting. But if you tweet, tweet responsibly. Tweet about value-related subjects, such as career advice, leadership advice, and anything that can solve an immediate problem.

And when you’re done tweeting, get back on the phone. It’s where the action is.

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Negotiation Revisited

by on Dec. 21, 2009


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There are good negotiators who are not necessarily good salespeople but you will not find a truly good salesperson who is not also a good negotiator. That’s because sales and negotiation are two sides of the same coin.

As closely connected as these two processes may be, negotiation, if necessary, should begin only after an initial commitment has been reached with your prospect.

Consequently, don’t get dragged into a negotiation unless you have reached agreement in principle to do business together. That’s the purpose of the sales process.

In my negotiation training programs, I stress that all negotiation is based on power, whether real or perceived. A carefully executed sales process will establish what degree of power you possess as you enter the negotiation process. If you have positioned yourself and/or your services in a manner that creates an image in the eyes of your prospect that he/she cannot walk away, you have a powerful negotiating position.

Since the prospect believes they cannot walk away, they will be negotiating from a weak position, a position of need.

Remember

In negotiation, need is death, want is life.
Jim Camp

The best example of need and the negative leverage it creates in negotiating is the recruiter who believes they must make the sale.

This belief will make them accept just about any concession the prospect requests from discounted fees, to an extended guarantee and unrealistic payment terms.

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Survey Says: Help Write a Book About Resumes

by on Dec. 17, 2009


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Paul Hawkinson once called Anthony Beshara “a legendary multimillion-dollar biller who does more placing than searching,” and now the long-time Fordyce contributor has a little survey he’d like you to take.

Beshara, who serves as president of Babich & Associates, is writing his third book on resumes, and he’s reaching out to his network of recruiters, hiring authorities, and other resume experts to gather as much input as possible.

So, if you have a free minute, here are the questions in his resume survey:

  1. What are the critical components of a well-written resume?
  2. When you scan dozens of resumes, what do you look for?
  3. What length of resume do you prefer?
  4. What are some of the things you see in the resumes you review that you really don’t like (i.e., what shouldn’t be on a resume?)
  5. What distinguishes the resume of the candidate you call from the hordes of resumes you delete?
  6. How many resumes do you personally review:

    7. per week _____________?
    per month _____________?
    per year _______________?
    per position you are trying to fill ___________?

  7. How important is a cover letter when receiving resumes?
  8. You have a stack of resumes in front of you…how long does it take to initially review each one?
  9. Do you use video resumes? What do you think of them?

Beshara says he will send a copy of the book to those who help out, so don’t forget to include your full name and address so he can thank you for your efforts!

Email your answers within the next month: tony@babich.com

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Outsourcing Meets The Recruiting Industry…Finally?!

by on Dec. 17, 2009


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Like you, I can go off about how behind-the-times the recruiting industry is compared to the rest of the world.

The good news is that the last few years have been showing huge progress in regard to technology (from great new front-office systems, to utilizing Web 2.0 networks, to blogs and forums and niche job boards, etc).

However, most of you are still not doing too much differently than you were before. I have heard from many of you regarding the “bonding” lesson and have heard of some good ideas.

However, they still aren’t really based upon any new technology. During my live Owners & Managers Recruiting System seminars, we get into how to use technology a great deal. We focus a lot on state-of-the-art Internet marketing techniques as well as better utilization of Web 2.0.

But there is NO NEED for you to wait! I have outlined the easiest and the best in this article.

Some Background Information

Before I give away this easy tool, a little background is needed regarding time-management. Make sure you read through it quickly so that you can get to the real money-maker.

Any administrative work or paperwork is probably the most overpaid work that any owner, manager, or sales rep could be doing for themselves! If you are an agency owner or manager, do you have any idea how much your are paying your sales rep or recruiters to stuff an envelope, confirm appointments, post jobs to sites, create newsletter content, or work on art graphics? If you are a sales person, then do you know how little money you will make from those little acts?

It is key that we all look at EVERYTHING that we do and then make sure that we either outsource or assign the non HIGH-PAYING work to others. Believe me, there will be A LOT of that! If you manage people, look at everything they ever do and decide how much you should be paying for that sort of work.

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JCAHO Awards Gold Seal to Execu|Search Group

by on Dec. 16, 2009


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The Joint Commission — known as JCAHO to those who follow how healthcare quality is measured in America and around the world — gave a Gold Seal of Approval to the Execu|Search Group, a NYC-based health services placement firm.

The Execu|Search Group says it picked up this award after it chose to undergo an on-site review of its compliance with national standards addressing how staffing firms determine the qualifications and competency of their staff, how they place their staff, and how they monitor staff’s performance.

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Recruiters: When Was the Last Time You Weeded Your Garden?

by on Dec. 16, 2009


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Have you ever planted dandelions? Do you have a special garden for them? No? Then why do they show up? Why does any weed end up in your garden if it is not planted?

Weeds, like negative thoughts, spread quickly. The people we talk to, both clients and peers, spread them to us. We then spread them to our team. They are watered every day by more negative thoughts and conversations. Just like invasive plants need to be pulled from a garden, negative thoughts need to be manually removed from your mind.

I was reminded about this when I had the privilege of speaking with over 30 owners of recruiting firms in a 30-minute strategy session about setting a vision in their business.

With the exception of one person, the good news is they are all seeing nice increases in their businesses. Some even saying they are getting a consistent flow of call-in job orders for the first time in months!

Despite this uptick in the business, a few of the folks were a bit “beat up” by the economy over the past year. This is quite understandable. However, I challenged them and I challenge you to “tend to your mind.”

Let me explain with a real example from a client conversation last week.

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