Recruiter Tue, 11 May 2010 | By Paul Jacobs

Love your sales life — an encouragement that includes ’love’ and ’sales’ in one sentence! Now that is something that you don’t see every day of the week.

The debate continues as to whether recruitment has moved into an era where a consultative rather than a sales approach is de rigueur in opening, and then developing, lasting and robust client relationships.

It is a ’chicken and egg’ conundrum.

Enduring business relationships are built upon one absolute irrefutable platform – TRUST.  And if we openly accept that ’people buy people’ – and we should – then we must also accept that trust can only truly be developed through personal relationships.

The ’S’ word

You know the moment that the dreaded ’sales’ word is uttered, colleagues often hide behind tasks that suddenly take on a new and urgent level of priority.

Sales can conjure up images of fruitless short conversations, confusion, meaningless direction, disappointment and rejection.

Of course the fact remains that we cannot adopt a consultative approach with our clients unless we contrive a method of meeting them in the first instance to commence an initial dialogue.

There is no escaping the S word, no matter how much we may prefer to ignore it!

Direction and targets

How often have you reviewed what your ’perfect client’ looks like in direct relation to your clearly defined brand strategy?

How certain are you that everybody within your business clearly understands your cultural and operational USPs?

There are of course clear strategic choices to make dependant upon your resources, positioning, brand image, aspirations and capabilities.

If your business is all about establishing a ’high-touch’ consultative approach with clients, then are you seeking business with customers who share your ideals?

If your business is all about seeking premium margins in accord with your ’high-touch’ consultative approach with clients, are you focused upon clients who will pay you more in relation to your attention to detail and willingness to deliver an outstanding customised service?

What specific industry sectors are you focused upon? Vertical or horizontal sales strategies? SMEs or corporates? Geographies – which?

Questions, questions?

Define what you seek in terms of market penetration and our value proposition and communicate these strategies clearly to our colleagues to provide clarity and reduce the large world of potential sales targets to a manageable and distinct objective.

Consider these questions carefully:

·     What size of business should we focus upon? – Employee numbers; locations; turnover; profit.

Remember, the larger the client, the greater the depth of process and time spent in terms of winning the opportunity and then ultimately delivering the service required.

High volume opportunities will almost always equate to lower margins and commoditisation.

Conversely, low volume opportunities will equate to higher margins and a high-touch approach.

·     Which industry sectors should we be specialising in?

·     What are our candidate specialities? – Job titles; experience; qualifications; salary levels; expertise.

·     Are we seeking local or national opportunities?

·     What payment terms are we prepared to accept?

·     What on – costs are we prepared to absorb to deliver the service model required?

·     What SLAs and specific contractual terms do we deem acceptable including levels of indemnification and liabilities?

·     Does the target client treat their customers and suppliers well?

·     How does their credit rating check out – financially robust?

·     Does the client have a good reputation and enviable ethics?

·     Can we achieve acceptable margins?

Define your world – and communicate clearly

Ensure that your colleagues are very clear indeed about their target audience, and then train and coach them consistently and thoroughly to become ’experts selling to experts’ within your chosen markets.

What’s next once you have defined and conveyed your sales strategies?

Well, it is not an accident that the businesses in our industry that are so admired for their impressive success and enviable turnover and profit, have a strong and regimented sales culture deeply embedded into the very psyche of their daily existence.

It’s about imparting and training effective sales techniques and structures to your people and then establishing a competitive and motivational sales culture within the very fabric of your business.

Much more to follow on these critical subjects in future articles.

Love your sales life?

Definitely – once you know and understand your ’perfect client’ template beyond any reasonable doubt and you stay true to your convictions.

Passion sells and an absolute belief in your product offering with an accompanying burgeoning sales pipeline brings a deep and warm sense of fulfilment, excitement and of course achievement.

Increased sales equate to greater success, and we all know that nothing breeds success, like success!

Paul Jacobs is managing director of LoveWorkLife.

E-mail: paul@loveworklife.com.

M: +44 (0)7960 550756

2010 – and Back to Basics?

The Recruiter

So, as we emerge from the current economic challenges and look forward to encouraging growth within the recruitment sector, with predictions of 30% of all employees seeking to change jobs, recruiters should view the new year with a mixture of optimism and a degree of introspection.
Movement in the job market bodes well for the industry, but the same intense feeling of seeking pastures new for the UK workforce, will also influence the thinking of valued consultants and managers – not to mention outstanding temporary workers and contractors.
Now, is the time to display tangible displays of appreciation through a wide variety of meaningful methods, including benefits, development and a focus on creating an enviable company culture.
The future looks brighter, but it will be prudent to adopt a Back to Basics attitude as the market grows.

Paul Jacobs Managing Director

LoveWorkLife

“Love Work, Love Life”

It’s an Open and Shut Case!

In my last article I talked about “Winning by numbers” – lowering Success Ratio’s and developing your sales skills and opening and closing techniques.

It is one thing to understand your current averages; how many telesales calls it takes you to arrange a client meeting, or how many interviews attended it takes for you to make a placement for example, but it is quite another matter to concentrate on improving your sales technique to lower your “handicap” to use a golfing analogy.

It’s about listening, not talking!

Some people will tell you that you need the “gift of the gab” to sell, but it is my belief that you only gain knowledge when you shut your mouth and open your ears!

After all, when we speak we merely hear what we already know, whereas when you ask a question and listen intently to the answer, you are gifted with detail that was previously unknown.

Knowledge makes you King!

In order to understand a client’s needs, you need to solicit information and refrain from making assumptions, and we all know what “assuming” makes us!

Open question techniques

Ask a colleague to use a Funnel technique, and witness how quickly they revert to using closed questions that demand a Yes or No answer.

“Can you?” “Will you?” “Are you?” “Would it?” “Wouldn’t it?”  “Could you?” “Have you?” are all examples of framing a question that will guarantee a Yes or No answer?

Not great when you are trying to gain highly valuable information.

So what is a funnel technique?

It is a method of using a broad question that commences a dialogue, and then uses tighter open ended questions that ultimately exhaust a subject matter and brings the “probing questions” to a fine ultimate point.

Open ended questioning techniques all use the following words:-

“How?”

“What?”

“Why?”

“Which?”

“Where”

“When?”

The constant use of these questions, inserted at the front of a sentence, or embedded comfortably in the middle or at the end of a conversational style question, will always result in an answer that contains to a greater or lesser degree, detailed information.

It is impossible to answer an open ended question with a Yes or No response!

Practice makes perfect!

Like any professional, it is an imperative to practice the basics every day – just ask a singer who practices vocal scales; a tennis player who practices serve, volley, backhand and forehand strokes; a musician who practices chord sequences – it is all about practice!

So, try the Funnel technique and practice with a colleague.

Start with a broad question, for example “When was the last occasion that you utilised the services of a recruitment consultancy?”, and then having digested the answer, construct another open ended question to gain further detail, for example “What specific skills were you seeking from a temporary/ contract worker?” – and so forth.

Try it; it is not easy is it?

Note how quickly you lapse into closed “Can you?”, “Have you?” Were you?” type questions that provide a short sharp and not always welcomed response!

Defining Needs is just the start point

Of course, understanding clients’ Needs is merely the start of the process that we define as the Sales process – and in many respects the easy part.

Asking open ended questions in rapid and logical succession takes skill and speed of thought, and you need to lead the conversation to a pre determined place of your choosing in order to exhaust the subject matter.

Furthermore, you need to explore a wide variety of subjects to define the full potential requirements of every client, and they will all differ dependent upon the unique characteristics of the company and individual that you are targeting.

Once you have clearly understood the Need, now you segue into a recapping technique that will enable you to repeat back to the client his stated position to ensure that you have fully understood the details received, before you deliver the Features and Benefits of your services that will comprehensively meet and exceed the defined Needs.

And we haven’t yet reached a Closing position!

When will you start to practice your Funnel technique?

You now recognise that this is an open question – and I have asked it for a deliberate purpose.

As basic as you may feel that the instructions that I have outlined in this article may appear, I challenge you to become an Open Master, and practice the art of using funnelled questioning techniques until it is as natural as walking and breathing.

Becoming a super salesperson is not an accident, or a birthright, it is entirely about practicing your art until you have achieved total mastery of your craft.

We will address Needs, Features and Benefits and Closing techniques very soon!

Paul Jacobs is Managing Director of LoveWorkLife.

E-mail: paul@loveworklife.com.

M: +44 (0)7960 550756

“Back to Basics”

The Essential Mantra to achieve Enlightenment

That is quite a mystical title to an article – very Zen, but how else do you describe that sense of well being that emanates from developing a robust, healthy pipeline of business opportunities?

New clients do not mysteriously appear just because we close our eyes and cross our fingers and “believe” that instructions for assignments and vacancies will just “happen”.

Of course not – we all know that.

In an age where digital communication is freely available across so many ever improving and developing channels, it is so easy to become entirely reliant upon remote methods of engaging existing and prospect clients.

Trust

Yet lasting business relationships are built upon one absolute indisputable platform – TRUST.

If we openly accept that “people buy people” – and we should, then we must also accept that trust can only truly be developed through personal relationships – and that means one thing only. You and your people NEED to be face to face in front of current and prospect clients, every day and every week!

Yes of course you can build a high profile and increase your brand equity through effective and impactful marketing and PR – and this is critical too to your business longevity, but no meaningful client relationship was ever achieved via arms length communication.

It is a straight line

The more telesales calls that are made, the more client meetings we arrange; the more client meetings that we attend, the more orders that are placed.

The volume of assignments and vacancies received are directly related to the amount of temps/ contractors/interim staff placed and permanent placements achieved.

But, we know this stuff of course.

To use the cliché “It’s not rocket science”.

I don’t like selling!

So how is it then that so few businesses appear to adopt a disciplined and consistent approach to a sales culture and regime?

We often hear that colleagues “don’t like selling”.

Come on; is that an acceptable statement to you?

It is not an accident that the businesses in our industry that are so admired for their impressive success and enviable turnover and profit, have a strong and regimented sales culture deeply embedded into the very psyche of their daily existence.

So is it the case that colleagues do not “like selling”, or is it just possible that they do not know how to – that they do not understand how to structure a conversation with open ended questions, and have never heard of a funnel technique, and cannot explain what the differences are between a Trial, Direct or an Alternative Close?

Let alone identify a Buying Signal if it bit them on a tender part of their anatomies!

Basics! Basics! Basics!

So who is at fault, our colleagues or the business for not investing in developing their skills or creating a disciplined “offering out” environment?

Of course they do not enjoy “selling” – they probably do not know how to and consequently lack confidence and self belief.

Every company and division has to constantly “ask” for new business, and to get in front of the curve as we emerge from the economic recession, we must sell our way up and increase our market share.

Yes, we need to provide an outstanding service to our clients and have a clear understanding of our value proposition, but to deliver an unbreakable bond with customers TRUST must be built.

That means one thing only; meet clients regularly, ask open ended questions, actively listen, do not interrupt them, close and then give them what they have asked for – and some!

Peace of mind

You know where this all begins of course?

Daily tele -sales calls and client meetings, ownership of pipeline development, monitoring sales ratios, robust reporting processes and of course constant coaching, supporting and motivating of colleagues to achieve targets and goals.

Enlightenment comes through an unswerving and robust sales culture.

It is not Zen, it is just Back to Basics.

Paul Jacobs

Managing Director

LoveWorkLife

“Love Work, Love Life”

e-mail: paul@loveworklife.com

(m) 07960 550756

www.loveworklife.com

“Love Work, Love Life!”

Paul Jacobs launches new recruitment specialist management consultancy LoveWorkLife.

Paul Jacobs has spent the last 33 years working within the recruitment industry occupying a range of high profile positions including Managing Director of Office Angels where he virtually doubled the branch network and guided the business to a top ten position in The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to Work for in the UK Awards two years in succession and board directorship of Adecco UK & Ireland.

In November, Paul launched LoveWorkLife, a management consultancy designed to provide strategic advice and mentoring to recruitment/HR business directors/owners, and senior leadership teams to create enviable and contemporary cultures that will attract and retain clients, candidates and most importantly colleagues.

Paul explained, “Considering my extensive experience of the recruitment industry, I am convinced that my associates and I can be of enormous assistance to businesses seeking to develop strategic growth or exit strategies as the economy begins to recover in 2010 and beyond.”

“We will be able to provide a range of expert and expedient solutions to clients seeking to create a “stand – out” brand and culture, and of course enhance business growth and increased profitability through leadership training and sales training and development.”

“I hold a passionate belief that work should be energising, stimulating and “fun” – not a fashionable word, and that businesses should create an environment that is at once attractive and compelling, generating long term loyalty from clients, jobseekers and  most importantly colleagues”, Paul continued.

“Whilst I have witnessed enormous changes within the recruitment industry since the seventies when I first started working at the Alfred Marks Bureau as a Junior Interviewer,” Paul stated, “the one consistent tenet to success for recruitment consultancies has remained the same “people buy people”. Create an enviable business culture and “people” will want to do business with you and of course work for you for many, many years’”.

Paul is excited about the future, “LoveWorkLife is a concept designed to generate and develop outstanding businesses and cultures for directors, colleagues, candidates and clients alike, and now is absolutely the right time to be bold and take immediate steps to create sustainable and robust growth and increase market share.”

For further information, contact Paul Jacobs at: paul@loveworklife.com

Tel.no: 07960 550756

16th June 2010

The Recruiter

by Paul Jacobs

Falling in Love (Again!) with Sales

It is said that “Love is blind”, that it lacks rational thought and evaluation.

A state of intoxication; a heady and breathless euphoric condition; emotional and unconditional.

So, on reflection, could such a powerful sensation be applied to a subject that so many people find less than alluring?

It’s all about your mind set

It is about acceptance and focus.

You may desire success and all of the accompanying trappings; status, financial security and independence but these aspirations have to be gained through a determined series of steps that all revolve around a basic principle.

Volume of Sales = Volume of Wins.

The volume of telesales calls that you make relate to the volume of client meetings that you arrange; the amount of client meetings that you attend, relate to the amount of opportunities that you receive which in turn equates to the amount of vacancies and assignments that you fill.

It is a straight line, a mathematical certainty.

And there you have it, the secret of success is entirely dependant upon your ability to interact and communicate with potential purchasers of your services and build trust, both in you and the business that you represent.

The greater the volume, the greater your level of success.

It will not happen in any other way, so you may as well accept this irrefutable fact.

In fact, embrace it with a passion, because this level of enlightenment will become the platform for your development and the foundation of your success.

Winning by numbers!

When thinking of Ratios to Success, consider sporting analogies.

The more shots you have on goal, the more goals you are likely to score.

Want to score a century? You will need to put bat to ball regularly and strike with direction, power and purpose.

But it is also about improving your averages. Can you lower your golf handicap by improving your technique and ability to get around the course with less shots and effort?

Can you sprint 100 metres or run the marathon in less time with fewer steps?

And so on.

The first step to success is to plot your current averages.

Don’t know how many telesales calls it takes you to arrange a client meeting, or how many interviews attended it takes for you to make a placement?

Or how many vacancies it takes to make a placement?

Or how many new clients that you need to acquire to meet your temporary hours/shifts goals?

You need to.

This is not a Big Brother situation; this is all about you understanding your current performance and base level abilities.

How else will you be able to determine the tangible improvement in your sales ability going forward?

How else will you be able to recognise your training and coaching needs?

How else will you be able to absolutely quantify how many telesales calls that you need to make each day/week/month to achieve your orders goals and ultimately your placement or hours/shifts targets?

The Basics

Let’s start at the beginning.

Plot the following volumes over a month and a quarter:-

• Telesales calls
• Client meetings attended
• Vacancies received
• Temporary/interim assignments received
• Placements made
• Temporary/interim assignments filled
• Candidates registered

Ratios will look like this:-

• Telesales calls / Client meetings attended
• Client meetings attended/ Vacancies or Temporary assignments received
• Vacancies/ Placements achieved
• Interviews Attended/ Vacancies
• Interviews Attended/ Placements
• Candidates Registered/ Placements
• Candidates Registered/ Temp/interim assignments filled

Divide one figure into the other, and now you have your base line averages, and believe me the maths never lie!

You can now accurately calculate the exact quantities of each component element of the sales process that it will take to make a solitary placement, and if you want to achieve 5 placements as an example per month, just multiply each element by 5 and you now have your daily/ weekly/ monthly sales targets set out.

Lowering your Success Ratios

Now that is a different story!

To improve and lower Success Ratios you need to develop your sales skills, opening and closing techniques, and client meeting techniques and then plot the difference in ratios over each month, quarter half year and annual period.

How to improve your opening, closing and client presentation techniques?

Let’s make these the subjects of further articles!

Falling in love with sales?

It is entirely possible once you accept and embrace the fact that “sales” is the celestial body around which everything that you desire revolves.

Pretty Zen don’t you think?

Most of us could get quite intoxicated and euphoric about this concept, wouldn’t you agree?

By the way, that is a “closing technique”!!

Paul Jacobs is Managing Director of LoveWorkLife.

E-mail: paul@loveworklife.com.

M: +44 (0)7960 550756

The importance of developing enviable and contemporary work cultures

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 The Recruiter | By Paul Jacobs  

So, we all know by now that one thing is certain in life: change happens! Sometimes change hits us hard and dramatically, but generally the evolution occurs imperceptibly.

The fact is that we are rarely able to control and direct the socio-economic dynamics that conspire to impact upon our daily existence.

It is, however, prudent to be mindful of the perceived challenges and be ready to embrace the opportunities that change will unquestionably offer.

Of course, by now you will be well acquainted with the discussions regarding Generation Y, the 18-28-year-olds who are by far the largest employee group in history and who will also be the longest living generation of all time.

You know these people, believe me; you manage them, work alongside them, do business with them, find jobs for them and are related to them!

They are not an alien race, they are the here and now and the future, and they have a very different attitude to their workplace and careers shaped by their digital age upbringing and a determined attitude to take greater control of their own destiny.

My question to you therefore is: “Do you believe that your business and your brand attracts and retains this new discerning generation?”

If you have created an enviable and contemporary work culture and your business listens and responds to its audience, your impressive achievement will almost certainly be rewarded with outstanding growth.

If, however, you are unable to respond with an enthusiastic “Yes!”, there is much work to be done, my friends!

Trust me, your brand and culture needs to relate to the current generation if you are to appeal to new associates, imbue loyalty within current colleagues and attract long-term clients and candidates.

We are largely discussing cultural changes here – and a nurturing, tactile attitude to people.

Manager or a leader?

The old maxim that ’A manager has staff, but a leader has followers’ is a profound statement of fact.

A leader actively listens, is attentive and forms a vision, and cultivates TRUST!

Outstanding leaders are also humble, sincere and passionate, enthusiastic, consistent, optimistic and encouraging!

A paragon of virtue, you may say, but great cultures begin and end with leaders – so ask yourself ’Am I viewed as a manager or a leader?’ Be honest with your response.

Fun, compelling environment?

OK, so we are not talking about creating a school playground here, but it is entirely possible to have fun, laugh and smile at work and still be incredibly productive!

We spend more time at work than we do at home, so it is critically important to provide a space that is positive, energising, creative and attentive to the needs of colleagues who seek to work in a community that provides much more fulfilment than a monthly source of income.

When you enter your office in the morning, are you greeted with a vibrant, invigorating atmosphere?

Remember our colleagues and associates expect and seek a work experience that mirrors their long-term values and aspirations.

Internal brand enhancement

Whenever brand equity is discussed, we relate it to attracting clients, but we should give a greater level of emphasis to winning the hearts and minds of our colleagues.

If our own people feel proud of being a member of our community, then our clients and candidates will LOVE to be associated with such a compelling work culture.

It’s all about the engagement of a range of open communication channels, together with the sharing of our value and vision proposition conveyed with passion and inspiration of course!

The quality and robust business models of our era place real focus upon developing contemporary, enviable work cultures that attract and retain loyalty from its colleagues and clients.

You do not need to be a big business to adopt these enduring principles. Just look at the global super brands of today – and remind yourself that many were not in existence 10 to 20 years ago!

Paul Jacobs is managing director of LoveWork Life,  ’Love Work, Love Life’