The Recruitment Marketing and Sales Podcast

Sharon: Hi everyone, I am delighted to welcome Lee and Theresa Durrant, the co-founders of Resource on Demand. Now, many of you may not know this, but Resource on Demand was the UK and Europe’s first specialist Salesforce recruitment company. So welcome, Lee and Theresa.

I know I know your story and lots about yourselves and Resource on Demand, but perhaps let’s start, for the listeners if I could ask you to give a little bit of background to yourselves, how Resource on Demand came about, and a little bit of that story. Because this year is a special year that we will come onto later, I understand?

Theresa:  I’ll probably let Lee go with this one. Yes.

Lee: Okay, well, firstly Sharon, thanks very much for having us on. It’s a pleasure, and hopefully, we do your podcast justice, but yeah, thanks very much for this. So how deep… How far back do you want me to go?

Sharon: Well just, how did Resource on Demand start?

Lee: Okay. Well, so we were recruiting back in the credit crunch as another entity, if you like, in another industry. It was still IT, but it was a completely different industry, and in 2007/2008 that industry just seemed to grind to a halt along with, I’m sure, a load of others. So, we were scrabbling around as recruiters just trying to find any way of trying to make some money. It was quite a trying time, and fell into Salesforce initially because it was the one area where there seemed to be vacancies. I’d never heard of it, I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know what cloud computing was, and there was no plan at that point to become a specialist in it. I just happened to start getting vacancies for this new shiny thing where there seemed to be more opportunities than people, and one thing led to another, before you knew it we realised that actually there could be some growth here, this could be a nice niche that no one else is doing, and this was a long time ago now it seems.

And so we thought, “Right, okay, a bit of a refresh, a rebrand,” and Resource on Demand was born as the first UK and I think it turned out to be Europe’s first recruitment company that solely existed to recruit for the Salesforce ecosystem. Yeah. So that’s how it started, was that the question?

Sharon: Yeah. No, I mean, and it’s an ecosystem that’s just grown and grown and grown, hasn’t it? Over recent years. So very briefly, what’s been the journey that ROD, as you are affectionately known, but Resource on Demand, have gone through over that time?

Theresa: Well, I think for us, when we first started out, it was very much a lifestyle business. We wanted the freedom to kind of pick and choose your hours, but I think because of the time that we set up, and the market was so buoyant, it suddenly turned not into a lifestyle, and we were working much longer hours trying to service the customers that were coming on board. And they were coming on board at a rate of knots at the time. It was just the two of us. So probably about four years after we set up we started to look to recruit. We were… those people that were holed up in a hotel somewhere trying to get the job done and the business has grown organically since then. So we only ever recruit as and when we have the demand.

We’ve just grown steadily over those last… well over the time that we’ve been in business. We’ve grown quite steadily at a nice pace. It’s become paramount for us and Salesforce, being the multi-billion dollar industry that it is – that for them it’s always been about their customer engagement and we’ve kind of in a way taken on board that ethos. So we’ve tried to set ourself apart from a typical recruitment industry that people might be aware of and for us, it’s always been about our clients and the candidates and the journey that they go on in respect to finding jobs.

And I think in some ways we’ve gone on that journey with the company because we’ve, as you do, we’ve grown as people. And it became less about chasing the pound and more about actually delivering a really good quality service, and I think that’s probably what set us apart from probably most of our competitors.

Sharon: Yeah. And over the time I imagine that there have been many lessons as there always are when you’re growing a business. But what would you say are perhaps some of the big lessons or the key lessons that have made the biggest impact when you’ve… I guess when you reflect?

Lee: Well it sounds a bit like I’m repeating what Theresa’s said but… we’ll do a lot of that probably, won’t we, in the next half hour so. It’s interesting because when we started one of the lessons was almost if you’re going to do this, you don’t need to necessarily have the end game in mind. So as Theresa said, we started thinking, “Yeah. Get the lifestyle business. We can work when we want, where we want, make a bit of money, everything will be great.” But then you get to a point; there’s a tipping point of… it’s no longer a lifestyle business; you’re working 14 hours a day, every day. And it’s taking over your life, and that’s the point where you need to go, “Oh man, do we need to make this a real business and recruit people for ourselves and go from there?”

Lee: So that was quite a difficult decision in the early days.  What kind of business do we want this to be? And I think when we decided to recruit people, then you’ve got to think about, “Okay, what kind of culture do we want the business to be? Do we want it to be like the typical Wolf of Wall Street, London type of office?” And I’ll be honest, that’s a mistake we made because we did go for that option initially, and we’ve completely changed that over the years to actually, “No we don’t want that.” So that was challenge number one probably, it was what kind of company is this and what kind of recruiters do we want to be? I think you had some more points.

Theresa: Yeah. From a different angle, but I come from I suppose a property management background. I was used to managing people, but I’d never run a business. I’d never been responsible for P&L. Even the stats and figures and ratios and KPIs and all the things you’re meant to track as a business frightened the life out of us. And Lee comes from a typical recruitment business. Again, he’d managed a team of people, but he’d never run a business. And it’s almost like overnight people are looking at you expecting you to know what to do.

And sometimes you have to be able to put your hands up and say, “Do you know what? I don’t know. I’m slightly out of my depth here.” What I’ll do is I’ll go and do the research. I’ll go and find the answers. So I think as business owners you’re stuck in this headspace where you think, “I have to know everything” because you’ve got all of these pairs of eyes. You’ve got mouths depending on you, and you have to learn the hard way how to make decisions. Good decisions, but make them quickly. And if you don’t know the answer, be prepared to go off and find the expert who does know the answer. That’s hard when you’re used to being at the top of your game, suddenly you’re feeling really out of your depth. But we came through it. Thankfully we’re a pretty good team. We bounce off one another. We’re always communicating and talking about ideas, and when we need to we make sure we pull the team in and bring all the heads together so we can all come up with decisions and the best course of action.

So it does get a lot easier as you go through the journey, but certainly, in the beginning, it was hard. Because it is just the two of you, and if you don’t agree well you’re kind of at a stalemate. So another lesson is compromising. You have to learn to compromise.

Lee: One of the most challenging things even today I think, is knowing when to work in the business and when to work on the business which is something (as me being the recruiter) has taken me a long time to realise what I enjoy doing and what I don’t like doing and what you feel like you should be doing as a business owner. I’m sure we’re going to get on to that with topics about marketing and stuff like that. Somehow the reason we have a recruitment company is because we’re good at recruitment and you can get distracted with everything else that you think you should be doing sitting in an office on your own looking at P&L and all that sort of stuff.

Lee: Oh man, for me, that’s horrible. So it’s almost understanding what you are good at? What you like doing, what makes you bounce out of bed in the morning with excitement and maybe recruit for the rest of it. Or outsource the rest of it. That’s… I wouldn’t say it was a challenge, but that’s something that took us a long time to get our head around that.

Theresa: Yeah.

Lee: What was the phrase that we used for you? Was it the major bottleneck? Because that sounds a bit harsh on Theresa but because she was everything else apart from recruitment it then became difficult to let go of some of those things, didn’t it?

Theresa: Well, and you think if you let go the plate’s going to stop spinning. So actually being able to have faith that other people could do that job just as well as you, that was a big challenge, but we got there. And now I sit around and do nothing, it’s great.

Lee: Yeah, I noticed. You must know that Sharon because you guys have got your own company there so you must have.  I mean a big deal for Theresa was us getting a cleaner which sounds ridiculous, but we used to go, “Oh, just do it ourselves.” And as a business owner, you do that, don’t you? But this was a long time ago now, obviously, getting a cleaner just seemed like an expense you didn’t need to pay for.

Sharon: No.

Lee: What’s it like for you guys?

Sharon: Well, I think that is one of the challenges as business owners, is recognising and learning, and it was one of the questions I wanted to come onto is recognising learning. As business partners, what are your respective strengths, play to those strengths and yes, I suppose in the early days there are different things that you take on and at some point you know that if you need to grow in scale it can’t continue to be you doing some of the things that you’re doing. And it’s like you were saying, Theresa, you begin to trust that other people not only could do things perhaps as well as you think you can but you realise that if I employ somebody who could do some of these things even better, that the business is only going to benefit from that.

And there’s that leap of faith, and that element of trust isn’t there? That actually, the sooner we start to employ people that are better at doing the things that we’ve been doing because they need doing rather than they are one of our strengths. I think that’s one of the big things. And once you make that leap though and realise that, when you employ people who are good, they think, “God why didn’t we do that sooner?”

Theresa: Yes, I know. You seem like you’re kicking yourself because you suddenly realised you’re probably behind where you should have been. But as long as you’re learning from that experience.

Sharon: Yeah. Now while we’re talking about this, I want to come back and talk to you about the culture that you’ve built. But before I do as we’re on this subject, you guys have worked together now for a number of years. You founded this business together, and you’re married, and so that’s not unusual in the industry. We’ve got clients where again there’s a husband and wife team at the head of a company. Now I imagine, and you’ve eluded to that a little bit in terms of, there’s got to be compromises, and sometimes you don’t agree so there’s a bit of stalemate but how have you made it work? What words of wisdom might you have for other businesses where we’ve got a couple at the head of that business?

Theresa: Yeah, I suppose in some respects it may have been a little bit easier for us because as I said, we’ve come from completely different backgrounds. So Lee was the recruiter, I just happened to be quite handy at most other things. So I knew a bit about HR, I knew a little bit about CRM systems. I can’t say that I knew anything about marketing, but I learnt within the first few years how to write an okay blog. So for us, we’ve kind of always had separate roles in that respect. But one thing we realised as we started to recruit because people wouldn’t necessarily know who to go to regarding a decision.

Sharon: Right.

Theresa: So we kind of defined our roles fairly early on so that people knew that if it was a question about recruitment, how to do recruitment, how to speak to, I don’t know, speak to clients or negotiate with clients then they would always go to Lee, and Lee’s decision on that would be final.

When it came about everything else, so anything to do with can we change the IT system? Or can we have a, I don’t know, a budget for client entertainment? And stuff like that, then people would come to me, and my decision would be final on that. To ensure that we weren’t undermining one another. But we had very, very clear roles about what decisions we were going to be making. Anything else that didn’t fit within those it would always be well, we’ll go away, we’ll have a chat together, and we’ll come up with a solution together.

And then one of the things we did do as soon as we were reasonably able to, was to get ourselves a sales manager. Because that person now acts as the in-betweener between employees and team members and ourselves. So there is also now a very impartial person who can make some decisions, and they’ve got the responsibility to make decisions within the team. So we tried to put that into place fairly quickly. It took a little while to get the right person, I must admit. We did take someone on; we got it wrong first time around because they didn’t quite fit into the culture that we were trying to nurture. But once we got the right person we can trust that even if we’re out the business or we’re in the business, people know where to go. They know where to get the answers. And that also means that Lee and I can have a little bit of breathing space as well.

Sharon: Yeah.

Lee: I would second the mommy-daddy complex thing that I’m sure other companies that are founded by husband and wives must have that same issue where they’ll go and ask Theresa then they’ll come and ask me. Or they go and ask me then go and ask Theresa. So it’s always… My default is, “What did Theresa say?” Because you want to make sure they’re not trying to play you off against each other. But like Theresa said, eventually we worked through that and just defined our roles so that it was nothing to do with recruitment and I would just defer to Theresa. And the other way around really. The other thing, am I allowed to swear Sharon? Or is that not appropriate?

Sharon: Depends on what words you’re going to be using.

Lee: It’s nothing that bad. We have this saying, in terms of being a married couple that driving to work together we make sure we shake our shit off at the door when we get to work so that if we’re having a barney about something in the car and at home, the minute you walk into the office it’s forgotten about.

Sharon: Yeah.

Lee: Me being a man, it’s forgotten about forever. Theresa is a woman with a very good memory. She remembers the minute we leave, and we go back home and then we’re arguing about it again. But that’s quite, something we got very good at over the years I think. Practising that; the minute we’re at work, we are work people. And it’s not easy to do that, but we’ve managed to do that. I don’t know if you’ve got any thoughts on that?

Theresa: No, no. I mean, it’s probably been a good thing for our marriage because if we had niggles, you forget about it as the day moves on. You get into your daily routine, and that’s the end of it. I would say one of the other challenges over the years, and things went as before. So as Lee nicely put, you leave your poop at the door. When you leave work you equally have to learn to switch off, and I think that’s difficult to do.  Any issues or problems because you’re getting on with your day job at work. I suppose most couples when they come in it’s like, “How’s your day, dear?” Well, we know because we were both there. So your conversations play out a little bit differently. I suppose to most relationships where you’re not working together.

And when you go on holiday, there’s the danger of taking work with you on holiday. So I think for one of the things we did quite early on was to say, “Well, we have to have some boundaries.” Now it’s impossible to switch off from work completely when you own a business.

Sharon: I agree.

Theresa: That’s just life. But we have what we call golden hours when we’re away on holiday, for example; it’s okay to be online but then after a certain time during the day you have to switch off. Go back to your emails the following day. Because you need to keep connecting as husband and wife. You don’t want to get to six, seven years down the line and you’re just feeling like colleagues. You have to remember why you’re together in the first place. So it is important to have those golden times where you say, “No. It’s all about us now; it’s not about the business. It’s not about the people in the business.”

Lee: And then you’re defined the couple by what you do as well so that… and that’s difficult to shake off as well sometimes. It’s… “Oh, you know him, Lee and Theresa. Oh you know Lee and Theresa, that workaholic couple that own that business” and that’s it. That’s all you’re known as. So it’s trying to remember that you have an outside life as well. Especially for us two because we don’t have kids or anything so it can become very, it’s the one thing that consumes you.

Sharon: Yeah, I know. I can completely relate to that. I think you definitely… and even if it’s business partners who’ve been close friends and business partners for a number of years who do socialise together. I think the danger in those relationships that work encroaches on that social time as well. So boundaries are really good for everybody to consider and have in place.

So just going back to… You talked about I guess the ethos and the philosophy that you recognise that Salesforce had and that you wanted to bring that into your business as a way of differentiating Resource on Demand and the kind of service and business that it was. So maybe share with us a little bit more about the culture that you’ve built and perhaps a couple of key points that have helped you shape that culture that perhaps people can take away as good bits of advice.

Lee: So the… it sounds like a negative way of putting it, but when we first started I knew what I didn’t want us to be like. Having grown up in a rather cut-throat recruitment company where your… the guy sitting next to you who is your work colleague was also really, basically, your competitor. And there was no sharing of information. So you may as well have just been on your own. So I thought whilst I did all right in that environment, I didn’t want us to be like that.

And trying to make everything very collaborative is great… the sentiment is right. But sometimes when you’re recruiting for salespeople that it sometimes doesn’t work. So we’ve been through a few variations of how do we do that? How do you share information in an environment where to this day recruitment is very much about making placements and the salespeople getting their bonuses and commissions of the back of that?

So that’s something we’ve worked out over the years with the help of external coaches as well as just thrashing it out between us. We then decided as I said earlier on, to… while we accidentally went down the road or trying to build this Wolf of Wall Street culture we decided that actually no, that’s not for us. Recruitment has become such an online thing as well these days. I had this, used to have this issue were “Why aren’t people on the phone? Why isn’t there everyone standing up on the phone, being buzzy, doing deals?” Kind of environment. I think there’s an awful lot of recruitment now where it is just engaging with people online, engaging with them on whatever platform your niche market exists on. Or hangs out in, or whatever the term is.

It’s okay if the office isn’t a buzz with people on the phone, as long as they’re getting on with stuff. I’ve gotten over that. As I say, I’ve grown up in the environment where it was all, “Get on the phone” and I think I’ve overcome that a little bit.

Theresa: Yeah, and we did an exercise going a few years back now. Was about looking at the values that were important to us. But also within the team. And we did it as quite a fun team exercise, and at one point we had people running all over the office, putting Post-it Notes everywhere. But we just wanted to understand what the values were? What were the shared values that were inside the company? Because half the chance are if those values exist within our company, they’ll also exist within our candidates and the clients that we’re talking to. And it was really in a way getting into the psyche of what we were all about.

And it’s become apparent that people enjoyed working with us because of, I suppose the family, which let’s face it we’re husband and wife. So automatically you have that family feel. But it was about taking care of people. It was about having integrity, loyalty. It was about respect. More than anything else about respecting the people that you’re dealing with, respecting one another and so on.

That exercise alone actually started to highlight the kind of culture that we wanted to be. So in some respects, that’s helped us to identify the right kind of people. All about adverts when we’re advertising for new members of staff. Those adverts include the words that we would consider to be our core values. And of course, that will then entice the right kind of people because they’re reading it thinking, “Actually, that feels good to me because that feels like the kind of company I’d want to work for.”

So over time, actually recruiting for people that have similar values around a culture has been easy because we know what our culture is. We hire people that have a similar set of values to us and the culture just in a way builds itself. So we’ve got a great team out there now and we actually, funny enough, I think the beginning of this last week we’ve just taken a couple of new employees on and we just said, “It feels amazing out there.” Out on the sales floor the way people are working together, the way they’re interacting together, and the culture are in a way just taken care of itself, and it just feels amazing. It feels like such a great team out there. So yeah. It’s been a bit of a journey, but we now feel that we are definitely on the right track and it feels like the company that when we first sat down and thought about setting up, it feels like that company.

Sharon: Maybe that’s what you’ve just described there with two new employees coming in, that is proof of the pudding I think. That those people have slotted in and everybody is working with them.

Theresa: Yeah, yeah.

I haven’t seen them almost; it’s brilliant.

Lee: The industry we recruit for, the tech world, when you’re speaking to candidates, and they’ll say things like, “Oh, what’s the culture at this business?” I used to say things like, “Oh, it’s brilliant because they’ve got a Fussball table because they’ve got beanbags.” And actually, when I think about our culture, it’s not about the furniture you’ve got. It’s just about the people that are there and how you deal with those people, how you interact with those people and also that is internal with your employees but also externally with your customers.

So that’s now a harder question to answer when a candidate asks me about a client. Unless I’ve been there and I’ve seen how they do that, the answer’s quite difficult now. But yeah, I used to think that, and we went through, well we didn’t, thinking about it. But we had a phase of thinking that had to be like that. We had to copy that tech. “Don’t worry about looking smart, come in dressed in whatever you want. Yeah, let’s play ping pong. Let’s go to the pub every day”, you know? And those things can be nice but if that ends up being just a day-to-day thing I don’t think that’s culture any more.

Sharon: I think they’re often hygiene factors aren’t they? They’re that comfort factors and yet a building and a pool table and a table tennis table, they don’t make a business and a culture. It’s the people in it and as you say, Theresa, the kind of values of what’s important to those people, how those people gel together with those common values and what’s important to them. That’s what makes a culture. That’s what I think you described, Theresa, with having two new people come in and seeing how that’s worked. That’s your litmus test. I guess that what you’ve created is absolutely… The team are almost living and breathing that culture, and so I imagine you and Lee can sit on the sidelines. And you can see it’s just working now without you…

Theresa: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think… We make our core team. Everybody is the core team, but there are a few people within the business that have been with us a long time who have gone with us on that journey and are absolutely on the same page. So when we’re interviewing people, for us it’s really important those people are part of the interview process. And if one of us has a feeling about, in a good way or sometimes in a bad way, we don’t think that person quite fit in. We want to make sure we’re giving them that voice, that platform to be able to turn around and say, “I like the person but here’s why I think they might not be able to gel with the team.”

Because what we want to do is we want to make the onboarding to be a really pleasant experience. It’s bad enough coming into a new job and thinking, “I know nothing.” And you’re in that scary zone of, “Oh my God, I do not know anything.” They don’t have to; you don’t have to make it harder for them by then having to make it really difficult to make friends and fit in with your work colleagues. So if you’ve got the culture right, you know that and the values are there. We can teach them how to do the job.

But you can’t teach somebody how to interact with work colleagues. You can’t teach somebody necessarily how to interact with the clients. We have made mistakes in the past, put your hands up; you had to learn from those mistakes. But I think now that for us it’s all about the values. We know that we can teach the other stuff, but they can come in, they can feel comfortable from day one, and that’s important to us.

Sharon: That’s it. Yeah. Brilliant. Now you’ve mentioned a little bit about the challenges of growing the business as it’s grown organically. But if you were to sort of perhaps just put a spotlight on how you have got the Resource on Demand name out into the markets. So I guess just transitioning into some marketing conversation, what perhaps were some of the challenges that you faced overtime getting the business known in the market?

Lee: So when we started it was just old school, get on the phone, this is me more than Theresa doing the behind the scenes stuff. And network with very senior people within the space you’re niching in and making sure that you under promise and over deliver with the way that you deal with them and knowing that, from my point of view at least, knowing that I’m going to be around a long time in this world. Not this world, sorry, in the recruitment space, in the Salesforce space. And understanding that that will come back one day whether you do a deal with that person straight away or not, that they’ll go out there and think nice thoughts about you and hopefully that will come back.

So that’s the obvious way of doing it but eventually, you get to the point of thinking, “We also need to spend some money on advertising”, and I think recruitment agencies and us included can fall into the trap of everything you post out there is job, job, job, job, job. And after 97% let’s say, I’ve just made the number up, but a big percentage of the people in your niche aren’t looking. They’ll switch off to that, so we’ve got to the point where I think Theresa was learning with I think someone we outsourced and how to write stuff. Content for your marketplace that isn’t, “Oh I’ve got this job, I’ve got this job, I’ve got this job.” Over to you.

Theresa: Yeah. We started off with a newsletter. That’s all we had at one point and a website which again didn’t reflect us at the beginning because it was just quickly, get a website put together. And we took on a guy, and he was amazing at just getting us to realise what our potential was and it was a case of, he then decided to go on a different career path. And I ended up being the person that was doing the marketing. And let’s face it; my background is not marketing. I barely knew about Facebook. In fact, it was probably setting up a business that got me onto Facebook in the first place.

Everything I was learning was just by looking at other people’s Facebook pages and websites and in a way trying to take what I could get from those and do it myself. And it quickly became apparent that I was naff at my job at that point. So you suddenly have to realise, do you know what? This is just going to go nowhere if I continue to try and do it myself.

We tried a few companies. We tried to work with a few people. We tried to take on people internally but because I didn’t know what I was doing I didn’t even know how even to interview someone to be able to pull out the questions that I would need to know to find out if they knew what they were doing. So it’s again, it’s been a sort of kiss a lot of frogs. But I suppose one of the lessons I learnt early was to try and find recommendations, try and find referrals. And thankfully I did go on a coaching course and somebody recommended you guys and that for us, that’s been I suppose the biggest turning point when it comes to marketing because you actually opened our eyes to a lot of things that we weren’t doing and probably a lot of things we were doing that we just didn’t need to bother with any more.

I think newsletters, yeah they’re fine but there’s a lot of effort goes into them and probably very few people reading them whereas we could get a wider audience if we went a bit more online and used social media. So it’s finding the right partner I would say has probably been the best thing that we could have ever done, who we could trust that whatever advice they’re giving us is the best course of action and as a result of that we’ve then been able to go out and source other things that can complement those services.

So we’ve got other companies that do slightly different marketing to us that we had that sits alongside what you guys do. But for us, you have to make sure that the message that you’re conveying to those different partners is that the brand has to be protected. It needs to be consistent, and you need to know who your customer… I suppose your customer base is so that you’re sending the right messages out there. But once that’s been put into place all of the services complement one another.

But I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear this, but it was you guys that turned that all around for us because we just knew there was a company there that could help us put the strategy in place. Because to be honest, we didn’t have one. I can’t deny that.

Lee: Also, thanks to you guys, you help us to change ourselves a little bit and work outside of our comfort zone. Because the comfort zone for me in recruitment is kind of what I just said, it’s approach people looking for a job. That’s direct marketing if you like. You’re making us do podcasts and making us do little videos and occasionally write a blog of our own and things like that which makes you feel like, “Oh, I don’t know how to do this.” And I think in the early days of having your own recruitment business; specifically, if you haven’t gone for external investment, it’s all your own money. The return on investment for marketing can sometimes be hard to define. Especially if it’s not… If you write an advert and put it on LinkedIn, pay the money for that, and you get to see that it comes back from that and you make a placement, nice and easy. You can track that. But I think having someone write blogs for you, having someone do podcasts with and for you – you don’t necessarily see an immediate return on that so you sometimes, that could be the thing that you might drop. But I think that’s something you have to do continually. Drip feed it so that the… if I was correct earlier on, the 97% of people in your niche space that isn’t actively looking are still engaging with what you’re putting out there. So that’s something that I would say I’ve learnt from working with you guys, is to do things that are outside the comfort zone. Don’t be scared to try something different.

Theresa, it’s a passion that, isn’t it?

Sharon: Now that we’ve, I guess as we’ve worked with you, we know over the last few years. It’s been a journey together. And we’ve evolved the strategies that we’ve encouraged you to take up. But what would you say from a marketing point of view has made a real difference for you? Certain strategies work quicker than others, but what would you say has made the biggest impact recently?

Theresa: I would say it’s probably again, thanks to you guys for giving us a bit of a kick up the bum, but it’s following the journey of the social media platforms. So it’s understanding what’s fashionable right now because going back a few years it was all about the newsletters. Fast forward a little bit and suddenly it’s about Facebook. Then it becomes Twitter. Then it becomes Instagram and so on. And I think the biggest thing it’s understanding what is hip right now. And that makes me feel old to say those words, but it is that.

And I think when you’re stuck in the business, and you’re doing the day job you don’t necessarily have your finger on the pulse of what people find fashionable. Whereas as marketing specialists you’re always looking at what’s the latest platform? Where are people flocking to to get their news, get their information? So it is as basic as that. It’s knowing what is fashionable right now and for us the podcasts, videos, totally outside our comfort zone but that’s probably been the thing that’s had the biggest impact.

We’ve had lovely stories that have come back where a two-minute video that Lee put out there, we’ve got people messaging us going, “I loved your video, can we talk?” That’s the words that you want to hear is, “Can we talk?” Because it’s really hard to get people to want to talk or engage with a recruiter. So anything that makes people go, “I wanted to talk to you guys because I just loved what you put out there” that’s when you know you’re on the right track.

Sharon: Yeah. Well, that’s… I mean that is excellent because I think one of the things people talk about is, there is so much social media today. And there are lots of different platforms that we engage with, and everybody wants engagement so to hear that that is what you’re getting is exactly what we’re looking for. So that’s great to hear you say that.

Theresa: Fantastic.

Sharon: And so in terms of I guess how you now see marketing as a pillar of how you continue to grow Resource on Demand, what perhaps might you say to other business owners perhaps in a similar position who are thinking, “Well, I’m not sure about marketing. Do we go the internal route? Do we go outsourcing?” What words of wisdom might you have to share having gone through some of those experiences yourself?

Theresa: Yeah. Every business is completely different, so it’s hard to answer that as a straight direct answer because what’s right for our business isn’t always going to be right for someone else’s. So you do have to do a little bit of self-searching and think, “Do we want to have that internally? Do we want to have that externally?” For us I think we did try the internal route. But that didn’t work out for us because as I said, I’m not a marketing person. So it would have been like the blind leading the blind. So in that respect it became like a bit of a no brainer to say, “Do you know what? We’re going to invest that money into a company, a partner that we can work with very closely so that they can understand where we’re going with the company. They can understand who our client base is. They can understand us and our values and what was important to us.”

And I sometimes think the cost of getting it wrong, so if you do go down the internal route and you’re a bit clueless, actually that can cost you a lot more money than what it would do to outsource in the first place. So you have to have a way of I suppose in some respects, being able to mark or to track success. So whichever method you go down you need to be able to have some way of tracking success there because those lessons, if they go on far too long, could be the difference between the business surviving or not.

We’re not shy about investing money, and we’ve… I think marketing for us is like one of the biggest investments in our company when we look at all of our total running costs. It’s a huge proportion of our costs. But it’s worth it because if we didn’t investment that money, we would’ve just been bumbling along on our own trying to do it and then probably spending a huge amount of money to get that wrong. I would say to a company, figure out what you need. If you’ve got enough know-how internally then try the internal route. But if you don’t, then find a really good partner that you can work with.

Sharon: Yeah. Fantastic.

Theresa: I think that’s it really.

Lee: I think so. I think you’re spot on.

Sharon: Is there anything that perhaps I haven’t asked around business growth or around taking that marketing journey it encompasses that maybe you would like to add something?

Theresa: The only thing I can think of, it’s probably not marketing-specific. Although I suppose it could fit into this category is I think when we first went to our business coach one of the things they kept saying to us and we’ve touched on it a little bit about the vision that we had for the company. But it’s taken us a few iterations to get the vision absolutely how we want it to be and the warm fuzzy feeling that we had at the beginning of this week, that hasn’t happened in every instance. So I think if you’re going to step into it you have to have a clear vision of what you want your company to look like and it’s got to be aligned with you.

You’re the leader of the business; you’re the one that people are looking to for guidance. So you have to find a vision that’s congruent with yourself, with your values, with your own beliefs and then make sure that when you’re hiring people that fit into that strategy. And not taking people on board and then trying to fit those people into the strategy, that you’re hiring into your strategy. And just make sure that you find people that actually can do the job a hell of a lot better than you.

Lee: Also would be on the marketing side of things I think one of the important things we went through with you guys, I think it might have been one of the first times we ever met you, was to understand and do a real, almost like a case study, which you’ve done for us which was great. Understand who your avatar customers are. So in recruitment, everyone talks about clients and candidates. In our industry and probably most industries, they can be the same person. So it’s understanding who that avatar is. Understanding if they’re not actively recruiting or not actively looking for work themselves, what is it that they think about? What are their problems? And what are they reading online? What sort of content do they want to be seeing and digesting?

And then just writing all your social media content for that person, constantly. And that’s where you guys helped us to understand that. Because I think as a business, once you understand who your avatar is then everything you do, everything you put out there is for that person. That was a good one for me I think, learning that.

Sharon: Yeah.

Lee: Took a while to understand who it was, though, didn’t it?

Theresa: Yeah. And also I suppose with respect to marketing to find a company that’s prepared to challenge you. Push us outside your comfort zone. You can’t just sit there and do things the old way. You’ve got to move with the times.

Sharon: I shall remember that when we’re together in a few weeks, Theresa, as well.

Theresa: Yeah. Well, I might try and make you forget that but yes. No, you need someone who’s going to challenge you and push you.

Sharon: Yeah. No absolutely. I think that’s if you’re investing in external expertise then you want that expertise to be pushing a few buttons and encouraging you to go outside your comfort zone. Like I remember the first time you did a quick video, and I know it was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable when I went in front of the camera many years ago, but you’re now seeing some real benefits in response to that which excites me for you. And so my last little question is, this year is a big year for you, you’re celebrating 10 years of Resource on Demand. So how have you been celebrating that then with the team and for yourselves as well?

Lee: It was that good I’ve forgotten.

Theresa: Oh no, we had a cake made up in the shape of ROD, and we had quite a number of celebrations. It coincided with winning a few business awards so you could imagine the champers flowed quite easily amongst the team.

Lee: I think that was another idea of yours though wasn’t it? As a business, how often do people put themselves out there to try and win awards? So that was a great tip of yours, wasn’t it?

And then, well winning an award you can then say you’re an award-winning business and it’s great. So yeah, that was a nice way of celebrating.

Theresa: But we’ve also been doing podcasts. These are aimed at people that have been in the business as long as us, so these are the candidates and clients that we would have been speaking to when we first set up the business. And we’ve been doing podcasts with them to understand what their journey’s been like. What they’re experiencing has been like within the ecosystem, and that seems to be going down an absolute storm because we got people that are going, “Do you know what? I’m just starting out my career, and these podcasts are amazing because I’m just picking up real good soundbites on the things that I need to be doing to be successful.” So that’s like a big celebration because that’s bringing our clients and our customers into enjoying that celebration with us.

We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them, so there’s an opportunity to be able to thank them and give them that platform to be able to talk about what it’s been like for them. So we’ve done things like that, and of course you do cups and things…

Lee: You say, look I’ve got the merch again thanks to you guys. You put us in touch with the right organisation that gets some nice, get your logo on anything. So we’ve been sending that out to people that we’ve known for ten years as almost like a “Thanks for being there at the beginning” kind of thing. So that’s quite nice.

Sharon: Thanks for being part of the journey.

Lee: Oh, and also because we did, something we haven’t mentioned and something that probably we should have answered when you asked us about the culture question. One of the things we kind of took from Salesforce, their ethos is about putting back into the community and all that sort of stuff. So the company has its own foundation where we every year we do at least one thing every year that raises money for one of the charities that we’ve all agreed will be in the ROD foundation and one of the things we did this year, it didn’t end well to be fair, but because it was ten years we thought we’d do ten physical challenges over ten days.

That was all for charity as well so there’s stuff like, I think we’ve got ROD bake-off coming out. We’re doing a lot more charity things this year just as a way of celebrating. It’s not been one day anniversary; it’s the whole year really which is…

Sharon: It sounds like it’s come across the whole year and I know it’s sort of seen certain things. That was a pretty massive thing the tech challenge that you did.

Lee: Yeah. I was a bit brutal.

Theresa: Sore subject.

I’m still suffering from that. But worth it.

Lee: No. It was good. Yeah and we did something else, didn’t we? I can’t remember.

Theresa: We’ve had people out volunteering. There’s a wonderful local charity. Another important thing is taking care of the community that you’re working in. So other than volunteering, we’ve been to shelters for the homeless. We’ve had girls out from the office that has gone out and volunteered at We Are Beams which is a charity for children with disabilities. And an opportunity for their families to come along and have some fun time.

We’ve also sponsored a child. Education is, at the end of the day, probably more underfunded than it should be. And when you hear about your local school who can’t afford exercise books for all of the children, that makes you feel really sad that children are growing up in this country with the amount of wealth that goes around and you’ve got a school that can’t afford books for their children. So we’ve gone ahead, and even though we don’t have children, contacted the local schools and sponsored a child to provide their books for the year.

So it’s just little things like that. And it’s probably the biggest thing that gets people coming to us saying they want to work for us because of that other side of the business which is all about putting back into the community.

Sharon: Yeah. And I think it’s a real testament to the kind of business and the culture that you guys have built really. I’m mindful of time. I appreciate you taking time to share your story, to talk about ROD and some of the amazing things that you are doing today and the journey that you’ve been on. And also to share some of your experiences as well about how marketing has played a part of that journey for you.

So thank you both so much. Really appreciate your time. Looking forward to seeing you in the next few weeks, I think. It’s not long. It’s amazing how it’s come around. And have a great rest of the day.

Theresa: Thank you.

Lee: Thanks, Sharon.

Sharon: Thank you so much.

The post Resource on Demand Lessons Learned During 10 Years Of Growing A Recruitment Business appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Scaling a recruitment business can be incredibly hard work. Outdated business models don’t help either. 

So how can you scale, make more profit and get your life back? These are the exact questions I put to Katy Green from Centredexcellence.

A former successful recruitment MD herself and now high performance coach Katy shared a number of ideas; many of which will surprise you.

Paste here…This is a full transcription of my conversation with Katy. Please excuse and rogue typing errors, please!

Denise

Well, hi there everyone, this is Denise from Superfast Recruitment, and I am excited today because finally I’ve got THE Katy Green, one half, of the rapidly expanding Centred Excellence with me today. And I have so many questions, I don’t know quite where to start.

But what I want to do is I’ll let Katy introduce herself, but for those of you that don’t know Katy and the Centred Excellence brand, this is a fantastic brand who I am delighted to say that we have been working with ourselves for gosh, I think it’s coming up to 10 years now since we first met Nicky.

In various guises we’ve worked with the guys, but one of the things about them that I love is their ethos and the way that they work with business owners, particularly around helping them scale the business, but also critically getting their life back at the same time which I think is critical.

So, Katy, I’ve got all these questions to ask you. Excuse me if I keep referring to my notes because I don’t want to miss anything because we’ve had a couple of our guys put questions here that they want to ask you as well. But I think tell us a little bit about yourself, and Centred Excellence first.

Katy

Yeah, lovely, well thank you very much for a lovely intro there Denise, really appreciate it. And we’re very appreciative of being your client too, thank you so much for the work you do for us.

So, as you said, my name’s Katy Green, I am the other half of the Centred Excellence. So, Nicky and I joined partnerships, it was about three and a half years ago now. So, yeah, time has flown in a really positive way and yet at the same time, there are so many changes, positive changes to our business too.

So, my background, which most people will be interested in, is that I have been in recruitment pretty much 18 years, 19 years, maybe even 20 years. So, a long time, and I think like lots of different people in recruitment, especially with their own recruitment businesses.

I started classically as that recruitment consultant and worked my way up to running a recruitment business, MD of a business called Aspire.

And I did that in London, I ran their London office for around six years. That was a niche recruitment business, yes fairly large. So at the time that I ran that business, I had around averaging 65 fee earners, turnover of around £8 million.

We were contract and perm. I also ran or was responsible for an outsource function that we did for one of our digital clients. So, I had quite a breadth of experience and responsibility. That was across about 12 different disciplines, so I’ve got lots of experience that I can pull on for my clients around all those service offerings and models, and also around launching new desks because most of those desks came off the digital revolution.

Also, the first thing that I did when I started recruitment, I started a team in the marketplace that I worked in beforehand. So, a very colourful background, I’ve had lots of experience on merging databases. We acquired two businesses, bedded them into London, so I’ve got experience of doing that too. Plus the outsource function, and we had international offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.

So many different things that I was I’ve got say very grateful and very lucky to be a part of and to experience because that’s what gives me some of my uniqueness now in terms of the areas of expertise that I can share with individuals.

Denise

Yeah. And a cheeky little question from me, what made you move to the coaching? Because I know you’re a fantastic coach as well, and I just wonder what prompted the shift?

Yeah, well for me, I had always been interested, one of the things that’s probably the biggest part of my role and I enjoyed the most was around people development, succession planning. I grew all of my managers organically up through the ranks, so from consultant through to managers. And I had a team of 12 managers. So, I absolutely loved coaching, loved developing, getting the best out of individuals.

And then I took myself off on my own NLP journey. This was before I actually even started working and met Nicky. I decided to do my own personal development plan, and that took me into the world of NLP.

And it was off the back of that, similar to Nicky, I started applying some of those things into the business, and just seeing the shifts that people got from some simple tweaks and techniques that I’d learnt was incredible.

So, then I was a client of Nicky’s, so I’ve been on that other side as well. And I really wanted to continue to do more on the coaching, personal development, helping people to become the best that they possibly can, which I believe everyone has that ability within them.

And I approached Nicky and said, “Look, I’m thinking that I’d like to do something like you’re doing. What do you think? Do you think I’ve got enough experience to be able to add value to people?” And she said, “Yeah, better than that, why don’t we join forces and do this together?” And the rest is history as they say.

Denise

NLP has a lot to answer for.

Katy

It does, it does. Yeah, it is transformational, it is. Also, it’s taken me on another journey into other areas now, but it’s a big life-changer. 

Denise

I haven’t realised that because both Sharon and I started our NLP journey and then left our corporate roles and started our own business. So, it’s an interesting one, isn’t it?

So, let me ask you this question first of all. As an ex-recruitment business owner, as an MD, what do you think are the three biggest problems that business owners are facing today?

We are in a very disruptive market; lots of things are changing, the 360 recruiting model is not effective any more. What are those three key things you think that are the big problems that people need to be aware of and handle?

Katy

Okay, they might not be expecting. The first one that I would say is actually focus.

And let me explain why that is. It’s because we all have the same time and energy, so everyone has the same amount. We all have the same constraints that we work under. But what makes the difference is what you choose to spend that time and energy on.

So, we know people get different results. You look at recruitment businesses, some people get some results, some people get other results. And the key difference in those results will be what you choose to spend your time and energy on.

What I notice and I can say this because hands up I’ve been there myself, is what most people in recruitment do, unknowingly, are they burn themselves out. And they burn themselves out on doing too many things at once.

So, it could be things like one minute I’m doing an invoice, the next minute I’m I don’t know, searching for a candidate. The next minute I’m doing some business development, the next minute I’m writing a PSL pitch. The next minute I’m looking at my stats and my conversions.

So, what will happen is they could be doing 20 things all at the same time, but what they’re doing is they’re proportioning their energy and time on those 20 things. So, actually the effectiveness of being in those 20 areas is limited, whereas what super successful people do is they focus on the two or three, no more than three, key areas that will give me the biggest return, that will make the biggest shifts.

Because when you focus on less, then you can spend more time on those and energy on those areas, and therefore get a greater output.

Denise

I’m thinking how do they identify those three big areas? Is there a formula that you guys use? I know you’ve developed a lot of processes and models.

Katy

Yeah. And you’ve probably heard us talk about the 80:20 rule. And that’s Pareto’s Law.

And that’s primarily if you think about it, what’s interesting is certain actions will not have the equivalent result out of that action.

So, what I mean by that is you can do one action, but your return on that action, so the input might be a small amount, but the output might also be a small amount. Or the input could be a large amount of time and energy, but actually what you’re getting back on the output is a small amount of time and energy.

So, here comes the difference between being super successful and super disciplined and focused like that monk-like discipline, versus I am a jack of all trades and I’m doing too many things at once.

Because then what happens is I could be proportioning 80% of my time, or more or less, but a good proportion of my time on actions and activities that have a big input but very little output. So, I’m not as effective as I could be.

And we know that in recruitment there are so many things that you can be focusing on that actually it’s really important that you do learn, and that will probably bring me to the question you’ve just asked me in terms of the answer to that, that you do learn what are those things that I need to be spending more of my time on?

This is something that we teach people. This is the one thing, focus and discipline, that we teach people because people often think it’s all around the strategies that I need in terms of implementing in my business, like business strategies. And yes, absolutely they are critical, they’re important, yet the biggest change that you need to make is actually in yourself.

And one of those key areas is often around this focus point and this discipline, this monk-like discipline that people need to have. Because if you look at the uber-successful people in this world, they will be very clear on what are the actions, the 20% of my activities that will give me 80% of my output? Also, how do I make sure I’m doing more of those actions?

So, you do need to know what to focus on, you’re right. And the first place to start with that is actually what’s my goal that I want to get to? Because you have to be able to measure things to know what to focus on.

So, what is my goal? Because when you’ve got a clear and defined goal, and you know what this is, that’s going to help you keep on track. That’s going to help you actually keep focused. Because then what you can do is start measuring well where is my time going? What am I giving my time to? And are those actions moving me towards my goal, or are they taking me away from my goal?

So, does that make sense?

Denise

Yeah, and I’m fascinated as well because often when you talk to people, and we talk to business owners all the time, is that when you say it’s your goal, often you’ll have a conversation and they’ve got three or four goals or more.

Katy

And in many ways I understand why that is because the challenge that we have with recruitment is that it’s so reactive.

So, what happens is every single day you have hundreds of actions, activities, scenarios, situations, problems being chucked at you. Fact. You do. And so it’s even more difficult for recruitment business owners to be able to move those … break that noise, silence that noise, and actually say hold on a minute, I’ve got all of these things coming at me.

What are the one or two things that are going to make the real difference today? And the reason they’re going to make that difference is because they’re going to move me powerfully towards that goal that I have.

And this is the difference between us setting a target, like you’re saying, so let’s say we set a goal at the beginning of the year, and that goal might be a financial target. And we set that goal and then we work our way towards it.

But actually what happens for a lot of recruitment business owners if that’s a goal, but that gets lost in the air very quickly. And suddenly any budget, any target that they started with at the beginning of the year, even as quickly as something within three months, has been chucked out of the window. Why? Because things are landing in their lap and they’re not making sure that everything that they’re doing is focused on that one point to get them there. And so they’re working on things reactively around them, and actually those things aren’t going to move them powerful. And or, worse than that, they’ve just lost their top biller and their top biller is 40% of their revenue target.

Focus is, honestly is the key thing. So, how would you do that? Here’s something that people could do that would help them to do it. So, the first thing that you want to do is track your time. Now, we do this in a more in-depth process, but I’ll literally give you five steps to how you could do it.

The first thing is over the period of a week, track every 30 minutes where your time is going. So, what activities is your time going on?

So, track your time every 30 minutes and then categorise them. And you’re going to put them into categories. And then what you’re going to do is you’re going to calculate the percentage of your time that is spent in those different categories.

And then you’re going to label those categories, is it of value or is it of waste of time or can I outsource it?

And then you’re going to say right, what are the ones that I want to eliminate that are the waste? And then what are the ones that I want to do more of that are of value? And focus on those that are going to move you towards your goal. That’s a really, really quick simple way.

Denise

Yeah. So, focus, what next? What are the other two that you would suggest?

So, the other two, we teach … so, to build a really super successful recruitment business, there are four key machines that get you there.

We call them the four machines. And these are all about the flow of the pipeline. So, the first machine is all around your acquisition, your acquisition or your clients and your candidates. So, that’s your incoming. The second machine is around your conversion, and I was just talking about this actually on our Q&A call earlier to some of the guys. The second one is your conversion, so how am I converting those clients that are coming in and converting those candidates? And then the third is your delivery, so what’s your service delivery to do that? What value have you added to your client? And then the fourth is the economic machine, so how well is my business running in terms of finance?

But the key ones here that I would say that people need to focus on are certainly for the benefit of this call, is those first three because what will happen is that people’s business will not be being successful, and the reason that it’s not being successful is because this flow of pipeline between those machines somewhere along the line is not flowing properly. So, either I haven’t got enough of my clients coming in and therefore I’ve got a BD issue.

And so I can’t convert them because I don’t have enough at the front end, or candidates. So, that’s the first part in terms of the acquisition. Or, they’re in the second stage, which is about conversion, and that could be that they’re just not able to convert those clients properly.

So, that could be things around the model. It could be things around their team. It could be things around the processes that they’re using. It could be things around maybe competency, and or it could be around how they’re actually delivering that value, that service to the client. So, it could be lots of different reasons why that second machine has got a problem or a block.

And then that third machine on the service delivery will absolutely be about how they are delivering that service. And I’m talking about not just the pre-placement management, the post-placement management. The whole structure from start to end of how they’re delivering that service. And there could be blocks in that.

Denise

I think customer service gets so overlooked, and it is so vital as we move into the next decade.

Ryan Deiss who runs one of the biggest marketing conferences in the world ran a whole day on this exact topic. Though we live in an online world where everything is about the click of a mouse , amazing customer service will help you stand out.

Yet so many people, and I think particularly when it comes to recruitment forget this.

I remember old school recruitment, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry before I had my own business. And I’ll never forget, you knew your recruitment consultant by name, you could ring them at any time. And they would always give you a steer on things. And you just felt included.

Then things started to change and you can never get hold of anybody. And I think now we’re starting to move back again. So, I think it’s such a vital thing.

Katy

You’re right because, in the world that we’re in today, it’s all-around customer experience. Whether we want to embrace it or not, it is. And people are looking for a different degree of customer experience. They want more innovation, they want different ways to be engaged with. And, again, I think recruitment sometimes we can be a little bit behind the times shall we say.

We think that we can still offer the same level of service and do things in the same way that we’ve done for years, and that’s still going to work. And it’s fact, it just isn’t. You’ve got to be different. You’ve got to be clear on what your differentiators are. You have to be clear on how that client or candidate is experiencing you in a different way that is going to put you in a different pond if you like from other people.

So, you’ve got to make sure that there are unique abilities in that way. And that repeatable business is absolutely critical because you cannot scale a business unless you have something which is repeatable.

Denise

Could you talk a bit more about that Katy? When you say repeatable, you mean with the same accounts, or …?

Katy

Well yeah, absolutely. So, you want to make sure that you have clients coming back to you. And that you want to have if you like a group, or some major accounts that you know are giving you almost guaranteed revenue every month, every year.

And the moment that you can systemize your service offering so that you are providing a very high level service offering, that is when you can start moving that client from contingent business to retained or exclusive.

And that’s where the repeatability starts to become more exciting, because then what you have is you not only have things coming in a different format to you, or in a more guaranteed way, but also your clients you can have contracts with them that could be for a year, for two years, rather than you’re a spot business, contingent recruiter who’s only as good as the last placement, or the current placement that I’m making.

Denise

And that’s risky.

When it comes to other problems, what other actions do you and Nicky experience that make a huge difference to people’s results?

Well, I think we’ve touched on it, haven’t we, which has to be around that 360 model and around processes and systematisation.

Because if you want to grow a business that can release you from working 24/7, that potentially if you have an appetite or desire or aspiration that you want to sell it in the future, or if you just want to have that right work-life balance where you can go on holiday with your family and not have to be working while you’re on holiday, or not having to be worried about what’s going on in the office, you have to have a business which is systemized.

And one of the key areas that is a big problem within that whole systematisation piece is that 360 model, because that’s probably one of the biggest culprits I would say that affects recruitment businesses in their ability to create a reliable, a sustainable, a scalable business.

Denise

It’s interesting because one of our clients, we had a call with one of our groups recently about 360 and this particular company were recruiting. And one of my clients text me after to say, “360, definitely dead. How can you possibly ever find a 360 recruiter now that will stay with you and can deliver.”

Katy

And he or she is right. And in fact I did a call earlier with a gentleman who actually had come to one of our events. Hasn’t been on our course, and had come to one of our events. And he said to me, “Katy, the reason I’m calling you back now three months later to say that I want your help is-You were right all along! – is because these two guys of mine that were doing 360 have literally just walked out of my business setting up in total competition because they think they can do it themselves.”

And he said to me, “And I know what the problem is. I know what the problem is. It’s because I’m still working with the 360 model.”

And it’s a killer. It’s a cashflow killer, it’s a killer in so many different ways because it puts you at high risk.

Because in that same scenario if one of your top billers walks out tomorrow, you don’t have the relationships with the client, and you’ve lost a major chunk of that revenue for the next year. And that’s not easy to make up. We all know that. That takes time.

Denise

So, what do you suggest people do instead? What do they need to start considering?

Well, the wonderful news is there are other ways of recruiting now which will leverage your time and resources and expertise 10 times greater than running a 360 model.

The first place to start is we actually map peoples service offering first, to understand what model works for them because there are two different types of models that we teach.

We have what we call the 120 model. I’ll call it 120 because people understand that means rather than our language for it. And the 120 model is where you have resources, then you’ll have people doing delivery and people doing business development: So, you split that 360 function into three.

Then we have something we call the 240 model, and there’s two different ways you can do that. So, you can have business development and delivery as one core function. So, you would either have a consultant who’s doing business development and delivery together, or a pod of people who are doing that, depending on the size or your team. And then you would have somebody else who would be doing the resourcing function, or that candidate acquisition and supplying those candidates to that individual.

Or, you can put resourcing and delivery together as one function and then have somebody doing the business development as a separate function.

Denise

In preparation for this call, I was looking at some of your different stats and some of the results that some of your clients get. And they’re pretty outstanding, aren’t they?

Yeah, actually. Let me give an example of that. So, you might have seen an interview that I did recently with James Moorhouse.

One of our clients. So, James was doing the 360 model and they were, well it wasn’t being successful for them. And at the time he even said to me and I’ll quote him on the interview, he said, “I thought 360 was the way to go, and it wasn’t until I met you ladies and learnt that there were other ways of doing it, and came on the course.”

And then when they did that, we taught them. They picked up and decided that actually having mapped their service offering, the one that was going to work best for them. Well, when I say best for them, let me reframe that. When you map your service offering, the way you want to decide which is the right model for me is based upon how am I serving my customers? So, it’s not about me as a recruitment business. It’s not about how I want that service to be delivered. It’s actually about what’s right for my customers. And that is part of the process that we do.

So, from there, it was the 120 model for James and that’s what they applied. Now, he will tell you, quoted in that video, they have in the last six months produced 50% more revenue with that model than they were doing previously.

And they’ve gone from two people to seven.

He’s five at the moment, he’s got two more joining shortly. But those guys are not all fee earners. He said the profit that they’re getting, they’re getting 26% more profit on every placement that they make.

Denise

26% more profit? Wow. And that’s purely from working from people’s strengths then?

Katy

Absolutely. And he said I now realise where my flow is. And part of that will be actually going back to what we were saying about focus. Where am I spending my time? Am I in flow? Am I focused on the things that I’m best placed to be doing that work in my flow and that I get great results from? And then how do I make sure I’ve got the right people around me in those right roles?

Because somebody who loves business development and is really good at business development probably isn’t going to be as good or as motivated with finding candidates, or doing the resourcing function. Because they take different types of energies.

I would totally agree with your client that if you are still working a 360 model, it is going to absolutely prohibit you in a very big way to scale that business.

Denise

Yeah. Am I allowed to ask … I know I’m allowed to ask because it’s our podcast , but when you say different energies, what do you mean by different energies, when you say it takes a different energy from a resourcer to a BD person?

Yeah, so we use a profiling tool that looks at when you’re most in flow and what those energies are. And then when you understand when you’re most in flow or what type of energy you are, you can actually build a team around you to compliment those energies. And it very much, it totally maps onto the 360 role. So, it’s a no brainer because it means that when people hire, they can actually again it’s more confidence because if they’re looking at people’s energy sets as well as interviewing them from a competency base, it gives them a much tighter and a better interview process. More successful.

Denise

I think it’s fascinating, there are so many things out there that can help you with your business. And it’s not just the next marketing strategy or the next sales process or script that you use, it’s so many other things that interact with your business results.

‘ve shared a lot. Where do you think people, if you think about … you talked about focus, you talked about the four key areas of the business, you’ve talked about the 360. Where do you suggest somebody they’ve just come across you for the first time, they’re in an absolute mess. They’re overwhelmed, they’re worried, they’re concerned. Things just aren’t working. Apart from getting on the phone to you, where do you think they start? Where would you say, “Look, okay, let’s just start here?”

Katy

Right, okay. So, the first thing that we do is we start to cut through the crap. Sorry, I’m going to say that. And we will literally remove things for you. So, we will show you how to get 80% of things off your plate straight away. So, people leave us after the first experience with us off just feeling lighter, just feeling clearer on what their focus is.

We get them absolutely clear on what are the next steps for the next 90 days, the next quarter? And those steps will move them forward powerfully.

And what’s interesting, because you mentioned about the results that we get for our clients, is that that first time that they meet us, what happens off the back of that for people is probably one of the biggest uplifts that people will get. And you know Dawn really well.

Denise

Oh yes, we do.

Katy

And a great example is probably Dawn. I know you’ve worked with Dawn as well. And Dawn in the first two weeks of coming off the back of working with us the first time suddenly did six times more placements than she’d done in the last previous six months. And that was because we got her very focused on what are those types of roles that you’re recruiting for and the process to follow to do that.

I would say whether or not let’s say us or any other provider in terms of other people that you could work with, the first thing I would advise people to do is do that time process, because even if they did that and weren’t working with us, it’s going to give them insights. 

Denise 

Yeah. Like you said, for any business owners I still fill out an activity inventory even to this day. If I suddenly get to .. we finish about half five, probably about half six really, and I’m still here and I’m thinking, “What have I got up to today.”

I know that I need to get that form out and I need to fill it out again and just think, “Oh right, so I’m doing this, I’m doing that.” And that’s how we identified all the roles in the business now that we need as we’re scaling, so it’s just that absolute clarity.

As we draw to a close is there anything else you think is really key for people to know about scaling and growing their recruitment business which you haven’t already mentioned?

Katy

I will go back to the systematisation of their processes because I think sometimes … some recruitment business owners have a fear of key success factors, KPIs and processes let’s say.

That is probably because they might have had a bad experience themselves in the past where they worked for a company and it was very KPI driven. And then they start their own business with that absolute aspiration, goal of I’m going to make sure that my business is different.

I don’t want the control mechanisms that make us feel like we’re becoming a slave to our business. And yet actually by having a business that’s systematised and processed, you are giving more of your own flair and creativity and delivering much more.

So, let me explain what I mean by that, it’s because if you have a process and you know that process is one that you personally would use with a client. So, if a client touches you and they say, “I get an awesome, awesome level of service whenever I work with you.” And then they work with one of your colleagues or part of your team and that person doesn’t follow that same structure to you, so actually what the client or the candidate experiences is substandard in comparison.

So, when you have a process that you know that everyone follows and it is the magic moments that you create, that you give to that client and that candidate, and everyone else is giving that same magic moment, then you will have a far, far more successful business.

And it’s turning that kind of if you like misunderstanding of what systems do for you. Because they actually enable you to control your business, rather than be a slave to your business. And it definitely means that you can grow your business and that you can remove yourself from having to be in that business 24/7 and also having to micromanage people.

You’ve got to allow … those systems actually allow the empowerment and the autonomy to happen.

Denise

Structure is freedom.

Katy

Yes. Structure is freedom!

Denise

I might claim that one. I don’t know if I’ve stolen that from somebody else, however, it sums everything up perfectly.

But I think that really is a key point about its structure. And you may, probably you and Nicky do. I know because I’ve spoken to Nicky about it, is that often people say, “I don’t have the time.” And it’s about well, if you systematise things, you would have the time.

You would.

And it’s about making it important enough. So, Katy, you’ve been incredibly generous today with all your insights. If people want to find out more about the Centred Excellence magic, what do they need to do and how can they find you?

Right. So, you could either probably the best way is to either pick up a phone or email me. My email address, is [email protected]. You’ve got our website which is www.centeredexcellence.co.uk. Or connect with me on LinkedIn.

The post How To Scale Your Recruitment Company-A Conversation With Katy Green From Centredexcellence appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

So many of us think small.

We think in terms of what we believe IS possible.

When we think this way, we create futures based on our past and our lives look the same for the rest of our lives.

We stop creating, we stop growing…

Today, we take a deeper look at the power of setting impossible goals for yourself and talk about how to take action toward them.

Join me as I review the reasons for setting an impossible goal and show you how to bridge the gap between your impossible goal and your immediate reality. I explain what you can do to make sure that you’re having your next actions be possible and how to think about these concepts in a way that keep you moving forward and the big scary goal doesn’t keep you frozen.It sometimes seems like many recruiters have forgotten the rule of ‘quality over quantity’.

Yes, we understand that a higher number of candidates will give you more of a chance of one of them being suitable but aiming for high numbers can actually be detrimental to your service and your businesses reputation.

When it comes to clients some might have had a vacancy which hasn’t been filled for weeks on end; rarely a good sign. Or the vacancies they have aren’t in your sweet spot.

Business lessons 101 you don’t have to work with every company who has a vacancy in today’s market you can pick and choose and the same applies to candidates too.

It sometimes seems like many recruiters have forgotten the rule of ‘quality over quantity’.

Yes, we understand that a higher number of candidates will give you more of a chance of one of them being suitable but aiming for high numbers can actually be detrimental to your service and your businesses reputation.

When it comes to clients some might have had a vacancy which hasn’t been filled for weeks on end; rarely a good sign. Or the vacancies they have aren’t in your sweet spot.

Business lessons 101 you don’t have to work with every company who has a vacancy in today’s market you can pick and choose and the same applies to candidates too.

Why?

Let me tell you…

Only in choosing to work with the right candidates and clients will you grow your organisation. Trying to work with people or businesses who you are not aligned with is highly unlikely to produce the results you want – instead, you are going to run round like a headless chicken, get frustrated and it’s going to slow your growth down too.

So where can you start.

In order to identify who is a potential lead or not, you need to eradicate any leads that are a dead-end. You can do this in the first instance (and save yourself time later) by using the B.A.N.T method. This means –

Budget – When you enter into a conversation with a client, you must identify if they have the budget to be able to work with you. You might be working on a 20% fee, but if the client is trying to negotiate your price down from the beginning, this is never a good sign.

You are providing a valuable service, and that service costs X.

If you are thinking of introducing a retained search service in your business, does the client have the capability to pay for the retained search service or even your fee.

Authority – It’s happened to the best of us; you spend nearly an hour on the phone with someone, or worse still – you drive to meet them face to face, and only at the end of the exchange do they let slip that actually, they are not the decision-maker in the company.

Make sure that the person you are working with has the authority to say ‘yes’.

Need – After 15 years of successfully marketing recruitment companies, we are some of their biggest champions I know and let’s be honest here we are in the middle of a skills shortage.

Coupled with the fact that every employer has a massive to do list already and recruiting is another thing on their pile-so it’s becoming a logical spend.

Timeline – The timing of clients and candidates is crucial to recruitment businesses, especially those working in contingency. Identify those who say ‘yes’ and are ready to buy now, not next year or at some point in the future. 

Your ideal clients and candidates will have a profile, whether you have pictured them in your mind’s eye or not. And if you haven’t, now is the perfect time to start.

The main points to consider are-

The location of your customers is still a really important factor (yes, even in spite of the internet!) as the vast majority of us want to work close to where we live, and not everyone is keen to move cross country for a job – even their ‘dream’ job.

Plus for some companies they want to work with a local supplier when it comes to recruiting.

While we are moving away from a time where business decisions were sometimes based heavily on stereotypes, there are still some key points to consider about the demographics of your customers.

Are they married, single? Male or female? Have a young family or elderly parents? All of these factors are key, and they influence the decisions we make – whether we realise it or not.

Information about a candidate’s attitudes, beliefs, interests and personality traits can be used to understand their motivations and if they are the kind of candidate you want to work with, such as personality and behavioural test results or MBTI classifications.

So, you’ve realised that there are certain types of clients and candidates you want to work with, but how do you go about attracting them?

It is here that you need to go granular. Look at your ‘ideal’ client and candidates through a microscope, and when you identify them – let them know you are looking for them.

Fact you need to both attract and repel, other wise you will waste a lot of time and effort.

Let me share some basic, and far more detailed ways to identify clients and candidates –

Basic: We work with pharma companies in the UK providing field people.

Detailed: We work with biotech companies in the UK with between 50-150 employees. We provide specialist managers and team leaders.

These two ways of positioning yourself, using the pharma sector as an example, show how the second detailed part will attract a far more specific type of candidate.

Basic: We are looking for anyone that has worked for a major player and has 5 years’ experience.

Detailed: Jane, 38, has a degree in physiology. She completed her doctorate part-time when she had her first daughter, and she currently resides in Horsham in a 4-bed detached house with her husband, a medic, and two children. Jane is ambitious but concerned about not getting the promotion she is hoping for.

When positioning yourself to help a pharma candidate, how much more successful do you think you will be when you have the candidate profile in as much detail as ‘Jane’ has been identified?

Sometimes recruiters tell us ‘we’ve had so many unsuitable CVs uploaded for this position’ which admittedly, can sometimes happen. But this also might be down to the messages on your website. We should be attracting people with our messages – but we also should be repelling unsuitable clients and candidates.

Cut down the amount of time dealing with your ‘wrong’ customers, and you increase your conversion rates on the ‘right’ ones.

Do you need help identifying your ideal clients and candidates?

Nailing your customer avatar is the key to your success. Get in touch with us today or call us on +44 (0)1524 784 331 to find out how we can help.

The post How To Identify The Right Candidates and Clients To Grow Your Recruitment Revenues appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

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This is a direct transcription from a recent interview with Clair Bush on the incredibly popular topic of personal branding for recruitment directors and owners. Please excuse any rogue typos or grammar mishaps!

Denise: Well, hi there everyone, this is Denise from Superfast Recruitment, and the Recruitment Marketing and Sales podcast. I am thrilled to finally get Clair from Ambush marketing here to talk about personal branding. We’ve tried to get this together, haven’t we, for a while, because it’s a really vast and critical topic at the moment I think for nearly every business owner out there on the planet, particularly in the recruitment sector, Clair, because of what’s going on in the market, with such growth.

I’ve got a whole set of questions here to ask Clair, and I’m going to go through those, but Clair has gratefully agreed to run through one of her keynote presentations for us today. So, some of you may be watching this on YouTube, so if you want to see the slides for our podcast listeners, head over to the Superfast Recruitment channel on YouTube and see them there, and hopefully that will be useful.
So, some of you will know Clair from Rec Expo. She was very embarrassed when I said she masterminds the whole event. I think from a speaker point of view she does, and for delegates she makes everything run smoothly, which is pretty awesome. But another thing that Clair does is she works with many tech startups.

She’s worked with the likes of Bullhorn and various other people. However, I think it would be easier if I hand over to you first of all, and let you chat through more about Clair and personal branding. Also, I’m sure that we’ll get around to answering all these questions throughout this presentation, Clair. So, I’m going to hand over to your good self.

Clair: Thank you very much, and it’s lovely to be here as well. So, yes, thank you very much for inviting me.
If I share my screen, you can see there I’ve got this one I prepared earlier. However, yeah, personal branding, I guess it’s been a passion of mine for a very long time. And that’s kind of because I quite like brands, I’m a bit addicted to brands. So I’ve always had this relationship with really gorgeous looking logos. You’ll see there this is a couple of logos that I’ve worked for. As you mentioned, Bullhorn. I’ve also been at Broad Bean. I now represent about six different businesses from recruitment, technology startups, meet and engage, through to brands that have been around for over 10 years.

I also work with a couple of recruitment agencies, again that have been around a long, long time, but they’re constantly investing in their branding, and they’re continually investing in their market proposition.
I suppose that’s the real reason why we’re talking, and I speak to them a lot about, is their brand value proposition. Also, that’s really where I get love and passion around branding as well. So, essentially a bit more about me, I’ve got a gorgeous 10-year-old son who’s going to be 10 in a couple of days. I’m quite arty, so I love doodling, but also as well, this will probably remind people that marketing is actually about just colouring in. I love the fact that I do have tonnes of crayons everywhere throughout the house. And on every desk that I’ve ever inhabited, I’ve had my crayons and my paper because I like to draw and doodle and colour stuff in!
And that’s my little puppy on the bottom right-hand side as well, so I’m a dog person and not a cat person.

Denise: I knew that’s why we got on, and we like the same colour of dog. Only our dog has got a little bit greyer over the years.

Clair: As you said, Denise, I’ve been around recruitment businesses now for quite a while, and I’ve looked after several different brands. And I’ve always said that that’s basically what I do, I help brands to make the most of themselves, whether that’s individual, people brands or business brands to make money. And I’m quite commercially minded when it comes to marketing in that respect as well.

For me there are three main reasons why branding should be on your radar and your agenda. From a commercial perspective, we’re not here just for the good of our health, although if you do enjoy your job as much as I do, then it makes it a damn sight easier. However, we’re here to make money; we’re here to run businesses and have that commercial reality. We’re here to provide services. Also, a lot of those services are enabled because we can talk about the value that we can add.

So, branding is a way to get communication across. It gives you presence; it gives you a position. It gives you something that you can tell somebody something about your brand, the value of service that you offer, and you can put it across that way.

And then the final part for me is community. So, there’s lots of C’s, but it is about bringing together the community that you serve. And whether you united everybody under one flag, one logo, one icon, it doesn’t matter so long as everybody is part of that community, they drive that forward as well.
And branding’s as much external as it is internal. And I always try to make sure as well that we’ve got a view of both sides of the fence. So, what does your brand mean to your community? However, what does it mean outside of that community as well? And I think that’s a critical point; you’ve got to always see beyond the fence if you like, and make sure that you are projecting the right kind of proposition that you want, and the right vision that you want people to take on from you.

So, I thought it would be quite fun to play a bit of logo bingo. And the reason why I thought this was fun is because I want to think about personal brands, and I want to think about what kind of person sits behind some logos that might be quite famous? So, Denise, you’re going to be my guinea pig right now.

Denise: I could have pre-empted this, and swotted up on it.

Clair: So, here are the CEOs or MDs behind these logos?

Denise: Well, Virgin, I would say is Sir Richard.

Enterprise, I don’t know. I suspect it’s a female, but I’m not sure. Amazon is Jeff Bezos. Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Tesla, Elon Musk. I cannot, even though I do have an iPhone, I am a bit of an Android girl really, so I have no idea who is now the Apple CEO. And UPS, I don’t know. And GM, I don’t know.

Clair: No, not at all. And the reason why I did this was just to throw out there that actually those figureheads of the businesses that have a massive social presence are really, really instantly recognisable alongside of their company brands. You wouldn’t be able to separate Richard Branson and Virgin. That’s kind of like an instant, especially for us in the UK, it’s real instant recognition. The CEO at the moment for Enterprise is a lady called Pam Nicholson. And the reason why I put this up, my husband works for Enterprise, he’s worked there since he left university 20 years ago. But he’s been in that company for such a long time, and he’s worked in lots of different departments, but what he really loves about that business is that he associated himself as an Enterprise employee through and through.

And he’s worked for lots of different bosses along the way, but what really gets him is the story behind the brand. And now that Pam’s in charge as well, he’s got a real affinity for her vision. And she’s relatively new, I’d say probably in the last couple of years, well newer than Paul is I suppose, but it’s that vision of the boss alongside the logo that basically combines to be what I would suggest, and I think what’s also proven as well, is an amount of value that you can’t separate out.

And there’s a couple of other ladies in there as well. I think Mary Barra is the CEO of General Motors. And Jim Barber is the CEO of UPS. Now, both of those people don’t have a large social media presence, and they’re not very outspoken. But it’s not to say that the value of their business isn’t anything less. But what they chose to do is they chose to internalise their reputation management if you like. So, actually you go and speak to anybody from UPS or GM, and they’ll be able to tell you about the initiatives and the management style. And even the closeness that they feel to their bosses.

So, again it’s not necessary about actually wearing big profiles and being out on social media all the time, it’s actually about being considered, but knowing your audience. And the other thing that I really wanted to make a point of here was that if you can imagine that from a personal brand perspective your company’s market value can absolutely almost double if you’ve got a great reputation in a business leader.
Now, I know there was one question that you kind of came up with, “Hmm,” when we came on air, around co-ownership and partnerships and branding.

Denise: Yes, because it’s interesting, for Sharon and I we own a business together and we both have very different personalities. And it’s like how you make that brand. I’m known for the podcast, Sharon’s known for presenting. Slightly different. It’s probably a little bit different for us, because we can give one another some intense feedback sometimes, but imagine in an organisation where you’ve got two MD’s and one MD is wanting to encourage the other fellow director to maybe step out a bit more, or develop their brand. Any suggestions on that, what might not be the most comfortable conversation to have with somebody, and how it might work?

Clair: Yeah, that’s really interesting. I did an exercise with a really great company back in December around personal branding, and actually I used a SWOT analysis, but slightly changed it up. So, you put down all of your strengths and your weaknesses, but instead of opportunities and threats, I think I switched it around and put stuff that you liked and stuff that you really didn’t like doing. And actually it’s just a real sort of helicopter view of yourself. And then you get your business partner to do the same for you, and you do the same for them.

So, you put their strengths down and what you consider their weaknesses, or areas that they’re not so great in. Weakness is a really kind of derogative term, but it’s not meant to be. It’s like literally saying, “You know what, you know you’re really great at this, but actually that stuff, it’s just not your strength, so let’s not go there.” And what you find is actually you’ve both then got common ground. You’ve got common grounds that you’re both really, really good at, but one of you will shine in a different way to another. And I’m not talking about then just making that your sort of content theme for the rest of the year, but I’m also thinking about actually leveraging that strength.

So, the stuff that I really used to hate was getting up and presenting. And over the course of the last three years, there’s nothing that I enjoy more than standing on a stage and presenting to people. I still go bright red, and I still want to rush off and grab a vodka. But at the same time, I really love just speaking to people and presenting my ideas and theories. Because it’s my stories. And I’ve got really comfortable in the fact that this content is my content, so actually nobody else knows it as well as I do, because it’s my experience.

Denise: Can I ask you a question there? Because when you talked about the weaknesses versus strengths and what you like doing, or what you’re known for. In trainer speak, because we do quite a bit of training as well, it’s always trendy to say, “Your development areas,” rather than, “Your weaknesses.” Do you think that if you’ve got a couple of directors in an organisation and you know Fred is really fantastic at A, B, and C, and Diana is really good at X, Y, Z, do they stay to their strengths and build their brand around that, or what’s the best thing to do?

Clair: I think it’s about looking at the business. So, where does the business need to go? Do you need someone who can stand on stage and tell your story? Do you need someone who’s going to be able to go out and present to a room of peers, whether that’s C-Suite, directors, or even just hold a networking session and facilitate those sort of conversations in a round table kind of environment?

A lot of the time you’ve got people within your business at all levels that can rise up to that challenge and or accommodate that level of interaction and engagement with people. I think it’s really important to really play to strengths, but I also think in the trainer speak, develop those areas that aren’t necessarily right now obvious, because someone might have the ambition to stand up in front of hundreds of people, but not be able to do that today. But with six months training, and really getting under the skin of what the business is doing, and being able to really authentically tell the story, because they’ve been part of it, I think that’s where I find that the best presentations are.

Especially, you know, when I’m putting Rec Expo’s programme together, it’s not so much about having people who are really born to stage, it’s more about having people who are really excited about the stories that they want to tell.

And that makes someone really engaging. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s someone who’s just started or has got 20 years experience. It doesn’t matter if someone’s been running the business for 20 years and has never done something like that. With the right amount of preparation, support and also storytelling practise, anybody can do anything.

So, let’s talk about the reasons why personal branding can mean a lot to your business. And I thought of these six areas, but I think there’s a lot more as well. Adding value to your business based on your own personal brand should be something that you think about, but it’s also something that will just happen if you do it naturally. And I’m not suggesting that all six of these happen at the same time, but quite often a lot of them correlate and a lot of them will kind of bee this chain reaction.

So, if your personal brand is really well and positively aligned and associated with your business, and I’m calling it a business, not a business brand, because your business is the entity and you work within that business.
The recognition that you get, the recognition that you as an individual have, will automatically start to permeate into the business as well. So, if you think about the businesses that I’ve worked with in the past, the reputation management piece that I’ve done at Broad Bean for example.

Broad Bean was such a brilliantly well known brand before I got there, but after I sort of took the realms if you like in terms of the events, and we went out and we did a lot more visual and physical kind of meet and greet in the marketplace, that instant recognition of both the Broad Bean logo and my personal name, my brand. But also all of that of my colleagues as well. That increased our recognition so much, so that actually we just became even more of a confident player in the marketplace, and they’re a really good brand to be a part of.

Once you start to shy away from that, or if you kind of … you’ve got to be consistent I suppose is what I’m saying, because once that recognition is there and it’s upheld, then it’s really difficult for your competitors to break into the market after you. But if you stop investing in that, if you stop being in places where people are used to seeing you, it kind of becomes quite a negative connotation, and really quite quickly your recognition can dwindle. And that affects your reputation as well.

So, that whole negative spin. So, it’s a real fine balance, and I’m not talking about spending lots of cash on it, but actually as an individual, as a business, think about what can I do to instantly increase the recognition that I have? And that might be social media, podcasts are a brilliant idea. But again, that quality is associated. You’re not going to go anywhere, you’ve got a regular slot. Your audience knows what’s coming. And the reputation that you have and you build becomes stronger every month, or week, whenever you release your new content.

There’s a direct correlation definitely, return on investment in marketing as you know is something that we all live and die by. And if we can increase the recognition and reputation, then the bookings will follow for sure.

Denise: Yep, absolutely.

Clair: But also as well there’s knock-on effects that are kind of I suppose secondary, but actually still as important. So, things like collaboration, knowing that I’ve got a really great brand that I’m working with means that I can actually really go after additional collaborations and partnerships. So, I don’t feel embarrassed or held back by going to other companies and saying, “Look, I’m doing this with so and so, it would be great if you want to come and talk to us about integrating.” Or, “If you want to talk to us about how we could possibly work together on an event.” Or, “What kind of content could we bring together?”

Because again, that collaboration becomes easy, because there’s trust there. It’s the reputation, it’s the recognition of the brand.

That expertise, again, direct kind of expert becomes a thought leader. This is really important I suppose to the recruitment leaders out there, because presumably they’ve been doing their job for a while. They either know how to recruit really well, or they know their industry inside out, or they know the candidates and the population of communities that they’ve got really well established with. And so that level of expertise is another dynamic and another level of trust, which again has this sort of circular effect of bringing people into their sphere.

And the final part is the success. And if people see that you’re successful, that you’ve got the expertise, and actually your reputation is upheld, and it’s all really legitimate, and it’s all authentic, and that in itself cannot be beat. So, if you are the expert in the field around a certain topic, then you’re going to naturally attract new business. But it’s business coming into your business, and actually everybody within that business benefits as well.

So, there’s that sort of knock on effect. And what tends to happen is the leaders of business start out with their expertise. They teach everybody within their business either the concepts, the theories, or they distil the working practises within. But then you’ve got other people coming up and taking ahold of that baton and developing it themselves.

So, the other thing that I get really, I suppose not frustrated about, but I get really conscious of, is that recruitment owners want to create a legacy, but they want to share that legacy. It’s all theirs. They’re not about actually recognising all of the recruiters that are brilliant at working for them, and that’s what tends to happen with chairmen turnover and really good recruiters. Really good recruiters get frustrated that their brand, their personal brand, isn’t being recognised as giving value back to the business.

So, what I would say here is that it’s actually a team sport. Personal branding is only as effective if everybody is pulling in the same direction. So, that common thread, that common expertise, that common recognition for the value that you’re adding to your clients and your candidates is the stuff that really needs to shine through. It doesn’t matter what the logo looks like, as long as it’s instantly recognisable and you align with it.
I kind of get carried away with the excitement of the fact that anything is possible, so long as you’re all plugging into a common goal. So, the business leaders that I work with, I’m constantly going back to, “What’s your business objective?” If it is to make £10 million by the time you’re 40, that’s amazing. But how are you going to do that? You can’t possibly do that on your own. So, let’s figure out what everybody can bring. And then let’s figure out how you can make everybody motivated to do that too.

And a lot of that is down to giving back and giving in. Kind of motivating and making it feel possible. But also as well, as an individual, there’s a lot of ways in which you can heighten your own brand visibility. And this is just a couple of ways. So, Google whacking, have you done that lately? Searching for yourself on Google and understanding what … if you do this incognito, by the way, it’s much better visibility in terms of the social truth out there. If you don’t turn off incognito you get basically yourself looking at yourself over time. It just basically shows.

But you want to be doing is really looking at what is that persona that’s being projected that’s actually out of your control? Because we all interact online day in day out, we’ve got tweets, we’ve got Facebook, we’ve got LinkedIn. We’ve got all these different channels that are creating the social impression of ourselves, or digital impression of ourselves. And so what you need to think about there is how can I positively affect my online presence?
And just I wouldn’t say check in weekly, because nothing changes much weekly, but keep an eye on it. Quarter by quarter you can see a difference.

The other things I would recommend are things like presenting. So, we talked about this, getting up on stage is something that I forced myself to do when I was back at Broad Bean, and I really found a passion for it, even though some days it was more difficult than others. But being able to stand up and talk in front of people is not something that everybody wants to do, or even loves doing. But if you can try to do it, and just figure out where it really matters for you to have a voice. And if you can’t present on stage but you can do a podcast, you don’t want to be seen but you can basically talk to camera, then that’s fine.

What about blogging? Again, another really great way of getting your voice out, but without actually being on video or audio. So, writing articles as well, getting yourself published. You don’t need to have hundreds of pounds being placed in PR and content and reputation management staff in order to get your articles published. You go to places like Global Recruiter, you go to the Recruiter, you go to Recruitment International. There’s so many different Trade Press that I would recommend for recruiters to start telling their stories.

And these are stories around innovation, real innovation. Stuff around real candidate engagement and experience. Stuff where they’ve had letters in, or they’ve had flowers delivered. Experiences that can be retold and add value to other communities, or other parts of those communities.

Denise: And I think sometimes there it’s very easy to say, “Yeah, but everybody does that, so is it really newsworthy?” And often we talk to our clients and say, “Well, actually it is, because, no, not everyone does that.”
Clair: No, and you don’t want to be talking about the opening of an envelope and all that sort of stuff, but you know in yourself if you feel embarrassed by what you’re saying, that it’s probably not article material. But if you’ve had a new client that actually you’ve worked around a brand new different proposition for them, or you’ve developed for the first time contracts desk where you were only ever permanent before. But actually you’re now helping two or three different clients in that community of specialist candidates, then that is something different and new, because what it’s doing is actually showing the rest of your audience that you are able to adapt and you are able to be spontaneous, or more flexible in your approach to solutions and service delivery.

And that’s newsworthy. And again, applying for awards and things, I know a lot of my previous bosses would be like, “Not another award submission,” and to be fair I don’t think I’ve ever really delivered an award submission, because everybody was like, “No, don’t want to be doing that. Just looks a bit vain, it’s vanity.” But actually the recognition of the work that goes into the projects, and if they are, like I say, full-on projects where you’ve delivered something of note that’s of worth, that’s affected your end clients or candidates, and they can vouch for you and say, “Actually yeah, this was really amazing,” then go for it.

We need to as an industry raise the bar on what we’re really good at. We don’t talk about what we’re really great at. We take our own beatings almost and we kind of self beat ourselves down as well, whereas actually I think talking about the way that we are adapting and the speed in which the industries adapting is great, compared to five, 10 years ago when I was amazed. I came out of the legal profession, and I know that that was really slow to adapt to marketing, but recruitment’s never been slow to adapt to marketing, but it has been slow to adapt to the use of technology, and things like video, and audio, and stuff like that.
These should be options for you to use time and time again, which kind of brings me onto the interview side of things. What’s to stop you sticking a Zoom call on with a client and interviewing them over a Zoom call? You don’t need to physically take a camera crew into someone’s office nowadays, although there are brilliant companies out there that do loads and loads of great stuff with video. But, it can be as cheap and cheerful as literally having a Zoom connection videoing it and then sticking a couple of logos on, and topping and tailing that.

It doesn’t need to cost the earth. But it’s a different way of putting your stories out there. And then the final part is the social media piece. And I know we’ve probably talked about it to death, but it’s another channel. And it’s a really nice, light touch. And it’s where you should start if you’re nervous about having people have an opinion for themselves in your business. I think back to maybe 15 years ago and I was working for an agency, and I suppose Twitter had just started. Collectively the board had decided that we would only have marketing with outside external access to Twitter and Facebook.

So, none of the recruiters had access to Twitter, and it was just like well, actually the grads that we were taking on and onboarding as new recruits were so used to conversing over Twitter and Facebook that actually it was like them being instantly handicapped. And I remember there was one recruiter who did all of her recruiting for a very specialist technical role on her knees with her phone, basically her phone under her desk. And she was just tweeting away to her community, and she was filling all of her jobs, but there was no paper trail. And she only got caught out because there was no paper trail on the CRM.

So, she had to basically double admin all of the connections and content and had to come clean and say, “Look, I’m filling my jobs because I’m part of Twitter, and this is my group, and these are my followers. And that’s what I do.” And then it was a case of well, now you’ve got to go and write a policy for social media. And actually we just get on with it now, it’s second nature. And so yeah, that’s kind of the truth around personal branding.

I wrote this presentation with the view that actually it was the business leaders in mind. But if you’re not yet the boss, then I though these are really important steps. And if you are the boss, then start here as well, because actually as soon as you get used to it, and as soon as you start to really apply these principles, the quicker and the more value your team will be able to add to your business as well. So, starting to build your brand out now, define your purpose. Work out what your niche is, so kind of go back to that SWOT analysis. What are you really good at? What you don’t like doing. Get someone else to compliment you there. And then start building this personal brand and tell your story.

Denise: So, let me ask a question, because you mentioned a couple of times about … and you talked about your own personal experience, I don’t particularly like presenting, but now I do. What suggestions have you got for people listening to this podcast, watching this video, around if you’ve got this limiting belief about you and how personal branding will work for you, any suggestions on how to handle that one?

Clair: I think it’s just taking it slow and start small. And the one thing that I really took, and I suppose this as well just before we came on air, I know what my expertise is. I know that marketing is the thing that I get out of bed every morning. So, it’s always been that way for me, and I’m kind of really blessed I suppose to have this sort of purpose. But there’s got to be something that you really get excited by. Whether or not it’s golf, or if it’s, I don’t know, climbing walls like this at weekends. Whatever your passion is, start there. Because it’s so much easier for you to believe in the expertise that you have, than to try and go and learn something new.

Clair: So, if you have been a recruiter for 20 years and you’ve been really successful at it, because you’re still a recruiter, and you’ve run your own business and now you’ve got employees and they’re all there, then obviously one of your really good strengths is running a recruitment business. So, then maybe start a conversation around what are the lessons that you’ve learnt? And can you share those with other people? I think one of the conversations, I did a Rec Expo Spotlight today with a couple of guests, and we were talking about personal branding and the recruiter lessons as well. And actually just being able to ring-fence what it is that you like about yourself gives you such a really good starting point.

Denise: That’s a really good suggestion.

Clair: Yeah. I mean it’s what people kind of see in you. That’s the authentic you. And if you start from a place of authenticity, you can’t go wrong. It’s when you start believing in the hype that I think people become unstuck. Or living up to a false impression. And there’s a lot of work I’ve done on my own personal journey through whether it’s being a manager, or a director, and now I’m running my own business, figuring out what makes me tick is really important. So, I spend a proportion of my week really thinking about am I happy? Just even those little moments enable me to adjust my business plan, my life plan. I book an extra day off, or I kind of go off and do some camping, or whatever makes me feel like I’m actually connecting back to myself.

We live in a world that is always on, 24/7. Whether you’re running your own business or not, life is mad. It’s hectic. There’s so many different calls on your time. If you start throwing yourself into challenges, like getting up on stage and talking to people when you’ve never actually felt like that, then you’re going to come unstuck really quickly. And I don’t want that to happen. So, don’t do that.
Denise: Going back, and I think you’ve probably weaved this in quite a few times, but for those, the very focused individuals that think, “Yeah, yeah, personal branding, it’s all a bit fluffy.” How does it really relate to marketing? And if I go ahead and I start creating this personal brand, what are the results that I’m going to get?

Clair: I think it’s about asking a couple of questions for yourself first. And I like to always go back to the objective. It’s kind of what we do in marketing, strategy. It’s what we do when we’re looking at business. So, combine the two, and think about, “Okay, so what value does your brand, or could your brand actually bring to the business? And what does it do today?” So, if you are a business owner and you’ve set this up because whether you’re two years in, five years in, ten years in, it doesn’t matter, what is your personal brand actually bringing to that business right now in terms of is the network of new business all yours? Or have you taught the methodologies or the concept around the industry to your employees?

Have your employees taught you some things? Have you picked up some things that actually you’re like, “Ooh, that’s exciting, I can get on with and do that?” And then think about what else can you do to accelerate that value? So, is it taking yourself off and doing … so, Bill Bowman is a really great friend of mine, but also a really great mentor. And he turned around and said to me the other week that I should actually do a standup comedian workshop. Not to become a standup comic I will hasten to add, but in terms of what that does from a workshop perspective is it just breaks you out of your comfort zone, and it gets you to be really, really good at telling stories.
And I’m like, “I don’t really want to do that.” But actually there’s a part of me that’s going, “Oh my god, that’s the worst thing in the world, I can’t possibly want to be setting myself up to be laughed at. But actually that’s what I do when I get up on stage. I want people to laugh at the jokes, but if they don’t know me and I can’t project me, then the audience won’t know when to laugh at the bits that I find funny. So, it’s all about being able to figure out where you can add value as well, and that personal journey never stops.

And if you’re really interested in expanding that value, I mean going back to that stat, if you can align another 44% of the value of your business just by stepping up on stage, then isn’t it worth it?

Denise: Absolutely, absolutely. So, we’ve asked you a lot of questions, and you have really delivered in that presentation. I particularly liked that slide where you talked about reputation and how that will add value and success. I think it really summarises everything there, Clair. But is there anything else I haven’t asked you that you’d like to talk about today, that you think might just add value for the audience as well?
Clair: Well, I can do a shameless plug for Recruitment Agency Expo if you’ll let me?

Denise: Absolutely, because we’re going to be there, so of course you can

Clair: I can’t wait. So, yeah, we’ve got Recruitment Agency Expo. That’s taking place in Birmingham at the NEC on the 2nd and 3rd of October. And also in London Olympia in February, and that’s the 4th and 5th of February I think. But over the course of those two days it’s literally three theatres with over 200 people coming to listen to 50 presenters. Now, if you want to know about how good or how nerve-wracking or how scary and how exhilarating it is, then obviously come and speak. Sharon’s going to be presenting again for us in Birmingham. But it’s just one of those things where you can see the content come to life for people.

Clair: These are stories about businesses accelerating. There’s ideas for strategy and growth. There’s lots of personal stories that are in the programme and baked in on purpose because I want to showcase businesses that are growing. And it’s all about the strategic growth, whether you’re looking to break new markets, or if you’re looking to develop your people. These are all the topics that are going to be discussed along the way, and it’d be great to see you there.

Clair: So, yeah, if you want to see all of this in action, you’ll probably see me whizzing around like a mad woman with my hair on fire as I’m running between three theatres. It’s my annual diet week, so I can basically put my running shoes on, and away I go. But no, it’s great fun, and there’s going to be 1,000 or so of your peers there, so why not come along, network, meet people. Meet loads of vendors as well. There are some amazing technology companies that are out there. And obviously service providers like yourself as well who are going to be around.

Denise: Big thank you, Clair. And I’m not sure if I’m going to be there, but maybe I should be there, shouldn’t I?

Clair: You should.

Denise: Come to the Expo, think about standing outside comfort zones and all that sort of things.

Clair: Yes.

Denise: Yes, yes, note to self. So, thanks again for today and for those of you who might be listening to this on iTunes, head over to YouTube and you’ll be able to watch this as well and you’ll see all of Clair’s slides. And definitely a photograph moment. And Clair, if people want to get in contact with you, how do they do that? I know you’ve just put a slide up now, but if you want to do that as well?

Clair: So, my website is am-bush, and that stands for Accelerated Marketing by me, Clair Bush. I’ve put my marketing consultancy mentoring and training mobile number and email address, and I’m all over LinkedIn. And you can tweet me @ClairBush as well. So, yeah, looking forward to connecting with anybody who fancies asking questions.

The post How Recruitment Leaders Can Add More To Their Bottom Line By Developing A Personal Brand appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Though marketing is finally working it’s way up the agenda for many recruitment organisations, there are still a few misconceptions out there about marketing and the value it brings.

Who should and shouldn’t ‘do it’ and whether its better to just add more recruiters onto the team rather than invest in upleveling your presence in the market.

Of course these are all valid questions hidden as an objection to stay where you are.  Today we are going to cover 8 frequent questions we get and what the real answers are.

Here is the direct transcription of this podcast. Apologies in advance if there is an odd typo. There has been a real shift in the recruitment sector as companies realise the value of marketing in creating a standout brand which then attracts the candidates and clients they want.

As in many other sectors, there are several preconceived ideas about marketing . Not everything you watch on TV or read on Facebook is true!

Over the last few weeks we have had a number of conversations about marketing with business owners and these classic misconceptions have been raised more than once.

With the recruiting sector more competitive than ever in an ideal world you might want everything perfect before you start; lets get real this isn’t going to happen.

An old mentor of mine said; “ start where you are with what you’ve got”- and she was spot on! It’s all to easy to wait till the new website is ‘done’ or the database has been cleaned out.

There is so much you can do to start creating demand through marketing now. A short email campaign making an offer. Social posts across all your platforms. 

Many recruitment companies shy away from marketing their businesses out of the preconceived idea that marketing is too expensive.

Compared to what?

Yes, marketing incurs an investment and when that cost ends up generating revenue for your business, is it still a negative? The answer is no.

Look at your average placement fee ? Imagine the marketing you invest and what it will deliver for your business; rather than the cost it occurs. One of the first email campaigns we ever wrote for a client in the recruitment sector produced an ROI the first time she sent it. 

She is still using it to this day and it’s working… 

The wrong way to think about marketing is that you implement your marketing strategy and you instantly get more clients and candidates and if this doesn’t happen, then it has failed.

Effective marketing is a process, not a one-off occurrence, and the best marketing strategies are constant and continuous.

At a recent Rec Expo event Sharon presented on the content marketing funnel and how all of us go through a buyers cycle.

The truth is the majority of people are rarely ready to buy now. In fact this is a low us 3-5%. The remaining 95% are going through a process from being cold to sold.

This is why marketing will produce results for you across all of the buying cycle and will nuture candidates and clients by promoting your brand.

Familarity then leads to potential prospects becoming leads because they have started to; Know you which then eventually leads to trust and money changing hands. 

Corney I know and you don’t have time not to!

The ‘time’ reason only means you don’t see it as a priority. In today’s market you have many options available to you.

·         Sorry to be blunt and: Stop whining and take action

·         Learn what is involved so you can make an informed decision to then;

·         Invest in a marketing executive and or

·         Outsource

This is why so many recruitment companies decide to outsource their marketing to companies like Superfast Recruitment. From the content we provide, our clients tell us that we are indispensable, and the demand for an even more in-depth marketing programme led to the birth of the Superfast Circle – members of which enjoy increased traffic and custom fo their recruitment companies.

5.     Content and Social Media Marketing Doesn’t Work 

Marketing insider group published these eye-opening findings on how effective content marketing is. Content marketing typically generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs as much as 62 % less. 

Here is the thing; content is one of the most cost effective ways to get in front of your market consistently. Last week we were on a Superfast Circle Call and one of the members commented how just a simple brand awareness campaign he has run had delivered placements. 

Candidates and clients can’t work with you if they don’t know you are there. 

Really? I doubt it. The face of marketing has changed drastically in the last few years.

With over 40,000 recruitment companies in the UK alone, adverts and Job boards and sales calls are not enough to stand out in the busy recruitment market anymore.

You need to use everything at your disposal. 

If you are a smaller recruitment company, you might not think that you need marketing. The truth is that all recruitment companies need marketing, especially the smaller ones!

Marketing = demand creation.

The good news is that today marketing is easier to action than ever. You don’t need to do a print run of your company brochure or pay for an advert in the Telegraph.

The WWW has made it easier than ever for smaller companies to market.

Ummm. Even I was shocked when I heard this last week.  Remember marketing creates the demand and sales convert it. Having originally started life as a sales woman I appreciate the value marketing brings. It’s so much easier to convert someone when they have at least heard of you! Go and have a look at what Matt Finch has to say about this here.

We are expanding here at Superfast and increasing the sales team. So in our marketing plan we have increased the number of campaigns we are going to run and I have upped the budget on our ad spend. It’s critical to help our sales people as much as we can.

At Superfast Recruitment, we create content tailored to every aspect of your recruitment company from the type of content to the amount you need with your client and candidate needs in mind. Contact us today to find out more about our bespoke content packages.

Our testimonials and case study pages are where we have documented the positive results our clients have experienced from working with us, if like some people you are convinced of the misconceptions outlined in this article.

The post 8 Marketing Misconceptions You Need To Slay appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Where will marketing add most value to my recruitment business ? It was a question I was asked on a recent spotlight interview for Rec Expo this year.

The honest answer is everywhere. I explain more in this weeks podcast.

Rec Expo 2019:  Book Your Rec Expo Ticket Here

A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of being joined by Katy Green from Centred of Excellence, and being interviewed by Claire Bush as part of the Rec Expo Spotlight series.

One of the audience members asked a great question, which was, “If I’m investing in marketing, where across the business can marketing add most value?”

Before I answer that question, let’s just take a step back and think about what’s the definition of marketing.

The simplest definition is that marketing is about creating demand, and sales is about converting that demand. If you’re not investing in marketing to create the demand for your products and services, then worst-case scenario is that you’re not going to have a business that can thrive and grow.

Now, let’s come back then to where in the business can marketing add most value.

Let’s think about prospecting – whether that’s attracting more candidates, or new clients, nurturing those relationships through to a company placing jobs with you and the candidates filling those jobs. And, of course, you want to retain long term relationships. You want people to come back and work with you time and time again. You want to account manage, and grow accounts with clients.

Marketing adds value along the whole of that journey.

Let me give you just a quick example. About six months ago, we had a client join Superfast Circle. Their goal was to increase the brand awareness in their market with prospects so that they could attract more clients and more candidates. Over recent months, through a variety of activities, building awareness of the business on social media and doing a small amount of content creation and marketing that content out, they are already creating new clients, winning new business and placing candidates.

So that’s right at the beginning of the process.

Now let’s go to the other end of the process. We’ve have content marketing clients who work with us in terms of generating and distributing content, and several clients recently have wanted to do email campaigns targeting existing clients. The purpose of them is to retain business and to build accounts.

So, we have been busy creating email funnels specifically for an active and lapsed client audience. The content in the campaigns is about nurturing relationships and building accounts.

There are other activities that we can do in between, and I wanted to give you an example of the extremes of where marketing can add value.

Finally, think about when you’re expanding and growing your business and you’re wanting to attract employees into your business. Marketing adds value to that as well.

If you’re wondering “If I invest in marketing, am I going to get an ROI?” Yes, you will get an ROI, provided that you are marketing to a specific niche, and that you’re doing a variety of activities to the right audience with the right frequency, the right message, and you engage those people at the right time, you will get an ROI.

The post What Value Can Marketing Add Across Your Recruitment Business appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Marketing funnels are fast becoming the holy grail of marketing for service-based businesses like recruitment.

Fact: Not everyone is ready to buy straight away.

Many of us want more information and to confirm to ourselves that we are ‘working’ with the ‘right’ person. So how do we encourage a candidate or client to choose us rather than our competitor down the road; enter the ‘marketing funnel’.

The good news is marketing funnels work incredibly well when it comes to attracting candidates and clients..

In this week’s podcast we share the basic principle for you.

Let Superfast Build your funnel Market Funnel Building Service

Today I want to talk briefly about marketing funnels.

What are they? How do they work and why bother? If you are reading this, remember it’s a direct transcription from the podcast, so apologies if any rogue typos appear!

Let me start by talking about the buying cycle first.

Now at any one time between 3-7% of people are ready to buy now. That means there’s a candidate out there looking for the kind of jobs that you’ve got on your website today and there are clients out there who are waiting for a phone call, who need help to find someone to fill vacancy right now.

However, it’s a small percentage: As I said, between 3-7%, which means there’s a massive 93% of people who are not ready to act now.

Now, this is where marketing funnels and the principle of nurture marketing is essential because what we want to do is attract candidates and clients into our marketing funnel by getting their attention and then as they make their buying decision we are supplying information in a way that helps them come to an informed decision.

This might be through a free report, an email, a text message and of course, a phone call. Here is how it might work.

So, let’s say that you are sharing updates on social media and you’re sharing and distributing the great blog posts that you’re creating. Perhaps you’re sharing some good leading industry content. This then attracts the attention of perspective clients and candidates.

Then you’re offering them a free report that they can download once they’ve come to your website and they’ve read that blog post in more detail. So, they opt in.

They share their contact details with you, and then they’re into potentially an automated sequence. I say potentially, because one of the mistakes that many companies make is they don’t have an automated series of emails behind a report that they’re asking someone to download. Now that’s a real missed opportunity.

So in this automated sequence, you would have a series of emails that nurture that individual and takes them on a journey so that when that person, be it a client or a candidate, is ready to take action, then you are front of mind; you are the one that’s been nurturing a relationship, that’s been adding value through sharing some great content.

You are the person that’s front of mind, who that individual will contact when they are ready to place, or you’ll find a candidate, or they are ready to look for that next step in their career. 

So, a marketing funnel is a sequence of marketing activities and a blend of activities often that takes a person on a journey from being almost unaware of your business through that journey to being aware of you to thinking, “Hey, these sound like recruiters who know what they are doing.

Perhaps they are people that I want to represent me or represent my business. And I’m ready to take action. Do I go with this person or do I go with that person?” And based on the kind of content that I’m seeing, we’re going to be educating that individual to decide it is this company that’s been in touch quite a lot recently, and they’ve stayed in touch with me.

Also, I’m going to pick up that phone. I’m going to drop my email. I’m going to send them a message through LinkedIn. Now, that is the power of what a marketing funnel can do for you and your recruitment business.

So, if you’re not using them, it’s a missed opportunity. I’d really encourage you to start thinking about how you can put your first marketing funnel together, and if you have got one and it’s starting to work, then why not do more?

If you would like our help to create your marketing funnel get in touch here.

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It can happen to the best of us. That chilling realisation that if we lost one particular client in a couple of months we would struggle to hit payroll.

Time to acknowledge, move on and put it right.

This is a direct transcription for your reference. Recently I was talking to a recruitment business owner that I’ve known for quite some time, and I’m familiar with their business. And they had a fantastic year, and then they’d gone back and done some analysis to work out where their business was coming from

They’re shocked, to say the least, because what they realised was 70% of this fantastic year’s turnover had come from one client.

Now don’t get me wrong. They knew it was a significant contributor, but they were stunned to what degree, and I think quite nervous then, realising that I’ve got many eggs just in one basket here.

And so, the goal for the next financial year was to look at ‘how do we spread that risk’, and how do they grow in different areas to reduce the reliance on this one major client.

Now, we all love to have outstanding clients, don’t we? However, how about having ten excellent clients that perhaps generate half that level of business or 75% of it, rather than just one who is delivering quite so much?

So, how do you move away from that situation when you realise you’re there, and how do you prevent yourself from getting into that eggs in one basket scenario in the first place?

We know the key questions we need to be thinking about as business owners are: where our growth will come from? Is that growth going to be about bringing in new headcount to leverage some great niches and sectors that we’re currently operating in? Is it a case of looking at some completely new sectors that you can expand into?

What about looking at some aligned sectors to the ones that you’re currently operating in? Maybe now, you’re working in a specific geographical location, and you want to expand that. It could be into other regions. You could take your service nationally, and if you are already operating nationwide, what are the opportunities to go into Europe and beyond?

Now, the other element to look at is, what are your service offerings? Maybe now, you are contingency and perm only. What about having a temp desk? If you don’t, is that an option for you in your sector?

Alternatively, contracting is another area. And increasingly, business owners are looking to shift their reliance from contingency by introducing a retained service to their business, moving forward.

The most logical step is to implement a marketing strategy with a focus on client acquisition. The client I am referring to is doing exactly that, and through three specific targeted campaigns.

So, there are lots of opportunities to look at around how do we continue to expand and grow and make sure that we avoid being in a risky situation where we might kick ourselves and think one day, “why did I rely on having so many eggs in one basket?”

If you would like our help expanding your client base. Get in touch by calling 01524 784 331.

The post A Lesson about Eggs and Baskets appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.