QUESTION: Mike, I have taken your advice and have hired recruiters. My weakness is holding them accountable. I know you have talked about 15 presentations a day as a minimum standard. Help me again with what happens if they do not hit their targets. – Nicole, Chicago
ANSWER: Now more than ever it is important to meet or even exceed your presentation goals. Ultimately, I put that in a very short period of time, you fire them. Let me walk you through the process. When I interview somebody, part of my interview process is beginning to manage expectations. For those of you who do not use metrics yet, for that reason alone you should send me a note and get in our coaching program because that is a game-changer. We use metrics in my firm. All of my clients use their metrics.
Because we were a metrics-driven firm, I would say to somebody in the interview:
Everyone that I have ever hired that followed my metrics, followed my expectations, followed my counsel, has succeeded. I have zero failures of people I have hired that have done ESP – exactly, specifically, and precisely – what I told them to do. Do I have your word that you will do exactly, specifically, and precisely what I tell you? It is going to be a challenge. It is not necessarily easy every day. Quite frankly, Mr. New Hire, Ms. New Hire, when you join this company there are going to be days when you are simply going to wish your parents never met.
That statement always gets a laugh.
You have all been in this business. When you started, were there not those days? The whole reason I tell them all this is when it stinks in the beginning, and it does, it is part of the price they have to pay to be successful. It is normal. When they think it is normal and this is part of the process, what I have learned is they are much less likely to doubt themselves.
That statement of following what I tell them ESP is how I set the expectation. What I do when I bring them on is after an initial training period, the first day on the phone which is usually their second or third day, by the way, only recruiting. I tell them during the first couple of months they need to talk to 15 people a day. There are some things you put in place before your new recruiter starts. Make sure you have people for them to call.
My main reason for the 15 conversations per day is to build muscle and allow for fast failure. I do not invest a ton of time listening to their calls in the first week or so. I coach them every day on how their day went, and I train them every day on those results. It is just like learning golf or tennis, you have got to hit a bunch of balls. I do not put them on anything really, really good when they are brand new so I am not accountable to my client.
To your question, what do you do when you come in and they are at 13 or 14? Most of the time these people are out of the door at 5:00 or 5:15. We all know you can get people after 5:00. They were not working until 8:00 at night. When this happens, we revisit our initial conversation. Basically I ask them if 13 or 14 is ESP 15 conversations. I then ask them why they failed to execute on their commitment.
If the recruiter still comes back the next day or 2 days later, and they are at 12 or 13, I fire them. I will give a final warning by saying: If this happens again, it is going to be your last day. Here is what happens: People fear, as soon as I say that, when I have said this in public seminars that we run, they think I am just firing truckloads of people. I can count on one hand, in 12 years, the number of people I have fired, in 12 years, in their first week for not hitting activity targets. I was hiring 6 to 10 a year, just to put it in perspective.
The reason it works is you are crystal clear with your expectations. You are 100% consistent on your follow-through.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your recruitment business:
1. Grab a free copy of my Retainer Blueprint
It’s the exact, step-by-step process of getting clients to give you money upfront. Click Here.
2. Join the Recruiter Think Tank and connect with firm owners who are scaling too
It’s our Facebook community where smart recruiters learn to get make more money and get more freedom.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/therecruiterthinktank
3. Join me at our next event
3x a year, I run a 3-day virtual intensive, sharing the 9 key areas that drive a 7-figure search firm. Click here to check out the dates of our upcoming event:
https://get.therecruiteru.com/emerge
4. Work with me and my team privately
And if you ever want to get some 1:1 help, we can jump on the phone for a quick call, and brainstorm how to get you more leads, more placements, and more time.
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