Optimistic Thinking – The need for different thinking!

Sooner or later we all run into opposition, setbacks and disappointment, and somehow we all have to find it within ourselves to persevere if we are going to be successful.

Enthusiasm is a limited resource that can’t be continually depleted if you expect to stay on top of your profession and on track towards your goals.

When you face a challenge or adversity, do you find yourself remaining optimistic, and able to persevere in the face of setbacks and even failure?

We can all become frustrated and even disillusioned at times, but there are techniques – different thinking, that can really make the difference to where we go from there. This is so important because it can separate you from helplessness and mastery, from failure and success.

Let’s start by asking the question, what do you think when things go wrong? What do you say to yourself when you face adversity?

What you think and then say will determine what you do next. It will determine whether you give up or whether you start to make things go right.

Here is the process: S + T = R

S = Stimulus = An event you experience
T= Thinking = Your thoughts about what is happening
R= Response = Your feelings/behavioural reaction to the event

In this case, let’s look at a stimulus as some sort of adversity you face.  For some, certain adversities cause people to say to themselves, “What’s the use? I can’t go on. I am just screwing this up.” And they give up. For others, that same adversity is just the beginning of a challenging sequence that often leads to success.

An adverse stimulus could be anything: pressure, organisational frustrations, feelings of rejection, criticism from your boss, someone yawning in your class, a partner’s overbearing demands.

An adverse stimulus always sets off your thinking, your explanation and interpretation of why things have gone wrong. When faced with a challenge, we always first try and explain it. It is this thinking and explanation that ultimately determines what we do next.

When we think, “It is my fault. It’s always going to be like this”, we give up and become paralysed.

When we take a different thought path, one more optimistic, we can actually become energised.

Let me provide some examples:

S: You miss an easy sale.
T: “I’m a lousy sales rep”.
R: You feel down on yourself.

S: Your boss criticises you.
T: “I am a lousy writer”.
R: You get down on yourself, and decide this is not for me.

In these scenarios, the stimulus takes the thinking to a personal and pervasive level. “I’m a lousy sales rep”, I am a lousy writer”.

What sort of thinking would allow you to come to this feeling/response?

S: Your boss criticises you.
T: “________________________________”
R: You feel pretty good about what happened.

What you have to do first is: Make the criticism something you could change. “I know where I can get help at effective writing”, or “I should have proof read it”. Second, you have to make your thinking less pervasive. “It was only this report that was poor”. Third, you have to shift the blame away from yourself. “My boss was in a terrible mood.” “There was too much time pressure on me.” If you can make these three moves at the point of thinking, adversity can become the springboard to success.

It should be no surprise that thinking optimistically and therefore remaining enthusiastic will always result in the best utilisation of your talents.

Try this:

S: You make a sales call, and get , “Stop bothering me, you creep”.
T: “Only 1 out of 10 calls result in an appointment, only 9 to go”.
R: You feel that little bit closer now to your success.

Optimistic thinking helps at work, and not just in high pressure jobs. It can help every time your work gets very hard. It can make the difference between getting the job done well or poorly, or not at all.

S: You haven’t got an appointment all week.
T: You think, “I never do anything right”.
R: You feel / do ______________________________.

S: You haven’t got an appointment all week.
T: You think, “I had a good week last week”.
R: You feel / do ______________________________.

The optimistic individual perseveres. In the face of routine setbacks, and even major failures, they persist. When they come to a great challenge, they keep going, particularly at the crucial juncture when their competitors are also hitting that same challenge, and starting to wilt.

Do you need to start thinking differently?

Qualifying tomorrow’s talent with quality questions

When interviewing candidates, there are many great questions you can ask to better understand who they are, how they think, what they know, and whether they are suitable for the role you need filled……….. that is, if you actually really understand the role you need filled.

Over the past months I have heard it said numerous times now how historically, the challenge has always been a shortage of talent in a particular skill set. But in today’s changing market, it’s almost impossible to find the sort of future skills you need— because they don’t yet exist. With so much change, many businesses simply cannot envision capabilities needed two or three years from now …

When looking to qualify candidates for tomorrow’s workforce, look beyond skills and personality, and focus on certain character traits. Tomorrow’s talent finders are increasingly focused on finding candidates with the ability to constantly reinvent themselves.

Qualifying candidates who are truly capable of reinventing themselves have the following character traits.

Aspiration: Qualifying a candidate’s desire to achieve and aspire towards their personal potential within a business, and for their community is a key measure of tomorrow’s talent.

Questions & Comments: What do you want to be doing in 2 or 3 years? What is your career goal in 10 years? You need to probe with follow up questions that further help you understand if your candidate’s plans make a dint in the universe, or are just looking to pay their bills.

Lifelong learning: Qualifying a candidate’s commitment to self-development, introspection, learning, improvement, and knowledge application are critical traits for a successful future. A candidate’s potential can really be seen when they can demonstrate an ability to acquire self-insight and learn something about themselves. This is another key measure of tomorrow’s talent.

Questions & Comments: What impact did completing that course have on you? What books have you read that have greatly impacted your outlook? Give me an example of something you recently learned about yourself? This sequence of questions probes the genuineness of a candidate’s commitment to lifelong learning. If you receive a dull ‘umm’, ‘arr’, ‘well’, you may have just uncovered someone not that committed to bettering themselves. They might be in attendance, but not ready to really journey with you.

Reliability: Qualifying a candidate’s ability to be decisive, dutiful and dependable makes for another key trait in tomorrow’s talent.

Questions & Comments: Share with me a time when you made a recent quick decision on the job? Tell me why you made that decision, and how things turned out? Also share with me a time when you made a mistake, or couldn’t deliver on your commitment? Understanding if a candidate can actually execute with critical thinking or merely reacts with emotion can determine their reliability. Understanding how they handle failure or mistakes will reveal if they are prepared to take responsibility for their actions, or downplay their involvement and deflect accountability.

If a candidate can’t think of a time when they couldn’t deliver a project or when they made a mistake, you may have uncovered a lack of another important trait needed in tomorrow’s talent.

Humility: Qualifying a candidate’s level of humility can be revealed when they are willing to say ‘sorry’, willing to admit mistakes, accept responsibility, accept criticism, and also give recognition where it is due.

Questions & Comments: Tell me a time when you had to change your approach or behaviour at work because of strong resistance? How do you feel about the current level of recognition you receive? Uncovering a candidate’s willingness to quickly admit mistakes and address shortcomings is key to improving and innovating. Inquiring about recognition allows you to gauge a candidate’s level of self-absorption ‘I am always under-appreciated’ or “I can’t claim all the success, I had two others helping me deliver that outcome’.

Change can be really difficult for some, more so if a candidate is too self-confident and proud to point out where they could improve, where they are failing and who have helped them get to where they are now. As a result, they won’t change. A humble candidate will embrace true transparency, accept shortcomings, welcome support and be willing to change course when necessary.

Resilience: Qualifying a candidate’s ability to maintain focus and press on in spite of setbacks and resistance is another critical character trait for tomorrow’s talent. These are the sort of candidates that exhibit fortitude and are prepared to take the long-term perspective.

Questions & Comments: There are many challenges, great and small in a business life that can hamper it from achieving its objectives. Share with me a time when you met such a challenge? Share with me an example of a time when you had to solve a challenging problem that required several people, many conversations and lasted weeks or months?

Understanding if a candidate has the necessary resilience to endure journeys, fortitude to maintain consistent force, and importantly, composure to minimize frustration along the way, is critical for tomorrow’s talent.

With each question asked, be sure to request multiple examples to confirm trends in behaviour. Don’t hesitate to ask ‘why’ so you better understand their thinking and motivation.

These qualifying character traits will help you identify and successfully hire tomorrow’s workforce – the candidates with the ability to constantly reinvent themselves.

Getting your ‘cred’ back!

Porkies, fibs, white lies, exaggeration and creative licence are all too common today, in an environment where memories are long and technology has made the world is a smaller place. To be known for bending the truth or hamming up the story does little good for your reputation and ultimately your trustworthiness. Without trust, relationships will be shallow and long term success in sales will forever remain elusive. More than anything, people want to work with people they trust!

Are you quick return phone calls, on time to meet with people, honest and professional about a candidate’s prospects, accurate and transparent when dealing with customers?

When your words and actions don’t align, you have fallen into the Credibility Gap. When you have a credibility gap, it is damaging to your reputation and to your career. And if you’re in a customer service role, a lack of personal credibility is most likely also hurting the company your work for.

Bridging the credibility gap takes time and effort, and it is much easier to lose credibility than to gain it back. Once a word has been spoken, it can’t be recalled!

The most effective way to start bridging the credibility gap is to be more aware of what you say……. Are your words being perceived as promises?
‘I’ll call you next week.’
‘I can get you that salary’
‘I’ll have a proposal to you today.’
‘I’ll be able to help you with that.’
‘I can meet that deadline.’

These are the little conversations that many of us are guilty of…….. When we over-promise and under-deliver.

If you make a promise in the moment, or if you do not have the capability to follow through with your word, don’t avoid the issue — make every effort to seek forgiveness. By acknowledging that you made a promise you couldn’t keep, you actually make yourself more credible.

To get back your ‘cred’, ask yourself:

What kind of credibility do I currently have with my family, my company, and my community?

What kind of credibility do I want?

Am I saying something that implies a promise? Will I actually follow through?

How can I communicate this in such a way as to not raise false expectations?

Where or with whom do I have special difficulty bridging my credibility gap?

Who can support me in keeping my word?

;

Do you need to get your ‘cred’ back?

;

“Trust is like te air we breathe. When it’s present, nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everybody notices.” – Warren Buffet

Non Commission…. are you crazy?

It often comes as a great surprise when I advise my customers for the first time, ‘We are non-commission’….. As they gasp for air wondering how then am I motivated, I like to say, ‘Don’t be surprised 1, 2, or 5 years from now when it’s still you and I partnering together to meet human resource needs….. Well the years have now passed since I first started saying that, and the proof is truly in the pudding.

There is nothing more rewarding to a sales consultant than a long term trusted business relationship. Where experiences and successes have forged the both of you together despite the various roles you have played, and locations you have worked.

To start the commission analysis, it is important to understand what non-commission is not:

It is not a salary and bonuses paid to consultants quarterly based on personal sales….. that is still commission

It is not a salary and bonuses paid to consultants quarterly based on team sales …. That too is commission

Just because a commission is not calculated and paid monthly, doesn’t make it exempt from being a commission.

Commissions are fees of which a salesperson will receive upon the closing of sales….

It is understandable that customers always wonder when dealing with commission consultants…. Am I being sold what is best for me, or best for you? All sales consultants want to make sales, and recruiters are no different. Commission rewards placing a person, but non-commission rewards placing the right person – a different driver, a different result.

So what is the mindset for a commission based sales consultant:

‘I have a financial target that I want to meet by this time, so I need to sell Y amount to get $Z.’

The resulting mindset of the customer with a commission based sales consultant is:

‘Tell me about your product, give me your lowest price and go away.’

The final folly of all this is in the time management waste figuring out who and what to pay; with the sales people spending their time calculating their commissions, plotting how to glean extra credit, and checking with head office to ensure they get everything they are entitled to…….

So what is the mindset for a non-commission based sales consultant:

‘I have financial consistency, so I can focus on my customer and meeting their needs’

Therefore the mindset of the customer with a non-commission based sales consultant is:

‘You have stayed with us through thick and thin, what is your advice on this, share your expertise on that.’

Instead of excessive scheming and calculating, time can be better spent discovering improved solutions for their customers, establishing loyalty, and embedding their services….. not chasing another sale.

With that said, not everyone is best suited for non-commission. If you are only in sales because of the money, then non-commission will never work for you. If you are only in sales as a means to pay the bills, again non-commission won’t work for you. You need to find intrinsic value in what you do and actually like it to really thrive in a non-commission environment. Only then can you maintain the motivation and enjoy the rewards of your efforts. Interestingly, the statistics are very clear on this, non-commission sales teams have lower employee turnover and longer term customer relationships. My personal experience has also been that non-commission recruitment teams have higher placement stay rates, greater repeat business opportunities, and ultimately higher sustainable salary packages.

“Put not your trust in money; put your money in trust.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Sharing my recruitment secrets

I was really humbled to be selected as the recipient of the 2012 RCSA Young Recruitment Professional Award. Working in the recruitment industry has allowed me great opportunities to develop professionally and focus on what I am passionate about – partnering with and empowering people to realise their full potential.

Since winning the award, I have had the opportunity to speak and comment on the experience many times and more importantly, share the joy of the journey that has brought me to where I am now.

It seems that most people are interested in knowing what it takes to become a great at recruitment and what it takes to ensure you make the most of your career as a recruitment consultant?

• You must love working with people
• You must love sales
• You must love pace
• You must love succeeding
• You must have energy and resilience!

If you have those innate qualities, then you need to develop effectiveness to ensure you focus on doing the right activities, and efficiency to ensure you continue to deliver enough of the right activities. We all have the same finite number of hours in a day, however with those same number of hours, some recruiters bill over $800,000, and others don’t!

What are the activities that matter?

• Meet with people face to face
• Listen to people
• Keep your word and call people back
• Stand your ground on rates and terms of business (Value the service you offer or no one will)
• Walk away from customers that don’t respect your service
• Constantly communicate and deliver exceptional results to customers that do value your service
• Continue to learn and develop your capabilities and industry knowledge (Read, be mentored, and be a mentor)
• Offer and share your expertise to your industry (Speak at conferences or help people write better resumes)
• Build a team around you
• Start work early
• Never eat alone
• Build relationships with other recruiters
• Encourage someone every day
• Stay away from pessimists
• Work really hard
• Never give up! (So many opportunities have come my way because I stuck at it longer than most others wanted to)

During my career I have worked next to both big billers and average billers, all working in the same office, with the same technology under the same leadership. Although many things were the same, the results generated were vastly different. Great recruiters do things differently.

I hope the insights I have shared will help you reach your potential and allow you to find fulfilment in recruitment the same way I have.

Optimistic Scepticism – getting the balance right

Many professions have ups and downs, and recruitment is certainly one of them. Things can be fantastic and ecstatic one moment, and dry or gut wrenching the next. So it sure helps if you have sufficient resilience and fortitude to weather the storms of a recruiter’s life; so you can also enjoy the sunshine. I can’t stress it enough, staying positive and optimistic remains one of the essential mindsets if you are going to succeed in recruitment. However we all know that not every cloud has a silver lining. In fact, careless optimism in some situations is not only unwise, it can be irresponsible, and it will ultimately make you unsuccessful.

So where is the line to be drawn? Where is the balance struck? How does optimism as well as a healthy level of scepticism work for us? When should we act with unwavering confidence and when should we tread with caution?

Positive recruitment consultants have the mindset that says:

• I’m a specialist and expert in what I do – I make things happen!;
• The next candidate I call could be ideal for my client;
• The last several clients have said ‘no’ however the next very well might say ‘yes’;
• Today might have been tough but tomorrow is going to be better;
• Saying no to low margin work will give me more time to build a more profitable client;
• When I do more of the right activities, the right results will follow;
• One more call might make the difference;

I often find myself thinking of great words by Frank Bettger when he said, “Force yourself to act enthusiastically, and you’ll become enthusiastic!” This mindset has a natural flow on effect, when I get excited, my customers get excited, and I get business!

I have found time and time again that acting with positive optimism will ultimately help me achieve my desired outcomes far more frequently than those that are pessimists. It is because being overly pessimistic prevents you from taking action – and without action, nothing is possible. Pessimism won’t help you work hard, turn up after a setback, learn from your mistakes, and want to beat your previous year’s results.

A healthy level of confident optimism is essential in the role of a recruiter. With all the ups and downs, it can be lengthy periods of time before a victory can be enjoyed – and all too often the pessimist has not had the heart to go the distance so they can enjoy that victory.

On the other side of this argument, it is important to know when it is appropriate to be sceptical.

While there is no room for pessimism, to be cheerfully optimistic, always believing the best in people, and carrying out your activities assuming they will be returned in kind, is a sure recipe that you will end up becoming frustrated, disillusioned and ultimately unsuccessful. I have always remained optimistic, however I have tried to balance that with a healthy level of scepticism.

Healthy scepticism in a recruitment consultant’s mind rises up when:

• Your candidate says they are happy to take a pay cut or commute more than an hour each way if they get this job;
• Your candidate has finally received the offer however now wants to take the entire working week to consider it;
• Your candidate sights ‘personal reasons’ for why they left their last role;
• Your candidate all of a sudden can’t be contacted…….
• Your client says, everyone else has signed these terms and accepted this rate;
• Your  client says that if you drop your margin, then you will get more opportunities in the future;
• Your client has said the role is urgent, however has no specifics on what the position involves or when it might start;
• The client wants you to go onto a preferred supplier agreement with 10+ other agencies;
• The client says they will get to paying their bills, but have just had to attend a funeral;

Optimism and scepticism are essential ingredients in the life of a successful recruitment consultant, and having the right balance makes the world of difference.

Further to that, pessimism and cynicism, found at the other ends of the scale, have no place in recruitment and will never make you successful.

We have probably all met someone like that, they leech your energy, stop you opening up new opportunities by saying, “We tried it before, it didn’t work” and they ruin the industry of its fun and excitement.

So to be your best, be optimistic, with a healthy level of scepticism, and ensure the company you keep have the same successful mindsets!

Great recruiters have great mentors

Great recruiters have great mentors. It goes with the territory. In fact great people in any profession are known for the great people they have kept around them… guiding them, advising them, supporting them and inspiring them. We are not designed to reach our full potential alone. We only reach our very best by being trained and mentored by the very best.

Gates had Buffett, Jordan had Jackson, Alexander had Aristotle and Timothy had Paul. Who do you have? Who is on your team, giving their very best to help you become your very best?

Check yourself – where are you as a mentee?

• When thinking about your development, which statement best represents you:
  1. Things are constantly changing so it is best to go with the flow
  2. If you work for good managers, they will take care of your development
  3. I am responsible for initiating my own growth and development
• What do you believe an effective mentor’s role should be:
  1. Teach me what they know
  2. Tell me what I need to do
  3. Facilitate me clarifying my thoughts and actions
• When considering your expectations of the mentoring relationship should they:
  1. Depend on what the mentor wants and needs
  2. Be clearly defined and communicated at the beginning of a mentoring relationship
  3. Emerge as the relationship develops
• How aware are you of yourself, you values, the talents that make you unique and your limitations?
  1. I sort of have some general impressions about myself
  2. I haven’t really thought about these things
  3. I am continually trying to refine what I understand about myself
• What do you think are the benefits to the mentor from the relationship:
  1. A good feeling of helping someone like me
  2. Not much, they are already pretty success and accomplished at what they do
  3. They should learn as much from me as I do from them
• Which statement best represents your stance on ideas and actions you and your mentor discuss:
  1. I would need to think about these for some time before taking any action
  2. I would be willing to take action only if it involved taking very little risk
  3. I need to be willing to take action, implement, and put things into effect
• How will you respond to advice and feedback from your mentor?
  1. Listen, but remember it is just one person’s perspective
  2. Accept the things that affirm what you believe but reject that the things that my mentor obviously doesn’t understand the complexities of
  3. Be open-minded, willing to change and coachable
• What actions should you take in finding a mentor?
  1. Sign up to a program and wait for someone to be assigned to you
  2. Want for someone to want to help you
  3. Watch and observe people who inspire you and then ask them to be your mentor
• What should be your responsibility in maintaining the mentoring relationship?
  1. The sponsors of the mentoring program should define and monitor how often and for how long we meet
  2. It is my responsibility to keep in touch and request time for us to meet
  3. Since the mentor is giving me their time they should define when and how often we meet.

Having asked yourself these questions should highlight your current frame of mind towards a mentoring relationship. Answering 3 to all of the above 9 questions suggest you are best positioned to take full advantage of a mentoring relationship.

Now it is time to ask another set of questions……. When uncovering a suitable mentor there are some great attributes you should look for in the ideal relationship.

Check your mentor – where are they at as a mentor?

• Honest With You

Will they tell you your breath stinks, your teeth still have lunch in them, your shirt needs an iron…. Great mentors cross interpersonal barriers and engage deeply into your life. They are honest, awkwardly honest! It’s a little like being a loving uncle or aunt, someone who will take you aside on occasion and tell you things you need to hear but frankly don’t necessarily want to hear.

• A Model for You

We are influenced most and learn best from those we admire and respect. Your mentor should be someone or have something you aspire to be like someday, in some way .Thomas Carlyle’s words are worth repeating: “Be what you would have your pupils to be.” Mentors replicate who they are, so be sure to identify someone you would be comfortable becoming.

• Open and Transparent

It is no good only hearing you mentor share their successes. They must be willing to hear share their failures.  Every mentor has struggles that the mentee never sees. To have a mentor willing to share her/his struggles, along with their success stories makes for the great learning and development.

• A Teacher (ENFJ)

Many people do things well, but don’t know how to tell another person how they did it. Look for a mentor who can tell you how and why s/he did, or didn’t, do something. ENFJ personality type mentors are driven by their desire to help others reach their fullest potential. They are gregarious, talkative and assertive. They love people and social gatherings. They are energized by interaction, are expressive and enthusiastic. ENFJs are Intuitive. They are imaginative and deep. Their thought process is abstract and focused on possibilities. They are Feelers that make decisions with their heart. They are passionate and profoundly empathetic, caring and warm. ENFJs are decisive, organized and structured. They like to complete tasks and they seek closure.

• One who believes in your potential

Your ideal mentor needs to be the kind of person who looks at you and says, “Yes, I think this person has tremendous potential. I think if I invest some of my life in this person, she/he has what it takes to make a real difference.

• One who can help you define your dream and a plan to turn your dream into reality

Ideally, you are looking for a mentor who can help you clarify things that are in your head and in your heart. The mentor helps you answer the “dream question”: “How can I make the most significant difference?”

Once the realism factor has been established, she/he can help you develop a plan to move from where you are to where you ultimately dream of being.

• Sees mentoring as a two way learning street

A great mentor knows that you can learn from everyone. Some of the greatest rewards and experiences come for learning from those you are teaching. When you mentor remains teachable, then s/he is modelling teachability to you. A sign of a suitable mentor for you is someone who is always willing to learn.

Final word

A good mentor is a person who you naturally enjoy being with, who has more experience than you have, who would be happy to help you win in life, to help you grow in sensitive areas most other friends simply “put up with” on a day to day basis. If you have found this person you have found a mentor.

Big billers do it, and so should you!

It is always inspiring to watch young recruitment consultants developing in their careers. They often start with an overwhelming struggle of conflicting priorities – calls, e-mails, meetings, registrations, interviews, excitement, disappointment, processes, service level expectations etc.

A year passes and all that initial flurry of confusion and activity seems to settle into methodical, strategic activity. By the third year, if they are worth their salt, the consultant is now running with skill, influence, and a strong billing capacity. They are high value employees!

I have noticed that these consultants have learnt to work with the same number of hours in a day as they did before, however with far more attention to the following areas:

They understand the fundamentals:

1. Great recruiters know they are in sales: Being able to source talent, confirm availability and someone’s aspirations is only part of equation. To move beyond that to a place where you can competently and succinctly convince a supervisor or hiring authority to act on your talent, to read that resume, to interview in a timely manner, even to trust you, is what separates the best recruiters from the rest. It takes sales skills to see your hard work become a reality. Getting candidates to listen to you and accept your offers is a special skill that must be developed at all costs, and big billers do it beautifully.
2. Great recruiters know what matters most: We all have the same hours in a day to make good. However, great recruiters know that they don’t have enough time to do it all. What the best know is how to prioritise. Often that looks like a strict focus on high performance activities (As discussed in metrics below), and also the ability to focus on sourcing top-performing candidates – often the ones that are currently employed. Although they are more difficult to place, they are the greatest way to build your reputation and future success. It is also appropriate to focus on relationships with top performing leaders within the business – find out how you can help them. Learning from and supporting the best will help you become the best.
3. Great recruiters work leads. Things are constantly changing around you. There is no way to stay abreast of everything so don’t try to do it all on your own. Great recruiters use leads as an instrumental means of finding opportunities – whether that be available candidates, imminent vacancies, or industry news. No amount of websites, databases, or seminars will surpass the value gained from your network of leads.

They also want to grow:

1. Great recruiters have a mentor. There are great recruiters within many businesses. Great consultants have great mentors, often more than one! The industry is so much more than technical competence; it is also through networking and sharing of ideas that great consultants achieve their greatest results.
2. Great recruiters use metrics. Big billers are all about measurement. They know their sales, they know their candidate sources, they know their success ratios, they know their interview count, their visits and they know their referrals. They measure the numbers so they can continually improve. To know what works for you is one of the best ways to realise you fullest potential.
3. Great recruiters read. Take every opportunity to source great material and digest as much relevant recruitment, industry specific and HR related material as you possibly can. It not only makes for great conversation with candidates and colleagues, it helps transition you from the mainstream transactional service offering to an organisational recruitment advisor – someone who can help them learn, and learning breeds loyalty.

What you need to ask when told “You’re too expensive!”

Understanding what you do and why you do it will help you appreciate your value to your customers and why you charge what you do. Knowing this will allow you to combat the price objection “you’re too expensive”.

Knowing your price that runs your business is critical for success and longevity and is fundamental to your understanding of why you do what you do.

Having addressed in a previous blog ‘what you need to know’ when faced with price objections, we now look at ‘what you need to ask’ when told you’re too expensive. As every customer is different, you need to ask where your customer stands on the following:

1. How do you measure success? – Your customer’s position within an organisation determines what they consider important. When they say ‘you’re expensive’, is that because they are procurement and low price is their KPI? Are they in management and therefore retention, or increased profitability drives their performance metrics. Asking the question and understanding what measures their success then can help you succeed.
2. Can we compare value against price? – Knowing what drives your customer allows you to tailor value against price. Procurement may want low prices, so you might offer a bulk discount at a reduced fee, whereas all contingent assignments would be at 18%. Line managers might compare you against another supplier who is offering 10% for placements. So ask if that’s a fee for service or product? What is the guarantee? Are references supplied? Are they insured and offer work cover? Remind them of competitors that charge 24%-28%. Too often customers make value comparisons that are for very different offerings.
3. Can I ask, “expensive compared to what?” – Often people believe by doing something themselves, they can do it cheaper and more effective. Go through a cost comparison with them and shown them what their time and effort is worth? If it takes you 6 months to source someone, how much time and opportunity has it cost you, and how much revenue have you missed while the position remained unfilled. Then when you finally do source someone, are they the best candidate for the job, and what if they leave soon after starting, do you do it all again? Also, what ongoing training are you undertaking to stay abreast of recruitment, OHS and industrial laws?

   Remind them, even recruitment agencies use specialised recruitment agencies to source recruitment consultants!

4. Did you know your fee might be tax deductible – Depending on your client’s circumstances, they may or may not be aware that fees paid to a recruitment company are fully tax deductible.

Too often consultants drop their fees to get in the door, or account for tougher economic times, but it is very hard to increase your fees again just because you think the client can afford it or the market has recovered.

When you are prepared to lower your fees, offer full fee on the first placement, and a discount on all future placements. Agree to specific rates for exclusive assignments only, or consider retained assignments at a lower rate, and contingent assignments at standard rates.

Never give away something without getting something in return!

Understanding your differentiation, you should charge accordingly. No one would dispute that a Mercedes and a Hyundai should be the same price.

What you need to know when told “You’re too expensive!”

How valuable is your time? How valuable is your customer’s time? What is it that you do that makes your time so valuable? What is it that your customer does that makes their time so valuable? Understanding what you do and why you do it will help you appreciate your value to your customers and why you charge what you do. Knowing this will allow you to combat the price objection “you’re too expensive”.

Knowing your price that runs your business or desk is critical for success and longevity and is fundamental to your understanding of why you do what you do. Once costs and competency are understood, you will be far better equipped to deal with any price objections.

To overcome any price objections you also need know what your customer wants. As ever customer is different, you need to consider and know where you stand on the following:

1. Are you offering a service or a product? The answer to this question is very important and sets the framework for your entire business solution.
2. Do you charge a fee for your service or your product? The answer to this determines if your terms are best structured with a retained model or contingent model. Your return on investment is far greater under a retained model and therefore your fee structure should be adjusted accordingly. However if a contingent model is accepted, your fees should rise to reflect the uncertainty of success.
3. Does your guarantee cover the quality of your service or the quality of your product? What are the criteria upon which your offer a guarantee and how will it be measured?
4. Do you differ from your competitors? Why? How? Although it might be common place for you to carry out face to face interviews, reference checks, WPA’s, OH&S training, skills tests etc, it is not so common for a majority of your competition. A competitors rate might be cheaper than yours, however it is for something far less than what you are offering.
5. How do you compare on price to your competitors? Where do you sit in the scheme of things… are you uptown or are your low town? Why are you there? Is it speed over service, is it unique over numbers, is it sponsored over local? How you address these questions should then determine who you are targeting.

Once you are settled on these questions, you are in a much better position to counter a customer’s price objection.