CONTENTS

• Weekly Tips (If I've learnt 3 things)
• Article One (Relationship Selling by James Osborne)
• Article Two (Why using Executive Search in a Recession is Justified by Caroline Hayward)
• Online Recruitment Update (Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - Louise's UK Recruiter Blog - Discussion Board Summary - UKRecruiterJobs)
• Don't Miss This (PR: Talent Works Launch new site - PR: New Website Launched for the National Online Recruitment Awards - PR: Online Job Seekers Want More From Job Boards - PR: Nominations now open for first-ever IRP Awards - Recruitment Mergers, Acquisitions, Investment Opportunities and Partnerships)
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• Feedback & Advertising Information

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Weekly Tips -  If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment

1) Treat others as you wish to be treated as you never know where that "annoying" candidate, client, competitor may turn up in your future! 

2) A little of something is better than a lot of nothing....especially in this climate 

3) Follow up every opportunity however small and treat every client the same, all business is greatly appreciated & never taken for granted 

Provided by MD of Sussex Recruitment Ltd

Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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Article One:  Relationship Selling by James Osborne, Innergy

In this, the latest article in his series, James looks at relationship selling (his last article covered generating referrals).

In the world of selling and in most companies there is a continuum of selling styles. At one end of the scale are experienced practitioners who apparently fulfil their sales targets with little effort and seem to have great interactions with their customers. At the other end there are those who seem to perennially struggle to come to terms with their customers’ requirements, their targets and the sales process as a whole. 

The successful salesperson is likely to be interacting with his customers in a manner that is adding significant value of some kind. Customers are much more likely to allow a relationship to develop with a salesperson who treats them as a human being rather than a bonus cheque, are truly interested in helping them achieve their goals and have a conversational, two way interaction with them. 

Partnering with your customer

Lots has been written about partnering with customers. In reality it is a simple process flow. Conversations can lead to relationships and relationships in turn can lead to partnerships. 

Only when you have genuine conversational interactions with your customer can you realistically be viewed as being able to make a contribution to a business partnership. The opposite to this would be where you are viewed merely as a vendor. Vendors tend to sell commodities. 

Commodities always have a price point. Partners are invariably adding value in intangible ways that move beyond price and commodities. 

What about the Sales Process?

It’s a common misconception that embracing a conversational style of selling means abandoning the sales process. As a rule of thumb the opposite would be true. Truly successful relationship salespeople have allowed the process to become ingrained into their subconscious to the point where it has become an unconscious act in the same way that we drive a car or ride a bicycle. At the heart of it is a genuine desire to help companies solve their business problems.

These “experts” have recognised that any sales interaction is essentially a conversation with a beneficial relationship as the goal. Alternatively, it’s an ongoing dialogue within an established relationship that maintains momentum, again for mutual advantage. However, either way, it’s still a process that should be mapped, developed and implemented.

Moving to a more conversational, relationship oriented approach.

Don’t go blundering in like a bull in a china shop by suddenly changing everything that you do. Your approach needs to evolve exponentially within the relationship if it’s to be genuine, meaningful and profitable to all parties. However you can start by...

• Listening. Let your customer talk about their business. Take the time to really listen to what they’re underlying message is saying, it’s not always the same as what you’re hearing.

• Try to put yourself in the customer shoes. Try to visualise what it feels like to be across the table from someone like you. What would a good discussion look like, feel like or sound like?

• Take time to understand the customers pain points. Work with the customer to get underneath the issues that they're experiencing and the pain that results.

• Keep your promises. Just like in personal life, broken commitments can be terminal for any relationship.

• Make it real. Use language that your customer will understand, jargon doesn’t position you as the expert. 

• Avoid false interest. If football isn’t your thing don’t try to be the expert on the game last night. 

• Remember that relationships need work. There will be high points, low points and give and take. Enduring relationships are rarely formed without effort.

• Seek out a mentor or coach who can help act as a mirror for your style and approach. 

• Talk to your customer about how they like to interact with suppliers. What makes a partner different from a vendor in their eyes. Act on the comments where relevant and be sure to keep them up to date with your progress in implementing their suggestions.

James Osborne is the director of the award-winning training and consultancy organisation, Innergy, who have worked with over 300 recruitment companies in the past 18 months, enabling them to increase their productivity, improve their performance and embrace positive change. http://www.innergy-uk.com  

James is also a contributor to UK Recruiter Plus - www.ukrecruiterplus.co.uk  

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Article Two: Why using Executive Search in a Recession is Justified by Caroline Hayward 

By spelling out what a good executive research firm offers this article can provide the arguments to convince a prospective client why they should use your services. 

The Executive Search business is often misunderstood and somewhat maligned as being expensive and unnecessary - especially in a downturn.

For a senior appointment, whether in a downturn or not, Executive Search is the way forward and the headhunter has to front and lead the assignment at every stage to add real value to the process. Recent research states that over 60% of companies still use Executive search to recruit at the management level and here are some of the reasons why:

The qualification process
If you are in a senior role and you are approached by the researcher (quite normal) or headhunter, you are “qualified” professionally as to your interest in and suitability to the opportunity. You are subsequently sent a first rate briefing document about the company and the role, giving you a positive impression about the seriousness of the client and the professionalism of the search firm, before you have walked through the door of either. As a result you are potentially more interested in the opportunity.

The qualification process is an inexact science, even when supported with psychometric testing. I have seen candidates with first rate tests offered the job and fail in it and candidates with poor psychometric tests do exceptionally well in the role. Therefore, much is based on the skill, experience and intuition of the headhunter.

Understanding the client
Good headhunters understand their client and the company they are representing in some detail, from the products and services offered through to the cultural fit of the organisation as well as the personality of the future boss. Most good headhunters also have a strong intuition and can pick up on any aspect of strength or weakness and drill down accordingly. They can summarise the opportunity succinctly and sell candidates on the real benefits. They will be direct, honest and open with the candidates interviewed and keep them fully informed at every stage of the process. These people are, after all, our future clients too.

Keeping to timescales
Timeframes can be managed more effectively than an ongoing interview situation based on candidates from various sources. 
Search firms like Hayward & Associates have industry specialists in-house who work full time on each and every search until the shortlist is presented – often in as little as 4-6 weeks. Companies using networks such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Word-of-mouth etc may get lucky and find a suitable candidate quickly but it takes application and tenacity and it could be several months before you have anything near an acceptable shortlist. We are all in information overload with data coming at us from every angle and it is the search firm’s focus and persistence in drilling down on all of this information that creates a first rate shortlist of the best talent available at that time. 

Managing a variety of sources to produce a first rate shortlist
Some headhunters claim that pure headhunting is “the only way” as companies do not make good people redundant and advertising only attracts people that are available and desperate for a job. 

It should, however, be of no consequence where the shortlist emanates from, so long as it is always first rate.

In current times, redundancy is no longer a stigma. If a specific assignment exists where we are looking for a “square peg for a square hole” and that square peg happens to be redundant at that moment, then so be it.

Equally, with high level recruitment advertising, our “square peg“ candidate may have previously been in exactly the role we are looking for but as he/she is not currently in that capacity, they are unlikely to be headhunted. It does not devalue their ability to do an excellent job in the role in question. Advertising responses inevitably mean more data to work through but if the role is not confidential then utilising this medium ensures that the client has had the opportunity to meet the best available talent. 

And, yes, search firms do also use LinkedIn and Plaxo and that has limitless possibilities but also takes a huge amount of time and application.

It is only by combining these methods that it is possible to bring together a fully researched and well balanced shortlist of highly qualified individuals in only 4-6 weeks. 

Candidates there are many but a first-class shortlist is a much bigger challenge. Executive Search ensures the quality and speed of delivery that organisations need in current times.

Caroline Hayward is Founder and MD of Hayward & Associates Executive Search - the "premier executive search firm" committed to performance, quality of delivery and results in the technology sector. Caroline and her team provide clients with strong consultancy skills based on a sound methodology and have access to an enormous pool of over 40,000 mid-to-senior management professionals.

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Online Recruitment Update  

UK Recruiter Plus - Favourites
These are this week's favourite articles from UK Recruiter Plus as chosen by the UK Recruiter team: 
Example consultancy agreement
How to write a job ad
Getting your consultants off the computer and onto the phone
We are currently offering a £25 discount when you sign up to UK Recruiter Plus; the definitive online guide for the UK recruitment industry.  www.ukrecruiterplus.co.uk

Hitwise top 10 Recruitment Sites, week ending 15th August 2009
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk, www.linkedin.com, www.jobs.nhs.uk, www.totaljobs.com, www.reed.co.uk, www.jobsite.co.uk, www.monster.co.uk, www.jobrapido.co.uk, jobs.guardian.co.uk and www.tes.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Louise's UK Recruiter blog
Since the last newsletter Louise has posted the following: 
- The Recruiter's Book - another nice freebie for me
- Top-Consultant Careers Fair
- Dodgy Recruitment Practices
You can read Louise's UK Recruiter blog at http://ukrecruiter.typepad.com  You can keep up to date with other recruitment blogs from the UK via the UK Recruiter blog watch page at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/blogs.htm.  

Discussion Board Summary
Don't forget to visit The Discussion Board. Current topics on the site include:
- Dodgy agency posing as the "jobcentre"
- Sales
- Advice - Regarding Self Employed
- Database with Parsing
You do not need to be registered to post or view messages on the discussion board.  Any postings you or anyone else makes will be included in the weekly digest (sign up for the digest here). Visit the site, ask questions and share your knowledge.  

Free Job Board Posting
The UK Recruiter job board is run in conjunction with Changeboard. We are currently offering free trials for recruitment consultancies to post their recruitment jobs. To setup a free trial, please contact Changeboard on 020 8675 8851 or email bekki@changeboard.com.  

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Don't Miss This 

Recruitment Mergers, Acquisitions, Investment Opportunities and Partnerships
We've recently added a new page to the UK Recruiter website where we list recruitment business that are for sale or are looking to buy.  This page is available for any recruiter or service provider in the industry to use. We will list projects regardless of whether they come direct or via a corporate finance/vc company.   These projects may be around the sale, purchase or request for investment in a recruitment consultancy, research firm, or supplier to the industry (eg, job board, software company etc).  If you wish to list your current project simply send the full details to mike@ukrecruiter.co.uk and we will publicise it for you as soon as possible. http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/manda.htm  

Press Release: Talent Works Launch new site – Creating Sustainable Talent Pipelines for future growth
"Over the past 12 months the candidate market has changed dramatically and so has the way businesses look to engage with recruitment/sourcing suppliers.  After working with a number of our clients we have developed a model to allow our customers to build a robust and sustainable talent pipeline focused purely on the passive candidate market.  Our solutions not only allow access to the passive community but also to a cost model that has seen our clients save between 50-70% against traditional contingent/executive search fees.  Talent Pooling is fast becoming the resourcing tool of choice with corporate recruiters looking to build truly sustainable pipelines that have a major impact on both cost and time to hire stats whilst increasing the quality of the hire to maximize business potential.  For more information visit www.yourtalentworks.co.uk" 

Press Release: New Website Launched for the National Online Recruitment Awards
"Now in their ninth year, the National Online Recruitment Awards has become an annual fixture in this burgeoning industry. Launched in 2001, as an integral part of AlljobsUK.com, the awards have been the answer to candidates questioning 'Which are the best recruitment websites in the UK?'  The NORAuk.com website is deliberately setup as a showcase site, where the very best examples of online recruitment, from a candidate’s perspective, and presented and showcased.  www.NORAuk.com"  

Press Release: Online Job Seekers Want More From Job Boards
"NORAS 2009, the largest ever online recruitment survey, has revealed that online job seekers are interested in seeing more than just job adverts when they visit job boards. The results show that only 32% of online job seekers visit job boards just to look for jobs. In comparison, 34% are also using these sites to make themselves more ‘findable’ by registering their CV. The findings form part of NORAS 2009, the UK’s largest online recruitment research project, which surveyed more than 50,000 candidates across 31 online job boards. Interestingly, a significant proportion of online job seekers are now using recruitment sites as a source of information, not just to aid their search for a new job, but also as a means of keeping up to date with developments within their industry. Almost one in five online job seekers visit job boards to obtain general career advice and 15% are now using them to make salary comparisons. In addition, 14% of online job seekers also visit these sites to acquire information and general news about their industry sector. The NORAS 2009 results are free to download at www.noras.co.uk."

Press Release: Nominations now open for first-ever IRP Awards
"The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has opened nominations for its first ever Institute of Recruitment Professionals (IRP) awards. Entries are now being sought for the 13 categories which are designed to ensure the very best and most talented people working at all levels and within different sectors of the recruitment industry are rewarded for their flair and achievements. The IRP, which was launched by the REC in June, is a groundbreaking new innovation for recruiters replacing the previous Individual Membership offering which has supported the awards for the past two years. The core purpose of the IRP is to ensure that all recruiters are given the chance for personal recognition as part of the profession and to demonstrate to their clients that they are fully committed to giving the best possible service at all times. Closing date for entries is Tuesday September 1 with the winners being announced at the awards evening to be held at the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) in the City on London on Thursday November 26 following the REC’s first-ever National Convention for members. The only condition for all nominees is that they belong to the IRP at Affiliate, Member or Fellow level. For more information about the awards, visit the website, www.rec-awards.com." 

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