11. Accept as many invitations as possible. You never know who is going to be at the event.
12. Dismiss unprofitable clients to create time to go hunting for clients who will appreciate you.
13. Try to obtain the guest lists before you attend events. If that isn’t practical, when possible, ask for a list on arrival. That way you can aim to meet specific people.
14. Set goals when attending each event “I’m going to speak to six new people” or “I’m going to obtain three business cards and follow up” are two examples of setting goals.
15. Give first and receive second should be the attitude when you start networking. If you only think “what’s in it for me?” you are likely to become unpopular. Think more, “what’s in it for you?”
16. Understand networking is the platform for creating an opportunity to sell at a later stage. Don’t sell your company or its services when networking. At these early stages all you should do is start to get to know and like people and vice versa.
17. Sell only yourself! People buy people before buying services. You do this by spending more time being interested rather than interesting.
18. Think. In the end, all business is channelled through personal relationships. There is no such thing as ‘business’. After all what is business? It is just a bunch of people.
19. Practise, practise, practise. Like everything new in life you will only become comfortable and proficient when you take yourself out of your comfort zone. Networking at first may take you into the discomfort zone!
20. Be patient in the networking arena. Generally, what you give comes back, but you will
have to wait.
Will Kintish and his team show people how to attract more business and clients by helping them become more confident and effective business networkers. For more information, email willk@kintish.co.uk, visit www.kintish.co.uk or call 0161 773 3727.
Spend more on marketing
Three quarters of recruitment agencies believe attracting the right candidates is the biggest challenge they face over the next 12 months but more than half are not spending enough on advertising, according to new research by specialist recruitment finance provider, Bibby Financial Services.
However, despite acknowledging the importance of finding skilled employees for their clients, 51% spent less than 10% of their annual expenditure on candidate advertising, perhaps due to nearly two-thirds (63%) believing there is a lack of quality employees available in the marketplace to respond to their efforts in the first place.
IT was thought to be the hardest sector to recruit quality candidates for, followed closely by professional and financial services. And when it comes to the candidates that are available, 60% of agencies said the biggest factor putting them off was people arriving late for interview, while over half (55%) were fed up with people lying about their experience and over a third (39%) were not impressed by poor personal appearance.
Edward Rimmer, UK chief executive for Bibby Financial Services, said: "The outlook for the recruitment industry over the next 12 months remains tough as it struggles to meet clients' needs due to the limited number of quality candidates available in the workforce. However, with this in mind, recruitment agencies need to scale up their marketing activities to widen the candidate pool available to them, not hold back on vital expenditure. If finance is the issue, there are specialist funding solutions available to the recruitment sector."
Editorial Note. Clearly advertising is not the only solution – it’s only part of the mix. When candidate availability is tight, head-hunting techniques increasingly come into their own…
Recruiters' Guide to handling researchers
Contributor: David Steel, Exacta Research
Step Six – The Approach Report.
Following on from my last guide around understanding Identification Reports, the next document to focus on is the Approach Report. A key piece of information, the Approach Report shows the client what has happened when each candidate identified on the Identification Report as a potential target has been contacted about the opportunity.
Each target is entered in to an Excel spreadsheet report, along with the business they work for, the contact telephone number, the approach date, whether they were interested or not, if we received a profile and/or CV and any comments we feel worth flagging up having approached them.
The colour scheme is simple – candidates’ name blocks are highlighted red for not interested, blue for interested. During the approach stage of an assignment, different colours are employed to let the client know different things at different times. These are as follows:
Yellow – this indicates that the approach has been made, and the candidate would either like to think about the opportunity before making a decision on whether to pursue or not or has expressed interest in talking further but cannot be spoken to at greater length until later in the week.
Green – the Consultant has left a message, either on voicemail or with one of the target’s colleagues, for the target to call him/her back.
Purple – the target is not in the office that day or on annual leave. Usually the Consultant ascertains the date that the target will be back and makes a note of it in the ‘comments’ section.
The ‘comments’ section is generally used to record the story of the approach relating to each particular target, and a good place to store email addresses, mobile/home phone numbers and comments relating to any discussions a Consultant will have with a target. This is an important section for clients – they can read why a particular target wasn’t interested in their opportunity, which often can be just as important as to why a target is interested, especially if an assignment isn’t going according to plan or initial expectation.
A completed Approach Report is really the ‘maths’ that backs up a Consultant’s feedback and results on an assignment. If a report has six candidate names in blue, then our client should have six candidate profiles or CVs.
A dedicated Consultant will chase down every single yellow, green and purple on the report until it’s completely red or blue, regardless if that’s outside of the agreed billed time.
And of course, the more blue on the report, the more successful the assignment outcome!
As recruitment activity winds down for another year (where has it gone?!), may I take this opportunity to wish everyone who has read my articles to date a very merry Christmas and a successful 2008. Please go easy on those turkey sandwiches, chocolates and mulled wine!
David Steel is Research Director 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 hannah@exactaresearch.co.uk, visit www.exactaresearch.co.uk or call 08000 856 618.
Have a personal business plan
“ If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else” Sir Laurence J Peter.
Develop a long term, a medium term and a short term business plan. Alongside it, work out your own personal business plan too. And treat it like a business. Because working them in tandem will ensure that both the goals are hit and both your business and personal life prosper too. Work backwards when doing this. Say you want to be earning £100,000 a year in 3 years time, then that’s your long term goal - what does that translate to in terms of fees, placements, numbers, margins, etc.? What is achievable in the medium term and what do you have to do NOW to be in a position to achieve that figure in three years time?
Warren Kemp is principal 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 or email warren@recruitmentmatters.com.
Resistance is futile
Contributor: Neil Kirby
Mark Forster in his book “Get Everything Done And Still Have Time To Play”, points out that we often find things to do to avoid doing something that we are resisting. Maybe it’s making a phone call, visiting a particular customer, taking up an issue with a colleague…Instead we find other things to do. The more we avoid the thing we are resisting, the harder it becomes.
Ask yourself, what are you avoiding, what are you resisting?
Write it down. Now you are aware of it. What’s stopping you from dealing with it? Now write down what you need to do to deal with it. Go ahead, just do it!
If you have any questions or comments on this article or issues you face, please contact me (in confidence) on 01707 395850 or email me at neil@neilkirby.co.uk. There’s no obligation.
Neil Kirby is a life coach and a leading practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Loose change
It takes a beggar a lot of loose change from the passing public to get enough money for a hostel for the night. They do it every day of the week and they almost always get their bed. If circumstances were different, the best ones might just make good recruiters - because they sure as hell have persistence within their nature.
Go on, ask for loose change. How many 10p’s in the pound? How many calls until you get a “yes?” If you get some loose change from every call, and by that I mean some snippet of information - when you add them all up, you will probably have enough that is meaningful. 10 calls to candidates with loose change from each one must help create a fuller, clearer picture of your market. Phone a potential client enough times and get loose change each time and you will be a lot nearer getting the opportunity to help them.
Matt Wilson is a consultant with Recruitment Matters with a current focus on our Two Day Induction, Telephone Skills and Interview Skills courses. 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
Well, I don’t know about you but we’re almost ready for a break – just one more week to go…
You will have gathered by now that we’ve taken the decision to launch a newly updated version of previous best-selling course, the legendary ‘Recruiting In A Tough Market!’ Do you remember the tough times in 2001-2002? Well, Warren certainly does and is looking forward delivering this half day course next year. See the schedule below for the first dates.
We’ve had a record year in 2007. It has been particularly memorable for many reasons including the significant expansion in our training course portfolio; the contribution of our new trainer, Matt Wilson; the launch of two new books; the introduction of our new frog logo; the making of lots of new friends and clients; not forgetting, of course, the pain (for all of us here) of Warren’s broken ankle in his ice skating drama! What will 2008 have in store for all of us, we wonder??
For more information on Recruitment Matters, our training courses, services and products visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, telephone 0800 0749289 (0044 1438 755559 if you’re overseas) or email ken@recruitmentmatters.com.
RECRUITMENT MATTERS: January 2007 – March 2008 Open Training Schedule
RECRUITING IN A TOUGH MARKET (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Running Time: 9.30am - 1.00pm
Feb 8th – London
Mar 14th – Manchester
Investment £99+VAT
NOTE. Includes your choice of a free copy of one of Warren’s books, ‘Recruiting In A Tough Market,’ ‘Don’t Become A Frog! 250 Tips For Busy Recruiters’ or ’25 Ways (And More) To Grow Your Business.’
Link
SUCCESSFUL HEAD-HUNTING
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Jan 16th – London
Jan 17th – Birmingham
Jan 29th – Bristol
Feb 15th – London
Feb 20th – Manchester
Feb 21st – Sheffield
Mar 5th – London
Mar 11th – Belfast
Mar 19th – Birmingham
Investment £325+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £225+VAT
Link
HEAD-HUNTING FOR RESEARCHERS AND RESOURCERS
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Jan 15th – London
Jan 29th – Birmingham
Feb 7th – Leeds
Feb 20th – London
Mar 12th – Birmingham
Mar 20th – London
Mar 25th – Liverpool
Investment £295+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £225+VAT
Link
TWO DAY INTRODUCTION TO RECRUITMENT
‘Induction for new recruits’
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Jan 22/23rd – London
Feb 5/6th – Manchester
Feb 12/13th – Birmingham
Mar 4/5th – London
Investment £495+VAT
Link
INTERVIEW SKILLS FOR RECRUITERS
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Feb 19th – London
Mar 11th – Manchester
Mar 19th - Birmingham
Investment £245+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £195+VAT
Link
WINNING NEW BUSINESS
‘Telephone Skills For Recruiters’
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Jan 9th – Birmingham
Jan 17th – London
Mar 18th – London
Investment £245+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £195+VAT
Link
WINNING RETAINED ASSIGNMENTS (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP (2007)/MATT WILSON (2008)
Running Time: 9.30am – 1.00pm
Jan 16th – Manchester
Jan 30th – Birmingham
Feb 21st – London
Mar 26th – Birmingham
Investment £149+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £129+VAT
Link
BUILDING & RUNNING AN EFFECTIVE SEARCH DESK (two days)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Jan 23/24th – London
Feb 12/13th – Birmingham
Investment £595+VAT
Link
MANAGING TEAMS AND MENTORING PEOPLE (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Running Time: 9.30am – 1.00pm
Mar 25th – London
Mar 26th - Birmingham
Investment £149+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £129+VAT
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 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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