Maintaining a strong sales pipeline in recruitment relies heavily on the small daily tasks you probably don’t think much about. Therefore, you’d be surprised to see how much of a positive impact it can have when you make even the slightest changes to your daily habits.
So here’s a list of some good habits to pick up that will help increase your productivity, reduce procrastination and ensure you have a full and active pipeline at all times.
Even if your pipeline is big enough to choke a donkey, you still need to build prospecting into your daily activity so you can sustain any winning streaks.
Behind every billing is an opportunity. If you’ve done a great job and you know your client recognises this, use the moment to your advantage: “do you know anyone else that would benefit from the service we’ve given you and the talent we’ve found for you?”
If you’ve become a trusted partner, your client will have no reservations about throwing out some introductions and recommending you amongst their network. Remember that decision-maker networks tend to be made up of other decision makers! Don’t let opportunities like that slip past you just because you’re wrapped up in your current successes and not thinking ahead.
Don’t let your boss bully you into making prospecting calls at the same time every single day. Not only is this bad for your motivation, but it doesn’t fit with the flexibility you need to be a good recruiter. Whilst you should be committing to a certain amount of call-time each day, you should also be in charge of when you pick up the phone to make those calls.
Mixing things up will give you space to experiment on the best times to make your calls, and it’ll keep you on your toes. If you’re too heavily into a routine, it’ll bleed into your calls and you’ll start to sound robotic; if you’re feeling uninspired, your prospects will be too.
The idea that ‘every prospect is a good prospect’ is just nonsense created by sales trainers – knowing how to disqualify bad fits is almost as important as qualifying the good ones! Maybe the prospect just doesn’t have the budget to use you, or you can sense they’re only using you to barter with their existing agency and are just telling you what you want to hear. The very best recruiters know a real opportunity when they see one, and they’re ruthless when killing off the ones that aren’t going anywhere.
Social media is crucial to keeping a strong pipeline. By being consistently active on platforms such as LinkedIn, you’ll be able to spot changes in your prospects’ companies, add value to discussions within your target market and position yourself as an expert as a result.
Keeping up with your small daily social selling habits can have a huge impact on your pipeline as you build a reputation for yourself amongst your network. So never let your social channels go quiet! Any prospect who’s considering working with you will check you out online - you can’t underestimate the importance of a good social media presence.
If you’ve had a few successful months, it’s easy to think you’ve already cracked it. But it’s worth remembering that sales techniques that work for you today won’t work five years from now, so don’t get too complacent!
This is why you should constantly be making time to invest in yourself – and make sure your agency is investing in you as well. To stay current, make a habit of setting aside time every day to learn: read recruitment blogs, watch Crowdcasts, listen to podcasts, attend talks and network to learn from your peers.
So, whilst these daily habits might seem menial at a glance, they are what drip-feeds your recruitment sales pipeline and keeps it crackling with activity. Lay the groundwork for consistency and you’ll hit your billing targets (and then some!) every single month.