Cold calling is the subject of a multitude of books, seminars and courses, but the basics are very simple. Ultimately, cold calling is talking to people, something each and every one of us does every day.

Successful recruiters don’t use any complicated sales techniques;  they talk to their prospects, they ask questions and they bring in new business.

You are never going to convert every prospect into a client, but by using our simple three point checklist below, it will set you on your way to success in the recruitment sector.

Identify what outcome you would like from each call

Ideally, at the start of each day, you should have a call plan ready for that day’s business development calls. Putting together a list of targeted prospects, along with the desired outcomes is a great way to structure your business development activity for that day.

As a recruiter, ultimately you are searching for businesses to give you vacancies to fill, but you will be at different stages in the sales process with different companies, and your desired outcomes will reflect that.

With some companies you may be wishing to close the deal, but at others it may simply be a case of finding out who you need to speak to. Aiming for a specific outcome from each call gives your call structure, and will help you achieve even better outcomes.

Be flexible

Many recruiters, when faced with a prospect where they cannot get to speak to the person named on their data as ‘decision maker’ simply move on to the next company. Whilst never getting ‘bogged down’ is a good idea, have you considered talking to other people in the company?

You will find that recruitment is rarely the sole decision of one person in a larger company. The MD, relevant directors and HR are all suitable targets to talk to if you are getting nowhere with your own contact.

Success in recruitment boils down to talking to people. The more relevant people you speak to within an organisation, the better.

Continually review

As with any business activity, be it marketing, advertising or sales, always continually review and change your tactics according to what works and what doesn’t.

Look at what type of companies you tend to have more success with. Can you identify why? Is it a particularly buoyant segment of the market they operate in, or could it be you having more knowledge of this sector?

Identifying what works and what doesn’t, and more importantly why, is crucial to fine-tuning your skills as a recruitment consultant and ensuring that you continually develop.

It can also highlight areas of weakness, parts of your sector where you haven’t made any inroads. Maybe it’s knowledge or training issue, or a depressed market. Whatever the reason, once you have identified it, you can do something about it.

By following these three simple ideas, your cold calls will be much more effective than most of your competitors. Too many recruiters take a lottery approach to cold calling, bashing through call after call hoping to come across a vacancy.

Using this three step approach, you will find that you will be making fewer calls and getting more vacancies because you are targeting your approach much more, all in all a whole much more effective way of working.

‘Till Next Time,

Cheryl

Recruitment is one of the most vibrant and fast-paced industries, with long hours and a relentless work ethic often being key to staying ahead of your competitors. Sometimes however, this intense working environment can mean that recruiters miss out on the bigger picture, and the chance to work smarter, not harder.

How many consultants take time out each day to keep up with the latest news and developments in their respective sectors? The answer is very few.

Most consultants would rather concentrate on business development calls or interviewing candidates, seeing these  activities as more important with direct, visible results.

However, the simple task of keeping up with industry developments can have huge benefits for your business, the two main ones being:

–   Identifying threats and opportunities: Keeping up with industry news is vital for business planning. It will give you an idea about the state of the market in your sector, whether businesses can expect to be expanding or contracting and thus hiring or firing. This obviously can have an effect on the potential for new business.

–   Building your industry ‘authority’: The more you know about the industry you recruit in, the more your ‘brand’ is distinguished and differentiated from your competitors.

Cold calls can become so much warmer when the potential customer can see that you understand the market, and are able to discuss the latest news and market trends.

A good recruiter always keeps their finger on the pulse of industry developments and uses a variety of sources to do so. Here are three important ways you can keep up-to-date with what is happening in your industry:

–   Trade Press/Websites: Keeping up with the main sources for news in your sector can be done through both online and offline sources. As well as keeping you abreast of all the latest issues, it can also highlight important contacts in organisations and help you identify the key decision makers in your sector.

–   LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a great resource for recruiters. Make it a core part of your strategy to become the best consultant you can be in your sector. LinkedIn shouldn’t be used simply as a resource for identifying clients and candidates.

It can be used to build your image as a recruiter in your industry who knows what they are talking about, and who people would be happy working with.

Join relevant groups in your sector and regularly participate, offering genuine helpful advice that reflects your expertise. Do this and you will find yourself becoming the ‘go-to’ recruiter in your sector.

–   Relevant Networking: Attending relevant events in your sector not only keeps you up-to-date with all the latest issues and debates, but is a great way to meet new clients and candidates.

Attending such events differentiates you as a recruiter, marking you out as a specialist who cares about the industry they work in. Recruitment is such a competitive market differentiating yourself is important.

Keeping up with what’s going on in your relevant sector may at first seem to be time-consuming with no immediately obvious positive outcomes. However, if you are a consultant who wishes to grow their desk and become the leading consultant in their sector, it is a vital, and ultimately will reap you rewards in terms of more clients and better candidates.

‘Till Next Time,

Cheryl

2014 has seen a rise in the number of trainee recruitment consultant vacancies, driven by the expansion of consultancies across the UK.

As a results driven business it is vital that trainee consultants do things the right way from the beginning. Here are three classic rookie recruiter mistakes that all new recruitment consultants should avoid:

Relying too much on the client’s job description

An extremely detailed job description from a client can be enormously useful, as it gives you a real in depth understanding of the intricacies of the role in question. Too many new recruiters however, simply copy and paste the job description onto the job boards.

It’s easy to understand why this is done. Surely the more detailed the job description the better? Not when marketing a role, which is what the new recruiter should be doing.

Simply posting the job description is basically saying to the client ‘You might as well have done this yourself’. What the new recruiter should be doing is adding value by rewriting the job description and optimising it to appeal to the right calibre of candidates.

This is done by highlighting key features about the job using language that encourages suitable applicants to apply.

The client can see that they are getting a professional service, and the new consultant will find themselves with a select group of suitable individuals to consider for the role.

Only searching recently posted CVs on job boards

When searching CVs, many new recruiters presume that it is only worth searching those that have been posted on job boards in the last month. The logic behind such a belief at first seems reasonably sound.

It makes sense that the more recent the CVs, the greater the likelihood that the candidate in question is still actively looking for a job? This is true, but it also precludes over 75% of the CVs on job boards.

Opening up searches to all resumes on the boards regardless of age enables the new recruiter to tap deeper into your industry’s talent pool. It’s true that many of these people may not now be actively searching for a new role, but they may be willing to consider moving if the right opportunity comes along.

Taking candidates on face value

Another common mistake a new recruiter makes is to take candidates on face value. When you’re struggling to fill a difficult vacancy then that exceptional person walks through the door with their CV brimming with the skills and experience needed for the role.

It is easy to get excited and immediately send their CV to the client with a view to arranging an interview and placing the candidate as soon as possible. It’s a situation that most recruiters will have found themselves in at some point, especially as a trainee.

Unfortunately however, it’s necessary for recruitment consultants to check everything about a candidate, because as every experienced recruiter knows, there is nothing worse than sending a candidate to interview to have the client uncover they have lied and deceived in their CV. This reflects poorly on the consultant involved.

Trainee consultants will always make mistakes, but if they can avoid the three discussed above, it will give them a good grounding on which to build their career.

The very best recruiters have all made mistakes, some of them cataclysmic. The reason they are successful however is that they learnt from them.

‘Till next time,

Cheryl

The recruitment industry is one of the most competitive markets in business. Wherever you are based and in whichever sector(s) you operate in, it is crucial that you stand out from the crowd, and the easiest way to do this is to have a USP, a unique selling point.

This is difficult though in recruitment and there’s not a great deal of ways in which you can demonstrate this to potential clients. Most, if not all agencies talk about ‘treating their clients better and ‘understanding their business’, thus they’re not really being that different at all.

The simplest and most effective way is to focus on the one thing that really is different about your agency. You.

YOU are your own USP
There is only one you. You don’t work for anyone else, certainly not for your competitors.

In a market where competition is fierce and margins are tight, you may be the only significant difference between your company and it’s competitors, and so it is vital to both understand what your personal brand as a recruiter is, and develop it into a tool that can help promote you, your business and bring in revenue.

Carry out a brand review

Firstly, you need to realise what your personal brand is at the moment. How are you perceived by your clients and potential clients? What are you portraying? Be brutally honest with yourself, it will help in the long run.

Ideally, your personal brand should be perfectly aligned with your company’s brand, with a dash of individuality. Therefore, if your company brands itself as a dynamic market leader, do you honestly portray this and how do you do this?

Think about your attitude, how you dress, how you communicate both verbally and non-verbally. Are you ever late? Are you always early? Do you drive meetings forward or are you happy for people to wander off the topic.

A personal brand review will help focus your brand and make sure it is working for you in a positive way. Be the brand that you want to be.

Promote your brand

Now that you have an idea of what your brand is, then it is crucial to get out there and promote it. When talking to a potential client, don’t just talk about what your company can do for them, talk to them as well about what YOU can do for them.

Remember, YOU are the difference between your company and your competitors. Always remember that you are an embodiment of your company and its values.

Understand that ‘people buy people’

Selling is key to the recruitment industry. It’s very easy in this era of social media to forget some of the fundamentals of sales and marketing, one of these being ‘people buy people’.

What this means is that in an industry such as recruitment, where the services being offered are largely the same, the client’s choice of provider will rest on the consultant who they feel the most connection with, the consultant who personally portrays the service they are looking for, the consultant whose ‘personal brand’ speaks to them.

Drawing attention to personal brands can have huge benefits for any recruitment consultancy, simultaneously helping its consultants align themselves with the company ethos, whilst letting their individuality shine through, putting competitors firmly in the shade.

‘Till next time,

Cheryl

We’re halfway through the year and now is a great time to take stock, look back at the last six months, and look forward to the next.

Assessing your company’s performance to date, and devising a strategy to go forward is vital for strong business growth.

Maximise your existing revenue

It’s all too easy sometimes to solely concentrate on new business.

We all know that a constant stream of new business is vital in recruitment, but halfway through the year is a great time to talk to your existing client base, with a view to both retaining their business and maximising revenue. However well you may think it is going with a client, putting the extra bit of effort in will pay dividends long-term.

Rival agencies will be proactively seeking to take that customer away. A friendly visit could be all it takes to secure their custom for another six months, and you may even be able to get some more business out of it.

Have you lost any clients?

Even the most successful recruiters will lose clients, but what sets apart a successful recruiter from the rest is not seeing losing a client as a failure, but as a valuable opportunity for feedback.

Have a look at all of the clients you’ve lost. Call them, not with the intention of winning their business back, but a genuine call to get feedback about the service you provided and why they no longer use you.

There may be some things that are uncomfortable to hear, but if you can act on these shortcomings, it will help you retain customers in the future. Your former client may also be impressed at the fact you are being so proactive.

Have you won some new clients?

Just as you sought feedback from clients that you have lost, why not speak to new clients and ask them why they chose to use your company? Was it reputation? Was it price? Did they like your ‘brand’?

Whatever the reason, it’s valuable to know and can help you focus future business activity on relevant sectors with a relevant message.

It’s all too easy to get carried away when a new client comes on board, but taking the time to understand why they chose your company can help you build on what you have done well.

Assess your sector

How has your sector been performing to date? Is it experiencing strong growth or is it experiencing economic difficulties?

Understanding the financials of your sector helps you understand the needs and wants of your clients, and can be a valuable talking point with potential clients.

Past performance will give some indication of where in the sector there is potential for growth, and can be a useful tool in deciding where to focus your valuable resources in trying to grow business.

Whether your first six months of 2014 have been successful or not, make sure you learn the lessons to make the second half of the year a fruitful one.

Till next time,

Cheryl

The GSR2R Wimbledon Quiz

Join our Wimbledon Quiz and have a chance to win a bottle

of sparkling wine and strawberries!

It will be out on Friday, July 4th.

Just email Claire at claire@gsr2r.com or call her

on 0203 696 1215 for the questions .

Don’t miss it!

In April the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the professional body for the recruitment industry, launched their ‘Good Recruitment Campaign’, to highlight good recruitment practices to business small and large across the UK.

As recruitment consultants play an integral role in many business’s recruitment strategies, we thought we would take a look at some of the key attributes a recruitment consultant needs to provide a great service.

A good recruiter understands the importance of relationships, and always looks at the bigger picture.

Thousands of people enter the recruitment industry every year, but very few of them last more than twelve months. There are a number of reasons for this. Some may not be able to handle the pressure.

Others may be struggling to hit their sales targets. The underlying reason though (which can result in poor sales and added pressure) is their failure to understand the importance of relationships.

A good recruiter values the relationship with their client above anything else. Poor recruitment consultants jeopardise the relationship with their client by chasing short-term gains, trying to ‘sell’ them poor quality candidates just to hit their targets.

A good recruitment consultant never gets themselves in this position. Through a thorough understanding of their client’s business gained through a positive and transparent relationship, a good consultant will always put their client first.

A good recruiter looks after their candidates.

Just as their relationship with their client being their key concern, a good recruitment consultant always looks after their candidates, because without good candidates, they cannot provide their client with the service that they deserve.

A good consultant will have an open, honest and transparent relationship with their candidates, and only put them forward for suitable jobs, keeping them updated and informed at every stage of the recruitment process. Happy candidates make for great employees.

A good recruiter has a little bit of OCD, and assumes nothing.

One might assume, with the huge importance placed on both the relationship a consultant has with their clients and candidates, that recruitment is the ideal career for more outgoing, gregarious types, rather than the more careful and cautious, who take great pleasure in the detail of things.

In reality, a good recruitment consultant has to have both these sides to their character, and an attention to detail is crucial.

There is a huge amount of trust placed in a recruitment consultant, and a good consultant understands that they cannot assume anything, whether it be details to do with a job description or doing full background checks on a candidate. Never will a good consultant cut corners and risk their relationship with their client.

A good recruiter utilises modern technology, but recognises the importance of ‘the basics’.

Social Media and other relatively recent technological developments have improved not just the recruitment industry, but business as a whole. However, sometimes it can be too easy to get caught up in modern technology and methods, and forget the basics.

This is something a good consultant cannot, and will not do. Being fully conversant with social media and other methods is crucial for a modern consultant, but so are some of the more ‘old-fashioned’ methods and values.

Emails are are a quick and efficient method of communication, but they lack the personal touch and can be misinterpreted. Compare this to a face-to-face meeting, or even a telephone call, where a real relationship can be built, with a deep understanding of the client’s needs and wants.

A good consultant recognises this and will never fail to understand the importance of the basics.

‘Till next time,

Cheryl

If you have been following our tweets and postings recently you’ll notice our focus on a healthy mind and body through our training in the park and yoga sessions here in Soho.

Plato’s Academy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Why? Because it works. The idea of a healthy mind in a healthy body goes back thousands of years. In Plato’s Academy in Athens, students were expected to participate in wrestling and athletics alongside their studies and the great philosopher himself was an accomplished sportsman.

Today, advanced medical technology can tell us exactly why regular exercise is so good for the brain and for professional performance. Firstly, exercise prompts the release of beneficial hormones in the brain. They affect our  capacity for attention and responsiveness, so regular exercise can guarantee that you stay alert during long busy days.

Exercise also stimulates the hippocampus, which is the brain centre responsible for learning and memory. Deterioration of the hippocampus is the most common cause of Alzheimer’s disease, but it also impacts on most people in a less extreme way.

From our late twenties onwards cognitive function starts to naturally decline, which means that even Gen Y-ers need to start thinking about how to stay sharp.

Mental activity like crosswords, puzzles, language-learning etc. can strengthen cognitive function, but so does physical activity. In particular, learning new physical skills requires a harmony between mind and body. That’s why we offer free yoga classes in the park for our team and potential candidates.

Yoga is known to strengthen the body and calm the mind, but the very process of learning new postures and training your body to achieve things it previously couldn’t enhances your memory and learning ability.

Crucially, to get the full benefits of exercise it’s also important to get plenty of rest. The body and mind use REM sleep to consolidate information and skills acquired during the day, so following training with an early night is a valuable way to boost your learning capacity.

All of this ensures that you, can boost professional performance. However, we believe that exercise is also holistically important. We hope that our free yoga sessions will help to build a community among our team and with clients.

You can learn a lot about people when, instead of sitting behind desks, they’re trying to learn to stand on their heads. Laughter and shared experience are valuable assets in this business.

Perhaps most importantly, exercise stimulates the release of serotonin, also known as the happy hormone. Anyone who exercises regularly knows that no feeling beats coming home after a good session, feeling completely mentally and physically energised.

Serotonin is also the hormone whose absence signals the onset of depression. Recruitment is a high-stress occupation; constant deadlines, the pressure to achieve high billings and the fact that payment is often contingent on successful placement all contribute to a high risk of professional burnout.

As recruiters, we prioritise creating professional relationships that are effective, but also conducive to happiness and personal satisfaction. Similarly, within our own team we want to minimise stress and provide a positive working atmosphere.

We believe that promoting exercise and physical health is a key to achieving that goal. The fact that it also increases billings is a happy side effect!

‘Till next time,

Cheryl

As any recruiter knows, you can’t secure a job through qualifications and skills alone. If that were the case, all we would have to do is send over a few CVs and hey presto… our clients would choose the best of the bunch.

The decider will always be the interview. Manner, body language, dress and other non-verbal cues are extremely important when it comes to an interview. In fact, 33% of hiring managers report that within 90 seconds they can tell if they will hire a candidate or not.

Despite that, many candidates remain uncertain of how to optimise their body language and as a recruitment consultant. Advising candidates on how to maximise the impression they make is a reliable way to achieve higher billings.

Let’s look at the three most important body language considerations when preparing one of your candidates for an interview.

1. Develop A Firm Handshake

We’ve already mentioned that the first 90 seconds of the interview are crucial and perhaps the most important factor is the handshake. This is your opportunity to create a personal connection with the interview panel.

Despite that, hiring managers report that more than a quarter of candidates have weak handshakes, which is an immediate turnoff for most people. Thankfully, the problem is is incredibly easy to correct and will transform the first impression your candidate makes.

2. Stand Up Straight

For some reason, few people seem to have really good posture in our society, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. In fact, having good posture will ensure that your candidate instantly stands out from the stoopers and slouchers.

A slouch is your body’s attempt to curl up and protect itself from danger, which subconsciously communicates insecurity and anxiety. However, standing tall doesn’t only change how interviewers view a candidate; it can also change how the candidate views him or herself.

Research shows that consciously adopting “power positions” actually makes individuals feel more powerful. If nothing else, standing up straight allows freer, deeper breathing and counteracts fatigue and back pain, both of which will enhance comfort and confidence.

3. Smile

As a recruiter, your role is to maximise the effectiveness of your candidate’s qualifications by factoring in all the extra considerations that influence hiring managers. As we all know, interviewers are looking for more than just the ability to do the job or an impressive CV.

They’re also selecting a future colleague, so appearing friendly, warm and personable with a good sense of humour is essential. Interviews are stressful and your candidate shouldn’t appear flippant about their new role, but managers intuitively understand that happy workers are good workers.

What’s more, if your candidate can build a positive rapport with interviewers in a matter of minutes, they’re demonstrating that they can achieve the same with future clients and colleagues

Of course, these are just a few among many examples of positive body language. However, we believe that by emphasising these three key factors you can enhance your candidates’ performance which will give them a better chance of securing that dream role.

‘Till next time,

Cheryl

 The GSR2R World Cup Quiz

Join our World Cup Quiz and have a chance to win a football chocolate egg!

It will run on Thursday, June 26th and Thursday, July 10th.

Just email Claire at claire@gsr2r.com on the said dates for the questions. Or call her on 0203 696 1215

Don’t miss it!