A Preferred Client List?
Mark Wilson
The Risk & Compliance Recruiter. Helping Financial Services & FinTech clients recruit and retain the very best Risk & Compliance professionals
I've recently informed a client, a FTSE 100 business, that we no longer wish to be one of their Preferred Suppliers. The reason? Their shockingly poor communication. Whether it was feedback on CVs, interviews, or simply replying to messages about current vacancies, their communication simply was not good enough. And it got me thinking. As recruiters, we spend a great deal of time and effort trying to attain preferred supplier status with clients, to join their Preferred Supplier List (PSL). But should we instead be turning the tables and operating a Preferred Client List (a PCL)? Should we be inviting certain clients to join our PCL? Clients that we know our candidates want to work for, who run robust, efficient recruitment processes and are not afraid to communicate with us.
Now I know this may be easier to do in some circumstances than others. For example, my business, Willow Resourcing, is a relatively small operation and as a result we can be quite choosy when it comes to who we work with. Yes, we did make money from the client I mentioned at the start of this article, it was a profitable account. But was it a very efficient use of our time? Absolutely not. Losing candidates during the recruitment process due to slow or absent communication, for example, simply wasted our time. So I chose to move on. I'd rather work with clients who value our service. I am proud of the service we offer and I happen to believe we're very good at what we do. A success rate of 68% so far this year in a purely contingent market would seem to reflect this belief.
If you start to think this way, it can be hugely empowering. I now approach prospective new clients in a totally different way. I'm actually asking them if they would be interested in becoming one of our Preferred Clients. And the results have been very positive. I'm not saying that this is the Holy Grail of business development and it's going to work every time, but I can pretty much guarantee that it's not an approach they'll have heard before!
So the next time a client is frustrating you with lack of feedback for the umpteenth time, for example, ask yourself whether they'd deserve a place on your Preferred Client List. If the answer is no then walk away and find a client who does.
Kadz Money
5 年The dream a PCL
Senior Computer Aided Design Technician
5 年Hi Mark, I have just logged onto LinkedIn for the first time in a while and while browsing some of the more recent open posts I came across yours. I thought you might be interested in some feed back from a life long contractor, who like yourself has been extremely frustrated at the lack of communication and down write bad manners of some blue chip companies when applying for roles within their organisations. I for one, feel you are right to take a stance, if you call it that. To try and address this issue, and perhaps if everyone took this attitude when faced with this discourteous behaviour the clients might appreciate that neither you as the agent or we as the applicant have precious time to waste. I wish you every success in this new approach.
Leading the Delivery of Human Focussed Change
5 年I have a personal preferred recruiters list, for recruiters who are unfortunately the same as your client
Head of Global Financial Crime Strategic Initiatives | ex Citi | ex HSBC | ex JP Morgan
5 年nice one mark, while it would be factual and working with strong values and principal, it may have been a bit rephrased in some places for readers not to assume its not written in frustration.