Over the last few weeks, Katy and I have been delivering multiple programmes under the Centredexcellence brand. From our flagship RockIt programme through to our Great Recruitment Manager Training Programme. 

Interestingly there is a common theme. 

Have you guessed what it is? Enabling consultants to sell more. 

One business owner I spoke to recently closed one of his new companies, let’s call him Sam. Fundamentally he had scaled too quickly brought on board three new consultants (there was only one biller in the team when he did this), and they weren’t selling.  

I appreciate finance and resourcing might have also been at fault in this scenario too. However, if you have BD recruiters on your team that can’t consistently deliver you will have big issues. 

Therefore, what do you need to consider? 

Katy and I have worked with hundreds of staffing and recruitment business owners, and we see a pattern in those that have nailed this all-important part of running a profitable business. Here are the crucial first elements to set up your recruiters for success. 

1. Recruit The Right Recruiters! 

I know obvious and…..It is an amusing topic of conversation when you get a group of recruiters together that we can all deliver amazing candidates for our clients however when it comes to recruiting our own sales people we often fall down. There are many reasons for this including the fact that we don’t make it important, we rush the process, and we don’t explore the detail. 

We recommend our clients use everything at their disposal to attract the ‘right’ talent. In other words people with a ‘BD’ attitude. This means taking time to identify exactly who you want, using a documented process [Note: Not a few beers or a glass of Sav B down the pub] and specific profiling and testing tools. 

This then removes bias and enables the process to be based on data and not emotion. 

2. Induction, Trainingand Development 

I have a favorite quote, it’s; “every day is a school day,” even now both Katy and I invest thousands in our own development and will continue to do so. We live in a constantly evolving world. Therefore, we need to improve constantly. 

If you are not investing in your team to always raise the bar on their skill level, you will have a team of mediocre consultants. 

The sales world is changing. Cold calling is more challenging than ever, alongside a growing recruitment sector that has doubled in the last few years; beware the indie in their back bedroom with no overheads, stealing your business or that big agency who have finally decided to invest in marketing who now appear to be cropping up everywhere. 

Consequently, your consultant team needs to always be one step ahead of the pack and it’s down to you to facilitate this process. 

  

3. What Gets Measured Gets Made

For some reason, KPIs are out of fashion? Yet if any of us don’t know what we need to do to achieve our goals we flail around. It’s the same for your consultants too. We wrote an in-depth article here that might help. If you know your numbers; which we hope you do? It’s easy to measure and predict performance. 

A while ago I wrote a post that has had thousands of views. In it, I laid out the scary data related to how many times people need to be contacted to make a sale and how consultants were poor at follow up. 

Let’s say your inbound marketing brings in 100 warm leads and you know that on average 40% of these convert to clients and jobs on the board; you can then set targets around this that you measure which brings me onto the next point; performance measurement. 

4. Have Performance ReviewsRegularly

It still shocks both of us that some recruitment companies don’t have formal reviews and appraisals…. really? 

Surprisingly most human beings go off track, especially when they aren’t accountable through a review process. As a minimum, your recruitment managers should be checking in with their billing team at least weekly with a minimum of a review every month in a formal setting. We talked about Sam’s issue earlier. If Sam had focused on steps 1 through 4, he would probably have still had his organization intact, because rather then letting the situation continue for over a year it would have been identified and fixed fast. 

If you are looking for a credible recruitment agency, we recommend you to visit https://bettsrecruiting.com/los-angeles-ca/.

 

What Next? 

Simple. Review your current process truthfully. Though you might now realize you have a consultant working with you that isn’t right at least you know. Perhaps you have also identified that you are paying lip service to these vital four steps. It’s common in many companies who are struggling to scale. If you want help get in touch. Check out our RockIt programme here or email us and put the word HELP in the title and one of us will get back to you. 

Warm regards 

Nicky and Katy 

P.S. Have you downloaded have you downloaded our new report to help your consultants convert more clients? You can download it here.