The 15 Critical Habits of Highly Successful Recruiter’s

-Day 1-

HABIT #1: Be “Ruthless” about Search Quality

1. When you say ‘yes’ to something you’re not just giving up part of you’re time, you’re giving up part of your life.

2. The 3 Stages of a big biller’s growth

A.) A client is… anyone who will talk to meB.) A client is… anyone who will give me a searchC.) A client is someone who… works the way I want

3. “I quickly reduce my stress because I no longer try to get people to do what they don’t want to do. When I work with people who have a genuine need, it’s like swimming downstream.

4. Job order quality: About 60% of the job orders you write are C’s, about 25% are B’s and only around 15% are “A’s”.

5. An “A” level search has 3 components:

A. Client cooperation:

B. Urgency:

C. Marketability:

6. A “B” is missing one of the 3 and a “C” is missing 2 or more.

7. For an “A” you’ll do 2 things: A database search + original research.

8. For a “B” you’ll do database search only.

9. For a “C” you won’t do anything except keep it in mind.

10. Key point: Let clients know which one they are (A, B, or C) and how to get moved to the top of your priority list.

11. Besides a retainer, the best qualifier for a new search is interview times in advance.

12. Build a firewall: Test the search by sending 1 candidate and then waiting to see how the client responds.

13. Cover the search: Have 3 candidates in play.

14. Pre-close timely feedback:

15. Regarding candidates, the most important thing to qualify first is… Their reason for leaving

HABIT #2- Develop a Marketing Metronome

“Marketing is a process, not an event”- Unknown“80% of success is showing up”. - Woody Allen

1. You need to develop a steady metronome (rhythm) in terms of both forging the habit of daily marketing, and giving prospects enough repeat exposures to your service.

2. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

3. Hunting Vs Farming

4. The fatal error: Studies show that most prospects require 7+ exposures before they purchase a new service but the average salesperson only calls on a prospect 2-3 times before giving up.

5. The slow drip system

6. Key: In order to eliminate the peaks and valleys in your monthly production, you need to do some marketing everyday. How much you do depends on how close you are to full capacity.

7. The flexible system: If you’re at a dead stop, you may need to spend all day marketing. If you’re at full capacity, the maintenance amount of marketing is 30 minutes per day.

8. The recruiter with the most clients wins.

9. Key: Decide if they warrant a 2nd phone call. The qualifying number that they must make is 3 hires per year from outside recruiters.

10. Key: Be the master of a narrow market segment. Examples: Organic food companies in Colorado, Database administrators in New York, Amusement park executives, Veterinarians etc.

11. Key: You need around 900 contacts in your niche. Not companies, but contacts. This allows you to make 20 calls per day for 2 months and then repeat.

12. Lower the resistance to repeated follow up calls by having an evergreen follow up script: “Are there any types of talent that you’d like me to keep an eye open for in the next 90 days?”

13. Get permission to follow up: “What’s a good amount of time for me to call you back, where on the one hand, I’m not bugging you, but on the other hand I don’t miss an opportunity to help you?”

14. Seven points of contact- Examples:

- Intro letter mailed with call to action (“I’ll be calling on Tuesday morning…”)- Phone call to follow up on letter- Thank you card after first conversation- Follow up call in 4-6 weeks - Send an article in 4-6 weeks- Call to tell them about complimentary services - Send them a relevant news item- Offer to train their managers on interview techniques- Call to do a survey- Market a rock star candidate

15. Write a draft of your 7 points of contact below:

HABIT #3- Aim For 1 Sendout Per Day

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time onwhat is important.” ― Stephen R. Covey

1. Note: “One sendout per day” is a bad rule but a good guideline. It’s designed to help you develop laser like focus on what leads to revenue. Even if you only hit it 2/3 of the time, you’ll be a big producer.

2. The simplest time management strategy: Aim for 1 sendout per day and whatever else you have time for before 5pm.

3. The Minimum effective dose: You’ll be a monster producer if accomplish 2 things; Get 1:4 and 1:7.

4. The 70% rule: If a candidate meets 70% of the criteria, send them out.

5. Whenever you get off track or confused ask, “What’s the fastest way to my next sendout?”

6. Soften language to secure more sendouts: “Exploratory sendout”, “A cup of coffee”, “I think the 2 of you should meet”.

7. The fastest way to a sendout is to take a rock star to the market.

8. The crucial question: “So that I don’t waste your time, can you give me a thumbnail sketch of the types of people that you have the most difficulty in locating?

9. Track the responses to the crucial question in a searchable way to create more focused candidate presentations with less work.

HABIT #4: Premeditate Your Performance

1. Average recruiters work with their hair on fire.

2. Top producers execute a pre-meditated process.

3. I doubled my call output by combining planning with single-tasking.

4. Key: You must be able to separate preparation from execution if you want to excel and feel sane.

5. Athletes and entertainers are some of the highest paid people in the world and they spend more time in preparation and rehearsal than other people.

6. Use if-then planning: “If it’s 4pm then I will plan”.

7. The 4 PM Daily Planning Session:

An example of a daily schedule:

08:30-09:30 AM- Priority calls 09:30-11:00 AM- Marketing calls11:00-12:00 PM- Interview candidates12:00-01:00 PM- Lunch01:00-01:30 PM- Sourcing/ Name Gathering 01:30-04:00 PM- Recruiting04:00-05:00 PM- Planning & Research05:00-05:30 PM- Buffer time

8. Post your daily schedule template where you’ll see it each day.

9. 3 golden rules:

A. To avoid peaks and valleys in your production, you must do some marketing, recruiting & sourcing everyday.

B. Cash calls first, everything else second.

C. The only sane way to live is to schedule the dentist first.

10. Ask yourself: “What’s the fastest way to a sendout?” (Per Danny Cahill).

11. Get physical: Print your plan – don’t work off of the computer.

12. Use “Strategic stacking”: Interview candidates in “stacks” – one right after the other

13. The Litmus test: If you can make 10 - 15 calls/ hour, generally speaking, that was a well planned hour.

HABIT #5- Be Resilient “The measure of a recruiter’s resilience is how quickly he gets on the phoneafter a falloff.”- Danny Cahill

1. “If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”

2. Trying to be perfect = paralysis.

3. An empowering guideline; “Nothing is personal”.

4. If you’re feeling off, run a quick diagnostic:- Am I tired or sleep deprived?- Have I eaten?

5. If you’re bored at work, get inspired outside of work.

6. Whine with a deadline:

7. Turn bad days into good data