QUESTION: Hi Mike, I heard you talk about using a marketing coordinator to get job order leads for a senior team member. In this case, it would be me as the owner of the company. How do you compensate them? If they find an opening that turns into a client, do they get residual income into perpetuity off of that client?  

ANSWER: Great question. For those of you who are not familiar with the term Marketing Coordinator, this is a role that someone does basically lead generation for a recruiter. The Marketing Coordinator uses MPC email marketing, flip marketing (go here to learn more about this technique), or any other means you use to approach clients. This is an entry-level role in your firm with the vision of making them a full-blown account executive 6 to 8 months later.  

During the training and mentoring period, they are working on your desk. You teach them the vernacular of the industry that you are working in and the basics of how to take a search assignment. New marketing coordinators do not take search assignments, but they set up appointments. Eventually, they learn to take the search assignment by listening to you take the search.  

My compensation plan paid Marketing Coordinators a base salary, benefits, and 5% of the first $30,000 on the total fee they generated. We did not split the total fee, but it is only 5%. From there they received 10% on the next $15,000, and 15% over $45,000 that their job orders billed in the quarter. That is the formula for compensation, 5% of the first $30,000, 10% of the next $15,000, and 15% over $45,000 in the quarter.  

If they have marketed, and then I would turn that over to a Search Associate, a fulfillment person in my office, to do the fulfillment on the search. If it was a $25,000 fee, they got 5% of $25,000.  

You might say, well, you know, you have got to split it. No. I am not going to bore you with all the reasons why I did it this way. I paid the Search Associate on the same plan, 5% of the first $30,000.  

So I am paying 5% to the search associate, I am paying 5% to the marketing coordinator. I am paying 10% plus their salaries, plus their benefits.  

If all of this activity is on your desk, as the owner, you can run this and be the conductor of the orchestra at about 70% to 75% profit margin.   

What I did in my company was, because if they were starting as a Marketing Coordinator and then 4 or 5 months later, they became a full-cycle recruiter, I handed over the accounts they brought in. There is no need to be greedy. I had team leaders that did the same thing.  

If you do not want to hand the account to the Marketing Coordinator when they progress out of that role, my recommendation would be to put a one-year timeframe on it. I am going to pay you 5% on every opening we fill for the first 12 months, and that will be their residual, not into perpetuity.  

Again, my personal preference is to give them the account back.

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