Cold Calling or Consulting: No time for both.
Virtually all training provided to recruiters is about cold calling and transaction selling. It’s the focus of nearly every recruitment conference I’ve been to – ‘how to get your billings up’. This Rant will help outsiders understand how the industry got to its appalling state.
With refreshing honesty, trainer Sophie Robertson’s opening sentence states:
“Understand that you are in a sales position, no ifs or buts.”
Which is what all the others say, just not as neatly - though some like Barb Bruno in the USA are pretty blunt!
So what does this mean? That recruiters are trained to cold call meaning they have no time to consult. And remember most work contingently - racing other recruiters to a sale, so consulting is ruled out anyway.
Ross Clennett, one of Australia’s best recruitment coaches has a great e-book (go to www.rossclennett.com.au to get it) that recommends:
- Weekly Prospect Calls: 50 (= Cold Calls)
- Monthly prospect & client visits: 28
- Monthly Float Outs: 20 (= sending unsolicited resumes)
Not much time left for deepening relationships with existing clients after doing these calls and following up. Now, in other articles and talks, Ross and other trainers rightly say that our focus should be on deepening relationships: But where’s the time? You can’t have it both ways.
This cold calling model is different to how my firm and some other boutiques work: where you have 10 to 20 clients who you work for repeatedly. So relationship building visits might be 3 a month, with 2 or 3 visits to prospective clients on top of that.
Re 20 float outs: No thank you! That’s not consulting, it’s acting like an 3rd rate web server! When you have fewer clients who you know well, sending unsolicited resumes is welcomed, and you might do 2 a month - not 20. It’s still sales but the focus is on relationships, not ‘foot in the door’ tactics (see Sophie’s wonderful cold calling scripts in my last posting on Lies).
Which gets to the fundamental problem:
We are virtually talking about 2 different industries.
One where 50 or a 100 ‘clients’ is the norm, based on constant cold calling.
Versus one where recruiters work closely with a few employers helping them reduce the risk of a wrong hire, while still needing to work quickly.
Ross made the following comment on my blog:
“Toby re your assertion that the role of the recruiter ‘is to reduce the risk of making a wrong hiring decision’. I would suggest you are in minority company there …. clients use a recruiter because they want ‘excellent candidates, delivered quickly’”
The chasm here is wide.
Ross is right - I am in the minority but the Rants & technology will change that. His model was right BEFORE Seek.com.au and Monster.com. Recruiters in his transaction model are just selling information: finding candidates and racing to the line in a winner take all race. They are middlemen who the internet will soon wipe out (why it is taking longer than in other ‘Agency’ businesses is a future Rant).
After recommending 50 prospecting calls a week, all trainers go on to say “you must of course focus on long term relationship building”.
Alice in Wonderland. Rubbish. There is no time left AND it requires different skills.
Relationships require consultants, not cold callers,
Cheers, Toby
Tags: creative recruitment, financial planning recruiters, Future of the Recruitment Industry, Innovative Recruitment, recruitment solutions. financial planning recruitment, Strategic Recruitment, Strategic Staffing
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Toby,
Thanks for the plug however you are making assumptions about my approach to recruitment that are incorrect.
The numbers that you quote from my ebook although accurate, are only used as an example, they are not recommendations. The numbers applicable to each KPI will depend entirely upon the circumstances of the recruiter (experience, skill, client base, etc).
Regardless of what numbers are attached to any KPI for any recruiter (rookie or experienced) there is absolutely no point in doing numbers for the sake of numbers. As any previous attendee of my workshops would attest to, my emphasis is always on the quality of the activity.
By floats I do not mean unsolicted resumes. I mean you have a conversation with a target client or prospect to establish the potential interest in the candidate. If there is interest from the client/prospect and permission is gained to send the resume - you then send the resume. If this is not the definition of a recruiter building a relationship I don’t know what is.
In my workshops I continually emphasise the easy way to make yourself stand out as a recruiter is to consult (ie building relationsips), not sell (ie transactional resume factory). I then demonstrate to recruiters how to do just that.
How do you suggest a recruiter builds a client base to provide fabulous service to unless they actually get on the phone and chase up leads (very few need be ‘cold’ by the way)?
The hard yards of marketing have been done by EVERY successful recruiter. I have yet to hear of a ‘quality recruiter’ hanging up their shingle and the clients just walked through the door.
Toby, I put my faith in the market. If there’s a better, more effective way of building recruitment relationships rather than telephone marketing then we can be sure that the market will reveal this sooner, rather than later. After all, any smart recruiter follows the path of least resistance to the client’s money.
Ross
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Ross, I know from talking to attendees at your workshops that you do focus on ‘quality activity’ and relationship building.
But only within the focus of a model that promotes sales activity - we are talking apples and oranges. You about how the industry is; me about how it should be. And will be once the internet takes away the huge financial incentive for just finding candidates - then you will need to add real value in the work you do, way beyond quickly finding candidates.
And I agree, you don’t say everyone has to follow the 10 sales calls a day approach. But it is the only example you give, and you lead into it with the words here is “one example that I know works for me and others.” So why wouldn’t they follow it: it works, it will make them successful? It will make them money.
My challenge to the industry and to employers is why blo.dy do it at all. It’s like teaching a dog to walk on it’s hind legs. Useless and demeaning to the dog (recruiter). Recruitment is hard and challenging and takes years to learn properly - I would like to able to say what I do in a year or two and not see the eyes roll or hear the tedious jokes.
Three specific comments on your response:
1. How you recommend floating candidates is clearly the best way to do it. However, from talking to HR people, I would suggest that many recruiters ignore your advice and just send them out unsolicited!
My issue however is with the practice itself - of bulk floating of candidates as a way of selling (and the correct word is selling, not marketing - we should call it what it is, not disguise it behind a more professional sounding word). In my world and that of the other boutiques I know and recommend, we never work on assignments non-exclusively. So ‘floating’ or ‘Reverse Marketing’ is the exception, not the norm in our daily work.
2. What leads are you saying recruiters should ‘chase down’? When they hear someone has a vacancy? Surely not that appalling and all too common practice of asking people what else they are interviewing for and then calling the companies directly?
Reminds me of the wonderful habit of a certain type of lawyer: the ambulance chasers! It is also an incredible breach of trust - if the candidate knew that that was why the recruiter was asking, would they tell? No! It is not in their interest to increase the level of competition for a role. Recruiters often frame the question deviously “so can understand how the role I’m working on compares to others you are looking at so I can advise you on the strengths and weaknesses.”
If you believe they don’t do that, then you can’t fully believe they will follow your “path of least resistance to the client’s money” - and we know smart, successful recruiters do just that.
Also, from my knowledge of recruitment firms, they source leads from another wonderful source: when employers advertise directly. Ambulance chasing never gives anyone a good name - though I admit it can get you a water-front with lots of pillars and arches!
As an aside, for the HR managers in Australia who are reading this: did you notice a big increase in calls from recruiters at a big firm on Wed the 23rd? It was their cold/prospect calling day. All day, hundreds of them, over half are ‘pommie backpackers’. Prizes, incentives, rah rah sessions.
Extraordinary. Sad.
3. How do you build a business if you don’t chase leads and float resumes? By focusing on a sector; doing your research; visiting clients with the goal of building a long term relationship; only taking retained, exclusive briefs so you can focus on problem solving and risk reduction; insisting on all candidates, whether internal or not, are referred to you; provide them with articles, manuals and DVDs/CDs that help them recruit better, and to retain/manage better.
Start as you mean to continue. Keep the number of clients to a manageable number. Walk the talk of relationship building.
As I say, a different business. But it is coming. We have a lot of publicity coming up for this new approach - hopefully it will speed the change up and HR will finally realise the power they have to stop the appalling practices,
Cheers, Toby
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Toby, you seem to have struck a nerve here and I like it. There is always an activity level that recruiters need to have, but if I spoke to my clients all the time I wouldn’t have them for long! In order to “consult” you need to have something to say that is useful or meaningful and not just be a pest. It’s the same when floating a candidate- there must be some context and perceived need. I think being considerate and professional rewards you in the end, and your candidates and clients have a far better and more productive experience.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Great article Toby! One example I can give is from one of my clients. She had one very young recruiter call her to try and get a visit. The client told her that she does not use recruitment companies. The young girl pushed for a visit, and my client said to her, “if you must drop your card in to keep your visits up then you can leave it at reception, but we do not use recruiters” Believe it or not this young girl said thank you and dropped her card in so she could get her client visits quota up! What a waste of time for everyone concerned.
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Lovely story Debbie: amazing that this is what recruitment is reduced to! Scoring ’sales points’ to get your bonuses!
Cheers, Toby