Over the last few posts, we have shared different ideas on how you can set yourself up for success.
From what to give up to how to have a perfect day.
All critical for your success alongside a great billing team that consistently performs well.
Ummm… this last point can often be a stumbling block for many recruitment organisations.
A high performing billing team is critical.
That includes great BD hunters who go out and bring in new business and amazing resourcers who then fill the roles.
In this post, I want to talk about your BD people and some of the mistakes they might just be making.
If any of these seven rings a bell, you need to address them fast. A recruitment organisation with an inconsistent billing team isn’t going to scale any time soon.
So here In no particular order are seven mistakes your billers might be making.
1. Poor Prospecting Skills
When both Katy and I managed billing teams a classic sign of a poor performer was a poor sales pipeline.
The famous film Glen Garry Glen Ross shared the immortal line of; “ always be closing”.
However, before you can do that, you have to have some one to close, and that comes through prospecting.
Prospects don’t appear out of thin air even though many recruiters think they do.
A full pipeline of the right clients will convert. In his excellent book, fanatical prospecting Jeb Blount talks about the power of prospecting; it’s well worth buying a copy and implementing it with your team.
2. Poor Sales/Influencing skills
Contrary to what some people think salespeople are made not born.
Hard work, study and practice will turn a poor performer into a great salesperson. If you don’t have designated sales training as part of your consultants development plan, you will suffer. Great salespeople like great leaders are always learning and implementing.
3. Not Hitting KPI’s
It’s trendy at the moment to put KPIs on the back burner… #WTF. Whatever you do; don’t!
Human beings are success seeking creatures, especially salespeople. They want to succeed, and it’s your job to help them.
As a savvy business owner, you’ll know your numbers. Moreover, as we all know when you keep moving forward and hitting numbers results can and do come.
As an example: If you know your CV to placement ratio, then you know how many CVs need to go across the internet to clients to hit your revenue goals.
If you know that when your consultants meet a prospective client, 80% of the time, they get the job order and that five job orders a week will ensure they hit their target, it then gets easy for you and your consultants to measure their success.
4. They don’t follow up
It’s all about the follow–up. In one of our recent free reports, we cover this in detail, and you can grab a copy here.
Fact: Not every prospect #client will say yes straight away. They might have questions or be comparing you with other suppliers. Therefore a specific follow up process is key.
5. Chilling Out After A Great Month!
This is a crushing mistake that happens far too often. I’ll be honest this can happen to the best of us, and you know the scenario don’t you?
You have an outstanding month and take your foot off the gas. “I’ll relax and start my BD work again next week…”
Complacency is a killer. You always have to be moving forward….
……. This includes you as a manager too. Just because you smashed target last month, you still have to performance manage your team to keep going.
6. Working The Wrong Jobs
This is a mistake that still happens today. Not all jobs are equal and wasting time talking to the wrong client is holding your recruiters and ultimately your business back.
#notallprospectsareequal
This is one of the first things we share in our programmes at Centredexcellence that not all prospects are equal when it comes to profit and ongoing potential.
Have a look at Lee and Theresa’s case studies here. Changing the roles their recruiters were working kicked up their company growth within a matter of weeks.
7. Not Being Open To Marketing and ‘Social’
It’s common in many companies that marketing and sales don’t always get on. It happens a lot in recruitment that has historically been sales led.
The thing is with the growth in the market over the past 24 months you can’t ignore the power of using marketing to create demand and social to reach out and connect with people.
Great salespeople will like and share clients posts and leave comments. To stand out in a market now recruiters need to be on their client‘s radar, and the various marketing and social media strategies make this easier than ever.
Recognise any of these behaviours in your and now team wondering how to handle it? If you want to have a conversation, then get in contact here and let’s set up a call.
Warm regards,
Nicky and Katy
P.S.
If you haven’t downloaded our guide on how to help your team improve their BD download our guide here.
