Client Marketing Overview
Rainmaking is crucial to long-term survival in the search business. Your ability to generate new collaborative relationships with clients who will pay your fee is what distinguishes a marginal biller from a big one. This section covers the twelve common, and not so common, approaches to developing new clients.
Keep in mind the primary objectives of the marketing call:
1. New signed agreement with a viable search assignment
2. Generate interest and an interview between your MPC and the client
3. Gather information on passive, upcoming needs that could be peripheral searches
4. Gather information about the company/industry that will enhance your market mastery
5. Differentiate yourself with enough high-value information that the hiring authority will take your call in the future
6. Recruit the hiring authority
7. Open the door to possible merger/acquisition dialogue
Focusing on these objectives will improve the chances of making a successful client development call – remember to always start with the end in mind! Once you have a client who is interested in working with you, there are several subsequent steps to help you determine if this is even a search you want to take on. The first step is attracting the client – and the various methods of doing just that are highlighted in this section.
Market Mastery Search Approach – Learn more.
Your challenge as a recruiter is to bridge the gap between the professional fees you charge and the value or perceived value that you provide for companies. One of the best ways to bridge the value gap with both clients and candidates is to develop true expertise in a very specific industry or niche: this is called Market Mastery. By gaining in-depth industry insight beyond the obvious, you position yourself to bring unique knowledge to the marketplace – knowledge worthy of your professional fees. How do you become a Market Master? Part of your expertise comes with time and experience, but you can ramp up quicker if you have a clearly defined niche. You must be able to succinctly define the Function, Industry, Location and Level (FILL) of the market in which you specialize. Your market should be big enough that you can touch every candidate a couple times a year, but not have too small a candidate pool that forces you to call the same group every other week. Once you have defined your niche, your mission is to know every single want, need, and desire of every candidate and client who exists. When you have truly infiltrated your marketplace, you are now able to provide both candidates and clients insight and expertise regarding some aspect of your niche or industry.
This approach works best with those who have a track record of success, but if you are new in the business you can certainly build on the success of your firm’s previous track record. The key to the Market Mastery approach is to quickly share your insight as it benefits the client – but that insight that you share should be compelling enough to drive the conversation forward and keep your client engaged.
MPC Approach – Learn more.
There are three MPC approaches that will be covered in this section: The “Most Placeable Candidate” Presentation, the “Generic MPC” Presentation, and “Yourself as the MPC” Presentation.
The Most Placeable Candidate approach revolves around sharing a potential individual to a potential client in hopes of not only securing an interview for that candidate, but also demonstrate your credibility and capabilities as evidenced by the type of candidate you can present. The candidate is leveraged as a “hook” to interest the client early in the conversation and compel them to continue the dialogue. This is a proven technique that allows you to demonstrate the quality of candidates with whom you work. The key is to select a candidate whom you can market to multiple prospect companies.
This approach works very well not only for a brand new recruiter (because of lack of market knowledge), but also for the veteran recruiter (because of excellent market knowledge). The presentation itself should cover three things – current/past responsibilities, specific notable achievements that will demonstrate the credibility of the candidate, and (most importantly) the benefit to the prospective employer for bringing this individual on board. When you’ve selected your MPC, it is ideal to negotiate exclusivity for a pre-determined timeframe, in which the candidate will work with no other recruiters. Have the candidate provide a list of companies and contacts with which he/she would like to work, which will help you put together your marketing plan.
How do you select an MPC? You can find this individual either in the course of your normal recruiting activities or possibly as an active candidate on job boards. It could even be a candidate that interviewed with another one of your clients but was not a fit for various reasons. Beyond all other criteria, a valid MPC must only have this: a marketable skill set that can be marketed to a majority of the firms in your niche. If you select an MPC that has too narrow of a skill set, you are opening up the door to be closed again by lack of possible openings within most prospective clients. Remember – you only have one chance to make a first impression – and the caliber of this MPC will be the sole determining factor that a prospective client uses to judge the caliber of you, the recruiter.
The Generic MPC Presentation is best used when you have several prospective MPC’s or do not have a specific individual that fits their organization. The concept is that if you had a candidate that represented a potential solution to this client’s current or future staffing needs, would that client be interested in hearing more about them. This opens the dialogue up to more continued questioning revolved around what particular needs the client has, what precise skill sets they are looking for, and allows you to be more targeted in who you select for your MPC for that organization. This approach is typically used when you have completed a search for another client and have several quality candidates that could be viable prospects for the competition.
Third, we have “Yourself as the MPC” Marketing Presentation. This approach is similar to the first two, except the MPC is you! This is ideal for veterans with very good track records, because your entire approach revolves around your track record, your knowledge, your market mastery and how it can benefit the potential client. The structure of the presentation is similar – we are simply substituting you and your abilities to find the right candidate, versus one of which you currently are aware. Make sure that your presentation is truly differentiating, with statistics and numbers that separate you from the competition. Remember – if every other recruiter can use the same script, it’s not differentiating!
Recruiting Flip to Marketing – Learn more.
Flipping a recruiting call to a marketing call can be one of the most comfortable ways to ease into a marketing presentation, especially for those who are just learning how to market. The key to this approach is to flip the call when you have identified that you are speaking with a decision maker; otherwise, you are qualifying someone who ultimately cannot move the process forward. There is a pivotal moment in the conversation where you shift – and it is done by simply asking the question: “Are you fully staffed right now.” Once you have that question answered, you must have a series of high-gain, prepared and scripted questions that will allow you to navigate through the remainder of the call – regardless of whether the answer was ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Overall, this call is easy to execute, because clients now view you as a personal resource and not just a professional one for their hiring needs.
Reference Check Approach – Learn more.
Reference checking is a great way to make a warm call into a new company. The process begins as a reference check call but with a dual purpose to ‘flip’ into either a recruiting or marketing call for new business. The call itself is one that is easily executed, because you will not encounter much resistance when you are calling to facilitate a reference check. You then build credibility because this prospective client now knows the caliber of both candidates and opportunities that you represent. However, most hiring authorities are savvy to this approach, and it’s best executed when you introduce the dual purpose of the call up front. This is typically received more openly than when you flip to marketing midway through the call, with no prior notice.
Assumptive Approach – Learn more.
You surely have heard the phrase “act as if”. Act as if you are a leader, and you will become one. Act as if you cannot fail, and you will not fail. This same principle can be adopted from a marketing perspective as well. Act as if there are open positions, and you will bypass the typical smokescreen resistance that other recruiters will encounter. You eliminate the first and obvious knee-jerk reaction that most clients will give you when you inquire about open positions – you ask “do you have any needs”, and they hear “do you have any needs that I can help you fill.” Not only will this approach help you sidestep that initial objection, but you will be perceived as a market expert who has the inside information and your thumb on the pulse of your industry.
Consultant Approach – Learn more.
There are two ways to look at the Consultant Approach to Marketing, covered in both the descriptions below as well as the example scripts and video clips.
The first angle to approaching your clients from a consultative standpoint revolves around the quote, “prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.” This angle is based on asking questions designed to gain insight and understanding before making any recommendations or asking for any business. This is a great approach when you have a solid compelling introduction to the call; if you’ve not positioned yourself with enough value that they want to engage with you, your ultimate success with this approach will not exist since you won’t be able to ask them even your first question. Your introduction must differentiate why you have earned the right to this conversation, and why you are different than other recruiters from which they hear. This angle lends itself to a higher chance for new business, since you are able to first diagnose and then prescribe a medication that is targeted specifically to their pain.
In essence, the second angle to approaching calls as a consultant allows you to operate as a true mid-management consulting firm. There is no better organization to provide your clients real-time market intelligence, whether it pertains to salary surveys, business development, or strategic organizational development. By means of leveraging your current search, you are able to gain additional insight and information that you can provide value back to the client – all through the course of executing your normal recruiting and marketing calls. This is ideal in a marketplace where hiring may be slow due to market conditions – but all clients value competitive information that allows them to better manoeuvre through tough times.
Indirect Approach – Learn more.
No different than we can use an indirect approach when recruiting a candidate, we can use this same approach when pursuing new client development. This approach can be used to demonstrate market mastery and consultative questioning, as well as allows the opportunity for a client to volunteer themselves or their own needs. This is a great approach to use when you have a specific client in mind that you would like to target and partner with. Perhaps you know that they have done projects with your target client in the past, or they used to work at a firm you are targeting, or sit on a board with the leadership of your target client. This call can not only arm you with plenty of information to approach your target client and have a higher level of differentiation than all other recruiters.
Follow-up Approach – Learn More.
The Follow-Up Marketing Approach is truly a two-step process. The heavy lifting is done on the first call, setting the stage for any follow-up calls to be targeted and value-added. If you’ve ever called a client just to ‘check in’ or ‘touch base’, you have done a poor job of creating a value proposition for your subsequent calls. You must ask the client sophisticated questions to solicit specific answers regarding what information will get them wanting to answer your calls in the future. When they tell you they are interested in new business development ventures, and you call back two months later with a prospective introduction for business, the call will surely be returned.
Inbound Marketing Approach – Learn More.
You would love the phone to ring with inbound job orders. You can will the phone to ring. You can pray the phone will ring. How else can you ensure that you are allowing for the highest number of inbound calls? There are several approaches that, when combined, make certain that you are covering your bases. Your first step could be to post an assignment for a senior level position – one that you are aware of but may or may not have a signed agreement. All incoming candidates who are a fit for that senior level position are more than likely potential hiring managers. This kills two birds – recruiting for an open position, and business developing for new openings. Your second step really involves the Branding, Advertising, and Public Relations that you are doing in your marketplace, and that we will discuss further in another marketing approach section. Last but most important, it is critical to build a reputation for doing good work within your industry, exceed expectations, and make your client list your reference list. Get a written testimonial from each client and candidate that you place – both sides of the equation are evenly important. These testimonials can be posted to your social networking pages, attached to your emails, or uploaded on your website.
Networking and Splits
Developing strategic alliances with both non-competitive businesses as well as other recruiters can provide lead sharing opportunities in multiple avenues. Networking with local decision makers through the business chamber, joining networking groups online, or becoming active in alumni associations can facilitate introductions that lead to new business ventures. Remember, relationships with other recruiters aren’t such a bad thing – in fact, they can give you a great resource in which to send those candidates that didn’t fit your specific set of clients. If your candidate is motivated to make a move, splitting 50% of a fee is better than 100% of no fee at all! This section will give you a partial list of split networking sites, as well as an example fee agreement to use for inter-office splits. No different than when working with clients, make sure you have a fee agreement signed by a recruiter as well!
Branding and Advertising – Learn more.
No different than Jell-O is synonymous with gelatin, and Kleenex with tissue, you want your name to be synonymous with recruiter. This is a long term strategy that is tied in to the in-bound marketing approach. This effort can range from hiring a third party PR firm to constantly keep you in front of major media outlets, to simply creating a stellar website that truly encompasses the caliber of recruiter that you are. Your marketing outreach should not be limited to only a phone call once every few months, but staying in front of your audience through newsletters, participating in industry associations, and penning articles in trade publications. This section will give you a variety of ideas from big to small to allow you to create a consistent branding effort.
Marketing for Mergers & Acquisitions – Learn more.
The merger and acquisition marketing approach is one that delivers strategic growth solutions to firms who are interested in gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace through M&A services to grow their market share. Instead of placing a single candidate, you can facilitate an introduction for an entire organization to integrate their business into that of your client. Your fee is based on a percentage of the overall sale of the firm. Not only does this approach lend itself to large fees, but it also provides a platform for some high-level strategic business conversations with the ultimate owners and decision makers.
