Most recruitment companies have them – middle or lower tier consultants that just don’t seem to perform like they should. These are consultants that have been in your business for at least 6 months or more. Sometimes they have a great billing month and sometimes not. It’s a bit hit and miss. Often they work really hard but just don’t get the results.
How, as a manager, can you turn that around? Here are five simple tools that you can use to help get mid-tier coasters billing quickly:
Don’t Do Any More Business Development Until You READ THIS First!
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Tool 1 – Create a Purpose for Them To Change
As a manager you can try influence consultants to change, but ultimately they have to be personally motivated to make the change. The thing about change is that its complex. It requires people to move outside of their comfort zones. This is scary for most people, so how can you overcome this?
Create a purpose for the change. Help the consultant find a reason why THEY need to change. Remind them that if they keep doing the same things they’ve always done they are unlikely to get better results. Your job as a manager is to help them have a clear idea of where they are heading, why they want to get or achieve that and then a plan and understanding of HOW To get there.
Tool 2 – Create a Non-negotiable
Some consultants may say that they are happy where they are, even though they’re not getting the results that they and you want. You need to let them know that it is time for them to step up. They need to start stepping outside of their comfort zone, and to do that they need to make a change in what they are doing. You can be there to help coach and guide them, but they need to understand that they need to start performing and hold themselves accountable to moving forwards.
Don’t Do Any More Business Development Until You READ THIS First!
Free Client Converter Tool and Tips… How To Get Your Consultants Converting More Sales Without Doing Any More Cold Calling…
Tool 3 – Create a Compelling Vision
If a consultant is uninspired by the vision for their future, they’re unlikely to put in much effort to change. Because why bother if there’s not a really good reason why you should make the change? If you’re happy where you are , you may as well stay there…
At the opposite end of the scale if the vision is too rigid or specific, it doesn’t provide enough room to develop an action plan.
Start off by working with your consultant to develop a ‘fuzzy’ vision. This is not the same as specific goals that form part of the action plan. The fuzzy vision relates to where the consultant will be once they’ve attained their goal and how they’ll feel at that point. It really doesn’t need to be specific. Walt Disney described his vision as “What I see way off is too nebulous to describe – but it looks big and glittering.” That’s a vision that created magic. This is the type of vision that you want your consultants to be thinking of. So for example, a really nice house, great holidays, enough money to feel financial stability and freedom. The ability to chose what I want to do.
Tool 4 – Develop Skills and Knowledge
A consultant may have both the desire and vision to change, but without the right skills and knowledge they won’t know how to do it. As a manager it is your job to train and develop the consultants so that they have what they need in order to implement change. They may already be aware of areas where their skills are lacking. Training them in those areas can help them gain confidence to start performing better.
Tool 5 – Create Continuous Action That’s Reviewed and Monitored
Change requires continuous and deliberate actions if it is to be effective. Change doesn’t just happen by making a decision or creating a vision. It doesn’t even happen just by learning new skills. A consultant needs to take actions every day, even if they feel as though they are hitting a wall. Marianne Williamson said: “You can’t think yourself into a different way of acting, but you can act yourself into a different way of thinking.” In other words, when a consultant is struggling with confidence to cold call, remind them to take one step at a time. Pick up the phone, dial the number, introduce yourself. Help them create deliberate continuous actions so that change becomes effective and helps them start billing. You can do this by then following up with them and reviewing what’s working and what’s not working… and then simply resetting the plan…
If you want to learn how to set up your business, so that it stops under-performance once and for all, then join my free webinar: The 5 Secrets Our Clients Use to Build 7 & 8 Figure Recruitment Businesses
‘Til next time,
