Katy and I work with hundreds of recruitment and staffing owners across the globe. Ours is a unique industry, with agencies often started by a driven recruiter in a spare room hitting the phones and taking no prisoners; JFDI is the place they usually come from! 

Good for them. 

Eventually, though the penny drops that if they want to scale and provide an income for both themselves, significant others and their growing family, they cannot go it alone; then the problems start. 

Driven salespeople are the lifeblood of any business; however, recruiting and holding onto them and then pushing them to even greater success takes work. 

So how do you build your high performing billing team? 

 

The Hiring Process: Square Peg And Round Holes 

 

 

Stop: Even though you are desperate to build your team, remember, top performing businesses hire for attitude first rather than skills. 

On a recent trip to North America, I read an article from a US leadership company who had tracked 20,000 employees across a number of organisations as part of a research study. Nearly half of them ‘failed’ within a year and a half! Fascinating that 89% of the people that didn’t come up to scratch did so because of attitudinal reasons. 

Fact: You can train skills, not attitude. When you are hiring, you will need to test for these traits, either through competency questions or role plays.  

IMPORTANT: When you are recruiting for your consultants, it is imperative to have a non-negotiable list of criteria; that you stick too. 

For instance, let’s talk about this common scenario if you are implementing the billing teams we have suggested in our R.I.P 360 post, and you are looking for a BD star. 

If your competency style questions uncover that Andrew in front of you, who you thought was perfect, doesn’t like picking up the phone, is likely going to turn into a  potential hire that isn’t going to deliver what you want. No matter how great he appears in all other ways, the role you want him for isn’t a fit and a match with his core skills and attitude. 

Something else can help here; profiling tools. They are pivotal to the process too and using them will keep you on track and stop that rash;…. “well I think he will get it with support”, decision that all of us have made at some point. 

 

Let Them Know About Their Potential Future 

 

 

Tell the candidates what they will accomplish with your organisation and what they might learn in the role. Talk about progression in the company, typical career paths and make your outlook ‘real’ by using a current star employee’s rise through the ranks as an example of what they can hope to do. 

 

Match Benefits To Their Desires 

It always helps to ‘sweeten the deal’, whether you do so through bonuses, gym memberships, free car parking, secondments, birthdays off or share options. These kinds of perks assist in creating a favourable view of your company while attracting those high performers. 

Though the company Skiing trip when you hit target might appeal to some, funding extracurricular training or a day to work with their fav charity is increasingly what your new consultants will find attractive. 

However, if your general company culture is unhealthy or issues are circulating on the recruitment grapevine, no amount of, financial incentives and perks will stem high turnover rates, especially if your competitors are offering similar things. 

 

Induction and Development 

 

Our workforce, within the next 18 months, will be dominated by Millennial talent. They expect to work for an employer where they matter and will be given a career path with development opportunities. 

These recruiters are no longer searching exclusively for the best salary or remuneration packages. Instead, people want a job that they feel is “going somewhere”, and a development plan might be the easiest way to convince your recruits that you have the culture they need.  

 

What Next? 

Take action. It is as simple as that. Want some help? On our RockIt programme, we cover in detail how to attract your high performing team. If you want to find out more visit this page. 

If you want to experience these type of results our clients achieve check out our success stories or email us here. 

 

Warm regards  

Nicky and Katy