“The Phone Rang…” Lessons From Robocruiter, Part 2

Editor’s note: Last week, we gave you part 1 of “The Phone Rang…” Robocruiter series, “The Total Account Executive.” This week we continue this short series from Bob Marshall with part 2.

For those of you who haven’t been exposed to Robocruiter before, buckle your seatbelts. I am going to take you on a brief flight through some of his more memorable (to me) recruitment technique snippets. In part 2 of our journey, we will look at:

The 10 manifestations of failure due to lack of commitment;
The 8 tenets managers should follow to ensure success in their offices; and
The 6 reasons why we market.

Sprinkled within these major topics, I will discuss how Robocruiter qualifies his JOs and how he achieves a 100% matching to send out ratio.

The 10 manifestations of failure due to the lack of commitment

Poor quality Job Orders (JOs) and Recruit Data Sheets (RDSs) – This is when our client company or our candidate refuse to give us the information we need in order to be successful in our placement activities.
Lack of qualifying the interview process to find out when decisions will be made – This starts with knowing when the last day is that the HM can go with the position still open. This is the ‘drop dead’ date. We then need to know who interviews, when, time between interviews, when the hiring decision will be made and by whom.
Inability to close the placement – We are afraid to close the deal because we don’t have that many deals on our hot sheet. It is professional to close the deal just like the doctor closes the operation.
Lack or failure to Market or Recruit consistently – This is a process, not a series of events. We market every day and we recruit every day. Just as the doctor markets for new patients, we market for new clients.
Failure to plan – Professionals plan. Doctors plan. Recruiters plan. None of us ‘wing it’.
Failure to close on objections – Even with the best of intentions, novelistic things happen along the way. Just as doctors have to be flexible when their surgeries don’t go perfectly, so too do we need to be flexible in handling objections as they arise.
Lack of urgency – We work where there is a sense of urgency. Indeed, we are paid, most of the time, to circumvent the time factor.
Lack of discipline or intensity in completing the assignment – If we don’t make a commitment to our business, we won’t have the discipline to complete our assignments. They are not always fun, but if they were easy our clients wouldn’t need us. Our business is pretty straightforward, but it can be very intense.
Lack of keeping up to date in the specialty – Would you want to go to a doctor for surgery if he was doing surgery like they did it twenty years ago? No you would not. So why would a client use you if you were not up to date in your specialty, in your niche?
Blaming others for lack of production – This is the ‘grass is always greener’ syndrome. We must take responsibility for our own actions.

The 8 tenets managers should follow to ensure success in their offices

Be committed to this business – You can’t expect commitment from your AEs if you don’t make that commitment yourself. You teach best by becoming the best role model.
Be capable of working the basic/practical concepts daily – AEs most respect those managers who work a desk on a daily basis.
Provide defined, well-planned goals for your office – Well-defined goals guide the success of an office. You have to know where you are going in order to get there.
Provide advanced training for your tenured people – While the ‘Classics’ never change, the tenured AEs want more—behavioral technique (like NLP) training; advanced negotiating technique training; advanced selling skills training; etc.
Provide a fair and rewarding compensation plan – As long as our comp plans are fair and equitable, we won’t lose our people.
Set up “minimum standards of employment” – Your weakest link is your minimum acceptable standard in your office. If you expect everyone to bill $250K per year and one AE, who remains employed, bills $150K per year, then $150K is your minimum standard of employment, no matter what you say.
Set a positive, enthusiastic and committed environment – We are in a sales business and attitude is key for us. Set the tone in your office and don’t let distractions destroy it. If an AE is not feeling well or is upset and exhibiting negative emotions, send them home. Negative people are vexations to our spirit.
Be open to talk to AEs about successes and failures – These can be personal as well as professional. Regardless, be open to communication with your AEs.

The 6 reasons why we market

To develop new and better JOs and client companies – By recycling the companies in our niche, we can find better JOs and client companies and higher level JOs as our trust factor grows.
Keeps AEs excited about their industry – When we are consistently marketing, we will upgrade and carve a special place for ourselves within our niche.
To become experts in the industry worked – Everyone wants to work with an ‘expert’; just have a medical problem and see where you ultimately go—not to your GP, but to a specialist who is up-to-date on the current technology that they will use to treat your infirmity.
To get the JO before anybody else does – ‘The early bird gets the worm’—be eager and start early. The best JOs are usually the unpublished JOs.
To open up other avenues; develop new business – By picking up the phone and speaking into it, you never know what will come your way. New business comes to those who market, in many different forms.
To help AEs avoid blanking months – Business begets business. On a daily basis strive to secure new JOs and new Send Outs (SOs). Those activities, especially the SOs, will lead to placements.

Stay tuned next week for more from Robocruiter…

“The Phone Rang…” by Bob Marshall is a series that defines what we, as recruiters, do for a living. This article series ran in The Fordyce Letter over the past year and we are proud to bring you the series online. To subscribe to the print edition of The Fordyce Letter, click here.