In this month's newsletter...

Welcome to our April newsletter

This is our April newsletter featuring a mix of industry news, helpful information from recruitment industry experts, tips to help you improve and grow the profitability of your business and, of course, news from ourselves at Recruitment Matters about our training courses, products and services.

We'd like to start by thanking those of you who have already purchased any of our webinar titles from our new online training programme - there are three available so far with more being produced in the coming weeks. More information is available below and directly by clicking here.

We are pleased to feature the third article from our new contributor, 'Marketing Mentor,' Alastair Campbell - how much of your marketing is doomed before it starts?

We've been around the recruitment industry long enough to know that while knowledge may be key and experience might be king, having an open forum to share your concerns and ambitions with others is crucial. "A problem shared is a problem halved." See below for news of our latest initiative, the Recruitment Matters International (RMI) Owner/Manager Forum.

'My Dear Darling - please help.' Chancellor Alistair Darling was recently urged by the REC to deliver a 'confidence-building' budget to support recruiters and other sectors dealing with the recession. This comes on the back of the trade body's survey which showed 70 per cent of recruiters had lost at least one fifth of business in the last quarter.

In a letter to the Chancellor ahead of last week's UK budget, Recruitment and Employment Confederation's chief executive Kevin Green offered him areas he should focusing his budget. The areas included helping job creation through the tax regime and avoiding adding cost and bureaucracy through more employment regulation and procurement policy.

Kevin Green said: "We need to see Government doing all it can to support businesses through the recession and so safeguard the wealth creation part of our economy. We must jumpstart the jobs market and not add to the cost of employing people when many businesses are fighting to remain solvent."

"With unemployment still rising, the focus needs to be on providing expert support and guidance for newly unemployed job seekers as well as on helping organisations train their staff and improve competitiveness. The Budget must provide a launch pad to boost the economy and labour market so that UK plc is in the best possible shape to take advantage of the upturn when it arrives."

So did 'Dear Darling' deliver? See some recruiters' views below.

Encouraging news comes from one of the currently most beleaguered recruitment sectors - hiring activity rose for a third consecutive month in March, according to a survey by financial recruiter Morgan McKinley.

The survey shows that the number of new job vacancies within London's financial services sector increased by 10% compared with the previous month. The number of financial services professionals who began looking for a new job also jumped in March, up 9% on February. However, hiring levels fell by 57% on March last year.

Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley, says: "During the first quarter of 2009, there has been a slight improvement in City confidence in comparison to the end of last year and this has translated into a small increase in hiring activity. Similarly, many of the cost saving and efficiency initiatives being implemented by financial institutions over the past three months are nearing completion. Therefore, employers are now more accurately able to identify where there are skills gaps in their workforce and are starting to hire again to fulfil these requirements, albeit at reduced volumes compared with 12 months ago."

For a further perspective on the state of play in the recruitment industry, read Warren's overview based on some analysis that he has conducted recently. Warren believes that some green shoots may be appearing - a view endorsed elsewhere in the latest Blanchard forecast.

New research from the independent campaign "Keep Britain Working" has shown the sacrifices HR and Recruitment workers are willing to take to save jobs. The vast majority (95%) of workers in these industries are willing to accept changes in their working conditions in order to save a colleague's job. Almost a third (30%) would accept a pay cut, and over half (53%) would work reduced hours. However, if bosses asked their workers to make sacrifices without forfeiting anything themselves, then two per cent of HR & Recruitment workers would go on strike. Furthermore, four per cent would quit their job in protest, even if they didn't have another position to go to.

For those of you struggling with a restricted training budget, remember there are funds available towards the cost of coaching and other training through the Train to Gain scheme. Certainly, several of our clients have secured funding recently. See later in this newsletter for more information.

In the latest instalment of our regular feature 'Recruiters' Guide to Researchers,' we have an excellent article from Exacta's Elaine Tatters on the risks of over-reliance on internet research. We also feature tips from our trainers Warren Kemp and Matt Wilson, all of which are featured in 'Credit Crunch' and on the tips section of our website.

We very much like this to be an interactive newsletter and we welcome your comments and feedback and will be happy to feature your contributions on important industry issues and your advice on how to improve the success and professionalism of our marketplace. As you now know, in return, we show our gratitude by featuring a link to your company, as a contributor to this publication.

We at Recruitment Matters have a simple underlying philosophy to everything that we do, and that is, by helping each other to improve, we all stand to benefit in this large, dynamic and ever evolving industry.

Please send your potential editorial contributions to ken@recruitmentmatters.com.

Online recruitment training delivered to your desktop

Training budget tight? We have affordable training available for you RIGHT NOW on your computer! Recruitment Matters International is proud to bring you the first three in a comprehensive series of training webinars at the stunning price of just £29.99!

Click here to view a FREE introduction to our webinars.

You will probably already be aware that webinars are seminars available to view and download over the web. We are offering these as approximately 30 - 40 minute training sessions which you can view without leaving your office/desk or the comfort of your home computer if you prefer.

What's even better is that as many people who can sit around your PC ( you will need the audio facility enabled) can all watch, listen, learn and take notes at the same time for the price of one ticket. These are available at a very competitive price of just £29.99 + VAT (where applicable) and you simply need to click 'buy now' below (or on our webinars page) to be able to access the subjects of your choice and view them as often as you like.

We will be adding many more topics to the initial list below, so do keep checking our webinars page and bookmark it for easy reference. More details available shortly.

Gaining An Understanding Of Head-Hunting
This webinar is aimed at those people and organisations that are considering adding head-hunting to their skill set. Topics will include: when head-hunting is the right option, the pros and cons, an overview of the market and an outline of the process involved. buy now.... for £29.99.

Name Gathering & Market Mapping
This webinar will give both experienced and inexperienced consultants/researchers the mainframe to build their knowledge of the people in their market onto, how to build on that knowledge by name gathering and how best to build a network of contacts. buy now.... for £29.99.

Business Development (Part One)
Business development isn't simply picking up the phone to a cold contact to ask if they have any vacancies. Instead, it's a well thought out logical process of identifying the right targets and working out a strategy to optimise your chances of success. This webinar will give you a strong footing to do just that. buy now.... for £29.99

Solution Selling
In today's day and age only being able to offer a database service or only being able to head-hunt doesn't make good commercial sense. This webinar will give you the basic tools and skills to sell the right solution (database - advert -search) at the right time and show you how. Coming soon for £29.99.

Negotiation
Too often recruiters feel under pressure to accept the client's terms because they want or need the vacancy. This webinar will help you negotiate better with a variety of options and not just by dropping your fee for exclusivity! Coming soon for £29.99.

Effective Interviewing
Interviewing is often one of those areas where recruiters sometimes think that just asking a few CV orientated questions will suffice. This webinar will give you a broader understanding of how to get the best use of your time when interviewing including gaining the right information to evaluate a candidate against a job brief and picking up market knowledge. Coming soon for £29.99.

Many more to come in the next few weeks...

'The 'Marketing Mentor' - Marketing Advice for Recruitment Companies

Are your Marketing Attempts Doomed Before They've Started?
There are many powerful techniques that can be applied when it comes to marketing your business, ranging from empathising with your best customers, to polishing your direct mail skills. Are they important? Of course they are, and they can make a significant difference in the success of what you do - but only if you build your marketing campaign on a solid foundation.

One of the most important building blocks in creating a successful campaign is to start at the beginning by seeking out genuine opportunities and gaps in your marketplace. There are always new products and services arriving. The ones that do well are either brilliantly marketed, or more commonly, they fill a genuine need that exists.

There are always new opportunities to serve the public. One of the quickest ways to launch a new or revised offering is to look at what is already working. Is there a company that seems to be doing really well - are they profitable, busy and expanding? What are they doing? Is there a formula that they have adopted that you can adapt?

One way of doing this is to look to see if there are any recent changes in legislation. Duncan Bannatyne made his first fortune from care homes because there was an important change in legislation. In his book, 'Anyone Can Do It,' he talks about how this change in the law gave him a profitable and competitive advantage over his competitors. It enabled him to create new care homes from scratch that met the new legislation and had a better ratio of staff to residents.

Look into what new trends are emerging. I worked for a company that developed an anti-truancy product at a time when truancy was always in the news. The product had a dramatic impact on the problem, and because it was a timely solution we were able to generate a great deal of publicity.

Take your cues from the marketplace and have an ever open mind about what you are really selling. There may well be a trend emerging in similar areas that you have not yet considered that could represent a whole new area to grow your business in.

Action Points.

1. Don't create a new product or service just because you can or it interests you.

2. Look at how you can solve a problem in a more efficient, cheaper or faster way.

3. Is there a company that is rapidly growing in a different sector to you? Can you copy some of the ideas that they are using and apply it to your sector?

4. Always get the basics right before you build your campaign. Ask if there seems to be a genuine need for what you are offering, and only then think about how to market it in the most arresting and compelling manner.

Alastair Campbell runs the Marketing Mentor programme which offers a free 18 month marketing support package to senior staff within recruitment companies. Visit www.themarketingmentor.co.uk or telephone 01858 445543 to find out more.

Recruitment industry views on this month's UK Budget

Harvey Nash: Budget bad for executive jobs
The 50% income tax rate announced in this month's Budget is bad for jobs and employment, according to Albert Ellis, chief executive of Harvey Nash. Ellis said that the rise in income tax on salaries of more than £150,000, which comes into force in April 2010, will have a particular impact on Harvey Nash's UK candidates at the senior end, most of whom start on a basis salary of £120k.

"Candidates will require an inflationary premium to move because they are going to want some sort of compensation - that's normal," says Ellis. "Anything that stops people taking jobs is bad. Where you have got companies having to compensate candidates for the higher tax rate slows the process down and creates barriers to employment."

The income tax rise will also have a negative on entrepreneurs in the industry, he argues. "If you are talking about people being more productive and incentivised to work harder - the entrepreneurs of this world - it is taxing them. The recruitment industry has a fair share of owners and entrepreneurs who have made a lot of money out of the industry.Most successful recruiters are in the high-earning bracket. It's going to affect the successful recruiter - those earning in excess of £150k." It will affect morale, Ellis adds.

"At the new 50% for higher earners, the UK will not be a tax-friendly state any longer - it will be a high-tax state.It was hailed as a budget for jobs but this was complete spin because they are going to make job cuts in the public sector. This budget is a very negative budget. It talks about two things: debt and tax rises."

Ellis says one effect may be that bonuses are paid early before the tax increases come into effect in April 2010. This already been raised at Harvey Nash, "where people have asked 'can we look at timing?' ".

Randstad welcomes Job Centre funding
Multi-sector recruiter Randstad has backed the £1.7bn extra funding for the Job Centre network.

Diane Martyn, chief executive of Randstad UK, says: "Jobseekers should include active networking as part of their strategies to find job opportunities. This should be through family, friends, online, and through associations jobseekers may be involved with, such as sports clubs.

"Many people will need to have a flexible approach to finding work - it may mean retraining, or perhaps realigning career targets. For others, it may mean considering working in a different part of the country or perhaps overseas.

"Temporary work can be a valuable way of gaining work experience. Typically, around a third of temps are able to use temping as a way to gaining permanent work. However, since April, changes in VAT have increased the cost of hiring temporary workers in the insurance, banking, education, charity and healthcare sectors."

Budget ignores older workers says TAEN
The government has commited to providing a job or a training place with extra money on top of benefits for those in training for all under-25s from January in the Budget. However, The Age and Employment Network's (TAEN) chief executive, Chris Ball, accused the Chancellor of neglecting mid-life and older workers who fear for their jobs.

"Demographic changes make it essential that older people are allowed to work. The Chancellor has ignored calls for subsidies to short time working, re-skilling programmes and other innovative measures that could keep people employable. We need different approaches and recognition of the synergies from working inter-generationally, bringing older and younger workers into the same picture.

"Instead, we get an old fashioned Community Programme, not very different from what Mrs Thatcher came up with in her time. The Chancellor's response is that of a one club-golfer, hacking at the rough and driving off the tee with the same rusty iron."

Windfall for recruiters
Recruiters have welcomed the government's commitment of £525m for offshore wind projects over the next two years in this year's Budget.

Chris Logue, director at multi-sector recruiter Eden Scott, based in Scotland, which is the location of a number of wind projects, says: "It is very welcome. There is clearly massive demand for jobs within the wind farm environment. If anything, there is a skills shortage. It is important to ensure we have the skill sets. Any investment is good news."

Sam Newell, managing director at Recruitment 4 Renewables, adds: "This has been a long time coming. If the UK does not make the right level of investment, we risk falling behind the rest of the world. In terms of the current levels of the renewable energy that we produce, we are well behind the rest of the world. It is a step in the right direction."

Andy Cartland, director at energy recruiter Acre Resources, says: "What they are proposing is positive. The money they are pumping in should create jobs."

Recruitment Matters International (RMI) Owner/Manager Forum

We've been around the recruitment industry long enough to know that while knowledge may be key and experience might be king, having an open forum to share your concerns and ambitions with others is crucial. "A problem shared is a problem halved."

Very few of us in these difficult economic times would feel 100% comfortable making a challenging decision on our own - whether that is a proactive or defensive one. You may of course have someone within your own organisation to share the decision making process with. However, having access to a number of other peers in a comfortable and open setting, who have perhaps experienced or, indeed, are experiencing a similar situation to your own has got to help you to decide on the best course of action.

That's where RMI Owner/Manager Forum meetings come into play. These are aimed at helping you, help yourself out of what maybe a very challenging and difficult set of business (and indeed personal) circumstances and, if needed, move onto a more stable platform for future growth.

So who is invited to attend and participate?
Owner/Managers of independent recruitment organisations, with (broadly) between 1 - 3 offices and less than 20-25 fee earners. The numbers suggested are intended to be a little bit open to ensure that the "one man band" can converse with a larger but still independent owner manager so that we can all learn from each other - and, clearly, if you have 4 offices or work from home, if you are on your own or have 28 staff you aren't precluded. In a nutshell, it's for people and companies without deep pockets or big war chests who need to use their guile, wit and skills to get through the forthcoming months and out the other end still in one piece and as profitable as possible.

So tell me more…
Meetings will be monthly (you can attend as few or as many as you like) at three easily accessible venues (one meeting per month at each of the three venues) in Birmingham, London & Manchester. The first dates will be announced shortly.

Each of the meetings will have an overall theme and agenda of topics and will be announced in advance.
This is a forum for you to share thoughts with, and take advice from like minded peers. Warren will lead and host each meeting, with, as appropriate, another owner/manager "chairing" a topic from the agenda.
Although the chance to network clearly plays an important part of these meetings, the real tangible benefit will be in the information and ideas that you come away with from the 'round the table' discussion sessions. Industry speakers/experts may occasionally be invited to help add to the meetings' agenda - BUT - they will not be sponsors or there to directly sell their products or services to you.
Costs will be kept to a minimum - the price of each session will be just £79+VAT.
Duration will be 1.30 - 5.30pm with informal drinks/networking afterwards.

So what do I have to do now?
For now all you have to do is reply by either phone or email to let us know you are interested. We will then send you a booking form and advise you of topics, take your suggestions for them and do everything else needed to make sure the RMI Owner/Manager Forum will be of real help to you. While there is no obligation to attend any or all of the meetings, we hope these can become a real aid to you in the forthcomings weeks and months in what are sure to be challenging times. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Please email ken@recruitmentmatters.com or call +44 (0)1945 461561.

Get past the gatekeeper (Part Two - Part Three next month)

"Is John available?"

All gatekeepers have three standard questions they will be asking you:
"Who is calling?", "Where are you calling from?" and "What is the call regarding?"

How much information you give in response to these will, as mentioned in last month's tip, vary according to the level of gatekeeper you are dealing with. How much they really need to know will depend on whether they are going to simply connect your call to a person's extension or they will be speaking to the other person before putting you through. That in itself is well worth thinking about.

A receptionist of a large organisation may not be able to tell whether someone is in that day or available to take the call. What I would like to know, as a minimum, is whether my contact is in or not, because if he or she isn't in, then it could save me a considerable amount of time, as I won't be calling back 3, 4 or 5 times during the same day and I probably won't need to leave a voicemail message either.

So, instead of asking if you can speak to your target contact, your first question should be "Is John available?" If he is available and your gatekeeper knows that, then the fact that he or she is now asking "Who shall I say is calling?" means your target is in and we are one step nearer to talking with them. If they are not available and the gatekeeper knows it, then you will get a straight answer to your straight question - such as "No I'm sorry he is in a meeting".

We can then take control of the conversation by saying something like "OK, not to worry, when will he be available - later this morning or this afternoon?" or "later this afternoon or tomorrow morning?"

Again if your gatekeeper is aware of John's diary they will focus on answering your question and by doing so they have all but agreed to allow you to speak with your target sometime in the future - we just have to sort out the time and the date. So remember, the objective of your first question is to check your target's availability.

Next month we will go into more depth with how you answer our three standard questions.

Warren Kemp is MD and lead trainer with Recruitment Matters. For more tips, advice and information on Recruitment Matters visit www.recruitmentmatters.com/free.php, telephone 0800 0749 289/ +44 (0)1483 755559 or email warren@recruitmentmatters.com.

Warren's perspective on the market

I've been out and about both on open and in-house training sessions recently asking "How's the market for you?" The good news is that when adding up everyone's thoughts the broad brushstroke result seems to be things are on the up - albeit very slowly.

My own theory has been that there were more roles out there but that many organisations are trying to fill them themselves first before (if at all) using a recruiter. So I decided to put that idea to the test in a somewhat more scientific way. Using a pretty good piece of software that over the last 3-4 years I've had input in developing, I charted the number of vacancies posted on organisations' own sites in the past 4 weeks compared with the previous month.

The number of roles advertised by FTSE 250 companies globally showed movement up by 76% and the number of roles advertised by Fortune Global 500 companies was up by 80%. These may well be a good barometer of things to come (let's keep our fingers crossed).

However, taking all roles found globally - from SME's to the biggest players - the number of roles rose by a more modest, yet still encouraging, 28% and in Europe 26%

Taking that European list and focussing on just 5 areas - Accountancy, HR, IT, Legal and Marketing, it showed:
Accountancy up 32%
HR up 8%
IT up 29%
Legal up 10%
Marketing up 25%
So, while it may be a little while in coming, I firmly believe that based on facts, figures and discussion there is a decent upward trend of roles emerging once again and a trickle more starting to come through to recruiters.

Recruiters' Guide to handling researchers

Internet Research: Placing all your eggs in one basket?

Whether you're mindlessly 'twittering' or searching through 648 pages of candidate details, there is no denying that we're living in an age where the internet is king. Clearly the recruitment industry relies heavily on it as more and more jobs are advertised online and candidates can apply for a new role at the click of a mouse button.

There are many internet tools that both candidates and recruiters can choose from, such as Monster, Totaljobs, etc, and networking sites like LinkedIn, Xing, Jigsaw…even Facebook, which all appear on the face of it to have their uses as people upload their details onto such sites in order to make themselves more visible (whether that be for professional reasons or purely social). The question is, how useful are such resources to researchers and how much of a place do they have within the industry? How useful is the internet when it comes to a search campaign?

On one hand, the internet is invaluable when it comes to target listing, as it helps to ensure thorough coverage of the market and can also provide assistance when identifying people, allowing researchers to open doors which otherwise would be slammed shut time and time again - especially in industries such as pharmaceutical or IT; classic sectors which tend to be more 'headhunter' aware.

The internet proves useful when looking for niche or "hens' teeth" candidates - for instance I was recently searching for a Software Quality Engineer for a well known invitro diagnostic manufacturer. This proved to be a real challenge as there were relatively few suitable targets within the UK and they tended to have strict 'no names' policies. Even after passing that hurdle, the next obstacle appeared to be finding people who had the relevant skill set or who knew people who did. The client explained that he had the use of a jobsite for a trial period and wondered if that would prove to be useful in sourcing potentials? After substantial 'rummaging' we found one person who closely matched the skills and background we were looking for. Using that information we were able to find a few other people who worked alongside that particular individual and things moved on from there.  

On the other hand, the view about internet networking sites that some of my colleagues hold is that they're only as useful as the information that's put on there - and is this information the truth? You only have to look in the media to see that the internet provides a 'virtual world' in which people can portray themselves how they fancy. This has obvious potential to be dangerous when searching for someone matched against specific criteria.

From our perspective, using it as a research tool, the downside to the internet is that we rely on people updating the information regularly, which is why a 'belt and braces' approach still needs to be taken via classic phone ID & verbal confirmations. I recently spoke to someone who worked for a major outsourcing business to whom I had been referred by an ex-colleague as a Senior Sales Manager. Out of curiosity, after speaking with him, I 'Googled' his name and found that online he was generally referred to as a Sales Executive which did not match the title/remit on his CV. Had we followed this avenue first (before speaking to him and his colleague) we might well have viewed him as inappropriate to approach and would have never picked up the phone to him.

Many in the recruitment industry rely heavily on internet searches and CV mining tools, which I cannot argue are good resources.  However, in my experience, they could never replace or substitute the traditional methods which provide what the internet generally can't - picking up the phone and asking someone who knows what they're talking about. My advice is whilst using it to assist you, be wary of the internet as the sole resource of information; placing all your eggs in one basket may prove to be the downfall of the assignment.

Elaine Tatters is a Research Consultant at Exacta Research, a recruitment research company who provide a candidate research service to help clients find the best possible candidates across all sectors and levels. For further information email david@exactaresearch.co.uk, visit www.exactaresearch.co.uk or call 08000 856 618.

Aston Taylor survey: Service most important factor

Six out of 10 recruiters say service levels are the single most important factor when choosing a supplier, according to a new survey carried out by rec-to-rec firm Aston Taylor using LinkedIn, which found that having a good existing relationship with a supplier was the second most important factor.

One in five recruiters ranked it as their top priority. Fewer than one in 10 respondents (9%) said price was most important. The results, from the survey of 104 recruiters, were broken down by criteria, such as job title and company size of respondents.

Commenting on the results, Michael Bowden, managed services director at Aston Taylor, said "For people that have been in recruitment the longest (age 55+), 100% agree that previous relationships are most important. Interestingly, it is only at consultant level that the fee level comes up as an important factor. I think this is good news for all quality-driven recruiters, especially in the current climate. If you focus on quality then you will not have to compromise when it comes to fees."

Blanchard: Recovery expected by end of year

Most international companies expect an economic recovery by the end of the year, according to a survey from management training providers The Ken Blanchard Companies.
The survey shows that 70% are optimistic about the economy rebounding in 2009, while just 25% of the 1,700 executive, line managers, HR and L&D professionals surveyed worldwide thought the downturn would run unabated into next year.

Jim O'Brien, managing director of The Ken Blanchard Companies UK, says: "Only 29% of respondents listed personal layoffs and cuts as their way of dealing with the downturn, and neither are they directing cuts at the traditionally 'soft targets' of personnel and marketing.

"Many appear to be looking inward to survive current conditions, with more than 60% planning to invest in productivity and performance-maximising strategies, with another 46% planning to focus on their corporate branding and differentiation."

New funding available for small and medium sized businesses

Funds are available towards the cost of coaching and other training through the Train to Gain scheme. For CEO/MDs of organisations with 5+ employees (including volunteers) - your first £500 is fully funded with another £500 match funded. So you can claim up to £1,000.

Best of all it's pretty easy to apply. A good place to start is by contacting Business Link www.businesslink.gov.uk or Train To Gain www.traintogain.gov.uk .

Certainly, several of our clients have secured funding for 'Leadership and Management' training recently, which is the key category, whether directly for management training or by justifying training in head-hunting for example as being relevant to enhance their skills to lead their search team.

In October 2008, Skills Secretary John Denham announced that small businesses will be the focus of £350 million fund to help them get through the tough economic climate by building the skills and expertise of their workers.
The new package of support includes funding for training, with the minimum level of bureaucracy or delay. This will be for subjects such as business improvement techniques or leadership and management, which are proven to provide skills to increase the productivity of individuals and firms.

John Denham said: "Small businesses are an important engine of our economy and we must make sure that we support them during tough economic times. We are overhauling the training system to make sure that they can get help with training their staff with the very minimum of bureaucracy. We know that firms which invest in skills do better than those that don't, which is why we will be urging small businesses to take up this offer from Government."

Funding through Train to Gain
The funding will be drawn from the Government's flagship training service 'Train to Gain'. Funding is planned to rise to £1 billion by 2010-11. In allocating the planned increase in spending on this programme over the next two years, the Government will give top priority to meeting demand from small businesses in the private sector (those with up to 250 employees).

What new support is on offer?
The key elements of the £350m Train to Gain package are:

• Funding for "bite-sized chunks" - small units or modules of qualifications in subjects known to be important to SMEs, such as business improvement, team-working, customer service, and risk management;
• Help for groups of SMEs located together in business parks so that they can increase their purchasing power and share resources to support the training of local SME staff;
• Extending the successful leadership and management programme so that more SMEs can benefit from it, including in companies with just 5-250 workers;
• Allow workers to get training up to Level 2 even if they already have a previous qualification at this level; and more funding for Level 3 training;
• Brokers to offer tried and tested skills diagnostics and audits so companies can have their training needs more accurately identified; and point SMEs to the right solutions from the most appropriate providers. NB. You can nominate your own preferred provider - RMI, of course!

Overcoming Client Objections (Part Two - 'Overcoming Client Reactions' next month)

Following on from last time when we started to deal with the most common objections you have encountered, then numbers 6-10 in the RMI all time top ten are:
6. We have placed an advert and are waiting for the response
7. The last person we hired through a recruiter left after two weeks
8. We are downsizing at the moment
9. If I needed a temp I would get one through word of mouth
10. I'm too busy right now

So if told 'We have placed an advert and are waiting for the response' the following may just keep your foot in the door:
• Have you put a closing date on the advert?
• Where have you advertised it?
• Would you consider candidates from some of your main competitors?
• What would your ideal candidate have by way of background?

OK, next up is quite a tricky one because of the negative result from working with a recruiter before and it was 'The last person we hired through a recruiter left after two weeks.' You can try:
• That is terrible when it happens, I think that has happened to me once in the last three years and there was more to it than simply a poor candidate - quite the opposite, did the recruiter give you a rebate?
• What job title was that for?
• How long ago did that happen?
• There are no perfect candidates or recruitment companies. Until that point were you happy with the recruiter you used?

On the home straight now we have 'We are downsizing at the moment.' Well, we can use:
• How long do you see that continuing for?
• In a downturn you very often lose people you don't want to because they jump ship, how are you coping with that?
• How are you looking after the people you are letting go, have you introduced them to a recruiter who may be able to help them find a new job?
• Before downsizing, how many recruiters did you work with?

The next one, does not simply relate to temps, for many permanent roles the response could be similar. However, our example was 'If I needed a temp I would get one through word of mouth.' Try these:
• That is great - you obviously have a good relationship with your staff if you can do that. What percentage of vacancies have you filled through word of mouth in the last six months?
• If it was business critical, would you use a recruiter if word of mouth did not work quickly enough?
• Brilliant, do you have many temp roles at any one time?
• Do you have a recruiter you do use if it does not work out or if you have some permanent roles come up?

Last, but not least, 'I'm busy right now.' Try:
• OK, when is a good time to get you?
• Is there someone else you would trust to discuss this situation with me?

Finally, when answering this one, you can do something we have not discussed yet and that is giving the client a choice of two answers and, if set up right, when they pick one they will be agreeing that the next stage will happen. So try this:
• OK I understand Tom, so when would be better to speak, later this morning or this afternoon?

Giving people choices really helps you get a positive answer because, if they pick one, subliminally they are agreeing to do something. For example, in general discussion with clients it's far better to say "Which of the CV's I sent did you think was the best?" rather than "What did you think of the CV's I sent you?"

Right, I am sure the example answers to difficult objections I have given you will leave you with enough options when put on the spot. However, either now or later, please re-read Parts One & Two again and then using your own style & persona review them and work hard to get something by way of a response you are happy with. Next time we will look at 'client reactions' such as "What makes you different from the rest?" and "Are you willing to work at ten percent?"

Matt Wilson is a consultant with Recruitment Matters and is offering a wide range of courses for 2009. For more information on Recruitment Matters, our training courses, services and products visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, telephone 0800 0749289 or email info@recruitmentmatters.com.

Recruitment Matters news

As you will know by now, we never rest on our laurels here at RMI. We know that it's a tough economic climate and appreciate that your budgets for recruitment training are very limited. However, we hope that you feel that we're doing everything that we can to provide cost-effective solutions via our new online training programme, our Client Generation During The Credit Crunch seminars for just £49.99, the new RMI Owner/Manager Forum, the information on the opportunity to secure Train To Gain funding and more. If you feel that there is anything else that we should be doing to help, please let us know via ken@recruitmentmatters.com .

Please note a few date changes to our open training course schedule...
The next two London 'Crunch' dates are now May 29th & June 26th. Also, still in London, the June date for Winning New Business - Telephone Skills For Recruiters' has been brought forward two weeks to June 2nd and we've added a new 'Interview Skills' date on May 20th.

We hope that you enjoyed Warren's and Matt's new tips for this month - you will find many more on our free tips page http://www.recruitmentmatters.com/free.php which is regularly updated. Oh, and did you remember to watch Warren on TV last month? If you missed him, you can view the programme on our website here.

Please see the schedule below for all our open course dates from May - June 2009. Our July - September schedule will be out soon.

RECRUITMENT MATTERS: May 2009 - June 2009 Open Training Schedule

To download a booking form, please click here.

SUCCESSFUL HEAD-HUNTING (one day)
May 6th - Birmingham
May 13th - London
May 18th - Prague
Jun 5th - Brussels
Jun 10th - London
Jun 17th - Manchester
Jun 24th - Birmingham

Investment £299+VAT
'Bring A Friend' £199+VAT
RMPP rates apply
Includes free CD set worth £99 'Handling Head-Hunted Candidate Objections & Reactions'
Prague, Brussels: €395; 'Bring A Friend' €295. Includes free CD set as above
Link

WINNING NEW BUSINESS (one day)
'Telephone Skills For Recruiters'
May 8th - Manchester
May 28th - Bristol
Jun 2nd - London
Jun 22nd - Amsterdam
Jun 23rd - Leeds

Investment £299+VAT
'Bring A Friend' £199+VAT
RMPP rates apply
'Includes free CD worth £99 'Handling Client Objections and Reactions''
Amsterdam: €395; 'Bring A Friend' €295. Includes free CD set as above
Link

CLIENT GENERATION DURING THE CREDIT CRUNCH (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
May 15th - Manchester
May 29th - London
Jun 26th - London

TWO DAY INTRODUCTION TO RECRUITMENT (two days)
'Induction for new recruits'
May 19/20th - London
Jun 8/9th - Birmingham

Investment £495+VAT
'Bring A Friend' £425+VAT
Link

INTERVIEW SKILLS FOR RECRUITERS (one day)
May 12th - Birmingham
May 20th - London
Jun 3rd - Manchester

Investment £299+VAT
'Bring A Friend' £199+VAT
RMPP rates apply
Link

GAINING EXCLUSIVE VACANCIES (one day)
May 14th - Birmingham
Jun 11th - Manchester

Investment £299+VAT.
'Bring A Friend' £199+VAT
RMPP rates apply
Link

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
'Managing Teams and Motivating People'
May 7th - London
May 21st - Birmingham

Investment £299+VAT
'Bring A Friend' £199+VAT
RMPP rates apply
Link

For more information on these courses and our other services and products, visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, email info@recruitmentmatters.com or call Emma or Ken on 0800 0749289 or, if you're overseas, 0044 1483 755559.

Contact us

Recruitment Matters
2 Oakfield Road
Coventry CV6 1ED
UK
Tel: 0800 0749289
Fax: 01483 761709
Email: info@recruitmentmatters.com

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