One of the biggest challenges that recruiters face is how to bridge the gap between being perceived as a vendor to clients and candidates versus being perceived as an irreplaceable and invaluable partner to clients and candidates. One of the best ways to bridge that value gap with both clients and candidates is to develop true expertise in a very specific industry or niche; this concept is called Market Mastery.

As recruiters, those in our industry who perform at the highest levels have a formalized strategic plan in place and have implemented it well. Those recruiters who flounder often seem to struggle in their attempts to be successful. In order for a recruiter to be successful, there needs to be a roadmap for success - specific results that are to be achieved and establishing a course of action for achieving them.

Before jumping in and dialing the phone, think first about what you are looking to accomplish with those dials.  As recruiters, if there is not a clear direction and path for the placement process, it is possible to end up mistaking activity for productivity.

The purpose behind creating a daily plan is that it will allow you to maximize your opportunity to reach as many candidates and clients as possible while business is open.  Imagine you owned a restaurant and your objective was to serve as many patrons as possible during the prime lunchtime hour.  The more quality lunches you serve, the more money you will make; the more satisfied patrons you have, the more they are going to tell their friends about your amazing restaurant.

Unfortunately, we live in an ADD world. It has been said that the amount of information in a Sunday New York Times today is more than what the average person learned in an entire lifetime in 19th century. Today, we are constantly being inundated by messages - from radio and TV to internet, newspaper, bill boards, product placements in movies, elevators, sporting events, airplanes, trains, and even bathrooms. We have instant messages, text messages, call forwarding, email on our phones and have become so overly accessible that we’ve created a culture with incredibly low attention spans and incredibly high stress levels.