Bless you recruitment marketers, surrounded by recruiters avidly trying to hit target, asking for pretty pictures and business cards, asking for you to organise events, create PDFs, memes, job adverts and PowerPoint decks! And at the same time you all say to your boss and I...
I want to add value
I have written about the approach many recruiters take to their marketing departments, in that they treat them like the CID – the colouring-in department.
Recruiters Are from Venus
And bless you recruiters, stressfully avidly trying to hit target in a pre / during / post / wherever-the-hell-we-are Brexit world. With clients having the same access to recruitment tech (LinkedIn) as you, and all you want is the candidate to apply / turn up for interview / dazzle the clients and start on time (and stay long enough!!!) And at the same time you all say to me
I want my marketing department to add value
So the colouring-in department is avidly crayoning their value into the recruiters’ pipeline… And it’s often lost in translation. Marketing departments are often surrounded by colours and, wait for it, criminals.
I want to highlight another CID that I see in recruitment marketing:
The Criminal Investigation Department
Is Your Recruitment Marketing Department the CID?
When I work with recruitment marketers – all levels from Strategic Global Heads of Marketing and tactical Marketing Execs – I often start by reviewing the perception that the sales (recruitment) team has of the marketing department. It is often disconnected, blame cultures exist, marketers feel devalued (but keen to add value) and sales dread being asked to do marketing “stuff”.
Marketing is not seen as true sales support, rather it’s seen as more administrative than that.
Hours of “change requests” to make sales more effective by creating PowerPoint decks, mailers which don’t generate leads – potentially lots of “colouring in” and not enough convertible leads.
Sometimes the lack of perceived value which marketing brings to sales is driven by what seems to be stringent rules about what recruiters can’t do… and we know how recruiters love rules!
Marketers Are from Mars. To Police or Protect?
The marketing department is often seen as “policing” sales. Branding Guidelines are issued with guidance on how to position a logo and which version of blue you need to stick to.
LinkedIn Recruiter, Job Board and Broadbean licences are audited and given and taken away. The goal of every marketer to protect the recruitment firm but in the process (and likely due to lack of resource and time) they police, rather than protect. Hence the 2nd CID kicks in.
The goal is sound, but the outcome often divisive. Lots of “no you can’t do that!”, “can you stop doing that?” “have you read the brand guidelines?” Rather than time for...
Have you thought about…?
I know that you’re trying to… I’ve come up with…
I saw this online last week and know it’ll help you solve…
I know you have a campaign for… I’ve got something that’ll really improve…
Marketers Need to Be Allowed to "Get" Sales
Recruitment marketers need to be allowed to “get” Sales, generate leads, demonstrate value and get into the thick of a growing recruitment business. They need to be given the time, mentoring, and information to develop clear paths to successful sales-led strategies, or they risk simply saying “no” to people who tend to not take no for an answer.
Then the crayons and handcuffs are retired in favour of genuine value-added services delivered by marketers who are seen as crucial to the sales process.
I train and mentor recruitment marketers to deliver the 4Cs - candidates, clients, colleagues, and cash!
HIIT Us, Recruiters!
Our high intensity interval training (Recruitment HIIT) helps recruiters source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines. Recruitment HIIT is an exciting recruitment training platform for recruiters to speedily learn skills to be more successful with Adapt, Bullhorn, LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digital and Email Marketing. Try Recruitment HIIT for free, or arrange a call with me - press one of the magic buttons below.
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4 Minutes for Recruitment Marketing to Generate Real ROI
Recruitment Leaders, and their Marketers, need to get ready for 2021. You need to develop higher expectations of what recruitment marketing can and should achieve. Here’s a pep talk that I gave at the beginning of the recent APSCo Marketing Forum. 4 Minutes for Recruitment Marketing to Generate Real ROIEven before Covid, getting your head around how sales and marketing could be more connected was a challenge:DataSystemsProcessPeople... were often misaligned. And FOMO meant that best practice sales-led marketing was sacrificed in favour of “Quick! Throw something at the wall!”.And with our sectors rapidly evolving, learning and development has never been more important. Staying up to speed with best practice use of marketing and sales tech and data is going to be a crucial goal for 2021.As a sales and marketing mentor in recruitment, I know that there's lots of change happening in the industry. Right now there's lots of positive tech and best practice ideas; recruitment automation and data monetisation has never been more important. Are your sales and marketing teams geared up? Or are you simply spending your profits on technology and data storage?Recruitment Marketing and Sales is a Time GameThe thing you have to focus on is how can you generate more time for your recruiters to be effective, and you need more time to make changes to your business.You need more time to either hire or training your experienced staff to be more effective. So fixate on small changes that you might be able to make to your business (or even large ones) to create more time, because that's where you're going to be able to build more become a much more stable business.Recruitment Marketing and Sales is a Numbers GameLook at the stats I share in the video below. Think:Data-based sellingLess time sourcingMore time retainingLead generationAnd, automating your recruitment to work less hours, bill more clients, hire less staff. - or indeed all 3!Watch this 4 minute pep talk for recruitment leaders and marketers. Shout if you’d value a call to go through how 2021 is a moment away and could be a lot more “fun/profitable” than 2020 if you have a connected sales and marketing function.Watch the Recruitment Marketing Pep Talk I Gave to APSCo MembersTalking of 2021 Being Awesome...Could you save your recruiters an hour a day, and make an extra £18,750 a year (or £187,500 if there are 10 of you?)Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT- helps recruiters source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines with Adapt, Bullhorn ,Herefish, Idibu,LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digital, Email Marketing, and your own training! We aim to save every recruiter at least 1 hour per day - more billing time, more fees (more sleep and smiles).TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT 7 DAYS FOR FREEREAD ABOUT OUR MARKETING TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS MARKETING TRAINING
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4 Things to Help Recruiters Bill More Sales During and After Covid
Recruitment Leaders, before Covid, was your tech delivering profit? Or, did you have the feeling that you were over investing in tech? Did you suffer:Too much data, not enough information?Too many applicants, not enough candidates?Too many jobs, not enough placements?Too many systems, not enough process?I recently spoke at Rec2020 and the topic was: Recruitment Technology – The Future and Making it Work for You – and the take away was:you need to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption in your business – now is the time!But with the current climate, frustrations, and "new normal" changing every day, how do you do this? We answered these four questions...1. Recruitment Tech! All The Gear, No Idea?Perhaps, due to:Massively distracting market conditionsStaff returning from furlough, and possible not firing on all cylinders (fair enough!)Recruiters drowning in candidates applying for jobs that they can’t doRecTec supplier invoices needing paying…you now feel that you were “over investing” in recruitment tech. What did it actually do to help you through this period, and what will it do in the coming months?For example, my team reviewed a 25-person recruitment business with a tech stack costing £200k+. (This excluded their Bullhorn CRM, which ironically, they were not using effectively.) The business wanted to be more effective at attracting, sourcing, engaging, converting, retaining. But they had great tech, data, and passionate recruiters…2. The Problem Between the Chair and the Keyboard? (Recruiters?)Did you have PIBKAC before Covid, and do you want it now and in the future?Ask yourself:How was your business performing before Covid? Did you:Have a team of highly trained, super-engaged recruiters, delivering super-happy candidates to clients who couldn’t cope without you?Have a fully monetised set of systems, data, and processesAnd a marketing department generating awesome leads that your sales team could convert?Or were your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) not being as effective as you’d like, and you seemed to be buying more and more tech just to stay the same?Perhaps you also suffered from a high attrition rate (average before Covid = 43%). Note that 2/3 of people who quit their jobs in 2019 stated “lack of training” as their reason for leaving. Perhaps you’d used up your business growth budget on salaries (who) and tech (what) and neglected the training (how)? Perhaps you thought "automation" would fix everything?3. Is Recruitment Automation the Goal?Recruitment automation has become a real turn on for some in the industry (including myself!) Systems like Herefish are really kicking butt and doing things to the recruitment process that fixes a lot of the issues outlined above. It’s a great time saver and processes speeder-upper!But - in our march to “automate” we’ve forgotten a step...Systems can only automate processes, if the processes (or at least the sentiment) exist.Humans are still pretty viable (understatement) in the recruitment agency world. The key is to understand where and how they deliver their marketing, sales and recruitment, so you can delegate some of it to a system, then leave the recruiter to do the bit only they can do.But in an industry that is drowning in data and systems, it suffers a lack of process. And there is a distinct lack of systems and process training for recruiters which compounds the problem.Look at your processes:Can they be automated? What’s possible (and plausible)?What isn't being done consistently, forgotten, or what would you like to do that will improve candidate/client experience and free up consultant time for more valuable activities?What needs automating so that your staff can work from home, and you can lead / manage them more effectively?How can you create time for recruiters to develop stronger relationships with clients and candidates (hence stronger pipelines)?4. How Do You Generate the Buy-In for Using Recruitment Technology Effectively?You need buy-in for this for effective rectec adoption. So, gain an understanding of two things (thanks Andy):How will recruitment tech drive an increase in performanceHow will it solve a business-critical issue (eg. Covid) which will enable point 1Often recruiters need more time to manage the sales process. (They likely have enough data and systems). Ask yourself:If I could save each of my recruiters 1 hour a day (hence 30 days a year) how much more could they bill?What could they do with that hour?Through the Bullhorn, Adapt, and other recruitment training my team delivers, we aim to give recruiters back 1 hour a day. Case study:A recruiter who has a £100,000k target.They’re full time and take 20 days hols a year.My team trains them to use their tech more effectively and saves them 1 hour a day.This generates 30 days extra time per year.This equates to a potential pipeline of an extra £12,500You have 10 staff? This means £125,000. What’s the commission for you and your team on that figure?And how much does it cost to train recruiters to generate that level of fee? (not as much!)That’s a simple way of measuring performance improvements and generating buy-in from all levels of the business.Recruitment Leaders, You Need… 1, 2, 3You need to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption in your business – now is the time!Look at your tech stack– is it delivering value to you, or just the people you bought it from?Look at your processes - are they clear enough for remote workers to adopt, managers to manage, and where possible, to automate?Admit that your staff are extremely unlikely to ask for help in the current market. It is too risky to admit a lack of skill? Be the leader and get them trained.If the rest of 2020 is about linking your systems, data, processes and people, imagine what 2021 could be like!Watch the Rec2020 Webinar HereHIIT Us, Recruiters!Could you save an hour a day, and make an extra £18,750 a year (or £187,500 if there are 10 of you?)Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines with Adapt, Bullhorn, LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digital and Email Marketing. We aim to save every recruiter at least 1 hour per day - more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
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