Blog Content
Many recruitment leaders I work with want their recruitment CRM to generate fees, but often recruiters are all too happy to jump back into spreadsheets, LinkedIn, notebooks and “going by memory” rather than use their CRM system properly. This blog is a quick 3minute read to create some perspective and give you some ideas for a “CRMFirst” strategy.
The above results in a nightmare for recruitment leaders who are looking to grow their business, become “GDPR-proof” and become more profitable.
It also results in a problem I call “Hairdresser Syndrome” – a term I’ve used for many years to describe a recruitment business that needs to get a grip on its processes and data to see real growth and ROI.
Do You Have a Recruitment Firm, or an Office Full of Desks For Rent?
I have been with my hairdresser for 8 years. He knows my taste in magazines, some of my secrets and all of my roots. A few years ago he was based in a large salon in the city, where he rented a chair.
The rest of the salon staff barely knew I was there, and I didn’t really notice them either – zero interaction. Perhaps if I was lucky my hair would be washed by one of the juniors. I’d pay the girl at the till on the way out, but my hairdresser was my only real contact at the salon.
One day he very quietly commented that he was opening his own salon, and would I like to move with him? I bit his hand off – why wouldn’t I? I had no relationship with the salon. They kept no details on me, perhaps they didn’t even know I existed. Would they miss my business?
For me, he was the salon.
Are Your Recruiters Hairdressers?
Can you see any similarities between your recruitment business and my hair salon?
They have exclusive relationships with the clients. Are you simply the “girl” taking my money at the till?
Do they use stuff in your business, such as hair washers, tea makers, reception (IT, HR, Finance, Admin) that their fees contribute to, but that I am totally oblivious to?
Are your consultants simply logging data at the point of sale to get the cash in but the juicy stuff which is about me, what I like, how I buy is in his/her head?
If they left and took “clients” with them, would you know? And don’t forget you’ll only know what data they’ve taken and who’s migrated with them if they told you about these relationships in the first place.
Even if you had the data on the client, would it be enough for you to continue the relationship going forward?
Are your clients engaging with your business or the consultant? Are their loyalties to the brand or their perceived face of the brand, the consultant (the hairdresser)?
I’m still seeing “30-second recruiters” who enter a candidate in the CRM just to place them and board the invoice. Recruitment consultants are tempted to brush off GDPR as a flash in the pan, carry on as usual and keep billing how they’ve always billed. That may work for them in the short term, but they’re missing out on opportunities to be more effective and profitable whilst putting the business at risk.
CRMFirst and GDPR: Hairdresser Prevention for Recruitment Leaders
2018 was the year of GDPR, and 2019 needs to be about CRMFirst (getting your candidates, clients and consultants addicted to your systems. It needs to be about data hygiene, recruiters building effective, retained relationships and recruitment firms focusing on growth, not just legislation.
A CRMFirst (BullhornFirst / AdaptFirst) culture can create a valuable pool of great data that will put you ahead of your competition and create a hidden asset that your clients (and prospective clients!) want access to.
Your recruitment CRM should be a USP – a unique selling point. Your recruitment software can be an addiction for your recruiters, your clients, candidates, and investors. All of which does the one job you bought it for – to make you more money.
Swap the Salon Culture for CRMFirst Culture…
Instilling a culture of data quality is challenging, but highly rewarding. Define the strategy, instil this into your culture and reduce the risk of bad data impacting the recruitment business.
Get your recruitment consultants engaged with your system and train them on best practice so they understand why great recruitment process is profitable for them, as well as your business. Stop them from simply renting a desk.
Once they can see and feel the benefits of following your processes (improving performance, profit, and ROI for themselves as well as the business) then your CRM can become a business growth tool, rather than an expensive data dump and potential GDPR risk.
So, are you guilty of simply renting a chair to your consultants to allow them to grow a lovely portable client base, or do you do more to grow/protect your brand, relationships, and market share?
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.
TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT
READ ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAINING
BOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Extra Content
Blog Image
Extra Content 2
media centre
Read more-
Lisa Jones
.jpg)
Blog
The Sales-Led Recruitment Marketing Challenge
Now more than ever, recruitment marketers need to deliver real value. But where does marketing fit in to the new muddled landscape? And how are they prepared for the new normal?Recruitment Leaders and Recruitment Marketers! Do I have a high energy recruitment sales and marketing webinar for you! Your sales and recruitment teams don't care if you have event fatigue - they need leads (and you need to generate them).Your candidates and clients assume if they don't hear from that you don't care, and will go elsewhere.Treat your brain to a high energy 45-min workout - Simon and I have some tips and tricks to help you create a 90-day sales and marketing plan to keep your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) attracted, engaged, converted, and retained.Plus, I share some of my tips from the Recruitment Marketing Academy I run for marketers who want to be the "biggest billers" in their recruitment business.Recruitment Marketing Being Accountable and ValuableWith COVID creating either distraction, furlough, or redundancy, recruitment agencies are focused on lead generation and conversion. A recent survey of recruitment marketing professionals asked the following questions:What were your plans to improve prior to COVID lockdown?What are your biggest challenges during lockdown?Where do you see the biggest wins for you in the next few months?Where do you feel you need additional training / knowledge?Join myself and Simon Lewis from Members Only for an engaging session as we lift the lid on answers to the above recruitment sales and marketing questions, helping to understand the role of the recruitment marketer moving forward and how we can make ourselves truly accountable and VALUED.Watch My Sales and Marketing Webinar HereREAD ABOUT OUR MARKETING TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS MARKETING TRAINING
-
Lisa Jones
Blog
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
-
Downloads
The Adapt Playbook
.png)
