Page 1 of 15

7 STEPS TOTHINKING LIKEA TOP BILLER

‘Realise your billing potential in 2012’

Page 2 of 15

Why this book?

Top billers come in all shapes and sizes. Some talk about how great they are all day long,some sit in the corner quietly, some follow the recruitment process to the letter, some bendit, cut corners and still come away with the desired outcome. Some have high call statssome have the lowest, some manage their time and some are totally disorganised.Differences in how they do the job but key similarities whoever the top biller, whatevertheir market. Similarities in their belief systems, their thought processes and their charactertraits that all contribute to the makeup of the Top biller that so many aspire to be.

I am often asked can you train someone to think like a Top Biller? My answer is always thesame yes and no. It depends on the mindset of the individual, their hunger, desire and theirwillingness to do whatever it takes to be top. Some of the characteristics of Top billers arenatural traits they are born with and the rest are driven by their mind set and core beliefs.We can’t change someone’s personality which means we can’t train someone to have thenatural traits of Top Billers but we can train someone to adopt their thinking processes.

I believe that once Recruiters have 6 months worth of knowledge and experience in the jobit depends on their personality, their background and their inner self belief as to whetherthey will fail, be average, a Top biller or even a Super Biller. Most experience a confidencedip in their first 3 months and latterly a bigger test of confidence when they start to realisethat recruitment isn’t as easy as they first thought. How they deal with the ups and downsand this test of their resilience early on in their career will determine how far they will go orif in fact they will make it all.

The good news is that if we catch these confidence dips early and give Recruiters theresources to deal with them, then they have as good a chance as anyone to realise theirpotential in recruitment. However sadly they are very rarely given the tools and techniquesto overcome the challenges, to remain positive, to deal with the rejections and instead aregiven more recruitment skills training which can raise confidence but it isn’t a long termsolution.

Which is why I wrote this book. To give you an insight into what techniques a recruiterneeds over and above the process. The difference that makes the difference.

A few words about Hannah

Hannah is an ex S3 Group Contract and Permanent Top Biller who reached the level ofRegional Manager. After retraining as a Performance Coach she now works withConsultants and Managers from many of the Fast Track 100. She is an NLP MasterPractitioner and accredited Coach with the International Coaching Federation.

Page 3 of 15

Introduction

Before we look at what techniques you can adopt to train your brain to think like a TopBiller, let’s first look at some of the key attributes they have which you can start modellingtoday. Here is what I have observed from working with Top Billers for the last 15 years:

1. They are 100% responsible and accountable for their results. They never ever makeexcuses about anything and they only spend their time and energy and on the thingsthey can control and influence. They Take Responsibility.

2. Whether in a conversation with a client, candidate or dealing with a rare problem(They have usually minimised the risk of these earlier in the process) they are alwayssolutions focussed. They analyse problems quickly and then take action to movetowards a future outcome. They are Outcome focussed.

3. Those that have managed Top Billers will say they have never had to motivate ordrive a Top Biller, they do that themselves. Managers may also say that if a recruiterneeds to be motivated every day, they are in the wrong job. However recruiting isn’teasy and staying motivated when you haven’t done a placement for 2 months is achallenge, however it is also a necessity. They are Self-motivated.

4. As I said before Top Billers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and their recruitingstyles are different too. Some build their businesses on relationships, network andachieve results through 2 or 3 key clients. Some love the thrill of the chase and lovehunting down the jobs other recruiters won’t find or give up when hearing the firstobjection. They know what style works best for them. They Play to their Strengths.

5. Top Billers are human and do still have limiting thoughts and moments of self doubtoccasionally. However what they are good at is controlling their thinking and self talkso that those unhelpful thoughts don’t limit or cause them to waste any precioussecond of a recruiting day. They have Mind control.

6. Top Billers are emotionally intelligent (well most!) and have the ability to disassociatefrom negative emotions or channel the frustration or anger into passion and drivewhich pushes them on further. You may see a Top Biller slam a phone down but theywill pick it straight back up. They have Emotional Control.

7. The one thing that all Top Billers have in common is that they are confident in theirown ability. Some are overtly confident and can seem arrogant to others, some arequietly so and you won’t hear much from them until they make 3 placements in oneday. They have such strong and unwavering beliefs that are at the core of everythingthey do. Top billers are committed, they work hard, they are persistent and these areall the result of the inner belief they have that is driving them. They have the key torecruiter success: Positive Beliefs.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Page 4 of 15

Step 1: Take Responsibility

I have lost count of the amount of excuses I have heard from recruiters over the years andthey never change, they just adapt to market changes. The market, the economy, theirspecialism, lack of jobs, lack of candidates, internal recruiters, HR, their competitors,colleagues being given jobs or the worst, just bad luck. The reasons recruiters find for acandidate accepting a counter offer, a client taking another candidate or unclosed offers,they never end. However what they do show is a lack ofownership, a lack of responsibility for the result and arefusal to accept that there was something they couldhave done differently.

When I am training junior recruiters one of the firstlessons I teach them is that when things go wrong, in98% of cases there was something they could have donedifferently. Bad luck doesn’t exist in my book, badrecruiting does. So I may sound harsh and yes therecould be the candidate who crashes their car on the wayto the interview or whose wife has just found out she ispregnant so they can’t relocate, you will have lots more examples I am sure but they formthe 2% of cases. The rest is down to something we either did or didn’t do earlier on in theprocess. The one question we didn’t ask, the one small sign of a lack of commitment wedidn’t hear because we were thinking of our next question or the ‘rose tinted deal glasses’that blinded us to the other interview the client had while we were waiting for the offer call.

In experienced recruiters who have losttheir mojo, who can’t seem to push pastthe barriers they have set forthemselves, these excuses, if leftunchallenged start to form limitingbeliefs. Once those set in and take rootthe recruiter will stop doing the criticalparts of the process like setting up solidrules of engagement with clients, gettingtheir candidates to work exclusively andwill avoid 2 activities: new candidateand client attraction. They send CV’s and

wait for feedback. They spend time on poor jobs and they blame their lack of interviews onit being a ‘candidate short market’.

Self Coaching:

What am I responsible for?

What control do I have?

What influence do I have?

What can I learn from this?

What will I do differently next time?

Page 5 of 15

If you want to be a top biller or even just improve your results by 10% you first need toaccept that 98% of what happens is down to you and how you think.

Your choices, yours decision, your actions. At first you need to be honest with yourself.Catch the excuses you make, the actions you take as a result and make the choice to beaccountable, be responsible, be successful.

TASK: Make a note of all the excuses you make over the next week whether at work or inyour personal life and if you want to find out where your lack of results come from, youneed to look no further.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page 6 of 15

Step 2: Be Outcome Focussed

You will have learnt in your training that Recruitment is about providing solutions: to yourcandidates and to your clients. Solutions to problems, showing added value, selling yourservice using benefits is all part and parcel of the job. Top billers don’t just talk and sellsolutions, they think in solutions, outcomes and positive intentions.

They are goal orientated, focus on results and achievement and spend little time thinking inthe past. They spend the majority of their time in the present or picturing success in thefuture whereas average billers may worry about what hasn’t happened yet or dwelling onpast negative events. Not only is this how Top billers stay motivated (they have compellinggoals – see step 3) but it is how they control their mindset and relish the emotional rollercoaster that is recruitment.

Setting a positive intention for everything you do is a habit for life. Being optimistic is a corecompetency in the Self management quadrant of Emotional Intelligence (reference: theEmotional Competency Inventory by the Hay Group) and whilst thinking about what couldgo wrong is a useful strategy for problem prevention it is not a place where you want tokeep your brain focussed. In my Think like a Top Biller workshops I mention being

‘confidently paranoid’ and this interesting dichotomy wasgiven to me by a Super Biller (£1m+ yearly revenue) who Iinterviewed for my research last year. It means that whenyou manage a recruitment process, look for all the thingsthat could go wrong and take action to minimise them butthen move on. Notice: the word could go wrong. This isvery different to it will go wrong, or it probably will gowrong or it always does go wrong.

Recruiters sometimes pick up the phone imaging failure before the person has evenanswered. They don’t mean to, they have just been beaten down by the rejections theyhave had that day, that month, that year. Weneed to leave these rejections in the past,every call is a new call, every conversation isan opportunity, every objection is a chance tosell ourselves. Picturing success before you doanything is an amazing resource. Setting apositive intention for every day and every callwill, if you practice it consistently, help you totransform your results. Think in outcomes.Think about what you want. Imagine success.

Self Coaching:

What do I want to happen?

What do I want to get out of this call?

What will be happening what I get that?

How will I cause that to happen?

Page 7 of 15

Step 3: Motivate Yourself

Recruiters are at their most motivated when things are going well. When they have deals onthe board they make better calls and feel and sound more confident. My problem with thisit that they are motivated by an external trigger: there are deals on the board and that is afactor that isn’t always present is it? Of course we will be more motivated when things aregoing well. We are in the flow, enjoying the rush of adrenalin and riding the wave ofsuccess. That is easy.

What is more difficult though is remaining motivated when times are tough. When we starta week with an empty pipeline, no interviews on the board and the person next to us ishaving their best billing month ever. This is a test. The time when we really need to motivateourselves more than ever. However if your ‘self-motivation rocket’ is only launched whentimes are good then you will have problems staying motivated in this job. Because thelaunch pad is an external trigger and not coming from within you.

Think back to what first motivated you to be a recruiter. What were your expectations?What goals did you set yourself? What did you want to achieve?

Now think back to when you have been your most motivated. What else were youexpecting to happen? What future goals did you imagine yourself achieving? What elsewere those goals going to help you achieve?

If you Google ‘personal motivation’ now the following words and phrases will come up: Knowing your true motivators When your business suffers having a motivational plan is important Personal motivation is an inside job Having a reason to achieve a goal or objective

What is the burning yes in your life that makes you want to be a successful recruiter?All of the Top Billers I interviewed had a compelling reason for why they wanted to succeed.

The mistake many Managers make is assuming that all recruiters are materialistic andmotivated just by money. They need to look behind the money to what is the core driver.What is the real motivator, the compelling reason, the burning desire? What will the moneygive that person? Status? Security? Recognition? The upper hand over a sibling?

Look for what you really want to get out of this job. Look for what it will give you. Make thelink between every call, every no, everything you don’t want to do that makes you feeluncomfortable and link it back to your personal goals and aspirations.

Page 8 of 15

Seeking meaning for everything you do will help you stay motivated. Believe me it works. Iran a marathon 2 years ago and considering I would never have run for a bus or walkanywhere this was a massive achievement. Why did I still go out training in the snow andtorrential rain? Why did I go out running even when I just wanted to stay in and watch theTV? Why did I get up in the dark at 5.30 on a winters day to ensure I kept to my trainingschedule?

Because I had a compelling reason to. Yes I am proud of runningit, no I didn’t get a great time (but I ran all the way) but the thingthat I am most pleased with is the fact I said I would and I did. Iproved the person wrong who said I couldn’t. Even when the daycame round of the big race he still didn’t really believe I would doit and that kept me going every mile. Every step, every ache andpain, it drove me forward. What did I picture all the way around?His face on the finishing line when he had seen me cross it.

A compelling reason. OK so it was an external trigger (him) to begin with. That was whatstarted me on my quest but as I trained and started falling in love with the feeling ofcompleting long runs, what motivated me more was achieving something that I said I would.Knowing that I could do anything I put my mind to. My own sense of achievement.

When you know this you have lit the fire from within. And yes it was great seeing his face.

You will handle objections knowing that they are just a test, a learning opportunity that willhelp you get to your long term goal. Like the torrential rain and the snow when marathontraining. Keep your eye firmly on the prize. Keep setting yourself goals.

Self Coaching:

Know what you want out of the job. Short term and long term.Make sure you really want that.I mean really.Make a plan.Break it down to yearly and monthly.Now relate your plan to your sales activity.How many deals will you need to do?How many interviews?How many jobs?How many candidates?

Page 9 of 15

Step 4: Play to your Strengths

Gallup is an organisation that has done the most amount of research into Strengths and howwhen we play to them they increase performance, engagement and over all well being.In their research they interviewed 10 million people across 32 countriesand the results were as follows:

If you get the opportunity to play to your strengths every day you are 6times as likely to be engaged in your jobs and 3 times as likely to reportan excellent quality of life. This in turn impacts personal motivation andperformance.

Hopefully being a recruiter is already playing to your strengths otherwise you are in thewrong job. However it is more than just doing a job that plays to our strengths it is findingthe parts of the job that when we do those consistently will fast track our performance.

So how do Top Billers do this? I am not sure whether they know they are leveraging theirstrengths by creating their own unique recruiting style. It depends on how self aware theyare. What I do know is that their approaches are different. Some of my clients have theirrecruiters manage accounts and they recruit across all skill sets permanent and contract.Some clients encourage account development and fostering long terms relationships, somejust want their recruiters knocking down doors all day long. All of my clients though are verysuccessful. Their approaches are different though.

My recipe for success was based on relationships. I met all the candidates and clients Iplaced with, I grew each account until I had 5 that consistently worked with me with littlecompetition. I called every candidate back and I kept in touch every 2 weeks to say I hadn’tforgotten them. I enjoyed doing these activities, fostering relationships is a strength.

We can’t change the recruitment process, but you can look at the activities within the rolethat you are better at than others. This doesn’t mean we stop doing the things we dislike,we just do more of the things that we get better results from. We do those first thing in theday too because that is where our energy and motivation will come from.

Self Coaching:

Notice every time in the next week when you feel energisedWrite down what activity you were doingNotice the results you achieved from doing soWhat is the strength these activities are playing to?Find a way to do more of these activities

Page 10 of 15

Step 5: Control your Mind

We can’t control what we think but we can control how we think. Thoughts come into ourheads all day long and according to research by James Borg we can have about 78,000thoughts a day. Let’s hope they are mostly positive then! Some thoughts come and go, somelinger in the background, some take grip of us, all thoughts have an impact on how we think,how we feel and the decisions we make as a result.

Top Billers have mind control. They will eliminate any negative thoughts that come intotheir mind immediately. This includes self doubt. Self criticism could also be called negativethinking however it depends on how we dish it out to ourselves. If it is in the form of a bigstick then it serves no purpose other than to make us feel bad. If it comes in the form of selfcoaching questions like what can I learn from this? Then it is helpful to us.

The problem we face is that when thoughts come in to ourminds there are more negative than positive. This is due toour natural instinct to survive cultivated over many yearsof evolution. Successful people recognise negativethoughts and either delete them or reframe them. Thistakes practice. It can be a challenge. However it is criticalto our performance.

If the thoughts you have in each recruiting day aren’t going to drive success in every actionyou take them STOP thinking them. Make the choice. Think something different.Immediately. If you don’t then the thought will take hold and it will impact everything thathappens from that thought on. Negative thoughts waste your time. Every second counts.

Only you can change your thinking. It is about taking responsibility for it. Train your brain inthe habit of thinking the thoughts that will help you, not limit you.There are many techniques I could mention here but for now I will I just mention thequickest method. Flick the switch.As soon as a negative thought enters your mind, flick the switch to a positive one. It is assimple as that. Just do it. Your recruiting success depends on it.

Self Coaching:

What am I thinking now?Is this going to help me?What is the most useful thing to think right now?FLICK THE SWITCH!

Page 11 of 15

Step 6: Control your Emotions

Knowing how you feel and being able to change how you feel is another resource you canuse to help drive you towards your goals.

Emotions come from an external or internal trigger that is filtered through your brain andcauses your amygdala (our emotional brain) to fire off the appropriate emotion into yourbody, the result is then action. Lost? Look up Amygdala Hyjack on Wikipedia now, DanielGoleman the expert in Emotional Intelligence, uses the term to describe emotionalresponses from people which are immediate and overwhelming, and out of measure withthe actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat.

In our language, a knee jerk reaction. This happens when our emotions are in control of usand not the other way around. Great when it is a positive emotion which we can use tocreate more positive actions and results. Not so good when it overwhelms us, paralyses usor is the difference between a call going well or not. It happens a lot when we are givenobjections, challenges, our values are violated or our identity is brought into question.

Recruitment is an emotional rollercoaster. Ups, downs, highs,lows, we can experience many different emotions in just onerecruiting day. A candidate drops, then we get an unexpectedoffer, a client calls in to negotiate rates on a deal that isalready done and a candidate turns up to interviewdemanding a higher salary than originally discussed. All ofthese things that happen will cause a state change you in, ifyou let them. You can control how you respond to them. Youcan manage your emotions. You just need to learn how.

We aren’t looking for recruiter robots (well not yet anyway but give it time!), we are humanand emotions are a very useful resource so we want to feel them however if they aren’tgoing to drive success then we need to change them. By all means react for 5 minutes, slamthe phone down, take a break, god forbid moan for a second and play the victim but don’tlet it stay with you for any longer than that. Don’t let your emotions cause you to wastetime. Again there are many techniques you can use to change your state. The quickest thingI will recommend is to change your physiology which will change your state. Stand up, slowyour breathing down and smile. Yes smile, try and feel angry while smiling, it is impossible!

Self Coaching:

Is what I am feeling now useful?If I carry on feeling like this what will happen?How would a Top Biller be feeling now?

Page 12 of 15

Step 7: Have Positive Beliefs

I have left having Positive Beliefs until the end although it really is the most important andfundamental to recruiter success. Beliefs drive our behaviour, they impact our thinking, ourfeelings, our confidence, our activity, our ability to do the job effectively.

The key to success is: changing your limiting beliefs and using your positive beliefs to driveyou.

Junior recruiters are like sponges when they start, they haven’t got negative experiences todraw up on yet so you will see them closing for exclusivity, calling the manager who has ‘donot call’ written on their record and generally trying everything you teach them. Moreexperienced recruiters who are stuck, have lost their mojo, hit the ‘recruiter wall’ have lettheir negative experiences form limiting beliefs, impact their performance and have stoppedtaking risks. They are driven by limiting beliefs such as: it is impossible to, I can’t, I won’t beable to, they never agree to, I will try, there is no point, the market is, it is difficult to etc.etc. Here is what we know about beliefs:

Beliefs drive behaviour Beliefs drive success or failure Beliefs have future consequences Beliefs have a feeling connected to them Beliefs are linked to the past

The good news is that we can change beliefs. I have coached many consultants over theyears to change small and big limiting beliefs which were keeping them stuck. The first stepto changing limiting beliefs is to recognise them, however if recruiters haven’t masteredStep 1 (take responsibility) then they are still in denial so won’t be able to do this. Unless wechallenge them to.

I knew I would run the marathon that day. Unless something unexpected happened like Ibroke my ankle, got really bad cramp or collapsed, I knew I was going to finish and I knew Iwould do it in 5 hours and 15 minutes which I did (yes very slow but I did it). I had no pastexperience of running 26 miles, only the 20 which I had done 2 weeks before in training.Therefore I had no experience to form the positive belief I had which drove me. What I didhave was another belief: ‘I can do anything I put my mind to’. I discovered this 10 years agowhen I started learning about beliefs, it had always been there driving my pastachievements but by recognising it, I have been able to use it in many more powerful ways.

‘Believe you can andyou will. Believe youcan’t and you won’t.’

Page 13 of 15

You have many positive beliefs. Uncover them, recognise them and use them to transformyour billings.

My positive beliefs about me are:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Limiting beliefs are worse than any decision maker who says no, worse than any badsituation in recruitment you will experience, they are your biggest competitor.

Recognise them, be honest with yourself. They soundlike the phrases I used at the beginning of this chapter. Ican’t, it isn’t possible to, they won’t, it is difficult to.Write them down now. The first step to changing them isto recognise them.

There are again many ways to change and eliminatelimiting beliefs but for now I will mention the mosteasiest to explain on paper. Act As If.

So if you want to be the best Head Hunter then this is what you need to do:

1. Find the best Head Hunter in your organisation and find out what they do2. Update your skills on Head Hunting – get extra training, search the net, have all the

answers to any objection3. Formulate the most positive belief you can – ‘Every candidate I speak to will be open

to listening’4. Find 3 past experiences in your career when you did the best head hunting approach

and relive the calls like they were yesterday5. Pick up the phone and pretend you are the best head hunter in the world – act as if6. Just Do it. Over and over again. Keep head hunting until your belief really does

change and you have removed the block.

Having interviewed several Top Billers last year which forms the basis of this book and theThink like a Top Biller workshops I run for my clients, here are some quotes I took fromtheir interview notes:

Page 14 of 15

‘I work hard, put the hours in and I don’t leave before the job is done. I make every call countand don’t waste time on things that won’t help me be successful. Resilience, you will get 100no’s a day but don’t take it personally and don’t get distracted, believe there is alwayssomething over the other side of the hill.’

‘My mindset was to get 5 deals in my first month – I have nothing to lose, I had to show myparents, I had a point to prove as they wanted me to go into banking.’

‘I am very competitive, one of the most competitive people, I hate losing. I have a passion forwinning. Determination – even as a kid. I don’t want to lose out to competition, or miss out.Everything I do I have a paranoid approach about being beaten e.g candidate gotinterviewed better by someone else. Paranoid belief.’

‘Advice to new consultants – it is OK to make mistakes, you are not born a great recruiter e.gTiger Woods and Golf, David Beckham and taking free kicks – it takes years of practice. Themore mistakes you make the better, it is OK just learn from them.’

‘Moving my mindset to success and maintaining it. I had doubt when I first started, took me4 years to know I wanted to be in recruitment. I did alright for those 4 years but once I hadthe realisation that this was my career I did a lot better. The mindset – I wanted to succeed.’

‘I believe that if anyone can fill a job I can. If anyone can represent a candidate the best thenI can. I am the best at what I do. I want my candidates to think that guy will get me a job,clients to think that I must give the job to that guy as he will fill it. I will offer the bestservice.’

Can you see and hear the positive beliefs driving these TopBillers? You can recognise their personal motivation, themindset they had, the positive intentions they set themthemselves. You too can think like this. It takes practice, ittakes commitment and it takes determination. But it isworth it. Why would you want to be an average recruiterwhen you have the potential to be the best recruiter youcan be?

An additional Step 8 for you to consider is:

Work Bloody Hard!

Page 15 of 15

CONTACT DETAILS:

Hannah KeepVi International Ltd0845 4085833/+44 0207 101 0656123 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5EA

Hannah.l.keep@viinternational.com

Think like a Top Biller blog: www.hannah.keep.co.uk

Join our Think like a Top Biller group on LinkedIn today for new tipsand tricks:

Watch out for our Think like a Top Biller workshops in 2012, to findout more or to contact us about running these workshops in yourorganisation call us today on 0845 4085833.

‘Hannah has inspired me to achieve results I thought I’d not normallybe capable of achieving. Through simple and effective techniques, thelimiting beliefs I once had have now been eradicated and replacedwith an effective, positive mindset.’ David Isaacs, Top Biller G2Recruitment Group