Prospects are getting more and adept at dodging calls these days, which creates a bit of a problem for you: How are you going to meet your new business targets if you can’t get hiring managers to talk to you?
The main reason BD has gotten difficult over the years is that too many of us still resort to high volume cold calling to get jobs on. In the long-run, all this does is create an environment where prospects dread our calls, you dread making them, and it gives recruitment a bad reputation.
In reality, if you want to start winning jobs on the majority of calls you make, you need to accept that there are at least 5 main steps to generating business for your recruitment agency.
Here’s what they are:
Step 1: Find the right leads
Creating a strong BD hitlist is so important to have success making canvassing calls. If you’re just chucking prospects on the list because you can see that they’re hiring, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
You need to be doing research to create a hitlist of those prospects you can actually help.
Where does your recruitment expertise lie? If it’s in Finance and Accountancy, why have you got tech businesses on your list? Stick to what you know so you’re not wasting your time trying to compete with specialist recruiters who occupy a more relevant niche.
If you’re worried you don’t have time to hunt down these kinds of leads, this is where your marketing team can help. Speak to them about the prospects you’re looking for and let them work their magic!
Step 2: Warm them up
Once you’ve got a strong BD hitlist saved in your CRM, you can start thinking about ways to get on your target prospect’s radar that doesn’t involve you just picking up the phone.
Essentially, you want to work out how to get noticed by using some different social selling techniques.
The main areas to focus on are:
- Adding value
- Educating on the market
- Ego massaging.
You can do this by getting involved in discussions with them online, sending them insightful content about their market, or maybe sending them a short BD video of you saying something nice about the company.
Anything that gets you on their radar for the right reasons is a leap in the right direction.
Step 3: Figure out what you can offer them
As you start to get some interaction with those prospects you’re trying to warm up online (maybe they accepted your LinkedIn connection request, or replied to a video you sent them), this is when you want to spend time researching the business to see what you can actually offer them.
What does the business do and what does the prospect’s current team structure look like? Can you identify any gaps that could indicate current hiring challenges?
If you can see that they’re currently hiring, go ahead and create a talent pool in your CRM of candidates who have all the qualities the prospect is looking for. This will reveal any gold dust candidates you know they will want to hear you spec in.
Step 4: Plan your warm call
You should now have all the tools and information you need in order to have an excellent warm call with your prospect.
But before you pick up the phone to call them, you need to plan it out.
Follow this recruitment warm-call formula to ensure you’re well prepared.
Step 5: Pick up the phone!
Once you’ve planned your call, you’ll have everything you need at your fingertips to confidently approach your new business lead and have a valuable conversation.
If you’re someone who dreads making BD calls, this 5-step process should take all the fear out of it.
The reason this works so well is that if you’ve followed all the previous steps, the prospect will already know who you are and you know their business and challenges, so will be able to handle any difficult questions they send your way.
For more solid guidance on how to turn your recruitment cold calls into warm that convert into jobs on, download the eBook below.
