The Mike Ames Recruitment Show

Did you know that all of us have a way we prefer to buy things, and if suppliers sell to us in that way, they will be more successful?

It's called our Buying Style.

Knowing how to spot, and then sell to a person's buying style, is a bit like cheating, and will give you a massive competitor advantage.

It makes sense when you think about it.

We're all motivated differently, so trying to persuade us to do something in a standard way is bound to deliver different results with different people.

That's because we need to be approached according to our buying style.

Get this right and you are much more likely to get what you want. Basic persuasion skills really.

In this week's Mike Ames Recruitment Show, Kirsty and I will be explaining: -

֍ what the 5 buying styles are

֍ how you work out a buyer's style

֍ how you sell to a buyer based upon their buying style

All of us have a primary buying style and most of us have a secondary style too. Plus, our styles may change according to what we are buying.

Added bonus: you can use it to persuade your kids to clear up their mess before bedtime!

Want to be more successful when you're pitching then this is the show for you.

BTW, my primary style is CHARISMATIC and secondary is THINKER – quite an unusual pairing.

Over 80% of recruiters never bill more than £1m a year, so those who do must have a secret growth sauce. Like to know what it is?

Our next guest on the #MARShow is Roheel Ahmad, founder and MD of Forsyth Barnes.

Started 8 years ago, they are now an international perm business with a turnover of £20m.

Roheel will be talking about his journey and the things he does differently. We'll be looking at how his staff attraction and retention system enabled his growth and means he's only lost 2 people in 8 years.

We'll also be exploring how he set up offices in the USA and is planning on doing the same in the Middle East.

This is a must for anybody looking to trade abroad, especially in America. And he'll be sharing how his BD engine is tracking 50% growth for 2023.

I'm particularly excited about this section because I believe that 2024 will be the year of BD.

I'm personally very excited about having Roheel as our guest, he's switched on, tuned in and very much on top.

Everybody has to write job ads from time to time, some more than others, but could they be better? Well, the stakes are high because we know great ads attract better candidates.

We also know that everybody's attention span has diminished so it's increasingly hard to attract attention.

Question: has your attention span diminished over the last few years?

In truth, the words you use have a massive effect on the stickiness of anything you write.

The same goes for blogs, long-form LinkedIn posts and even candidate profiles, but especially job adverts.

My question is: could we be better at writing them? I suspect the answer is "yes" (well, I know it is for me).

To help, we've invited Anna Iveson, an expert in writing ads, onto the show.

Her tips and advice can be applied to most online copy, but we are focusing in on adverts.

֍ How to grab attention

֍ Building interest in the role

֍ Increasing the chances of people responding to your ads

In these challenging times, the power of the written word is only going to increase!

Growing your revenues is easy, right? Hire more people and they will do more business. But there's a problem. 82% of recruitment companies have less than 10 staff and half of those are solopreneurs. In other words, if growth was as easy as hiring people, a lot more recruitment firms would have more than 10 staff. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest is they outgrow their management strength. Service levels can drop, staff motivation plummets, and your reputation takes a bashing. But the worst side-effect is a drop in profits – crazy right? More turnover but less profit, but it happens way too often. One way to avoid this is put more effort into increasing your revenues but keeping your costs the same. In other words, become more productive and that's what this #MARShow is focusing on. 7 ways you can lift your revenues but keep your costs the same. And remember, 80% of the additional revenue goes straight to the bottom line. One of my clients tripled his profits and reduced his headcount by 20% following these strategies! That's a lot of extra profit there guys. To get a reminder of when we go live just click the ATTEND button. Why not spend the next three months focusing on profit instead of chasing turnover and see what happens!

If you presented your offering to 100 people all at once, approximately 5 would be open to a pitch, 50 would blank you, and 45 would be like, "maybe but not now".

These are called the "Forgotten 45%", and they hold potentially 9 times the revenue you get from those ready to buy right now.

YES, A POTENTIAL 900% LEAP IN YOUR REVENUES!

Maybe they don't want to engage because it's not the right time for them, or they need to know more about you, or even that they already have suppliers that do what you do.

Who knows, but what I do know is that each quarter some of the "Forgotten 45%" could drop into the "Fruitful 5%", so what's the problem?

Well, the problem is that in a world fixated with making money by the end of the month, most salespeople invest zero effort into the "Forgottens", and so miss out on a rich seam of business.

"Want to buy from me? No, OK, I'm off to the next then". That's a rookie error, right there.

In this Mike Ames Recruitment Show, we'll be looking at how you can work with the Forgotten 45%, so that more of them become clients.

We start by explaining why most companies don't tap this rich source of revenue.

Then we show you how to identify who they are, how to convert them into clients in record time, and how to spot the timewasters who need to be ignored.

It's a simple system that anybody can implement; you'll be surprised how easy it is.

Imagine the boost in revenue that could provide!

Everybody is looking for a silver bullet that will speed up winning high value clients. There is one, but most people ignore it.

Or, they know what it is, but dismiss it out of hand for a range of reasons (none of them are valid).

In this #MARShow we will be covering this very powerful BD tool – webinars.

See what I mean – your instant reaction was "not for me".

But just bear me out on this.

Think about the benefits of webinars: -

✅ Free to run

✅ The guests provide all the content – you just ask the questions

✅ Easy to get attendees, and unlike podcasts you know who they are

✅ Created a powerful asset you can reuse

✅ We all know the tech now – Zoom

✅ You can outsource the whole thing – you just ask the questions

✅ The easiest way to start a conversation with decision makers

So in this episode we're going to share how you run them, how you get attendees, how you choose the subjects and get the guests.

I'm also going to explain how you use them to start conversations with hard-to-reach decision makers.

We'll be covering the whole shebang, so please don't be so hasty to dismiss webinars without knowing the full story.

Have you ever signed up for a webinar?

Statistically you only place 1 in 5 contingent roles you work. For retained its closer to 98% and here's how you convert to be retained.

But first a warning.

If you've been used to working contingent or even exclusive roles, making the jump to retained carries risks with it.

In this week's #MARShow we have a double whammy.

Backdoor Barry Cullen will explain the costly pitfalls many people can fall into when they convert from contingent/exclusive to retained.

As Barry said to me, "people think they can use the same Tc and Cs for retained and they can't. There are a whole load of extra terms they need for their own protection".

Barry will go thru them with us, and explain the difference between exclusive and retained.

Also, for those who haven't made the switch to retained yet, I'll explain how to in three easy steps: -

❶ Build your retained product (and sales collateral)

❷ Know which roles to go for

❸ Learn how to convince hirers to buy your retained product

Think about this. Lets be kind and say you convert 1 in 3 contingent/exclusive roles in to fees.

By switching across to retained it goes up to nearly 1 in 1.

That means your NFI will increase by 200%.

Since your costs remain the same, most of that additional income drops straight to the bottom line.

BTW I'll be explaining the very latest in recruitment productisation – the next step on from "good-better-best".

Winning clients hasn't been a big problem recently, but it will be if the recession bites hard.

Vacancy scraping and speccing candidates won't be as effective, so what can you do?

That's the theme of this week's Mike Ames Recruitment Show – a proven system to win new clients in a recession.

Here's a run down of what we cover: -

✅ Why vacancy scraping and candidate speccing won't be as effective

✅ Why inbound referrals will drop

✅ A simple 5-part strategy for winning new clients in a recession

✅ Why you need to start building it, NOW

✅ A few tactics you can use to deliver some great results.

If you are overwhelmed with vacancies now, this probably seems like a waste of time. But believe me, when the recession comes, it's going to be hard to keep the money coming in and re-engineer how you win new clients.

Like it or not video is here to stay and many have dabbled with it in one form or another.

But few have really made it work as an effective sales tool to win new clients, except for one person I know.

Jacob Ireson uses video to great effect as a potent sales tool and he's on the Mike Ames Recruitment Show to share all his secrets.

He uses videos to boost sales in three key ways: -

❶ VIDEO MESSAGES – to cold and warm prospects as well as existing clients

❷ LINKEDIN POSTS – to communicate and engage with is community

❸ VIDEO PODCAST – not the usual format but it works for him

The video messages are perhaps the most powerful and Jacob shares his proven format and style of message.

This is for you if you're thinking of using video or have already begun to dabble but want to see a greater return for the time you invest.

You'd have to live in a cave to not be aware of how powerful building an online community can be, especially for recruiters.

A tribe of people who have opted to join your WhatsApp, Facebook, Mighty or Six Circles group.

They post, comment and help other members where they can.

Each time you engage with your members another layer is added to the relationship bridge and when it's strong enough you can ask for something you want.

Perhaps they'll become clients or maybe candidates, or both.

But how do you create a membership group from scratch and, more importantly, get people to stay and contribute once they have joined?

Well, my guest on this #MARShow is James Hickman and he has done just that.

From a standing start he now has several groups with thousands of members.

He shares: -

✅ What platforms to use

✅ How to launch the group

✅ How you attract members

✅ The best way to encourage participation

✅ The rules you should set for the group

✅ How to benefit from a group

I have been blown away by the speed the group I am a member of has grown – now I get to see how he did it.

So, if you fancy building a group of clients and (more importantly) prospects, please listen.