An executive recruitment company has just announced its plans to undercut competitors by offering a flat fee of 10% per month of what the employee is paid for 24 months.

If the employee does not stay with the company — Schwelling Recruiting Services, which specializes in C-level executives as well as sales executives and new business development executives — the employer is only responsible for the months actually worked.

What does this say about the company overall? And what does this say about the economy and what it’s doing to our competition?

The two companies are merging into a new, publicly listed company called Towers Watson & Co. in an all-stock transaction valued at $3.5 billion.

Watson Wyatt CEO John Haley will serve the combined company as Chief Executive Officer, while Towers Perrin CEO Mark Mactas will serve as President.

In a statement, Mactas said this is an “important transaction for our respective organizations that positions us well for a future of accelerated growth and higher levels of profitability.” He added that “our service lines and geographic strengths are also highly complementary, which creates great opportunities for growth. We couldn’t be more excited about this combination, which will change the landscape of our industry.”

In an interview with Reuters, Arlington, Virginia-based Watson and Stamford, Connecticut-based Towers said the combined companies’ headquarters will be in the Northeast, but not located at either of the current locations.

RecruitingBlog.com

“Often, I don’t think recruiters are being honest with themselves,” says Fisher.

“When recruiters get a job order, they want to start working on it. They’re afraid to ask the questions to qualify the order, because if they ask those questions, they may find out that the order isn’t qualified. Then, they are back to making more sales calls. So they trick themselves into working job orders that aren’t real,” he says.

Other advice that Davis and Fisher share in the Bullhorn report is to recognize that fee resistance might mean you are talking to the wrong person — it is vital to speak to the proper person when dealing with larger accounts because in this economy, it is not the time to work harder to make less money — and to set clear standards when qualifying a hiring manager for your CRM.

Download Part 1 here to read the entire report.

What a moment THAT was for me. I was 52 yesterday and just old enough to really appreciate that statement. CB radio was a fad. Lots of people who had no need or purpose were adopting ‘handles’ and “Hey,good buddying” each other for a few years there in the mid-70s. CB radio today remains a good tool for some very narrow purposes and is of limited use.  I think that’s where Twitter will end up too. No disrespect to my buddy Harry Joiner who may just be the CW McCall of his age.

Why the song reference?  On the same day my ‘good buddy’ made his CB reference it was announced that the King of Pop and Hero of (censored) was gone. Just as Twitter indeed does feel like a recycled CB Radio fad, Rockin’ Robin was a recycled hit from right around the same time as the CB craze. There is one big difference though… I believe Twitter will go much more quietly.

One thing I have learned from my career in professional sales is that patience is a critical success factor. So I thought I would discuss the importance of patience and how it can play a key role in your success in the world of selling IT staffing and recruiting services.

From my experience, there are two core areas in which we as sales people don’t always demonstrate the patience we should in order to maximize our potential. The first area is simply with making sales calls to prospective customers. Most of us tend to just pick up the phone and dial away without any specific goal or strategy for the call. We just dial away until we get a decision maker on the phone. Heck, you can’t close a deal without talking to the customer, right?

Our thinking goes something like this: “We’ll figure out what to say when they pick up the phone and go from there.”

This is often a poor strategy, especially when you are selling staffing and recruiting services.

Why? We sound like every other sales person in the industry because they are all taking the same approach.

If we could simply demonstrate some patience by taking the time to properly research the account and the hiring manager we are calling on and have a specific call strategy for the prospect we would be better served in the long run. In all likelihood, the conversation we have with that prospect would be more meaningful for both parties.

We could ask better questions specific to the customer’s situation and make intelligent comments and suggestions based on our understanding of the customer’s business conditions.

Instead, we tend to simply dial away and introduce our products and services and ourselves and ask for job orders. How effective has that approach been for you? As I have learned to become more patient over the years, I have become convinced that one of the few ways in which we can differentiate ourselves in the staffing and recruiting industry is the way in which we prepare for our sales calls and introduce ourselves to our prospective customers.

And this comes back to having some much needed patience to properly prepare.

The other area where we need to demonstrate patience is within the sales process itself. I don’t know about you, but after I have a candidate interview with a client I’m making umpteen phone calls until I reach the candidate (and then the client) for feedback on the interview and to “close the deal.”

As sales people we naturally want to push each deal to closure as quickly as possible. That is just our human nature. As a result however, we tend to put our clients (and candidates) in our sales process and impose our process on the client. I’m not suggesting we just sit back and rely on a strategy of “hope.” Of course we have to pursue the client and initiate contact. Instead of imposing our sales process on our clients however, we should exercise patience by uncovering the client’s interviewing, decision-making, and hiring process.

When we understand those processes, then we understand the sales process for that particular opportunity. Then we can manage the process like a project with milestones along the way (for further reading on this check out my blog) to ensure the “project” continues to move in the right direction. The same thought process could be applied to working with your candidates as well. Have the patience to understand their decision-making process and timeline and together with the candidate and client, set milestones to ensure you keep the process moving forward.

Even though there are many areas of the country still characterized by a tight candidate market, in these economic times employers are not going to rush into any hiring decisions. And they certainly are not going for the “candidate has another offer, you have to decide today ultimatum.”

Learn to be patient by moving your deals forward in small baby steps instead of going for the close during every client interaction.

Dunn is referring to a recent Wall Street Journal article that tells the story of “a whale client delivered by being on the inside.”

The whale, in this case, is Regions Financial Corp. Executive-recruitment firm Fiderion Group allegedly entertained Regions executives on luxury golf vacations annually from 2002 to 2008, with former Fiderion employees shelling out more than $100,000 on Regions officials at the outings.

The sticky matter is that federal law prohibits bank employees from accepting anything “intended to influence business decisions,” yet the retained search firm has billed Regions — its biggest customer for high-level executive searches — close to $3 million annually.

Good work if you can get it? Or is this a firm that doesn’t know where to draw the line on delivering perks to keep clients happy?

Before I get to my point, I need to say that having just missed my first Forum, I plan to be there in 2010. I really have been busy…and while I can use that as an excuse for not having bloviated here in a while, I don’t plan to use that one on myself next June when it is time to go to Las Vegas.

For those of you who have never gone to a Forum…ask yourself if a guy who thinks he has heard it all and said it all in the past 23 years regrets making time now that it is over is enough reason to go to the next one yourself. It should be.

Back to the subject… I have no issue with Barb Bruno’s quote and none with her over it because all sales trainers say similar things. I am also certain this is true for some people. But not for all people.

We all remember in school there were kids who looked and acted like Jeff Spicoli but still got As because they just took the test and the stuff was just there in his head. We also knew kids who did nothing but study all the time who also did well.

All you bosses come and shoot me now for telling the real truth. I absolutely agree that more nos=more yesses but I’ll also tell you that there are one heck of a lot of people who learn how to do a few elements better and since they do it better they can do it less. They also continually focus on improvement of those elements.

I find it demoralizing and debilitating to be told over and over and over that the path to success in this business is 4 hours a day of actual phone time. It may have been true in the past…but not in the 23 years I have been doing this. Maybe it is A way but it is not THE way.

I also average about 1 ‘marketing’ (sales) call a week. I can’t fill our jobs.

I just think more people should focus on finding the things that matter in our business and doing each of them better and better instead of doing them crappily over and over and over.

Since this theme may go on for a while, I’ll stop here for today with a statement I believe is a bit more empirically true.

“If you are more successful than I am it is because you are better than I am.”

To begin with, who says there is nothing good about a “bad economy?” Hogwash!

The past year’s financial downturn is, in part, responsible for the renewed energy, collective spirit, return to the basics of our business and an overall invigorating camaraderie that clearly characterized this conference and for me, set it apart from the other two years.

The whole event was charged with a soulful vibe of WE are all in this together.

So here’s to better times, but more importantly, here’s to the throbbing, no make that pounding or how about thriving heartbeat that was the essence of this Fordyce Forum and is the indefatigable power of the recruiting professional.

From the incredibly driven (but somehow balanced) and brilliant Barb Bruno, to the uniquely charismatic and effervescent Jeff Skrentny, to the myriad of marvelous speakers who spewed invaluable headhunting info to the crowd, this “tradeshow” had real class. Plus, the M Resort was an appropriately fine host, resplendent with state-of-the-art facilities, exceptional cuisine and yes, beautiful hostesses throughout the casino.

But back to the real show.

As I was saying, this one “felt” different. Maybe it was because Mr. Skrentny emphasized with his opening remarks for all us to benefit not only from the “experts on stage” but also from all of the attendees who invested their time, energy, and money to be there to network and connect. Or maybe it’s because we are all now forced to pull together on our end of the tug-of-war-rope so tightly to survive and succeed.

Either way, all I know is that everywhere I went, in every venue I found meaningful conversation, genuine smiles, helpful anecdotes, positive attitudes, and truly practical advice.

We came in all shapes, colors, and sizes; literally. And I came home with a dozen or more business cards, a split-fee partner or three, and a “Candidate Profiling Test” to complement my search services that I have already encouraged one of my new clients to implement.

Most important, I came home with a clear recognition of the strength, seriousness, savvy, resilience, and vision of our industry. I can so easily say that I am truly proud, no make that honored and humbled, to be a part of such a fine collection of human beings that make up the core the Executive Search/Staffing/Recruitment Industry.

Whatever your niche, do not miss this event in 2010!!! Fordyce Forum 2010 will be held once again at the beautiful M Resort, so mark your calendars for June 9-11, 2010.

One more formal thank you to Mr. Jeff Allen, whom we all benefit from every month in The Fordyce Letter. Not only does Mr. Allen pour his heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into the industry through his written contribution to TFL each month, but he took the time to organize the last (and maybe best) breakout session of the entire conference.

This “hour of power” is what Jeff was really talking about. It was called the Fordyce Forum Council and this event had no preset agenda nor was it dominated by one speaker. This session was truly interactive and revealed how mutually beneficial a group of committed professionals can be to one another. It was the essence of what we do at times like the 3rd annual FF, and at times when we need it most, it was learning, growing, and benefiting from one another at its best!

I was truly humbled when one participant, Gerald Bullock, told me he had been reading my articles for awhile and attended the conference specifically to see my breakout. No biggie you might think, but he came all the way from Japan. That’s a lot of pressure!

I wanted to leave you with a few “nuggets” I took back. You can also view my “tweet stream” by following me on Twitter (mikegionta).

First, here are some nuggets from Barb Bruno:

• “If I am more successful than you it is because I heard more NO’s than you.”
• “There are a number of reasons salespeople fail, the number one reason is attitude by 50% of all cases.”
• “Don’t allow the luxury of staying in a bad mood for more than 5 minutes. MOVE ON!”
• “Instead of reading or watching the news, invest one half-hour per day in training and self-development. This will add up to 24 days of training after one year.”
• “Get a coach. I have 3 coaches: a wealth coach, a business coach, and a life coach.”
• “Change is a necessity, NOT a luxury.”

Second, here are some great ideas from Jordan Rayboy:

• “Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from from making mistakes, mistakes come from poor judgment.”
• “Great recruiters do things consistently that average recruiters only do occasionally.”
• “The average American loses 28% of productivity per day. The key culprit is multitasking.”

Finally, here are the key points from my presentation on Hiring and Retaining Great Recruiters:

1. Most advertising for recruiters does NOT sell the position, it describes what we need. Explain your firm’s vision in your advertising to be more attractive to great recruiters.
2. We are recruiters, yet we don’t recruit our own talent. There are some very attractive places to recruit out of right now like mortgage banking, retail, high end car dealers, and brokerage to name a few.
3. The key to a successful hire is to begin setting formal and specific expectations as early as the first interview, not just the first week of employment.

Bonus Tip: To enroll for FREE in my 7 part audio series, “The 7 Deadly Sins recruiting firm owners make and HOW to avoid them,” visit www.TheRecruiterU.com. This will give you more ideas on planning and running your recruiting firm, especially in a tight economy.

Q: How long must I keep my placement files?

Three years has worked well, and conforms to the universally known IRS tax record retention period.

The federal, state, and local record retention periods range from one to five years. With so many legal and administrative rules, a three-year period should suffice for job orders, resumes, and any candidate background checks.

Of course, if you know an issue has arisen or is likely to arise, retain all documents for that year forward to the present.

There are serious, separate penalties for the failure to keep employment records and transactions.

If you don’t maintain accurate written records of all job orders backing up all Internet job postings, you’re asking for trouble. You also must keep files on all responses, sendouts, e-mail correspondence, and everything else relating to these transactions regardless of whether or not you place anyone.

Under the federal law, these records must be maintained for at least one year. (29 CFR 1602.14 and 29 CFR 1627.2, et seq.)

So our general suggestion is to maintain everything meticulously for three years. But check with your local law library or lawyer for specific record retention periods.

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To participate in future Q&As, email jeff@placementlaw.com. Keep in mind you should always consult with your own attorney. Nothing contained herein should be construed as legal advice. It is for your information only.