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The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Terry Petra

Recipient of the Harold B. Nelson Award, Terry Petra is one of our industry's leading trainers and consultants. He has successfully conducted in-house programs for hundreds of search, placement, temporary staffing firms and industry groups across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, England, and South Africa. To learn more about his training products and services, including PETRA ON CALL, and BUSINESS VALUATION, visit www.tpetra.com. Terry can be reached at (651) 738-8561 or email him at Terry@tpetra.com.

Articles by Terry Petra

Business, For Managers

An Eight-Step Process for Achieving Your Goals

by 4 days ago


goals

Using a proper methodology for setting your goals is very important because the result must be specific, realistic, and most importantly, achievable. Additionally, you must baseline your performance and establish specific activity benchmarks that must be met on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in order to achieve your goals (see my June 2008 article in The Fordyce Letter, “Baseline Your Performance”).

Observations from my consulting work with hundreds of search and staffing firms indicate that goal setting is generally a challenge for both management and staff. However, as turnover rates and year-end results clearly demonstrate, the bigger challenge is achieving the goals once they are established.

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Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – Q&A and Final Thoughts

by on Aug. 23, 2011


exclusive contract

Our previous three articles have focused on “how” to develop exclusive client relationships. In this article I will provide a summary of the questions from the near record number of calls and emails I have received in response to those articles.

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Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – The Written Agreement

by on Aug. 16, 2011


exclusive contract

The agreement to work on an exclusive basis with your client can be confirmed either verbally or in writing. However, as a wise man once noted:

“Verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

The exclusive relationship is established verbally but should be confirmed in writing and signed off by both parties. If you are dealing with a reputable client who is sincere about utilizing your services on an exclusive basis, there should be no valid reason why they would not sign a document that confirms that to which they have already agreed. Therefore, we will concentrate on written agreements.

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Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – The Presentation

by on Aug. 10, 2011


exclusive contract

In our previous article we stated that “… exclusive relationships generally produce better results, in less time, while requiring the investment of fewer client resources than traditional methodologies.” However, this is a fact that may not be widely accepted by your prospect/clients. Therefore, in order to sell the concept of exclusivity, whether retainer or contingency, you must understand the justification for establishing such a relationship.

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Closing, Fees

The Power of Exclusives

by on Jul. 13, 2011


exclusive contract

The state of the economy notwithstanding, the opportunity to secure business on an exclusive basis may be greater today than at any time in the past ten years. Companies have no margin for error when filling mission critical positions and many of them are choosing to use fewer vendors who can produce better, more consistent results. This presents an increased opportunity to build exclusive relationships with your clients. However, in order to take advantage of this opportunity, you must be prepared to understand and properly present the benefits that accrue for clients through this type of mutually supportive relationship.

The major difference between a contingency client relationship and an exclusive client relationship may have been stated best by a client who said:

“If I understand it correctly, with a contingency relationship I’m in if it works. However, in an exclusive relationship, I’m in and it better work. Does that about sum it up?”

Yes, that about sums it up.

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Closing

The Importance of Tie Down Questions

by on Jul. 7, 2011


image source: Bruno Covas

By definition, a tie down question is one that requires a response that clarifies (ties down) the position of the one answering the question. Asking the right tie down questions at each step of the search and placement process is one of the earmarks of a top producer.

The two primary benefits of asking tie down questions are:

  1. The answers provide you with information needed to better control and direct the process toward a successful conclusion.
  2. The answers, by their very nature, define the level of commitment and positional flexibility of the one answering the question.

In the jargon of sales training, tie down questions are also referred to as closing questions. In our business, we need to be asking tie down questions (closing questions) at every step of our process. At no point is this more critical than when we begin our process with a client. In fact, many recruiters who fail to ask the proper tie down questions at that time eventually discover they are trying to work with a client who really has little or no desire to work with them. This represents an almost perfect definition of a waste of time.

Therefore, here are three examples of tie down questions that can be asked at the outset of your discussions with a client if you have any doubt whatsoever about their willingness to work with you. These examples are simple in their wording but leave no room for ambiguity in their answers.

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For Managers, How-To

The “Search Project Timetable”

by on May 11, 2011


image source: Dafne Choet

image source: Dafne Choet

Several of our recent articles have focused on the “process” we execute in serving our clients, particularly how to establish an effective and efficient process, one that will deliver qualified and interested candidates within a reasonable time frame.

In theory, we all would agree that moving forward in a timely fashion with a proper sense of urgency is critical to gaining a successful outcome — i.e. making the placement. Furthermore, most of our clients would also agree with this theory. The major exception to this would be the client (term loosely applied) who really is not that interested in having you fill the position as they plan to do everything possible to fill it on their own without paying a fee. In these instances you need to ask yourself whether or not you should even accept the search/order since your efforts never will be fully aligned with those of your client.

Never try to work with a client who does not want to work with you.

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Closing, Interviews

Timing Is Critical

by on Mar. 22, 2011


image source: Letheravensoar

“As a general rule, you should assume that time is always against you when you are trying to make a deal – any kind of deal.”

image source: Letheravensoar

Robert J. Ringer – Author

These words are as true today as they were when Mr. Ringer wrote them in his best selling 1973 book, “Winning Through Intimidation.”

Daily, I receive calls from recruiters who want to know how they can get their clients to move with a greater sense of urgency throughout the hiring process. A good starting point is to remind them that, state of the economy notwithstanding, the very best employees are always in short supply and in high demand. Companies have to move quickly if they hope to successfully compete for the most sought after talent. As one recruiter stated, employers fit into one of two categories, “… the quick or the dead.”

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For Managers, Relationships

The Process Makes the Placement

by on Feb. 3, 2011


process

How many times have you heard one or more of your clients state:

“I will not settle for anything but the best.”

Or

“I want to hire the best candidate available.”

Although a worthy pursuit, for many clients, hiring the “best,” in most instances, may be an unobtainable goal. Actually, Herbert Simon may have said it most clearly in his reverse juxtaposition of an old saying:

“The best is the enemy of the good.”

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Relationships, TFL archives

A Mirrored Commitment

by on Oct. 14, 2010


man-in-the-mirror

There is an ever-growing segment of our industry that is quickly becoming commodisized. These are the firms that work “The Low Hanging Fruit” (see my article on this topic) and focus on being competitive, which usually means working with clients under heavily discounted fee agreements and with compromised processes.

Ultimately, because of the lack of bilateral commitment in the working relationships, their job order/searches to fill ratio remains high.  Since there is little in the way of qualitative differentiation between these recruiting/staffing firms, clients generally view them as a commodity and therefore seek the least expensive means of working with them.

If this sounds familiar, ask yourself the following question:

“If clients gave me a full commitment and I mirrored that commitment by executing a properly designed process, what impact would that have on my ability to get results?”

For most recruiters/consultants, the answer to this question would be, “A dramatic and positive impact.”

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