Press Coverage
Natural born billers
Interviewer - 2000-03-16
Experienced recruitment consultants are judged by the amount of revenue they produce for their company. Their billing record and potential to generate future income, determine their value both in their present organisation and out on the market.
Other factors are important, like the quality of the process they follow and the strength of their client relationships, but top line sales figures are the main indicator of results in our business and therefore our measure of excellence here.
It is impossible to put a glib figure on what should be high fee production across the industry. Obviously every company has different targets and what is considered high revenue in one is average production in another. The level of support given to generate that revenue needs to be taken into account also (researches, resources, marketing support and so on). Some of our search clients expect personal net sales of at least £50,000 a year, but generating half of that in many firms would put consultants well in the top 25%.
When we interview consultants, we determine where they fit in their firm's league tables. It is the people at the top of those tables that concern us here - in other words the one or two recruiters in every office who bill far more than their colleagues. Every manager/owner wants to find and then clone these star producers. Not only do they generate high income themselves, but they set standards for their colleagues to reach.
We assume that all consultants have the right characteristics to be successful in this business: tenacity, persuasiveness, communication skills, sales ability, intelligence, etc. They shouldn't have been hires in the first place without them. The big question is why some consultants with the same skills, training and experience, are far more successful than others? As a company we have more than eight years' experience in identifying outstanding performers and spotting future talent.
Banish The MythsA couple of popular myths can be quickly banished here. Hiring consultants with previous sales/consultancy/sector experience may give then a head start in the business but doesn't seem to keep them at the winning post. Having one or two degrees helps but isn't important as evidence of applied intelligence either.
The dominant characteristic of the most successful consultants is their ruthless ability to prioritise. They have the same 24 hours in the day as the rest of us but manage to accomplish far more by controlling their time. Abid Hamid, of training company ARBP, describes this as the 'opportunity cost test': "If I do this with my time or work this assignment then what am I NOT doing?"
Rather than focusing on revenue objectives, the high-producer will set process goals. These could include: attempted calls, completed calls, company presentations, CVs in, job orders/retainers, first send-outs, offers, acceptances and so on. He or she monitors their activity carefully - particularly time spent on the telephone attempting and completing calls.
Ratios from each level of activity to the next are calculated and met: attempted calls to completed calls at about three to one, company presentations to assignments won: two to one and so on. The recruiter works their desk to achieve their ratios, achieving their revenue objectives almost as a by-product. That way the consultant spends their day productively, not wasting time on incomplete job orders, unqualified candidates or unfillable assignments. He or she is in control of his pipeline of ongoing business.
This is all basic training material but, if we're honest, we rarely work this way consistently. Nor is this methodology strongly enforced by management, particularly as we move away from high street into specialist recruitment. The crucial element is planning - not just the usual 'to do' list, which is often just transferred from one page of the diary to the next. Instead, time is allocated to achieving short, medium and longer-term objectives.
The value of preparation
Generally, the best consultants recommend one hour each evening to prepare the following day's telephone calls. It takes about 15 minutes of planning to prepare one hour of calls. The extraordinary recruiter will restrict their calls during this planning time to important incoming calls only (such as offers or negotiations). Managers who have implemented statutory planning time in their companies have seen sales rocket as a result.
Sara Basley is a personal development specialist working exclusively in the recruitment market and has 'modelled excellence' in a number of recruitment organisations. She agrees that there is a definite correlation between top performers and the ability to prioritise.
"In the large and structured organisation that has a defined planning system in place, the top performers plan in order to create time and opportunities," she says. "They clearly demonstrate an ability to plan for their customers as well as their own successes. Their less effective counterparts are very short term focused, using planning to get everything done day to day."
Ms Basley believes that in the more entrepreneurial environment of the specialist recruiter, there is a less structured approach to planning. "The emphasis of top performers is on identifying priorities. Whilst they like to create order, they are fluid in their working patterns - constantly looking to the future, constantly seeking to create opportunities for their customers and their business."
Regardless of their environment, all top performers understand the importance of quality information and market knowledge to enable effective decision-making and view this as vital to their ability to identify priorities.
The outstanding performers in our industry have not re-invented the wheel. They have just demystified the recruitment process, breaking it down into production targets and ratios and then prioritising these. As a result, they find the job less stressful than their colleagues and have to work fewer hours.
Their colleagues are more likely to leave the business. We advise our clients that part of the selection process in hiring new consultants should always be an exploration of their ability to identify and manage priorities.
