Billing team meetings are an under utilised performance improvement strategy in many recruitment companies.

Depending on your start time many consultants and managers rush in, grab a coffee and then start work; often picking up the ‘things’ that didn’t get finished the day before.

Some days that is fine however if it goes on for days and days without a ‘sales get together’ you are missing a huge opportunity to inspire your team to even greater success.

The premise of a meeting like this is to improve performance, specifically sales performance. Whether that is bringing in more placeable candidates to work with your company exclusively, or selling your recruitment service to a high quality client who appreciates what you can deliver.

From your perspective as a billing manager you can get a sense check of what is happening and who is soaring and who is struggling in your team.

Here are the top line answers to questions I am often asked about how to start.

 

How Often

 

 

This will depend on your team its size and the general company culture that you want to create. One manager I know runs a ‘small’ 10 minute meeting every day. It’s upbeat and energetic. His team is small and the culture is ‘family like’ so this works perfectly.

Another organisation meets once a month in a more formal setting, with presentations and reviews. Skills training takes place and individuals will give a 10 minute presentation on recent successes, the director is often there and it’s used as an opportunity to celebrate success.

There are no rules to follow here. It depends on what works for you and your team. If you are adding new consultants into your company, which many of you are, the more frequent the meetings are the better.

Remember Gen Y want to feel included and part of a team and running billing team/sales meetings like this is a great way for them to feel included and involved.

 

What Should We Include

This will come back to your outcome in running the meeting in the first place. The purpose of a meeting like this is to prepare and help your recruiters to make more placements. Period.

In other industries all too often sales meetings turn into boring lectures and include little practical help or motivation strategies and dare I say it…………………….fun. Here is a template that works well.

 

Have an agenda

 

 

Consistency is key. Remember as a billing manager you are a mirror for your team. If they see you demonstrating certain behaviours they will too. If they know the flow of the meeting they can prepare ahead of time.

 

Start on a high

It is a well-known fact that positive energy in itself creates a buzz and an upbeat work environment. Happy people are more productive. No matter how competitive your team are everyone likes to see people doing well. Share the latest successes both big and small.

It’s a great opportunity to include your new starters. Everyone has to start somewhere even if it’s the fact that John or Jane has uncovered a new placeable candidate no one knew about.

Make a fuss about it and then don’t be surprised to see positive successes like this starting to pop all over the team.

 

Fast Start Training

The meeting gives you a great opportunity to challenge and stretch the team with input on a new technique. That might be on a LinkedIn connection strategy or a new way to open up a call with a prospective client. This activity is about ongoing development (remember Gen Y’s love this).

 

Focus of the Day/Week/Month

 

 

Every recruitment company has goals to achieve and these must be communicated along with your vision to the team. What better way to update everyone than at a meeting. It’s not uncommon that at the start of the year the original plan was communicated and then somehow gets put on the back boiler. Keeping people updated on how everything is progressing has a double benefit; it keeps the momentum going by keeping you on your toes and often enables a plan to actually happen.

 

Next Steps?

If you don’t have a regular meeting. Instigate one as soon as possible. Get the team involved. Set an agenda and be consistent. If you think every day is too much don’t do it; build up to that. My suggestion is start with once a week and set a specific time. The earlier ion the week is better so you can ‘feed’ on the momentum it brings.

 

Let me know how you get on.

High performing consultants are the lifeblood of any successful recruitment organisation. The challenge starts when your recruiters underperform. There is a solution and I cover it in-depth in my latest ebook; How to Convert Your under Performers to Consistent Billers in 14 Days or less. You can download it here.

 

 

 

Warm regards

 

Nicky