Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

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

Relationships, TFL archives

A Mirrored Commitment

by on Oct. 14, 2010


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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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Closing Your Marketing Calls

by on Jun. 4, 2010


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The manner in which you open your marketing call remains the most important element of the call because in order to achieve success you need to accomplish a minimum of three things within the first 30 seconds:

  1. You must get your prospect’s attention. Nothing else matters if you do not gain their attention.
  2. You must eliminate or at least not create a “reflex rejection” — an automatic negative response to your opening statement.
  3. You must change the call from a monologue (you talk) to a directed business dialogue (they talk in response to your questions while you listen).

If you achieve these initial objectives, one of the following outcomes should be possible.

  1. You secure an opportunity to provide a service, e.g. a search/ job order, contract assignment or consulting options.
  2. You do not secure an opportunity to be of service at this time but determine when and under what circumstances to make a follow-up business development call/ contact.
  3. You determine there is no need for your service now or in the foreseeable future. However, the prospect does have long-term potential and you lay the foundation for a future business relationship.
  4. Although the prospect has no real potential to become a client, they may serve as a source of referrals or as a center of influence.

As important as the opening of your call may be, the manner in which you close it many times will create a more lasting impact on your prospect.

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Consider All the Options

by on May 25, 2010


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Almost daily I receive calls and emails from owners, managers, and recruiters who are interested in learning how to build exclusive, engagement fee, and/ or retained relationships with their clients.

Often, they are confused about these options and not aware they can provide more than one option without being in conflict with their overall business objectives.

To help bring clarity, consider the following:

Recruiters basically have four options, or variations thereof, from which to choose when considering how to meet the needs of their clients.

Each of the options has certain advantages as well as disadvantages.

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Marketing the Most Placeable Candidate

by on Apr. 23, 2010


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Recently, many of the calls and emails I have received address the same subject: candidate marketing.

For example, here is part of the message I received from a strong regional client with multiple offices and specialties:

“In these challenging economic times, should our consultants be spending 50% of their time servicing existing clients and 50% of their time marketing candidates?”

As I pointed out in my response, these choices are not arbitrary or mutually exclusive. Rather, they should always be marketing MPCs (Most Placeable Candidates) to their new and existing clients. This is one of the benefits of having an ongoing relationship with their firm. The clients receive the benefit of “right of first refusal” on outstanding talent when it becomes available.

As an overall approach, marketing an MPC is generally a good methodology to use regardless of the vagaries of the economy because there is ALWAYS a shortage of good people — the “Difference Makers.”

It is particularly important because of the present state of the economy, where many clients are not actively seeking new employees. Therefore, our call affords them an opportunity to “topgrade” (see Topgrading by Bradford D. Smart – Prentice Hall, 1999), to take advantage of an opportunity to strengthen their team while providing us with a placement where a “no openings” situation may exist.

However, in order to be consistently successful in marketing MPCs, you must:

  1. Properly select the right MPC and gain their buy-in and cooperation.
  2. Select the right companies to contact and then target your approach to the appropriate hiring authority.
  3. Develop and deliver an MPC presentation that, if your contact were to hire your MPC, demonstrates how they would impact, in a positive fashion, the performance capacity of the contact’s group, division, or company.

However, everything depends on your ability to recognize an MPC when you have one and then, very importantly, you need to know what to do with them once they are identified.

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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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‘Talent Acquisition Departments’ — Passing Trend or Here to Stay?

by on Dec. 7, 2009


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The present state of the economy notwithstanding, acquiring and retaining the best talent possible remains the greatest challenge facing the majority of organizations in America today.

Almost every survey conducted on the subject since 1958 has validated the fact that building and maintaining a company’s human capital assets remains their single greatest challenge as well as their greatest source of competitive advantage.

One of the ways many companies are trying to meet this challenge is to establish a “Talent Acquisition Department.” As the name implies, the primary mandate for these departments is to make certain the company acquires the talent it requires at all levels of the organizational hierarchy.

This is not a new concept. Many companies, whether internal or external to the HR departments, have tried variations on this theme over the years with mixed results.

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Your Criteria For Accepting Business

by on Oct. 28, 2009


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What criteria must be met before you consider accepting business from a client?

In today’s uncertain economy, accepting business that has not been properly measured against an established set of realistic criteria is inviting a misappropriation of your firm’s limited resources.

Remember…

Most firms do not suffer from an absence of resources; rather, they suffer from a lack of focus for those resources.

As I’ve said in the past, “every company, in order to be successful, must have in place a set of criteria against which they judge the business opportunities that are available to them.”

Only in this manner can they properly focus their resources. Experienced business professionals understand this reality. As staffing industry professionals, we should as well.

Therefore, consider using the following criteria as a guide for doing business with your clients.

  1. Measure the client’s sense of urgency about receiving the staffing solutions you can provide. This is the most important criteria because typically, the higher the client’s sense of urgency, the higher their level of cooperation and flexibility.
  2. Measure the value the client places on the staffing solutions that can be provided by your firm. This has a direct impact on your fees and/or bill rates. The cost of your service is always linked in the client’s mind to their estimation of the value received (whether perceived or real).
  3. Determine whether or not you will be working with the client’s key decision makers and measure the decision maker’s attitude about receiving your services. While a positive attitude on the part of the decision maker can go a long way toward insuring positive results, correspondingly, a bad attitude may compromise the outcome.
  4. Determine the nature and scope of the process that will be followed in providing your services, including the level of competition, both internal and external. Commitment from all parties to following an appropriate process can help ensure a positive outcome that exceeds expectations.

Although not all-encompassing, following these criteria for doing business will improve your quality ratios, increase client share, and when reviewed with prospects during the sales process, help position you as a business equal. By only accepting business that meet these criteria, you help ensure that resources are properly focused for generating the greatest return in the most effective and efficient manner.

As always, if you have questions or comments about this article or wish to receive my input on any other topic related to this business, just let me know. Your calls and emails are most welcome.

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Why Managers Condone Incompetence

by on Aug. 22, 2008


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There is one thing worse than hiring the wrong person.

That is to hang on to the employee long after the evidence suggests you should let them go. This is a problem that challenges managers at all levels of the organizational hierarchy; both within our industry as well as with the clients we serve.

For our clients, it many times is a result of the recruiter not “implanting the DNA for success” that we covered in our last article.

Without getting into a discussion regarding hiring practices, let’s begin by simply stating that most managers, at one time or another, find themselves in a situation where they have an employee who should be terminated and yet, they take no action.

It may be a problem of unacceptable performance, poor attendance, negative attitude, or lack of congruence between the manager’s primary operating style and the functional preferences of the employee.

Regardless of the reason, the longer the manager holds on to that employee, thereby condoning their incompetence, the harder it will be for that manager to terminate them. Meanwhile, the entire work unit suffers because they must make up for the performance deficiencies of the problem employee.

Although all of this may be clear to the manager, in many instances, they still do not take action.

Remember…the highest performer does not establish the standard of performance. Rather, the poorest performer who management allows to remain part of the work unit establishes the standard of performance.

For over 35 years, I have studied the reasons why managers condone this incompetence. The results of my studies have produced four primary reasons:

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Implanting the DNA for Success

by on Aug. 20, 2008


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Our success is linked to the success of our clients. More specifically, our success is linked to the success of the managers we serve at the client’s organization.

This link is based on the fact that nothing else has real value if the newly placed employee does not properly perform the essential functions of the position and consistently deliver to your client performance outcomes that meet or exceed their expectations.

This is the standard by which your client’s manager will be judged and it is the standard by which you as their recruiter will be judged.

As referenced in a previous article (Improve the Process, Improve the Results), there are six critical variables involved in Human Capital Management. If these variables are handled properly, long-term success will result for the new employee, their manager, and ultimately for you as the recruiter.

However, you can help ensure this outcome if you implant the “DNA for Success” at the beginning of your process with the client.

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Improve the Processes, Improve the Results

by on Aug. 18, 2008


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Depending on the survey or study, somewhere between 70% to 90% of managers’ success is determined by the processes used to hire their staff. However, as important as these processes may be, they generally tend to be less than 50% effective when measured against six critical variables. 

However, through partnering with a skilled recruiter, a hiring manager should be able to bring the effectiveness level of this process to more than 85%.   

When considering the six critical variables, remember that a recruiter must be properly engaged in the process before they can mitigate, in any dramatic fashion, the potential damaging effects of these variables.

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