Trust, freedom and a credit card Still the best way to build business
FROM DECEMBER 2015'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE
A credit card with unlimited budget and six months out in the field to meet as many people as possible — that would make a successful recruiter, regardless of the decade your business is operating in.I’m often asked what makes a successful recruiter. People want to know the secret formula that would add to a recruitment consultant’s DNA to help them achieve great results. The secret is that there is no secret — you need to build your network and, to build your network, you need to get off your chair and meet people.
When I embarked on my career in recruitment, I was fortunate enough to be presented with the enviable task of getting out in the field and networking. My boss at the time, who was also a great believer in the power of a network, handed me a credit card with an unlimited budget and told me to get out there and mix with my fellow contractors in a social setting.
This is a practice I have carried with me throughout my career and, in the early days of Crimson, I went out and met with 200 contacts, with the aim of gaining market insight ahead of trading. You may think this is a wasted activity but, as a result, 70% of the contacts I met with then continue to provide the source of Crimson’s growth today.
As new people have joined the Crimson team over the past few years, they’ve been given the same task: to go out and meet as many people as they can with a company credit card. By affording them this trust and this freedom, our entire team has excelled and become one of the main channels for referrals and repeat business orders over time.
Technology: a help, not a leader
I know what you’re going to tell me: “I haven’t got the time to go out and spend six months meeting people — and why do I need to when I have recruitment technology and social media, which can help me build connections in seconds?”
There’s absolutely a place for technology in recruitment and networking. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t be running a recruitment technology business. But recruiters need to view technology as an integral assistive technology, rather than their primary source of business.
You can intuitively use candidate sourcing software to source new candidates in record time or search your CRM (customer relationship management) system to find an existing contact — technology is great for finding people.
However, if a candidate is not successful at an application, that’s where you need to deploy old-fashioned techniques: pick up the phone and talk to them, take them for coffee. It just might be that they are perfect for another role, in which case you can return to your desk and update your recruitment software to that effect. You would never have known if you hadn’t picked up the phone.
Tenacious dreamers
What makes a successful recruiter? For me, it’s all about identifying those who are unstructured and tenacious — someone who is always on the phone, who never switches off. Someone who is a huge dreamer, working beyond the realms of 9-5, with an innate ability to turn bad news to their advantage.
Find someone like this, marry them up with the right recruitment technology and you have a recruitment match made in heaven — it’s just like placing a candidate in their perfect job.
ROB MALLABAND is group managing director and co-founder of Crimson. Find out more at www.crimson.co.uk or @CrimsonITJobs on Twitter
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