POWERING PROFITABLE PERFORMANCE

...The number one trait and what you can do about it

The thing holding your team back is not a lack of skill. It’s not even a lack of desire. It’s something far more essential and without it your business will never be as efficient or profitable as you hope.

Today I break down on one characteristic putting a handbrake on your potential.

Don’t Miss… Recruiting Better LIVE at The Recruitment Agency Expo

We’ve been invited to talk at the Recruitment Agency Expo, London Excel Centre on Tuesday 18th March.

First, I’ll be joined by a panel including Chris Ryan MCIOB, MICW to discuss the State of BD 2025 - our new report.

And later, Alex Elliott liot will join me for a special episode discussing sales playbooks

Head over to book your ticket now (and don’t forget to let us know you’re coming).

THEY HAVE THE SKILL AND THE WILL

… SO WHAT’S MISSING

Recruitment Leaders invest significant time and effort ensuring that their team have both the skill and the will to excel at Business Development. They work hard to motivate and to train their troops. However, time and time again they find their consultants failing to deliver on their potential.

For years I tried and failed to fix this complex puzzle, one that sits at the heart of every recruitment business I’ve worked with. If a consultant has both the ability and desire to do well at BD, why aren’t they getting the results?

INPUT PROBLEM

When you study recruitment businesses the way I have you quickly recognise the error in the above question. The issue isn’t simply found in the results recruiters generate, it’s in the volume of activity they do. It is “an input problem” to quote Zac Thompson of ‘We Have A Meeting’ - “most recruiters simply aren’t calling enough potential clients to hit their targets”.

Check out our episode on the Recruiting Better podcast.

I agree. BD activity across the board is far too low for the level of results recruiters are expected to reach. The fact that some consultants hit target whilst spending little to no time on sales masks the issue. Basing your metrics on the performance of others - especially more experienced consultants - is going to skew your expectations dramatically.

So if poor results are being driven by low activity, why aren’t consultants doing more?

UNDERSTANDING AVOIDANCE

People put off important work - work they are motivated to complete and capable of doing - for three reasons:

1. They’re unsure how to deploy their skills to get the results they seek.

This is a crucial challenge in recruitment. The issue is not a lack of skill - it’s the lack of understanding of how to orchestrate those skills to get the desired outcome.

2. They don’t believe that taking the activity will deliver the desired results.

If your top biller is doing less sales activity than their colleagues, what does that tell the team about BD? Consultants who see all the rewards going to farmers become farmers.

3. They’re not certain they deserve the results think they might achieve.

Recruiters on track to bill ￡300k need to have a deep seated belief that their work is worth that amount of money - otherwise they will quickly fall back to a level more commensurate with their self view.

What all these things have in common is this;

Confidence.

Specifically, the confidence to know how to deploy their skills in a way they believe will generate the results they deserve.

THE CONFIDENCE BOOST

Confidence plays a massive role in the profitability and efficacy of business development activity. When a consultant is confident in deploying their skills in a way they believe will generate the results they deserve remarkable results follow.

Confidence plays such a major part in recruiters performance it has become a key metric for us here at Resonant.

We help Recruitment Businesses give their teams sustained and growing confidence - not through one off training or coaching - but through effective process design. And, recruiters with clarity over their sales process report a 50% increase in confidence on average.

We’ve found understanding how to execute an end to end sales process to be the number one determinant taking a consultant from good to great.

IN SEARCH OF PROFIT

Building confidence, more than any other characteristic in your team will boost their results. For consultants who have the skill and the will, confidence is key. It’s how you create a high performing, highly efficient and highly profitable recruitment business.

How do you approach increasing your teams confidence with BD?

How clear are your team in navigating an end to end sales process?

What is the biggest area of focus to improve your results right now?

Best regards,

Ben

P.S. Don’t forget we’re live at the Recruitment Expo next month. Do you have your ticket?

P.P.S. If you want to see how your Sales Strategy compares to the average - and get a personalised report - take the assessment here: BD Strategy Assessment