Despite the slowdown, those who are absorbing market share are the ones winning right now. Many people ask me, “What are you seeing in the marketplace?”
Absorbing Market Share Starts with Stronger Marketing Efforts
Over the last couple of months, I have been networking with some of the other trainers, coaches, and companies that have exposure to hundreds of recruiting firms. There is at least one place where all of us can collect data and see what percentage of the business is off.
The feedback I have been given, like in talking to Danny Cahill and Jeff Kaye, the CEO of Next Level Exchange, is that business is off about 15%. Similar to the marketing presentations, job orders have gone up a bit, but all of them—Danny with his clients, Jeff with their franchisees and their offices—are the same. People got used to not marketing. People got used to not marketing. We see it with our clients at The RecruiterU when they turn the marketing engine back on. It is bumpy, but there is good stuff out there.
How I Focused on Absorbing Market Share in the 2001 Tech Recession
I remember I got back on a desk in 2001 in the middle of a tech recession, borderline depression in tech, so I was back cold calling people. I’d given up all my good relationships to my existing team. I remember repeatedly talking to this guy and hearing that things were slow:
“We are not hiring. Things are slow. We are not hiring.”
I took searches. In a recession, I worked a desk for four weeks. I worked every afternoon for one month. I did marketing. The net results of that, and probably talking to six or seven, maybe eight on the high end, people in a few hours, I took a retainer a week in a market that was “dead” at fees of 25% or higher, and I turned them over to my team to work.
It was a numbers game, and it was also doing a diagnostic, uncovering what the pain points were. The key to succeeding in that tough market was absorbing market share — even in what seemed like a “dead” market. While others were waiting for the market to turn, I focused on capturing the opportunities that existed and made them work.
Let’s Build a Plan That Actually Works!
The Hidden Opportunity in a “Dead” Recruiting Market
One of the best calls I had from a motivation standpoint was with a company. They were a small company doing only about $10 million in revenue, but they were tracking to do $20 million in the next year, like a double in a market that was “dead.”
Everyone was calling the market dead.
I go, “What a refreshing phone call. Everyone is talking about how difficult the market is, yet you are doubling. What is your secret?”
He goes, “Mike, there’s no secret. We are a $10 million company. We are a pimple on the butt of the industry. As dead as this industry is, it will do billions of dollars in tech sales. For us to go from $10 million to $20 million requires us taking 0.001% market share from companies like Cisco and Bay Networks, systems like that.”
If I’m Cisco – at the time, I think they were $40 billion, somewhere in that neighborhood – for them to grow 10%, they have got to get $4 billion more in new revenue. It is harder for big companies. For a small company, it is just a matter of absorbing a small amount of market share.
A Pimple on the Butt: Absorbing Market Share From Competitors
Why do I share this story with you?
The people who are doing $200,00, $300,000, $400,000, or doing $1 million, $2 million, $3 million as an office, you are a pimple on the butt, with all due respect, of the amount of fees paid in your niche. In each of your niches, hundreds of millions, if not a billion or more, are paid out in recruiting fees, even in this market.
For you to capture $400,000 on a desk, or if you are at $750,000, for you to have $1 million or $1.2 million in this market, it is not that the revenue is not there. You are capturing micro percentages of the available market, and I promise you what is going on because I see it and I talk about it with people; they are not marketing. They’re sitting on their butts and waiting for the economy to turn and get hot again. They are not aggressively going after new business and absorbing market share from competitors.
A Simple Recruiting Plan to Build $300K+
That is the opportunity you all have. That is the opportunity you all have. I think if you start planning out to do a minimum of four client conversations per day, I do not care if you get them on the phone and they go, no, we do not need you right now, and that is the end of the call, but if you talk to four hiring managers per day. It could be calling old clients, calling you who took job orders months ago or a year ago, or building a new list within your niche; if you talk to four hiring managers a day, you combine it with your recruiting activity, that is $300,000 a year built, minimum.
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. https://get.therecruiteru.com/lm
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 make more money and get more freedom. https://www.facebook.com/groups/there…
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/live
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. https://get.therecruiteru.com/scale-now
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