Someone once told me that being a salesperson is a hard job. "You are only as good as your last deal" is the cry from some Directors and Managers within sales organisations.
The simple fact of the matter is that for many this saying is a true one. The patience of businesses seems to have disappeared. More and more senior managers find themselves under sustained pressure from their boards to deliver significant increases in profits. They then apply this pressure to their sales staff and so the cycle begins. Before some people know it they have been allocated to a performance review or improvement plan which if I am being honest, is the route to the exit from the company.
But it is not always the case that the fault lies with the company. Sales people are, or should be money driven, hungry machines but many let themselves down with their activity and their focus. They plan for the immediate short term and don't really analyse why their performances are not of a high standard. I also know of salespeople who just don't really know enough about their role or the objectives and expectations that come with it.
So how can salespeople help themselves?
The best piece of advice I have ever been given is to treat your sales role as if it was a role within your own company. Behind every good person is a good approach strategy to their roles.
The first thing you need to do is analyse your objectives. What are your Key Performance Indicators? Go ahead, write them down in a list. This list is the expected requirements of your roles. Ask yourself whether you achieved these indicators last week? If not, be true to yourself and ask why not? These KPI's are the difference in you having your job and not. They are the basic requirements of your role and should be taken extremely seriously. This is the first point of call for you the salesperson...know your role!
The next thing you need to do is identify whether you know the mechanics of your product or solution. Human psychology is a powerful thing. People have a sixth sense that identifies when something is not quite right. They know if a person is winging it, or doesn't really understand their offering and therefore their confidence in that person is reduced, and their interest does not blossom. The difference in someone knowing their offering and not is the passion that is displayed when explaining about it. Such a person may give a fragmented and cautious explanation of their solutions / products and will generally miss the key benefits that their prospective client is looking for to make that decision. If you do not have a clear understanding and confidence in your offering then how do you expect your client to gain this?
Your planning is very important. The best salespeople are the ones who know their pathway for the month. Jobs to do lists / Task management systems are part of most company database offerings. Use them and make sure that you complete the tasks that are there. If you are cold calling for the first four hours on Tuesday morning then stick to it and complete it. Your diary should always be open, should always be at hand so that you know what you have to do in each business day. A salesperson should never have nothing to do. You should be soaking up each minute of each day with activity...time is money for you my friend. Each second that goes by without activity is a potential deal missed. I guarantee if you are not being active then your competitor, to be even more precise, their salespeople, will not miss that opportunity. Your jobs to do list for the following business day should already be complete by the end of the previous working day. Time management is extremely important to a good salesperson. They are not clock watchers, they work against the time it takes to complete the deal. Their activity is high and they know everything about their opportunities. This leads me to my next point.
How many times have we all been asked to forecast? Senior managers have to do it for their boards, and nothing breeds resentment with sales managers than being made to look a fool when forecasts are consistently wrong. Good salespeople are generally close to their forecasts. The simple reason why is down to them being close to their opportunities. I am sure that for salespeople and managers reading this, that you have all had that basic sales training course at one point during your sales careers. How many of you remember the importance of being able to complete a professional conversation, relevant and open questioning etc...? How many of you can say that you use it correctly during your business conversations? Good salespeople know their opportunities. By good questioning they have been able to establish who the decision makers are within their clients business, what the client is trying to achieve, how the client is going to determine whether the solution or product has been a success, a ball park figure on budget that they have to spend, and when the client is looking to give that decision to purchase? It's like shelling peas for them. They have all the key indicators that they need to satisfy the clients reservations. They build their business cases around their clients objectives and maintain frequent lines of communication to ensure that the brief has remained the same. They are then able to present a business case that is very much in line with what their client is trying to achieve. Logic suggests that because they completely understand their client, their objectives, and who they have to convince within that business, they stand a very good chance to convert this opportunity. This in turn allows them to forecast with confidence and not have the added pressure of wondering what they are going to say in the Monday morning sales meeting or put into their Friday afternoon forecasting report.
Be close to your number! A good salesperson is close to their number, they own it. You all have targets but how are you going to get there? You have to obtain your target from somewhere and your most important tool is your pipeline. I have been advised many times that you should have five times the value of your target within your pipeline. This varies from industry to industry and other managers will have differing views on that number. However, the underlying reason is the same, you need to have opportunities in place to achieve that target. This also guides your development work and long term planning. If you have nothing or not enough in your pipeline then failure is going to be your friend! It is also important that you are true to yourself as well. Many salespeople lie to themselves about just how good an opportunity is. Be honest with yourself and go have a look at your pipeline. If you have opportunities there that you know are never going to convert in your lifetime but you have put them there to keep your boss at bay then go delete them now, you will get found out anyway so you might as well start as you mean to go on. You will, for the first time for a while, have an honest pipeline and your first task will be to develop new business.
The number plays a huge part in all our lives. For you it is highly important. Achieve the number you have been allocated and you will gain the number you deserve. This could be number one sales person within the company. The rewards for achieving this are substantial...if you are consistent. Recognition from your boss, the board and your peers, a high commission, a superb reputation, potential promotion and career development are all within your grasp. Owning your number means that if someone within your company asks where you are in relation to that opportunity, you should be able to give a brief explanation of what has happened, what you have done, and what the next step is going to be, as well as when it is likely to convert? However, if you are transparent then generally you will not be asked these things because your reporting and your jobs to do are visible for everyone to see...if your line manager or board are asking these types of questions then you need to identify whether you are giving the correct detail to them, or just how clear and concise your reporting is.
So your list is:
1) Know and understand your role
2) Know your solutions or products
3) Plan your strategy for success and be busy
4) Be visible and honest in your approach
5) Build a pipeline that will deliver your number month on month
6) Own your number and opportunities
A salesperson's worst enemy is themselves. Confidence is the key to your success, confidence that you have your own structure in place, confidence that you are managing your time effectively, confidence that your reporting is accurate and that your pipeline is busy. Many sales people lie to themselves and say everything is fine when it is not. Monday comes around very quickly and a month can be gone before you even know it. Value every minute you have, be busy and find those opportunities and a profitable and successful business year will be yours.
Sunday 22 January 2012
Thursday 19 January 2012
The Demise of the Saturday Afternoon Football Experience
For many people, Saturday afternoons brings about first thoughts of being sat (or stood as many would still like to be doing) in a freezing stadium screaming at which ever football team you support, trying to drive them onto victory. As a kid I followed my home club Bradford City. My club is not a fashionable club, they are not a Barcelona or a Bayern Munich but they are still my club. I have followed them through glory years and promotion to the Premiership where we welcomed the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. I have also followed them through unremarkable years and let me tell you that nothing brings you down to earth more than playing on a cold Tuesday night against the likes of Morecambe or Macclesfield. The simple reason I do it is because I support them and I am passionate about them and the game in general. I have never found a more purer form of camaraderie than being in your end at your home ground or away. One complete voice, one huge sharing of emotion, number twelve for your team. You find yourself talking to complete strangers, hugging them when your team manages to convert a chance, cursing together when a referee tries to spoil the game for you with a terrible decision that only he seems to be convinced on. It doesn't matter what team you support, I am sure that you can relate to the feelings I have described.
Clubs in general have conceived many different ideas to try to generate more people through the turnstiles. Reduced season ticket prices seem to be more common than ever, buy now and pay in instalments, half season deals are all available to the masses, well in the leagues outside the Premiership it seems. I know of many people who have taken advantage of these deals and thoroughly enjoy their match day experiences, or at least when their teams win! The Football leagues state that attendances are healthy across clubs with combined attendance topping 17 million people, and the Championship being the fourth best supported league in Europe, for the 2010/2011 season. Quite simply, people are still attending and enjoying what their clubs have to offer. But a negative side to discounting tickets exists. Only this week we have seen our friends at Darlington FC praying that their club will still exist. I have been there as a fan of Bradford City. We have gone through administration and it is not a nice feeling. The power of the fan is useless at that point because unless they are a multi millionaire, they cannot do anything and sit anxiously waiting for scraps of news as to whether their local community will still have a football club that represents them. Spare a thought for Northwich Victoria fans who may not even have a stadium by the end of the week! Tales of woe are becoming much more of a common occurrence in football. The impact of discounting tickets, recession and clubs over committing themselves is there for all to see. Chairmen and board of Directors across the country living the dream of owning a football club are not seeing it as much of a dream at the moment. The expectations of their fan base, lack of investment by local business, running costs, are all major areas that they have to contend with. The fans can only do so much is the cry from the supporters. But is this truly the case?
Investment in football clubs is always a talking point. For a supporter of a lower league club, it seems that Premiership clubs seem to have access to far more potential investors than lower league clubs. I mean it is highly unlikely that I am going to see a billionaire Arab Sheikh who wants to make Bradford City a major force in Europe! But lower league clubs do have a major asset - Their fanbase. I talk to major businesses around the UK and Europe everyday. One of the key factors in their marketing strategy is how do they attract more provincial business to their offering? Here they have an opportunity to invest in local football clubs that have this captured fanbase. Offering deals to fans via the club would be in some cases, more effective than advertising in local press. Programme advertising, advertising boards within the club, PA Advertising, Scoreboard Advertising, Sponsorship of a Player are all ways to attract the attention of the fan. Sponsorship of a season ticket is another good option. In Bradford City's case they have sold around 7-9000 season tickets and an opportunity exists to have your business branding on those tickets for a whole season, with an additional opportunity to engage this audience with an insert into the season ticket package that gives the fan an opportunity to purchase your service. In my opinion, a fan is more likely to support that investor than their competitor because they have taken the time to support their club. Discount structures can be put in place for the fan and a commission can be paid to the club for every sale. The simple fact is that this audience is there all of the time, they know people and so if they consume a message then it stands to reason that the offering or message you are trying to engage this audience with will get passed on.
But the fanbase consists of business owners and people of influence as well. I would say that if you are a fan of a club and can potentially invest then seriously consider it. Not only do you get the satisfaction of supporting your club but you can also secure an investment that has a strong opportunity to deliver a good return. Lets face it, financial investment in traditional sources is not exactly paying substantial dividends at the moment so increasing awareness of your brand / geographical presence, engaging a passionate audience, supporting a community in a location of one of your sites is a significant option to increase footfall and take up of your service and solutions.
I urge all fans of football clubs to analyse the people you know. Do you know business owners, do you know about the companies that are supporting your clubs, and have you taken advantage of the offering that they are giving you? For fans who have taken advantage of cheap season tickets and can afford to do so, give some of the saving back to the club. It might only be a few pounds you give back but that could be the difference in a new player coming in, new equipment into the club, travel for the team to an away fixture, or even the very survival of your club. Talk to the Commercial Directors of your clubs, find out what great packages they can do for investment in advertising or for a stake in the club or for even using their conferencing facilities for a networking event.
Take up of these actions could be the difference in a club surviving or disappearing. I would ask all football fans who have spared me five minutes to read my musing to support the likes of Darlington FC, Northwich Victoria or any other club that faces demise. It is a sad state of affairs and even though we may not support their team, we are all united in football.
Clubs in general have conceived many different ideas to try to generate more people through the turnstiles. Reduced season ticket prices seem to be more common than ever, buy now and pay in instalments, half season deals are all available to the masses, well in the leagues outside the Premiership it seems. I know of many people who have taken advantage of these deals and thoroughly enjoy their match day experiences, or at least when their teams win! The Football leagues state that attendances are healthy across clubs with combined attendance topping 17 million people, and the Championship being the fourth best supported league in Europe, for the 2010/2011 season. Quite simply, people are still attending and enjoying what their clubs have to offer. But a negative side to discounting tickets exists. Only this week we have seen our friends at Darlington FC praying that their club will still exist. I have been there as a fan of Bradford City. We have gone through administration and it is not a nice feeling. The power of the fan is useless at that point because unless they are a multi millionaire, they cannot do anything and sit anxiously waiting for scraps of news as to whether their local community will still have a football club that represents them. Spare a thought for Northwich Victoria fans who may not even have a stadium by the end of the week! Tales of woe are becoming much more of a common occurrence in football. The impact of discounting tickets, recession and clubs over committing themselves is there for all to see. Chairmen and board of Directors across the country living the dream of owning a football club are not seeing it as much of a dream at the moment. The expectations of their fan base, lack of investment by local business, running costs, are all major areas that they have to contend with. The fans can only do so much is the cry from the supporters. But is this truly the case?
Investment in football clubs is always a talking point. For a supporter of a lower league club, it seems that Premiership clubs seem to have access to far more potential investors than lower league clubs. I mean it is highly unlikely that I am going to see a billionaire Arab Sheikh who wants to make Bradford City a major force in Europe! But lower league clubs do have a major asset - Their fanbase. I talk to major businesses around the UK and Europe everyday. One of the key factors in their marketing strategy is how do they attract more provincial business to their offering? Here they have an opportunity to invest in local football clubs that have this captured fanbase. Offering deals to fans via the club would be in some cases, more effective than advertising in local press. Programme advertising, advertising boards within the club, PA Advertising, Scoreboard Advertising, Sponsorship of a Player are all ways to attract the attention of the fan. Sponsorship of a season ticket is another good option. In Bradford City's case they have sold around 7-9000 season tickets and an opportunity exists to have your business branding on those tickets for a whole season, with an additional opportunity to engage this audience with an insert into the season ticket package that gives the fan an opportunity to purchase your service. In my opinion, a fan is more likely to support that investor than their competitor because they have taken the time to support their club. Discount structures can be put in place for the fan and a commission can be paid to the club for every sale. The simple fact is that this audience is there all of the time, they know people and so if they consume a message then it stands to reason that the offering or message you are trying to engage this audience with will get passed on.
But the fanbase consists of business owners and people of influence as well. I would say that if you are a fan of a club and can potentially invest then seriously consider it. Not only do you get the satisfaction of supporting your club but you can also secure an investment that has a strong opportunity to deliver a good return. Lets face it, financial investment in traditional sources is not exactly paying substantial dividends at the moment so increasing awareness of your brand / geographical presence, engaging a passionate audience, supporting a community in a location of one of your sites is a significant option to increase footfall and take up of your service and solutions.
I urge all fans of football clubs to analyse the people you know. Do you know business owners, do you know about the companies that are supporting your clubs, and have you taken advantage of the offering that they are giving you? For fans who have taken advantage of cheap season tickets and can afford to do so, give some of the saving back to the club. It might only be a few pounds you give back but that could be the difference in a new player coming in, new equipment into the club, travel for the team to an away fixture, or even the very survival of your club. Talk to the Commercial Directors of your clubs, find out what great packages they can do for investment in advertising or for a stake in the club or for even using their conferencing facilities for a networking event.
Take up of these actions could be the difference in a club surviving or disappearing. I would ask all football fans who have spared me five minutes to read my musing to support the likes of Darlington FC, Northwich Victoria or any other club that faces demise. It is a sad state of affairs and even though we may not support their team, we are all united in football.
Wednesday 18 January 2012
Children and Games Consoles - The Constant "Can I Play"
In the last twenty years we have seen computer game technology advance into a multi billion dollar / pounds industry. It seems that computer games have become more realistic in their graphical presentation and choice of experience is extremely varied. You can be a hardened military veteran fighting in some distant land with a variety of automatic machine guns to an assassin from a distant past fighting oppressive forces in the name of good. It is a completly different to what I experienced via my first computer which was a Sinclair ZX81 with 16mb ram pack. I would spend hours writing basic code to create a game of breakout, and I was happy to do it - The geek inside me was born! I remember my upgrade to a ZX Spectrum and the opportunity to load my games via a cassette player, putting up with the horrendous screeching and whining that signified that my game was loading and the feelings of frustration when my little brother had pulled out the connecting lead and stopped the upload after thirty minutes had passed, being so close to the gaming promised land and having it cruelly denied by my sibling.
Yes, computer technology has come along way in a relatively short space of time!
I was never consumed by feelings of wanting to play on a computer all the time though. I had friends and would not think twice about leaving my home and "playing out" all day, popping back for some lunch and then back playing until the call of my Mother's voice would signify that it was time to come in. Tree swings, mud bomb fights, football (or soccer to my American friends), riding bikes all held high appeal for me. The local woods were safe to play in. No rampant perverts praying on the innocent (or at least it wasn't highly publicised then), nice green fields that provided ample space to allow kids to run off their energies and have good old fun. My circle of friends was enough for me and I have happy memories of the time I spent just "playing out" and the tomfoolery we got up to. It was nothing illegal, we didn't go looking to vandalise some poor people's property because we knew that we would get a clip round the ear from the owners and everybody knew each other in our area so you could pretty much guarantee that it would get back to your parents or grandparents if you did cause trouble.
It was not just about my circle of friends though. I found great comfort and excitement in literature. By the time I was thirteen I was consuming books by Henri Charriere, and in particular Papillon which is an outstanding read even to this day. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl (particularly Danny the Champion of the World) increased my literacy abilities and created a strong imagination, one which has given me great skill in thinking outside of the box within my media career.
Looking at my own children I see a completely different attitude to the one I had during my childhood. The emergence of Xbox and PS3 games consoles onto the market has bred a generation of children that I think have just lost that spark. Trying to get my children to go out with friends is a difficult task. "It's cold" or "I'm tired and I just want to stay in" are common phrases that my children have become experts in utilising. I never felt the cold when I was younger. I never wore a coat much to the displeasure of my parents who could not understand why I had not died of pneumonia by that stage in my life. As for tiredness, I had bundles of energy and I simply did not want to stay in with my boring parents. I wanted to be out in the open air, enjoying football or chasing girls (who were the enemy then). My children class reading books as a chore, particularly my youngest son. He thinks that it is homework and that he has done enough reading at school. My oldest son, who is twelve has just started to experience the wonder of books and is going through a stage, right at this moment, where he is consuming large amounts of them. However, if I was to give my children the opportunity, they would spend every waking moment playing games on their games consoles. It is not just those either. Social media sites, where all their friends "play out" all contain games. My oldest son spent a couple of hours on his games console and after being told to come downstairs, promptly grabbed a laptop and explained that he "needed to check to see if his cafe was okay" on a game via Facebook....aaaargh.
Myself and my wife realised that we had to change our children's viewpoint on games console consumption. We wanted them to earn the time that they obtained as we were not spending time together as a family and we would never see our children because they spent their time in the black holes that were their bedrooms.
How many of you with children are reading this and have the same problem?
We decided to put in place a strategy that would ensure that our children earned their time on the consoles. We constructed a table of chores that could easily be done around the house. This table also included reading tasks, homework tasks, playing out tasks. For each task that our sons completed they would receive an amount of time on their consoles. So they may wash up and get twenty minutes of time, they may play out and get an hour of time etc.. It has also stopped them disappearing into thin air. It places the control back in the hands of the parents without having to go to full scale war with your children because they realise that if they have no time then they cannot play. We have found that our children are keen for reward and have embraced this parental strategy which is why I wanted to share this with you all. Give it a try and see for yourself.
Reclaim your children back and teach them to earn the rewards they receive...just like we had to in bygone days.
Yes, computer technology has come along way in a relatively short space of time!
I was never consumed by feelings of wanting to play on a computer all the time though. I had friends and would not think twice about leaving my home and "playing out" all day, popping back for some lunch and then back playing until the call of my Mother's voice would signify that it was time to come in. Tree swings, mud bomb fights, football (or soccer to my American friends), riding bikes all held high appeal for me. The local woods were safe to play in. No rampant perverts praying on the innocent (or at least it wasn't highly publicised then), nice green fields that provided ample space to allow kids to run off their energies and have good old fun. My circle of friends was enough for me and I have happy memories of the time I spent just "playing out" and the tomfoolery we got up to. It was nothing illegal, we didn't go looking to vandalise some poor people's property because we knew that we would get a clip round the ear from the owners and everybody knew each other in our area so you could pretty much guarantee that it would get back to your parents or grandparents if you did cause trouble.
It was not just about my circle of friends though. I found great comfort and excitement in literature. By the time I was thirteen I was consuming books by Henri Charriere, and in particular Papillon which is an outstanding read even to this day. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl (particularly Danny the Champion of the World) increased my literacy abilities and created a strong imagination, one which has given me great skill in thinking outside of the box within my media career.
Looking at my own children I see a completely different attitude to the one I had during my childhood. The emergence of Xbox and PS3 games consoles onto the market has bred a generation of children that I think have just lost that spark. Trying to get my children to go out with friends is a difficult task. "It's cold" or "I'm tired and I just want to stay in" are common phrases that my children have become experts in utilising. I never felt the cold when I was younger. I never wore a coat much to the displeasure of my parents who could not understand why I had not died of pneumonia by that stage in my life. As for tiredness, I had bundles of energy and I simply did not want to stay in with my boring parents. I wanted to be out in the open air, enjoying football or chasing girls (who were the enemy then). My children class reading books as a chore, particularly my youngest son. He thinks that it is homework and that he has done enough reading at school. My oldest son, who is twelve has just started to experience the wonder of books and is going through a stage, right at this moment, where he is consuming large amounts of them. However, if I was to give my children the opportunity, they would spend every waking moment playing games on their games consoles. It is not just those either. Social media sites, where all their friends "play out" all contain games. My oldest son spent a couple of hours on his games console and after being told to come downstairs, promptly grabbed a laptop and explained that he "needed to check to see if his cafe was okay" on a game via Facebook....aaaargh.
Myself and my wife realised that we had to change our children's viewpoint on games console consumption. We wanted them to earn the time that they obtained as we were not spending time together as a family and we would never see our children because they spent their time in the black holes that were their bedrooms.
How many of you with children are reading this and have the same problem?
We decided to put in place a strategy that would ensure that our children earned their time on the consoles. We constructed a table of chores that could easily be done around the house. This table also included reading tasks, homework tasks, playing out tasks. For each task that our sons completed they would receive an amount of time on their consoles. So they may wash up and get twenty minutes of time, they may play out and get an hour of time etc.. It has also stopped them disappearing into thin air. It places the control back in the hands of the parents without having to go to full scale war with your children because they realise that if they have no time then they cannot play. We have found that our children are keen for reward and have embraced this parental strategy which is why I wanted to share this with you all. Give it a try and see for yourself.
Reclaim your children back and teach them to earn the rewards they receive...just like we had to in bygone days.
Tuesday 17 January 2012
Are Recruitment Agencies The New Traffic Wardens??
The economic climate is volatile at best and I know of many people who have lost their jobs for whatever reason. I am in that situation at the moment and let me tell you, it is not a fun place to be. Everybody wants paying and the level of compassion shown by creditors seems to be non existent at the moment. I know they have a job to do but a little respectful acknowledgement of a persons situation and a willingness to help find a suitable solution for all would lead to a positive result for all parties concerned.
So my situation is that I am a very experienced media professional and I have found myself out of work. I have a little media consultancy which I do odd contracts for various different companies but my instructions have decreased and so I decided that I needed to find a new position. Being based in the south of England, and not very far from London, I thought that going to some of the many recruitment agencies that operate here would give me some great opportunities and provide the quickest route back to work.
I have instructed a number of agencies, some of them very big companies in recruitment. They all promote that they are dedicated to supporting a candidates into jobs and that they are attentive and have great contacts. Yet I have to question all of that! Recruitment agencies or rather some of them because I know some great people and companies exist, are in a lot of cases a complete waste of time. Why don't they ever do as they say they are going to do? The amount of times I have been told that job descriptions are coming through and they do not materialise or when they tell you that they will call you that day and then don't call at all or a particular instance where they post a job for a company and I then identify that the job actually does not exist!
The recent unemployment means that agencies no longer have to compete because they have an abundance of candidates and can pick and choose who they talk to. An example of this happened to me just before Christmas. I had studied a job description for a role. The role required a number of different sklsets and I realised that I could satisfy every requirement they were asking for, plus I was very excited about the job, it was exciting. I applied for the role and felt confident that the agency would come back to me with at least some questions and hopefully a confirmation of interview. Well, I was wrong about that. I had to chase the agent who returned my call three days after I placed it. The lady stated that I was not suitable for the role. I stated that I had ten years relevant experience! I asked if she had read my CV to which she replied she had a very brief look over it. To cut a long story short she finally cracked and said that she wasn't bothered about my application because she had placed two people who she knew for interviews.
Then we have the applications you make where you hear no response at all. Where has the common human decency gone. For people looking for a job it is a very worrying and pressured time. Recruitment agencies seem to have forgotten basic professionalism. In my experience, they seem to forget that in a lot of cases the managers and people they place could potentially become the decision makers and influencers for the new businesses they join. This has happened to me before where an agency that conducted themselves in such an unprofessional manner, and in particular a recruitment agent who had not answered my emails or returned my calls, called me to obtain a brief for the positions I was recruiting for. When I reminded them of how they had conducted themselves during my job search they started to make excuses and blaming other people within the agency (who were no longer with them) and asked for the opportunity of providing great candidates. Well you can guess that I politely declined their offer and I placed the brief with a small independent agency that had really given me some great advice and tried their best to help me. What has happened to not burning your bridges and trying your best for every candidate. An old friend of mine is a recruitment agent. He advised me that it is all about the number...number of calls you make, how much fee you make, what contract period you can obtain from the client and for what percentage? It is a shame that candidates are of such insignificance to recruitment agents...afterall, we are only their bread and butter. But what other options are available? Job boards are dominated by agencies who have done long term deals on CV database access and postings so you apply but generally you will hear nothing...I have applied for 21 jobs via various job boards over the last week, all for which I am qualified and viable for and yet I have not heard one positive or negative word. National press is not what it used to be and only extremely senior positions seem to appear in the respectable newspapers. The jobcentre provides the best service they can but are limited in the mid to senior level positions that they have and so for me this is not an option.
Then we have the the personal agenda approach that really does irritate me. The amount of calls that I receive from agencies who have not even read my CV and call me with roles that I am just not ever going to do because of the junior aspect of them and the salary provided. They call me and tell me they have this brilliant opportunity that won't be around for long. They then take ten minutes of my time and proceed to tell me about a job that is completely unsuitable and had they read my CV then they would have realised this. They always say they have "come across my CV" but when you ask from where they cannot recall. I have taken a great deal of time writing a great document that provides you with all the information you need...READ IT. The other irritating aspect about some recruitment agents is the old "are you free to talk" which generally I am. On one occasion I had a problem that I was dealing with and so I answered out of courtesy to explain that now was not a really good time. The Senior Manager who I spoke to within this very large agency explained that he would call me at 9am the next day, he was very specific. I asked him if he was sure, and that I could call him back but he was forthright and so I agreed. Now if I said to one of my clients that I would call them back at a specific time then I put a reminder in my diary and call when I say I am going to. This company did not call me back at 9am, not 11am...not even the next day. I had to chase the gentleman. When I eventually got hold of him two days later he advised me that he had a great job opportunity for me which thawed my dismay at having to chase him a little. What made me angry then was that he came back to me to say my application was too late as the client had stated he had enough CV's. I am sure that some senior people from recruitment agencies will read this and quite their recent statistics and how this is not the case for them, and that's great but I would advise them to do the old "undercover boss" and see just what it is like on the coal face, experience what sort of service that the candidate is receiving and then ask the question about whether they are actively working on behalf of their candidates and clients? The simple fact of the matter is that a company who has instructed your agency is potentially missing out on a really valuable member of staff who could just provide that missing skill set that takes their company to the next level..the client is not interested in you targets or your numbers, they want to reduce their cost per hire and get that new member of staff in urgently because it is costing them money.
Guys in recruitment...don't become the new traffic wardens, show some professionalism and help your candidates get the job they deserve and are qualified for. Not only will you still achieve the fees you need, you just might obtain an increase in instructions because of it.
I have instructed a number of agencies, some of them very big companies in recruitment. They all promote that they are dedicated to supporting a candidates into jobs and that they are attentive and have great contacts. Yet I have to question all of that! Recruitment agencies or rather some of them because I know some great people and companies exist, are in a lot of cases a complete waste of time. Why don't they ever do as they say they are going to do? The amount of times I have been told that job descriptions are coming through and they do not materialise or when they tell you that they will call you that day and then don't call at all or a particular instance where they post a job for a company and I then identify that the job actually does not exist!
The recent unemployment means that agencies no longer have to compete because they have an abundance of candidates and can pick and choose who they talk to. An example of this happened to me just before Christmas. I had studied a job description for a role. The role required a number of different sklsets and I realised that I could satisfy every requirement they were asking for, plus I was very excited about the job, it was exciting. I applied for the role and felt confident that the agency would come back to me with at least some questions and hopefully a confirmation of interview. Well, I was wrong about that. I had to chase the agent who returned my call three days after I placed it. The lady stated that I was not suitable for the role. I stated that I had ten years relevant experience! I asked if she had read my CV to which she replied she had a very brief look over it. To cut a long story short she finally cracked and said that she wasn't bothered about my application because she had placed two people who she knew for interviews.
Then we have the applications you make where you hear no response at all. Where has the common human decency gone. For people looking for a job it is a very worrying and pressured time. Recruitment agencies seem to have forgotten basic professionalism. In my experience, they seem to forget that in a lot of cases the managers and people they place could potentially become the decision makers and influencers for the new businesses they join. This has happened to me before where an agency that conducted themselves in such an unprofessional manner, and in particular a recruitment agent who had not answered my emails or returned my calls, called me to obtain a brief for the positions I was recruiting for. When I reminded them of how they had conducted themselves during my job search they started to make excuses and blaming other people within the agency (who were no longer with them) and asked for the opportunity of providing great candidates. Well you can guess that I politely declined their offer and I placed the brief with a small independent agency that had really given me some great advice and tried their best to help me. What has happened to not burning your bridges and trying your best for every candidate. An old friend of mine is a recruitment agent. He advised me that it is all about the number...number of calls you make, how much fee you make, what contract period you can obtain from the client and for what percentage? It is a shame that candidates are of such insignificance to recruitment agents...afterall, we are only their bread and butter. But what other options are available? Job boards are dominated by agencies who have done long term deals on CV database access and postings so you apply but generally you will hear nothing...I have applied for 21 jobs via various job boards over the last week, all for which I am qualified and viable for and yet I have not heard one positive or negative word. National press is not what it used to be and only extremely senior positions seem to appear in the respectable newspapers. The jobcentre provides the best service they can but are limited in the mid to senior level positions that they have and so for me this is not an option.
Then we have the the personal agenda approach that really does irritate me. The amount of calls that I receive from agencies who have not even read my CV and call me with roles that I am just not ever going to do because of the junior aspect of them and the salary provided. They call me and tell me they have this brilliant opportunity that won't be around for long. They then take ten minutes of my time and proceed to tell me about a job that is completely unsuitable and had they read my CV then they would have realised this. They always say they have "come across my CV" but when you ask from where they cannot recall. I have taken a great deal of time writing a great document that provides you with all the information you need...READ IT. The other irritating aspect about some recruitment agents is the old "are you free to talk" which generally I am. On one occasion I had a problem that I was dealing with and so I answered out of courtesy to explain that now was not a really good time. The Senior Manager who I spoke to within this very large agency explained that he would call me at 9am the next day, he was very specific. I asked him if he was sure, and that I could call him back but he was forthright and so I agreed. Now if I said to one of my clients that I would call them back at a specific time then I put a reminder in my diary and call when I say I am going to. This company did not call me back at 9am, not 11am...not even the next day. I had to chase the gentleman. When I eventually got hold of him two days later he advised me that he had a great job opportunity for me which thawed my dismay at having to chase him a little. What made me angry then was that he came back to me to say my application was too late as the client had stated he had enough CV's. I am sure that some senior people from recruitment agencies will read this and quite their recent statistics and how this is not the case for them, and that's great but I would advise them to do the old "undercover boss" and see just what it is like on the coal face, experience what sort of service that the candidate is receiving and then ask the question about whether they are actively working on behalf of their candidates and clients? The simple fact of the matter is that a company who has instructed your agency is potentially missing out on a really valuable member of staff who could just provide that missing skill set that takes their company to the next level..the client is not interested in you targets or your numbers, they want to reduce their cost per hire and get that new member of staff in urgently because it is costing them money.
Guys in recruitment...don't become the new traffic wardens, show some professionalism and help your candidates get the job they deserve and are qualified for. Not only will you still achieve the fees you need, you just might obtain an increase in instructions because of it.
Welcome to my little musings
I welcome you, the reader to my little take upon the world, the opportunity for me to vent and give my observations to exactly how it is out there. Let's face it, we all need a place to vent and give out our points of view to the world...I mean we will go crazy if we don't right?
I wanted to have an opportunity to talk about the things that matter from a work, family, sport, book and general life point of view. If you like my views and you agree then say so as anything to have a good chat is a good thing and if you don't agree with my views then say so...I have thick skin and I can take it.
Some days I might talk media and tools that I have used. Other days I might talk politics and slate the government, and then other days it might just be general observations but whatever I talk about I will try to keep it light hearted, honest and where I can, amusing.
So sit back, put your slippers on and enjoy and don't forget to comment....
See you on the other side!
The Yorkshire Muse
I wanted to have an opportunity to talk about the things that matter from a work, family, sport, book and general life point of view. If you like my views and you agree then say so as anything to have a good chat is a good thing and if you don't agree with my views then say so...I have thick skin and I can take it.
Some days I might talk media and tools that I have used. Other days I might talk politics and slate the government, and then other days it might just be general observations but whatever I talk about I will try to keep it light hearted, honest and where I can, amusing.
So sit back, put your slippers on and enjoy and don't forget to comment....
See you on the other side!
The Yorkshire Muse
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