If you are like most recruiters, Human Resources is a department that you enjoy dealing with about as much as the IRS. HR can play a vital role in moving the placement process forward but the problem occurs when they insist on being the only point of contact with whom you can deal. This scenario generally hurts all parties: HR, the candidate, the hiring manager and, of course, you, the recruiter.

The motivation level of a good recruiter will fall off the radar screen for this client when he hears that he is stuck working exclusively with HR. Now he will only send marginal people who happen to come across his desk rather than taking the search seriously. Generally speaking, the bigger the company the greater chance that you will be dealing with increased red tape and bureaucracy. The exception to this is if you are working on very senior level openings, which are almost always handled directly by the decision-maker and are often filled on a retained basis.

So, what do you do if you get funneled to HR and are forbidden to talk to the hiring authority? Here’s the short answer – don’t spend much of your valuable time with a company like this. Are there exceptions? Yes, but not often enough to invest the time. You can still send a resume here or there if you are working with a competent HR person who can get things done but generally you are better off finding a new client that will be more flexible.

If you want to make an effort to work things out with HR you do have some options. Here are some ideas for dealing with this issue:

1. Target small to medium size companies:

Smaller companies don’t usually have a brand name or huge internal recruiting machine and will value your expertise and advice more than a household name corporation. These smaller companies haven’t grown to a size where they have enough internal human resources support and are used to having recruiters work directly with hiring authorities. If you work with them when they are small and they do grow and create new bureaucracy, you will be in a better position to be “grandfathered” in as the recruiter who is allowed to work directly with hiring authorities based on your reputation and history with the company.

2. Work on higher level assignments:

Much of the value that recruiters can provide is in assessing soft skills that do not appear on a resume and cannot be screened by an automated database. These skills include leadership, boardroom presence, ability to sell ideas, initiative and project completion skills. The likelihood of working directly with the hiring authority increases if you are working on positions requiring these skills.

3. Point out that candidate quality drops when you have no direct Hiring Authority contact:

One thing to point out to HR is the fact that candidates will not take the position seriously if they ask you to describe the manager’s personality and style and your response is, “I don’t know, I have no direct contact with him.” This hurts your ability to attract happily employed, high caliber talent for the company.

4. Ask tough technical questions:

Another approach would be to ask very specific, tough, technical questions of the HR person you are working with. If he or she cannot answer them and starts squirming you now have an excellent segue to say something like this:

“What we have found to be the most productive method of conducting a search is when we are able to work cooperatively with both HR and the hiring authority. If we only work through HR, our effectiveness drops considerably because we don’t have first-hand information as to why a particular candidate did well or bombed that we can use to hone in on the best people.

Also, our credibility with candidates we are recruiting drops considerably if we cannot answer any of their questions about the process and the personality of the players involved. This affects the quality of people that we are able to attract for you. As you know, a big part of finding the right match are the ‘soft skills’ like chemistry and personality and these are only gauged if we have contact with the hiring authority.”

5. Be willing to negotiate and build trust:

Tell HR that you want to work with them as a partner and will not go behind their back, but that you do need access to the hiring manager in order to be effective. Say something like this, “We want to become an extension of your department and make your life easier.” If necessary, copy your HR contact on all emails to the hiring authority to keep them in the loop or make other similar concessions.

The bottom line: If HR is adamant that they do not want to have you talk to the hiring authority, make them a source for candidates and go find a better client.

Gary Stauble is the Principal Consultant for The Recruiting Lab, a Coaching Company that assists Firm Owners and Solo Recruiters in generating more profit in less time. Gary offers several FREE SPECIAL REPORTS including, “14 Critical Candidate Questions” & “The Search Process Checklist” on his website. Get your copy now at www.therecruitinglab.com.

1. Diffuse the pressure inherent in the sales conversation.

To diffuse the pressure in the sales process, act like a consultant rather than a salesperson. If your marketing objective is to find clients for whom you can truly provide value, then your prospect will sense this and tend to be more open to what you have to say. The key is to let them know early on that you are someone who does business differently than many of the recruiters they may have dealt with in the past. On the first phone call you could say something like:

“Before I describe my service to you, I’d like to let you know that we don’t operate like a typical sales-driven firm. We don’t pressure people and we don’t chase people. Frankly, I’m not sure if we’re the best firm to help you, but if you could grant me two minutes of your focus, I think we could figure that out quickly.”

2. Send a powerful letter to hiring authorities.

This allows you to make a two-part introduction. You may want to read the book, Selling to VITO (Very Important Top Officer), which outlines a method for sending a letter and following up with a phone call. Be sure to send the letter in an intriguing way so that you are sure it gets opened, such as hand-writing the envelope. It should be thin on bragging about your firm and thick with specific information on how you can help them to save time and money.

3. Provide value-added services for free.

This is a great way to add value and build rapport. Conduct salary comparisons for a company’s staff. Offer to keep a hiring manager aware of trends in the marketplace. Regularly send relevant articles. Offer to be their insider confidant and their “eyes and ears” in the marketplace. Here’s a low-key script that will help to set you apart and that you might use to generate a dialogue with some dormant clients:

“I’m not calling to do business with you now, as my guess is that you don’t need outside help with hiring at the moment. I’m calling to make you aware of some complimentary services that we offer and to learn more about your business goals to see if there may be an opportunity for our firms to work together in the future.”

4. Conduct excellent reference checks.

If you’re struggling with securing new assignments, start doing references on candidates who have worked with the companies you want to do business with. To attract new clients this way you must take them through a process that “wows” them and makes them think. I know of a firm that uses a 68-question reference form and uses this as a primary marketing tool.

5. Try a new script.

A method that I picked up from Danny Cahill is to call a hiring authority and offer to provide either recruiting services for him as a client or to help him as a candidate. After your introduction you would say something like this:

“I’d like to support your career in one of two ways. First, when the time is right I can help you to find a stronger position for yourself. The second option is that I can help you to recruit talented people for your group. My goal is to understand your needs and help if I can.”

6. Use referral-based marketing.

Make this your primary marketing goal. Surprise and delight your clients with great service so that they want to refer you to their peers. Have a referral reward for candidates who tip you off on job openings. Get referrals from clients after you fill a search. Who are their peers? Who do they know in the industry?

7. Follow up magnificently.

Keep in mind that it takes seven exposures on average for someone to purchase a new service. Look at follow up as being more important than initial contacts. Have a plan to execute seven points of contact with each potential client who is worth pursuing. Use both direct and indirect methods of contact.

8. Use email as a form of marketing follow up.

Here is a great sample for you to use:

“I hope all is well with you. We haven’t spoken in a bit and I wanted to follow up to see how things have progressed in your department since we last talked. I was wondering what you saw on the horizon in terms of adding new staff this year. Let me know if there is anything that I may be able to help you with.

Even if you are not hiring for awhile, feel free to call if you need to keep a pulse on what the market looks like for certain skill sets, or if you would like us to research salary comparisons for your current staff.

Best regards,
Gary

9. Get written letters of recommendation.

Get written letters of recommendation from as many clients and candidates as possible. Try to get these on their company’s letterhead. Shoot for one per week and after a year you will have more than 50 powerful letters. These letters can become a powerful marketing tool if you use them properly.

Gary Stauble is the principal consultant for The Recruiting Lab, a coaching company that assists firm owners and solo recruiters in generating more profit in less time. Gary offers several FREE special reports, including “14 Critical Candidate Questions” and “The Search Process Checklist” on his website. Get your copy now at www.therecruitinglab.com.

Overview of Call Reluctance:

Call reluctance is an emotional short circuit that diverts energy from the act of prospecting to the act of procrastinating. Instead of making calls, call-reluctant salespeople are busy preparing to prepare and avoiding the phone. They allow their fears to stand in the way of their goals – and it extracts a high emotional and financial cost.

I’d like to point out that Cold Call Reluctance is an internal roadblock. This is not something that exists in any place other than your mind. If I asked you to bring me a jar of “call reluctance,” you would not be able to do it. So there is no “call reluctance” in the world; there are only recruiters thinking scary thoughts that make them reluctant to get on the phone.

Call Reluctance can extend beyond the sales call to also avoiding in-person meetings with a prospect. This is detrimental to the sales process because if the recruiter is not making calls, there will be few appointments, fewer search assignments, and ultimately lower profits for the recruiter and the company.

Call-reluctance researchers George Dudley and Shannon Goodson report that “as many as 80% of all salespeople who fail within their first year do so because of insufficient prospecting activity.” In the search industry, we know that the vast majority of newbies who attempt our business fail within the first year, and much of that failure comes from call reluctance.

Causes of Call Reluctance:

Although there are many reasons for Call Reluctance, they can be described within three major categories;

1. The Fraud Factor: This has to do with a lack of belief in your ability to deliver great service. Successful selling involves two parts: the first is selling to yourself, and the second is selling to your client. If you are not 100% sold on the quality of your service, you will tend to avoid selling situations.

2. Repeated Failure: Another reason for Call Reluctance is the fear of repeated failure. This occurs when the recruiter attempts to attract new clients but continually gets the door slammed in his face. Each time he hears a no, it makes it harder and harder to pick up the phone, and this can become a negative cycle.

3. Fear of Rejection: Fear of rejection is a third factor that holds people back from selling with confidence. When a recruiter makes a marketing call to a prospect and goes through his sales questions, he will often meet some level of resistance on the other end of the line. If this rejection is taken personally, it can lead to call reluctance.

Using the 30-Minute Rule for Overcoming Call Reluctance:

Think of cold calling like jumping into a cold swimming pool. Your best bet is to just dive in without too much thinking. You see the pool. It’s cold, but if you dive in, you will get acclimated pretty quickly. If on the other hand you keep walking around the pool, dipping your toe in, putting on suntan lotion, adjusting your suit, etc., you’ll start to have second thoughts and become paralyzed by procrastination.

Once you’ve dived in, it’s easy to keep diving in because your body has been in and out of the water several times and has acclimated to the temperature. You will actually start enjoying the process and realize that the water doesn’t even feel cold anymore.

It’s the same with making marketing calls. The 30-minute rule means that you pick up the phone and talk into it within 30 minutes of arriving at the office. So if you arrive at 8 a.m., you’ll be making your first call no later than 8:30. You might even want to have an egg timer on your desk. You come into the office, put down your briefcase, and set the timer for 30 minutes.

The 30-minute rule will help you to get into action before you have time to start procrastinating. Think of making your calls as a video game. If your man dies (you are rejected), just hit reset (make another call) and play another game. You might want to start with an easy call to get your blood pumping. If you dive right in each day, you’ll find that this becomes second nature, and your production will increase substantially.

Gary Stauble is the principal consultant for The Recruiting Lab, a coaching company that assists firm owners and solo recruiters in generating more profit in less time. Gary offers several FREE SPECIAL REPORTS, including “14 Critical Candidate Questions” and “The Search Process Checklist,” on his website. Get your copy now at www.therecruitinglab.com.

One of the most vital skills that you can learn as a recruiter is how to zero in on those clients and searches that will give you the best chance of making a placement and to focus exclusively on them. I once heard that there are three stages in a recruiter’s development in terms of how he defines a client:

Stage one: a client is anyone who will talk to me.

Stage two: a client is anyone who will give me an assignment.

Stage three: a client is someone who will work the way I want to work.

Here are some questions for deciding which clients and assignments should get the full focus of your search efforts:

1. Is there a high degree of urgency associated with this position?

2. Are the key decision-makers cooperative?

3. Are the key decision-makers on the same page in terms of the position specifications?

4. Are we the only firm (or one of a small handful) working on this position or has it been farmed out to everyone?

5. Do we have direct hiring authority contact?

6. Are they responding to our requests within 24 to 48 hours?

7. Is this a marketable position?

8. Is this a marketable company?

9. Is this a hiring manager who will attract top people through the force of his personality?

10. Is the hiring manager willing to sell the opportunity, or is he waiting for someone to come in and dazzle him?

11. Is it a high-salary position?

12. Is it a high-fee client in terms of the fee percentage?

13. Is it a large-enough client to have consistent future business with?

14. Will it be reasonably easy to find candidates for this position or is it a needle-in-a-haystack assignment?

15. Are there similar positions we currently are working on that would double the impact of our search efforts?

16. By working on this position, will we be searching in our preferred hunting grounds or do we have to start the search cold?

17. Do I have a good feeling about this client and my ability to be successful? What is my intuition telling me?

Gary Stauble is the principal consultant for The Recruiting Lab, a coaching company that assists firm owners and solo recruiters in generating more profit in less time. Gary offers several FREE SPECIAL REPORTS, including, “14 Critical Candidate Questions” and “The Search Process Checklist,” on his website. Get your copy now at www.therecruitinglab.com.

Many of the owners and recruiting professionals that I coach have considered refining or changing their niche at some point in their careers. Whether your niche is doing well or not, it’s a good idea to keep your nose in the air so that you can sense opportunities and avoid ending up in a dead field. If you are considering a change, the following nine steps will help you navigate this process.

1. Understand why you should specialize: Everyone wants a specialist. If you need brain surgery, would you seek a generalist or a specialist? It’s the same in business. Specialists make more money, become better known, and receive repeat business more often than generalists. It also makes planning, branding, and marketing much easier.

2. Start with your passion: What are the fields or industries to which you are drawn? Is there a sliver of gold within your current industry to which you feel particularly drawn? What will get you excited about reading an industry rag on a Saturday? What industry will you follow in the business pages daily? If you have a passion for it, you will do much more to be successful, so start your thinking here.

3. Intend to become the “Guru:” You can choose a niche based on industry or the specific position title, but it must be fairly narrow in order for you to become the guru. For instance, “IT” is a broad category, “software developers” is narrower, and “Java developers” is very narrow. You could become the expert in recruiting “Senior Managers for Amusement Parks” or “Executive Directors for Nonprofit Companies.” If you’re in an industry niche now, but not very well known, make a commitment to raise your firm’s brand awareness by becoming a guru. Your marketing efforts then take on a new level of enthusiasm because you are talking to people in an area that you feel competent and interested in.

4. Look to the past: Another important thing to consider is your past experience. You will have more credibility and an easier time learning the ropes if you have some prior link to your chosen field.

5. Swim downstream: No one can accurately predict exactly what will be a robust niche 10 years from now, but you do want to find a field that has positive growth projections. Sales and marketing are areas of every company that tend to be more recession proof than others. Try to pick a niche that combines good growth projections with an area of interest for you. Beware of “hot” fields toward which everyone else is running.

6. Begin your research: Once you have a couple of areas picked out, locate as many of the industry publications within the field as you can find. Immerse yourself in the trade journals so that you can quickly get to know who the players are, what the trends are, etc. Also, compile a list of all the companies in this field by using guides such as Dun & Bradstreet or the Thomas Register. Gather info on specific companies and look to see who is hiring and who’s stagnant.

7. Find the appropriate associations: Associations are an excellent source of information about a niche. If an association does not exist for the field you are researching, then you probably don’t have a viable niche. You must be able to find a place where your prospects will gather and hang out. Contact the associations and ask for their advice and perspective.

8. Consider fee size: If you are choosing a niche, you might as well pick one that will pay juicy fees. Some niches have odd histories of paying only a flat $10,000 fee or low percentages. Be sure to research this before you get too far.

9. Conduct a survey: Once you’ve selected a possible niche, it’s time to make some calls to people who can give you the inside scoop. Call senior people within these companies and conduct a survey with them, asking about growth projections, areas of most critical need, relationships with recruiters, etc.

Generally speaking, the problem with specialization for most consultants is not that they are too narrow but rather that they are not narrow enough. Go deep into your chosen niche so that you can gain the benefits of name recognition, momentum, and credibility.

Gary Stauble is the principal consultant for The Recruiting Lab, a coaching company that assists firm owners and solo recruiters in generating more profit in less time. Gary offers several FREE SPECIAL REPORTS, including “14 Critical Candidate Questions” and “The Search Process Checklist,” on his website. Get your copy now at www.therecruitinglab.com.