Are you a trusted advisor?
Knowing your competition is as important as knowing your client. No matter what side of the table you are seated at you should know all you can about a client, a candidate, your internal employees and your competitors.
I am sure you have gone through this at some point in time in your business dealings. You know that feeling that you had closed that deal, or that your client was so faithful that he would follow you through time and into business eternity. How could it be any different? You think I've played golf with them, had lunch, I have been a part of their inner circle! What happened? Well maybe you need to stop and think about this. Were you so comfortable in the relationship that you stopped being proactive? The reality is just that as in anything else in life, when you don't nurture growth, someone else can always walk in and take that which we thought was ours. In looking at how we do business we have to make sure that our funnel is always full, and I don’t just mean prospects. I mean full of ideas, of value added service. In locating new clients that need my staffing services, I look for companies that take good care of their employees, and actually sometimes as important is how they treat their clients. You want to surround yourself with people that will respect what you and others bring to the table.
The other day I heard a high level executive ask a room filled with high level HR directors; “When was it that we stopped taking care of our employees?” He told us the story of how he was booking a large conference, and had scheduled a site visit at a Top rated Hotel in Downtown Miami. He was treated as a VIP as he walked in, and then by mistake he took the service elevator. He was shocked to see carpeting on the walls, dirty floors and terrible smell, he went ahead and got down in a service floor, and continued to be shocked at the look of the area where employees were bustling by. There were no marble floors, no clean walls or comfortable lighting. At that moment he decided he didn’t want to book a conference in a place that didn’t treat their employees as well as their clients. There are companies that forget that their human capital is their greatest asset. Think of your workforce as leaders and stars and they become just that!
Done deals are never really done if you create a client for life, there are changes in the market, and often even in leadership and that which was secure is gone.
How do you protect yourself and your company? One of the things that create clients for life is when you put yourself in the place of that business owner. How can I help you hit your goals? Becoming a trusted advisor takes place when you can walk away from a deal that is good for you, but not for your client.
Getting the right person into a future and not just a seat is a fine line. We all need to increase revenue, but when a person's future is at stake, then our quotas should take a back seat to what is best for all. After 17 years in the human resource/staffing industry I have as my motto to always be guided by my clients' needs and their objectives. Their mission statement must be parallel to that person I am bringing into their firm.
My actions will speak for me, and things have a way of falling into place. In the staffing industry the time that you take in knowing both your client, and applicant can be the difference between an industry star and a fall off. Next time you need to hire a business partner that will put you first in your business dealings, please give me a call! We are not the biggest in the industry, but I can assure you that you would be working with a professional whose ethics, and business knowledge will serve your purpose first. For a free consultation on how I can help you hire with your next industry star give me a call!