Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Articles tagged 'marketing'

Business, Relationships

Do You Really Know What Your Customers Buy? Part 1: Understanding What Your Customers Want

by on Dec. 6, 2011


telephone sales by cali_org

For 20 years now I’ve been a recruiter, trainer, coach, and mentor. In that time I have watched and listened to literally hundreds of recruiters try to explain to a potential customer why they should work with their firm over the dozens of others they get calls from every month. In all that time I’ve come to discover that we (recruiters) do an absolutely horrible job of differentiating ourselves from one another. Everyone wants to talk about the exact same things:

“I’ve been in business for X years.”

“We specialize exclusively in this area (almost always what the client says they need).”

“I’d be happy to offer (insert the name of your best customer here) as a reference.”

“We’re located here in (insert random city/ST) so we do a much better job of selling the community.”

And the piece-de-resistance, “I’m able to find candidates you won’t have access to without me.”

The words may come out differently from recruiter to recruiter, but the message is almost always the same.  This has to change. If you want to start to capture the market share and clients you desire, start with a whole new approach to what you “sell” your potential customers.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Ask Barb

Ask Barb: Getting Decision Makers on the Phone

by on Nov. 30, 2011


Ask Barb

Dear Barb:

Thank you for accepting my invitation to connect on LinkedIn. Perhaps you’d be open to offering some suggestions as to the most effective ways to get decision makers (Director, VP and C-Suite executives) on the phone.  Once I speak with them in real time, I have no problems conducting sales presentations and closing them on using my recruiting services. After being in outside (medical device) sales for many years, I still struggle with getting past their administrative assistants, which is curious, since I never had any problems, previously.

Can you please help? Thank you for your time and kind attention.

Robin S. Newhall, CA 

Keep reading »
No comments

Business

“The Phone Rang…” Lessons From Robocruiter, Part 2

by on Nov. 4, 2011


Robocruiter logo

Editor’s note: Last week, we gave you part 1 of “The Phone Rang…” Robocruiter series, “The Total Account Executive.” This week we continue this short series from Bob Marshall with part 2.

For those of you who haven’t been exposed to Robocruiter before, buckle your seatbelts.  I am going to take you on a brief flight through some of his more memorable (to me) recruitment technique snippets.  In part 2 of our journey, we will look at:

  • The 10 manifestations of failure due to lack of commitment;
  • The 8 tenets managers should follow to ensure success in their offices; and
  • The 6 reasons why we market.

Sprinkled within these major topics, I will discuss how Robocruiter qualifies his JOs and how he achieves a 100% matching to send out ratio.

Keep reading »
No comments

Ask Barb

Ask Barb: The Next Step After Leaving Voicemail

by on Nov. 2, 2011


Ask Barb

Dear Barb:

For the past sixty days I’ve been using the voicemails that you suggested leaving for both marketing and recruiting presentations. It does work to get clients to call me back. In fact, I now have an 80% call back percentage. However, one of my prospects, a VP of HR, was upset when she realized I was a recruiter. She insisted on knowing the reason for my call and who referred her to me. How do I overcome this type of reaction?

Jill F., Springfield, IL

Keep reading »
No comments

Business Development

The Art of Marketing and Business Development, Part 3 (of 3)

by on Oct. 24, 2011


man script

The Scripts That Work — 6-10

Welcome to the last installment of The Art of Marketing and Business Development series. Last week, we discussed the first five business development scripts that are working today:

  1. Reference from an Internal Champion
  2. C-level Approach
  3. Vertical Market Approach — “Insight”
  4. MPC/”A” Player Approach
  5. Combination Approach

This article continues with highlighting the additional five marketing scripts, 6-1 0. Keep in mind: different selling situations will call for different scripts. As a recruiter, it is important to have as many options (clubs) in your recruiting bag as possible. Master them all, so you will be prepared for any selling situation and have the ability to pull them out when that shot is needed. Don’t forget, the goal is to achieve a large quantity of job orders coming in so you have the ability to continually ‘top grade’ the work you have on your desk. Until you get a large number of “A” search assignments (job orders), keep marketing every day. That’s right – every day.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Business Development

The Art of Marketing and Business Development, Part 2 (of 3)

by on Oct. 20, 2011


woman phone script

The Scripts That Work — 1-5

Earlier this week, I shared with you three key principles to establishing a strong marketing foundation. Of course, it all starts with obtaining high quality searches.

After that though, you need to know how to have an appropriate conversation with potential new clients, and the best way to do this is by having a pre-written script to help you. Today, I bring you the first 5 of the top 10 marketing approaches that rock the recruiting world today. 

Keep reading »
No comments

Business Development

The Art of Marketing and Business Development, Part 1 (of 3)

by on Oct. 17, 2011


business man on telephone

The Three Critical Business Development Principles

Finding the perfect candidate for an open search assignment is an exciting moment in any recruiter’s day and contributes significantly to the overall success of achieving their goals. More important than fulfillment, however, is the role that business development plays in the process. Effective marketing is the biggest factor in any recruiter’s success.

There are three key principles to establishing a strong marketing foundation. It all starts with obtaining high quality searches. The better the search you have to recruit on, the more placements you will make. Period. Most of us agree with this concept, however practicing it seems to have become a lost art. Time is money and you want to make sure you are spending your time on searches that will result in placements. Ask yourself about the searches you are currently working on – are you guaranteed a placement if you find the person you are looking for? Resources are too valuable today to be risked on uncertainty. A good search means that “if” you find the right candidate, your client will hire them — no maybes and no excuses.

Keep reading »
2 Comments

Social Media

The Die-Hard Phone Jockey’s Guide to Email Marketing

by on Oct. 11, 2011


DHPJEM

Most Die-hard Phone Jockeys will deny the following fact, but they’re wrong! If you have mastered the art of voicemail, then you’ve mastered the most important skills necessary to engage the full power of Email Marketing to improve your placements performance. Yes, there is a difference in medium, from spoken to written and in communicating with many as opposed to just one person at a time. But these differences can each be accomplished in small, easy steps, and when you approach it that way, the skills for mighty Email Marketing are truly just an extension of your basic voicemail skills.

In this week’s lesson, we’ll cover voicemail first, to lay our foundation, and then turn to Email Marketing. We’ll address the use of Email Marketing as a part of your sales cycle one-on-one, first. Then we’ll map out the power of Email Marketing to warm up your cold calls and, most important of all, to draw those you’re already serving closer to you. Our only goal is to increase your placements.

Keep reading »
No comments

Business

“The Phone Rang…” How to Qualify the Job Order

by on Sep. 9, 2011


Office Telephone

A student of mine called the other day. He had spent all week conducting a concentrated marketing campaign and had written a few new Job Orders. He was now using my Job Order Matrix system (for more information about this technique see, TFL, July 2006, “The Job Order Matrix (with Kevin Franks),” pp. 1-4.), to qualify his JOs, but it was taking him what he thought was an inordinate amount of time. He asked if there was a shortcut in the JO qualification process. I asked if he had ever heard of the Qualifier Job Order approach and he had not. And so we began to talk about this Big Biller technique.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Business

“The Phone Rang…” How to Make a Successful Marketing Call

by on Sep. 2, 2011


telephone2

There is a general consensus among big billers that telephone marketing is THE KEY to their success. And I think most of us who have a few years of recruitment experience acknowledge that fact. So, why do I constantly read about “alternative” (read that as “easier”) approaches to marketing? Does our continuing love affair with all things electrical and computer-driven really help us that much? Or is it because we managers and educators have forgotten how to correctly teach our business? I think it is a combination of all of the above. So, with this in mind, let’s look at how to build an effective marketing campaign and make a successful telephone marketing call.

Keep reading »
2 Comments