However good a recruiter you are, there will be many times throughout your career that a vacancy you are working on will be filled by another, rival consultant. This, of course, is part and parcel of recruitment, and you just move on, ready to fight another day surely? Well yes, but its best not to be so hasty. There is more to learn from the vacancies you lose than the ones you are successful with, so here are our 5 things to do if you’ve just lost out on filling that placement…..

Don’t beat yourself up.

Like we just said, losing a vacancy is part and parcel of recruitment. Whether they’re a new client or a client that you thought you had exclusivity with, there is no point getting down and dwelling on the failure, you need to do something proactive. This is where the next step comes in….

There’s no such thing as failure… only feedback

Get feedback from as many places as you can. Talk to your candidates and talk to your manager, their feedback is going to be crucial. First step though should be the hiring manager. Ask them for feedback.

– Why were your candidates not successful?

– Was your service up to scratch?

– What was it in the other consultant’s candidate that made them stand out?

Then, most importantly, ask the hiring manager the name of the successful candidate. Think they won’t tell you? Have you ever asked?

Finding out who was the successful candidate sets you apart from the competition. You’ll be surprised at how many hiring managers will tell you the name of the successful candidate, why wouldn’t they? If not, you’re a resourceful recruitment consultant, find it out! You can start to uncover some really valuable information about why you lost the vacancy.

Take a look at the person’s CV (you’re bound to find it on a job site) or their Linkedin profile. Compare it to the candidate you put forward. Whether it is experience, qualifications or something else, you should now begin to have a clearer idea of why this person got the job over your candidate. If it’s a company that recruit a lot of this type of particular role, you now have something more important… a benchmark to assess other candidates against when more vacancies arise.

Go back to the hiring manager

Don’t ever run scared, be embarrassed or feel like you’ve been muscled out by another agency. Go back and try to get a meeting with the company’s hiring manager. You may have lost out on that vacancy, but you can spin this entire scenario around. How? You can explain…..

– How you have learnt from the experience AND have been proactive in taking your understanding of their company and requirements forward

– How you now have a benchmark of EXACTLY what they require

– How you are a consultant that isn’t just about filling vacancies, you want to understand your client and provide solutions and this is what you are starting to do now

– How this makes you different from other consultants

Your proactive and feedback led approach will impress the manager, and you never know, they may even give you exclusivity on future vacancies. If not, you’ll certainly be in a stronger position to place candidates and you should eventually reap the rewards.

Backfill

Did you spot the opportunity we failed to mention in this piece? It’s to do with who the successful candidate is. They’ve got a new job, so what does that mean? They’ve just left somewhere, which means a vacancy! You know who they are now you might even have access to a copy of their CV or their Linkedin profile so get in touch with the company. You have a pile of candidates from the previous role who could be a perfect fit for this, so get onto it!

To be a successful recruitment consultant, you have to look for the positives and opportunities in everything. It’s not nice losing out on vacancies, but if you can spin them round to bring out the positives, you will always win in the long run.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Recruitment is a constantly changing business. It’s fast paced and if you want to stay in front of your competitors, you have to be ruthless. Not in the way you are perhaps thinking though. Be ruthless with yourself. Sometimes you have to confront some uncomfortable situations and take the leap of faith to change them. Recruiters have to have many facets, and being fearless is one of them. Take a look at our three things that you should stop doing right now. If you do you will see the rewards on the other side.

Stop working on vacancies other agencies are working on

You’ve got to start focusing on what is important, where success lies and what is most profitable. Working on vacancies that other agencies are also working on is ultimately a bad idea. Yes, there may have been times you’ve been successful in securing a candidate for the client in question, but realistically, the odds are against you. When several agencies are involved, all fishing for candidates in the same pond, it’s not real recruiting; it’s more like fastest finger first!

Don’t get drawn into thinking that by stopping work on such vacancies is a sign of weakness versus your competitiveness. Far from it. Spend your time more productively on getting exclusive clients, where the odds are stacked in YOUR favour, whilst your competitors all spend their time fighting over each other’s scraps.

Stop working with low paying clients

This can be a real leap of faith, but one that will be guaranteed to pay dividends. We all know that your lowest paying clients are not only paying you a pretty poor fee for what you are doing for them, but they are demanding, quite often rude and more often than not bad payers; have you ever waited months to get your fee? Thought so.

Calculate how many hours you are spending working on your low paying clients. Work this out with what they pay you and you’ll soon see your hourly rate is pretty poor! Imagine if you could dedicate that time to clients that pay a good fee and aren’t demanding and pay on invoice. You know what you need to do now.

Stop interviewing people ‘just in case’

There’s a habit that some recruiters get into of interviewing candidates ‘just in case’. They may not have a suitable vacancy, or not even one on the horizon, but they’ll interview them ‘just in case’. Think of all the ‘just in case’ interviews you’ve done during the last 12 months. How many did you place? Not very many. This is because recruitment is fast-moving. If you haven’t got a vacancy for someone, they’ll most probably be in another role by the time you do get one, with your interview then being a waste of time. Focus on interviewing people for roles you have and those you have coming up. You’ll find yourself with more time to concentrate on other things that really impact your results; like business development.

Being ruthless and stopping these three things will stop you running around like a headless chicken letting  you work with a better type of client.

Till next time,

Cheryl

We’ve all been there. You’re chasing a vacancy and you’ve built up a really good relationship with the recruiting manager. You’ve talked to them over the telephone; you’ve visited them in person. You’ve made the effort to understand their business, their needs and what they need from a candidate. You’ve dealt with them in an open, honest and trustworthy way, and you’ve got a real connection with them. Everything is looking good for getting the vacancy and then comes the final issue: the fee.

You’ve come this far and you don’t want to lose the vacancy. So when it’s time to discuss your fee they’ve made it clear that they want it as cheap as possible.

You don’t give them the full fee, or even a slight discount. No, you slash your fee really low in attempt to get the vacancy. You’ve just made a big mistake…

Heavy discounting sets a bad precedent

The best recruiters know that being a top biller is all about relationships. Every new client should be thought of as the first step in a very fruitful and profitable journey. Giving them a heavy discount just to get their business means that they are going to want that fee forever more.

Clients who want heavy discounts expect far more than they’re paying for

Any recruiter who has been in the industry for even a short amount of time knows that there are clients out there that can be more trouble than they’re worth. Does this ring a bell?

The one thing that many of these clients have in common will be that they will have negotiated a low fee. It happens in all industries. Some people see reduction in fees as a sign of weakness and will attempt to exploit this fact.

A heavy discount can lead to resentment

The strange thing is that, you can often find yourself giving your poorest paying clients far more attention than you’re able to give the really good, profitable clients. This can cause some resentment, mainly from you towards the demanding client! Don’t forget as well that it can be a small world, and if your clients ever talk to each other and there’s a huge disparity of fees, then there could be trouble on the horizon…

Discounting can lose you clients

Imagine if you were buying a second hand car. Having completed your research, you’re aware of the standard of car you’ll be able to afford for your money. Then you see a car; let’s say it’s a Mercedes, for an unbelievable price, 75% cheaper than it should be. Would you buy it? You wouldn’t would you?

There must be something wrong with it; nothing is discounted that much without a catch. The same goes for business. You’ll add doubt into a client’s mind if you start acting desperate and slashing your fees. Stand your ground with your fee and you’ll win more clients than you lose.

We’re not saying that your fee should always be rigid and that you shouldn’t give some clients a discount. But don’t roll over before you’ve even quoted your full fee. Anybody can get vacancies by offering rock bottom prices. They’ll work for little or no reward though. If you’re a good recruiter, you should be proud of your fees. They’re set at that rate for a reason, and if you stick to them (or as near as you can), you’ll win more and better clients and reap the rewards financially.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Success as a recruiter depends on many things. Tenacity, talent, an unquenchable work ethic and a little bit of luck. But underpinning all of these is one thing. Organisation. How effectively we organise ourselves as recruiters is crucial.

Poor organisation results in lots of wasted time; time that could be spent bringing on new clients, or finding star candidates; both of which ultimately bringing money into the business.

A lack of organisational skills may have been an excuse at one time. But now, with the advent of new technology, much of it free (or cheap) to use, it’s easy to get yourself organised. Here are five apps that can seriously enhance your productivity.

Trello

Trello is a fantastically simple, yet immensely effective project management app. Free to use; it is essentially an online whiteboard that everyone in your organisation can collaborate on. You can have separate boards for different projects and multiple cards on each board to track everything that is going on with the project. An app that is available on both Android and IOS, it has to be experienced to see just how simple to use and effective it can be. An app every recruitment agency should at least try.

Available on: IOS, Android, Mac and PC

More information: www.trello.com

Evernote

Evernote is an online notebook that enables you to note down absolutely anything whenever and wherever you are, from your phone, app or computer. Manage and store handwritten notes articles from the web and photos, it’s an immensely powerful tool. Bringing your life and work together into one digital workspace, whether it’s a new idea you’ve thought of at 5am in the morning, or you need to jot down a new a list of potential clients you’ve thought of whilst travelling on the train, then Evernote is the app for you. Simple, easy and intuitive to use, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without it.

Available on Android, IOS, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Mac and PC

More information: www.evernote.com

Expensify

Sorting out your expenses each and every month can be a real bind. With a pocketful of receipts to go through, your time could be spent much more productively. This is where Expensify comes in. An extremely simple app to use, it gets the job done swiftly without costing you a penny. Simply take a picture of your receipt and Expensify quickly analyses it, extracts the relevant details and puts them (with an image of the receipt) into your records. Other handy features include tracking and logging your mileage using your phones GPS system. An essential tool that you will genuinely wonder how you managed without. Download it now!

Available on: Android, Windows Mobile, PC, Blackberry, IOS and Mac

More information: www.expensify.com

Using productivity apps such as these not only makes you more effective as a recruiter, but they can also give you something of great value: time. And you can never, ever have enough of that.

Till next time,

Cheryl

For most people, it is a natural human instinct to want to believe people, to trust what they say. However, as every recruiter knows through bitter experience, candidates will inevitably not tell the truth from time-to-time. They may be white lies, they may be great big whoppers, but you need to protect yourself as a consultant from being damaged if one of these untruths is ever discovered. It could be disastrous for your reputation; if you’re recruiting in a specialized or niche area, one that could be difficult to recover from.

It’s important therefore that you never take clients at face value. It is your responsibility to check everything that they say on their CV and in their interview with you. Your client will pay you a good fee for placing the right candidate, this thoroughness of fact-checking is the least they deserve, and will make you a valuable asset to them. Here we take a look at some common issues recruitment consultant s come across…

Dates of employment

Quite often candidates will be quite vague with employment dates. Have you ever seen a CV with an entry like this?

Company: ACME Ltd

Position: Sales Manager

Dates: 2010 – 2013

Can you see what’s wrong? The dates. They are so vague. In theory, they could have worked there for a whole four years, or just over two years. This could be laziness, a lie, a deliberate attempt to cover a gap in their employment or simply lack of experience in writing a good CV. It needs clarifying though, because you’re not going to come across as thorough when your client queries it. Imagine if it later emerged they were covering up a stretch at Her Majesty’s Pleasure…!!!

Current salary

It’s perhaps understandable that some people will slightly inflate their current salary in the hope of securing a better wage in their next job. However, if you’re recruiting sales staff for example, it’s vital that you have documented evidence of their earnings. This is because a salesperson’s earnings directly correlates to their success. How many people do you ask to prove their earnings? It’s amazing how many people will try to fudge the question, which should start alarm bells ringing….

Reasons for leaving

This is a vital question that should be asked of each role the candidate has had. You as a recruiter should be completely happy with each and every reason they give, and any uncertainness or lack of clarity should be thoroughly investigated. It’s also important to know the difference between reasons for leaving a job, and reasons for joining another. Quite often, candidates will quote the latter ‘The role was perfect for me because it was more money, and offered me more in terms of career development…’ However this says nothing about why they left the last company. Were they bored, did they relocate or were they sacked…?

There are many more fudged facts that recruiters will come across every day. It is up to you to question everything, and get proof if you can. The more thorough you can be the better service you will be giving your client.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Recruitment can often be quite ‘old school’. ‘Get on the phones and get some business!’ Is the cry that can be heard on sales floors across the UK. Quite right too, there’s no better way of bringing in business than the good old telephone.

However, as we live in the digital age, it’s important to use the tools available to us to maximise our effectiveness as recruiters. There are a heap of specialist recruitment software providers who promise to revolutionise your business and make you a better recruiter. Maybe so, but thanks to Google, there are some fantastic tools that are available free of charge that can give you a real edge over your competitors.

Google’s Keyword Planner

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Sign up for a Google Adwords account (it’s free) and you get access to Google’s keyword planner. This is where you can look at the raw data of what people are searching for in Google, as it gives you the average number of searches per month for whatever word or phrase you enter. This, used correctly, can give you a fantastic insight as to what people are searching for in your chosen industry and in your locality, as you can drill down the info into more specific parameters. Have a play around with it and you could well find some enlightening information.

Details of how to use the keyword planner can be found here: http://searchengineland.com/how-to-use-the-keyword-planner-the-new-keyword-tool-from-google-adwords-157123

Google Alerts

https://www.google.co.uk/alerts

Get yourself a free Gmail account and you have access to one of the most powerful tools in recruitment, the Google Alert. This lets you ask Google to notify you as soon as a certain phrase is published on the internet. So, for example, let’s say you recruit in the engineering sector. You could set up an alert for ‘new engineering company’, which will alert you by email every time this phrase is published. This could let you know about a new engineering company that is being set up far earlier than your competitors. It’s worth having a play around with this and experimenting with different phrases and parameters. Once it’s up and running, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

Google Trends

https://www.google.com/trends/

This is a valuable tool that can give you enlightening insights into what is happening in your industry, what is likely to happen, and where you should be targeting. Google Trends gives you a graph that shows how popular the search term you entered has been over the past few years. From this, you can see whether there is an upward trend, or a downward trend. If, for example you recruit computer programmers, you might want to compare languages to see which are becoming more or less popular.

So, you may find ‘Visual Basic’ is a language that is declining, whereas ‘jquery’ is a programming environment that is becoming more popular. You would then obviously know that you should be targeting ‘jquery’ candidates more, as they should in theory be easier to place due to an expanding market.

Whilst the fundamental skills of recruitment are important, it is vital that you keep pace with technology and use it to your best advantage. Set aside an hour a week to explore what is happening technology wise in the recruitment sector. Tools like those above, not only make you a more effective recruiter, they can save you time by helping you target, which means you can spend more time doing the really important tasks, like bringing new business in.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Networking is a fundamental part of modern business; especially in recruitment. However, there is a lack of training and resources available in comparison to things such as cold calling, social media skills and other types of business training. Perhaps it’s because people believe that to network is simply about turning up at an event and talking to a few people over a nice lunch. It can be, but that’s not effective networking. Below, we take a look at how to network effectively, and how it can benefit you as a recruiter.

The 3 Step Plan to Networking Success

1.  Prepare

– Before you even set foot into a networking event, it is vital that you do your preparation. Who is the organiser, why are they organising it? What is the attraction for delegates to attend?
 
– Get a list of who’s due to attend if you can. Do your research and pick out who you want to target. Time is limited at networking events, so you don’t want to miss talking to an important potential client.
 
– Use LinkedIn and Google image search to see if you can find out what your targets look like. Networking events are busy and if you know what someone looks like, it makes things so much easier.
 
– Set objectives – You need to set some desired outcomes to measure how effective your networking was.

2. Network

– Smile and be friendly. It’s amazing how many people look grumpy at networking events. Friendly people are far easier to talk to.
 
– Have a thick skin: ‘I’m in recruitment’ is a phrase that will make many people’s eyes glaze over and want to get away from you as quick as possible. It’s nothing personal; it’s just that people will think they’re going to get a sales pitch.
 
– The golden rule of networking is that it is about other people and helping them. The more interested you are in other people, the more interested they will be in you. Being ‘salesy’ and randomly handing business cards out is a big no-no.
 
– Make sure you have plenty of business cards, a diary and/or notepad and a pen. When you get given other people’s cards, write on the back where and when you met them, and anything else that may be relevant. That sort of information could come in very handy one day.

3. Follow-up

This is a crucial aspect of networking, and the one thing that the vast majority of people don’t do. Pop a quick email across to everyone you met within 48 hours of the networking event. It’s polite, and it marks you out as different from the other people they met, and can open a dialogue that could result in either direct business, or a lead for business elsewhere.

 Taking networking seriously is crucial if you want to both develop your desk and develop as a recruiter. Recruitment is a people business, and it may sound old fashioned and corny, but if you speak to enough of the right people, you’ll find the doors of opportunity opening all over the place.

Do you have any networking tips? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below…

Till next time,

Cheryl

The rewards available for successful recruiters mean that it’s one of the most popular and sought after careers. If you’re looking for your next role in recruitment, you are going to be up against some serious competition. For this reason, it’s vital to have a plan of action. Focus on the 4 Cs, and you’ll find that your dream job is within your grasp.

Contacts

If you’re an experienced recruiter, your contacts alone should be enough to get an interview. Your contacts are a valuable resource, so ensure that they are not just names, phone numbers and email addresses. If that’s all you have, what’s to stop an unscrupulous company taking you on, exploiting your contacts and then getting rid of you? Stop thinking contacts and start thinking relationships. Talk to them. Interact with them. Help them out. Do this and they’ll become associates, even friends. You’ve no longer got contacts, but a powerful, desirable and effective network.

Credibility

Are you a credible candidate for your next recruitment role? In many ways, your credibility is the sum of all the other criteria mentioned in this article. But it’s more than that. Do you come across as someone who really wants this job, and relishes the challenges involved? Do you look like someone who would fit into this role? Are you smart, articulate and dynamic? Ultimately, are you someone this company can trust 100% and put their faith in to drive their business forward? If you’re not portraying credibility in the application and interview process, then you will not be successful.

Competence

Are you a competent recruitment consultant? You may look the part, act the part and talk the talk, but can you actually do the fundamentals? The basic skills in recruitment are the most important. Can you plan your day effectively? Can you execute good business development calls? Can you juggle everything that a busy recruitment desk can throw at you and still provide unbeatable client and candidate care? However good a recruiter you are, there will inevitably be times when you will be up against it. It is in these testing times that a good grounding in the basics is key to survival.

Communication

Recruitment is about people, and communication is one of the fundamental skills you need. Whether it’s talking to potential clients, candidates or business associates or drafting job adverts, crisp, clear and compelling communication is key. Failure to get the important messages across in a job application or interview is an indication that you’re probably not going to be an effective communicator in the role. If you really want to give yourself the best chance, don’t just focus on written and verbal communication. Your body language portrays so much more. Focus on coming across more confident and dynamic and you will reap the rewards.

Focussing on the 4 Cs will not only make it easier for you to land that dream job, but you will also find yourself developing into not just a better recruitment consultant, but an all-round better business professional.

Till next time,

Cheryl

There’s a common career path in recruitment. Whether an apprentice, graduate or career-changer, new staff often start out as resourcers. The resourcers role is varied including candidate sourcing, interviewing, candidate management, CRM database maintenance and general administration and QA compliance.

As any recruitment consultant knows, they are only as good as the candidates they can supply. Resourcing is a professional, highly skilled job, and should be seen as a career in itself, and not automatically as a stepping stone to becoming a recruitment consultant. Changing this perception can transform your company, making it much more effective and better placed to take on and overcome its competition. Here are our three reasons why your resourcers are crucial to your recruiting team, and should be treated as such.

They’re not reliant on commission

Some resourcers may be on a small percentage of successful placements, but by and large, they are not largely reliant on commission as recruitment consultants are. There can be times where even the most experienced consultant can get excited when a high paying placement is about to be made, and their judgement can be clouded by the money that they’re going to make. Resourcers can often provide a clear, unbiased view and prevent mistakes being made.

They’re better than your candidate management system

Your resourcer is probably in charge of your candidate management system, but in the fast paced world of recruitment, your resourcer will probably be able to come up with a quick list of suitable candidates off the top of their head. Good, long-term resourcers have an encyclopaedic knowledge of their candidates, and when that difficult to fill job comes in, they should be your first point of call. This experience can be crucial. If the resourcers role is filled by a succession of would-be consultants, you lose this valuable resource.

They let consultants get on with what they are best at

In some companies, there is far too much crossover between the roles of consultant and resourcer. If there is not a settled, experienced and trusted resourcer in place, you can often find that a lack of trust between consultant and resourcer can develop.

As we said earlier, consultants are as good as their candidates, and if they don’t have a deep trust for the resourcer, can end up refusing to utilise them. This in turn places extra pressure on the consultant and takes them away from what they do best.

A good resourcer can be the foundation of a successful recruitment consultancy, and someone who each and every consultant can rely on.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Recruitment is a tough business, and it’s not just important to get results, it’s vital that you continually get results- time and time again. Too often big billers can suddenly go off the boil, lose their way and struggle to bill a quarter of what they were once doing. This can be down to several factors, but the main one is that they failed to realise the importance of continually developing; not just as a recruiter, but as a business professional too.

Your company may or may not have an ongoing programme of CPD (continuing professional development), but even if it does, self-development is the real key to success. Here we take a look at four books that every recruiter should own and read. From specialist recruitment books to general books about business, sales and psychology, each one will take you further along the road to becoming the best recruiter you can be.

Steven M. Finkel – Breakthrough! – How to Explode the Production of Experienced Consultants

This is one book that should always be at a recruiter’s side. Steven Finkel is an American Recruitment Consultant who understands the recruitment business like no other. It’s full of fantastic advice and tips that genuinely work. Taking each stage and process in recruitment, Finkel breaks them down and explores what you need to do to maximise your success. Recruitment can be a fast paced and complex process, but Finkel manages to simplify the core techniques that you need to succeed in one of the most competitive business environments.

Tony Buzan – Buzan’s Study Skills: Mind Maps, Memory Techniques, Speed Reading and More!

This is a book that can teach you practical skills that will give you the edge over the competition. Buzan teaches effective ways to improve your memory, read faster, and use your brain more efficiently and effectively. His Mind Map technique is particularly useful in recruitment. Being such a fast paced environment, it offers a way to practically deal with what can often be ‘information overload’.

Robert B. Cialdini – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Recruitment is fundamentally about selling, and this book is one of the most important books ever written on the subject. Written over thirty years ago, it’s testament to its insight that it is still a bestseller. With a variety of experiences, true stories and practical tips, this book will make you more persuasive, a better salesperson and a more effective recruitment consultant.

Damian Hughes – Liquid Thinking

A recent publication, Damian Hughes, Professor of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University is one of the UK’s most in demand speakers on motivation and leadership. If you’re looking for some inspiration, in this book Hughes looks at the methods and techniques used by successful people and break them down so you can incorporate them into your own life. A great one to have on the desk when you’re up against it!

Even if things are going well, it’s important to continually develop because you can guarantee that your competitors are! Take the time to read these books, you won’t regret it.

What’s your favourite personal development book? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below…

Till next time,

Cheryl