THE IMPORTANCE OF HELPING A CLIENT TO RECOGNISE THEIR PROBLEM, BEFORE RECOMMENDING A RETAINED SOLUTION

There are some key differences between the way we sell retained solutions and the way we sell contingent recruitment services.

The reason there are differences in the sales process is that when we sell a contingent service, we are not actually selling anything.

When we ask a client to work with us on a contingent basis, what we are actually saying is, “Please can I send you some CVs, for free?”.

Whereas, when we sell a retained solution, we are asking our client to part with a (usually significant) sum of money. Ie We are actually selling something, and this, of course, requires more skill.

I often talk about all professional services being solutions, solutions that clients buy to solve their problems.

So, one of the skills we need to develop, in order to get good at selling retained solutions is: Helping the client to identify their problem and what is causing it.

Which then allows us the opportunity to provide a solution.

This is solution sales.

Some clients, already know they have a problem. They have tried and tried to secure the talent they need on a contingent basis and failed. They can see that continually asking agencies to send them CV’s for free is not solving their problem. They are actively looking for a solution.

When you suggest a well-planned, carefully executed, targeted headhunt, carried out by a skilled, experienced and capable search consultant with a proven track record, and you explain that this consultant will commit to working with them until the best possible result is reached, they bite your hand off for it.

But, some clients haven’t reached that stage. They are still trying and trying to secure the talent they need on a contingent basis.

These clients are feeling pain. They are frustrated by being bombarded with agencies, all telling them they are the best, and all trying to persuade them to let them send CVs for free. These clients are frustrated with poor outcomes and they don’t understand what is going wrong.

They are frustrated with the lack of quality candidates, frustrated by receiving duplicate CVs, frustrated by agencies fighting over CV ownership, unqualified CVs, too many CVs, not enough CVs, the wrong CVs. They are frustrated that sometimes they get a good service from agencies, sometimes a terrible service, or a flurry of activity early on and then nothing. They are frustrated that a consultant who has sent good CVs in the past is now not sending many good CVs at all or has left.

They are frustrated that they aren’t getting what they need when they need it, and they often aren’t enjoying the process at all. Some even go as far as to say that they “hate recruitment agencies” as a result.

But what they don’t realise is that all of these problems, all of this pain and all of this frustration is caused by the contingent recruitment process. The process of “sending CVs for free.”

Because when we work on a “no win, no fee” basis, we have to constantly balance our risk of spending time on something that might not result in a fee. So we can only do so much.

We cannot commit a dedicated, highly skilled resource to a carefully planned and well-executed search. We cannot systematically identify every candidate across all of the target peer and competitor organisations, or the target location, taking a clear and compelling message to the market about our client and their activities. We cannot professionally assess each and every interested candidate against the key functional and behavioural competencies and share that information in a well presented easy to digest way, nor can we collect live, accurate, crucial data and intelligence on salaries, perception of their business in the market and competitor activities. We definitely can’t commit to working with that client, come what may, until we reach a result.

In a retained search, however, we can.

With financial commitment from our client, we can do all of these things. We can work in a committed partnership, apply a well-planned, carefully executed, targeted search and importantly, commit to working with our client until the position is filled.

In short – We have a guaranteed solution to their problem.

So, before you tell the client how you would like to work with them, before you push a retainer onto a client, have a go first at finding out if their current methods are working for them.

Are they getting what they need, when they need it, and is it an enjoyable process?

If not, find out why not. Are they using a free cv service which is causing frustration and pain?

If so, you can then tell them that it doesn’t have to be like that. Then you can share your solution to their problem.