Perhaps one of the most over looked areas of the recruitment process is the client prep and debrief. The prep is your opportunity to ensure that the client has all the information necessary to close your candidate; it is also a chance to outline the concerns the candidate has in the role. You can even tell the client why the candidate is keen on the role!!

Most clients feel that they are competent and comfortable interviewers.  All too often, however, the very opposite proves to be the case.  As with candidates, clients are spending their time and energy on developing the skills that they need to grow within their company. 
Interviewing skills are typically a secondary thought. A recent survey conducted by a major US recruitment magazine points out that many professionals lack interviewing skills.  The survey found that 39% of interviewers were not prepared and not focused, 27% had unclear job descriptions, and 23% of the employers were not clear on the steps after an interview.  Putting these statistics into perspective, 70% of the candidates surveyed said they used the interview to evaluate how a company operates.  Companies should to understand that poor interviews can impact their ability to attract top talent, and they also need coaching on how to interview. 
The debrief is a critical stage in the recruitment process. You are able to exchange information in a timely and accurate manner. Often a concern can be overcome during the debrief.

Some clients will give you resistance when you suggest sharing with them ideas on how to conduct an interview. 
Preparing the client prior to interviews provides them with in-depth information on how the candidate's skill sets and motives for exploring the career opportunity match what the client is looking for in a quality candidate.
The prepping conversation also offers the consultant numerous opportunities to trial close the client before the interview takes place.  If prepping is done professionally, the interview itself should be nothing more than a meeting to confirm what both parties already know about one another.
There are four basic areas that should be covered during the preparation call to the client:
1. Candidate background and qualifications
2. Candidate "hot buttons"
3. How to interview
4. Expectations after the interview
There are two distinct benefits from the prep conversation:
1. Ensures the client that they are getting the necessary information to make an informed hiring decision.
2. Allows the client to know in advance what questions are critical to ask so that they can spend more of their interviewing time getting to know the candidate on a personal level.  Remember that 60 percent of the hiring decision is based upon chemistry!
 
Coaching the client on the prep call;
Coach the client on:
1. Possible questions to ask to bring out the candidate's benefits
2. Importance of listening carefully to the candidate.  Listening demonstrates interest and shows positive non-verbal suggestions as to the type of person that the manager really is.
3. How to ask questions that will draw out the candidate's accomplishments.
4. How to ask questions that reveal how the candidate feels they will benefit from employment with the company.
5. How to organise an agenda for the meeting.  This helps to relax the candidate and allow the employer to show that they are prepared and organised.
6. How to sell to candidate's hot buttons.
7. How to address any negative rumours about their company.  Have them acknowledge the situation and then focus on the positives of how the situation is turning around or being done differently.
It should be very clear by now that lead statements and questions are used to help clients and candidates understand why you are asking certain questions, or proceeding the way you are.  Help clients understand the importance of communicating with you after the interview.  There is nothing worse than having to give the candidate “they have decided not to proceed…” and you don’t know why!!
Many consultants tell me that they are not permitted to speak to the decision makers and that everything MUST go through HR; indeed if they do contact HR they run the risk of being dropped as a supplier.
There may be no way around this situation at the moment but it is always good practice to work towards improving your relationship and, ultimately, your hiring success. Explain to your client the benefits of prepping and debriefing directly with the interviewers.

Demonstrate that where you do have decision maker access hiring success is increased. Keep trying…just because they say no today, they may say yes tomorrow…
Finally prepping the client will help to develop your list of contacts within your client base.
Remember that your role is to help clients make informed hiring decisions.  By asking trial closing questions, you are allowing the client to evaluate all information and help them through the process.  As a professional consultant, you get paid to help people make decisions. 

Ever wondered how to keep the obligatory Monday morning sales meeting both interesting and motivational? How many more times can you use the “bottle of wine for the most interviews” incentive? You’ve had a tough weekend, late on Saturday night, the kids woke you early Sunday morning and you’re not feeling your best. It’s not exactly been a restful time recharging the batteries and now you’ve got to rally the troops and get them focused for the week ahead.
Well look no further. Here is a list of ten topics that will help you keep your consultants on track.
1. Share industry news
What has been going on in your industry sector recently that is of significance? Mergers, acquisitions, new kids on the block, a new product launch maybe. Share your knowledge with your consultants.
2. Defend your job order
Get one of your consultants to talk through in detail a role they are working on. Check for detail, their knowledge of the role, the quality of the position, where are they going to find the ideal candidate, can they present the opportunity in such a way that is sounds exciting?
3. Top five closing techniques
Ask two of your consultants to role play through five closing techniques using different scenarios. Again check for detail and understanding of the technique
4. Why choose us?
When was the last time you role played with your consultants on the benefits of using your organisation when selling to a client/candidate? Now’s your chance.
5. Deal makers and deal breakers
Money, location, spouse, company car, reporting relationship, dead mans shoes, the counter offer, opportunity for promotion, job content are all potential deal makers and deal breakers. Why not pick on a few of these and identify ways of preventing or overcoming them.
6. Gaining commitment from decision makers
Share the different ways of gaining decision maker commitment. Winning an exclusive job, interview dates agreed in advance, complete understanding of the hiring process, full fee agreed and TOB’s signed are just some ways of demonstrating the commitment you have from your client. What others can you come up with?
7. Building business discussions
Someone once told me that the difference between average and great in recruitment is about 3 minutes. The ability to keep the client interested in talking to you on the phone is vital. Come up with ways that will keep the client on the phone. What makes you different from average?
8. Incentive day
Tell your team that there is amounts of money (or whatever motivates your people) available for one day this week only don’t tell them which day. The consultant who achieves the most that day wins the loot!
9. Consultant day
This is an opportunity for one of your new consultants to share and present their understanding of their market or their new desk specialty with the rest of you.
10. Share best practice
What worked well last week? What techniques did anyone use that worked? Look at the good things that are happening in your office and share them.

Apart from spicing up the sales meeting you will be training your consultants, developing their presentation skills helping to create a team-working environment and managing a positive atmosphere.

In the last 18 months securing the top 20% of candidates has been evermore difficult as organisations attempt to retain their best people in order to expand in the current market conditions.  After all it is often the top 20% candidate your client wants. It is, therefore, very important to gain commitment from candidates early in the relationship. This day is about how to gain commitment and control of candidates from the first call through to ‘start date’.

Agenda

What is candidate control?
What does control look like for both the ‘passive’ and ‘proactive’ candidates.

When does candidate control begin?
We work through the most effective techniques to ensure ‘mutual respect’ is achieved from the first call and remains that way throughout the process.

Why would a successful candidate allow you to control them? 
We look at the thought processes in candidates and share tips on how to control through both logic and emotion questioning techniques.

How do you get candidates to sell to themselves?
We will show you the most advanced ‘situational questioning technique’ that will help you convert the ‘nice to have’ into the ‘I must have’.

Critical control areas
A look at the critical ‘deal maker – deal breaker’ stages of the recruiting process from a control perspective; how to avoid deal breakers.

Setting and selling expectations
Unlike any other sales process, in recruitment our product (our candidate) can say “no”.  The adage; ‘a confused buyer doesn’t buy’ is arguably a major reason for lack of candidate control.  Here we look at how to educate the candidate.         

The ‘Golden Rules’
Here we create a working set of rules to apply on return to your desks and engage with your next candidate.
 

Business proposals have one main objective: To persuade.

  Persuasion comes from the wording of the proposal. By definition, a proposal is an offer that needs to be accepted by the reader in order to succeed. If the proposal is not persuasive, you will not get what you want. Expertise in writing proposals requires two things: you must be able to determine how to present your offer in the most appealing way possible, while carefully defining the limits of your offer so that no one thinks you are promising more than you can deliver.
When you know what information is required, you can prepare a checklist to make sure that everything is covered and you are not missing something that may be essential.

Introduction
-  Does it state the purpose clearly?
-  Does it provide sufficient background information?
-  Does it foreshadow the rest of the proposal to help guide the reader?

Problem
-  Does it explain the proposed action's need or goal?
-  Does it persuade the reader that the problem is important to them?

Objectives
-  Do your objectives relate directly to the problem?
-  Can you present them without going into the solution?

Solution
-  Is it understandable when it is being described?
-  Is it persuasive in saying that it will achieve the objectives?
-  Does it effectively show that it is the most desirable way to achieve the objectives?

Method
-  Are the steps in your methods described clearly?
-  Is it persuasive enough for your readers to be convinced that it will work?

Resources
-  Can you persuade the readers that you have the necessary resources or can attain them?
-  Can you clearly identify all of the resources you can supply?

Schedule
-  Does it say when the project will be completed?
-  Has your work been reasonably scheduled?
-  Does the schedule clearly state what you must do to meet your deadlines, protecting both you and your employer?
-  Have you included a schedule chart (if it makes your proposal more persuasive?)

Qualifications/Case Studies
-  Can you persuade your readers that you can complete the project successfully?
-  Management
-  Can you persuade your readers that your team is organised effectively?
-  Have you included an organisational chart that illustrates the hierarchy of your team members and their responsibilities?

Costs
-  Have you presented all of them?
-  Are your costs in line with market conditions/your competitors?
-  Do you have a budget table?

Conclusion
-  Are all of your key points summarised?
-  Have you ended on a positive note?
 

Staff turnover is a certainty. It can be disruptive, decrease morale and prove very costly to a business both in terms of finance and time. In a recent study as much as 150 hours are wasted on mis-hires who either are not “fit for purpose” and replacing them within 6 months of joining. Recently we conducted a survey on why people leave their current job and you may (or not) be surprised at the results. People of course move for many reasons but here are the top five.

Reporting relationship. People feel they can no longer learn from their boss, and that they are being held back as a result. They no longer trust their boss and communication breaks down. They feel unrecognised and under valued. Lack of coaching and feedback leads to demotivated staff. Listen to your staff, hold regular work in progress meetings and appraisals. Respect your staff and remember ‘familiarity breeds contempt’

Work content. Good people need to have their skills used and tested constantly. Employees want to be challenged and pushed. If that challenge is missing, they may go be missing as well. If they are bored-they will leave. Keep top talent motivated to achieve. The key is to spot good performers, exploit their skills, listen to them ideas and if possible increase their responsibilities.

Opportunity for advancement. This often goes hand-in hand with the above. Good people want to develop within the company. They want to ‘grow’ as the company grows. If they can’t see a future with the company- they will leave. Create a clearly defined career path for all staff. Show them a future exists within the company.

Environment. Most people like to work in a clean environment. They want to work in a positive environment with a like minded peer group. Look at the relationships between people. Don’t accept poor behaviour. You can’t afford it in the competitive business environment that exists today.

Money. Surprisingly this is not the main reason why people leaves jobs but when you think about it maybe not so. Numerous studies have shown that money is normally quite a long way down on the list of reasons why good people leave. If the only right thing in a person's job is financial, no amount of money will keep that employee. Imagine you are being paid a lot more than the ‘norm’ in your current role but you don’t trust/like your boss anymore, you are bored and can’t see a future with the company, your peer group are unprofessional, how long would you stay in the company not long. Money isn’t everything!

Given the trends in the current labour marketplace if you never worry about why people leave, what it costs you and what you can do about it, you will need not only an endless supply of new staff but also lots of spare cash.

Planning is the key to the success of every business and in the world of recruitment lack of planning will make or break any "desk" no matter how experienced the recruiter is!
Daily planning should be a critical analysis of activity and in addition adding new names to system. This will ensure that you are going in the right direction, speaking to right people, doing enough presentations, getting CV’s in etc.

Ask your self a few simple questions at the end of the day:
1.  How many presentations?
2.  What were the results?
3.  How many qualified candidates?
4.  What objections did I get today?
5.  How did I handle them?
6.  How many people said No?
7.  Why did they say No?
8.  What was the reaction to presentation?
9. What feedback did we get back about Client?
10. Are any patterns emerging?
11. Could the presentation be too specific?
12. Are people qualifying themselves out?

Using the questions above will help structure a plan to meet your objectives by clearly defining what needs to be achieved. A good plan should take up an hour at the end of each day to prepare your objectives for the next day and protect your Prime Selling Time (PST)

Trend 1: Every consultant and manager who we meet at our seminars tell us the same thing; that buyers are better negotiators today than they were 10 years ago.   
Trend 2: Buyers are better informed than ever before.
Trend 3: The cost of doing business is at an all time high, and so the requirement for buyers to reduce costs in all areas can be critical to ensure a company’s survival. 
    
This course is designed to give delegates key skills required to negotiate true win/win outcomes. The aim of win-win negotiation is to find a solution that is acceptable to both parties, and leaves both parties feeling that they've won or gained something. The secret to negotiation is preparation and planning. You will learn the importance of knowing your bottom line, your walk away point. You will learn various negotiation styles and when to use them. The key objective of this course is to increase your billings by at least 20%
                                                      
Agenda
-  What is negotiation
-  Rules of Negotiation
-  The art of reaching agreement by resolving both the buyers and the seller’s differences?

Cost of Solution versus Seriousness of Problem
-  Using advanced selling tools
-  Creating a Value Proposition

Ceilings versus floors
-  How to ensure that if you end up “splitting the difference”; you have successfully negotiated a win/win scenario.  -  Never say yes to the first offer.

Creating a Value Proposition
-  How to structure your presentation and questioning style to lead the buyer logically to your solution.   

The Planning Sheet
-  Preparation compensates for lack of talent!
-  This tool is used to streamline all of the available information into the ‘must know’ information for your negotiation. 

The Four stages of Negotiation
-  The Investigative stage
-  The Presentation stage
-  The Bargaining stage
-  The Agreement stage

Simulations
-  The simulations are based on real everyday scenarios that are faced by recruiters in mid to senior Search and Selection.  This is a chance to put into practice what you have learnt through workshop breakout sessions.

 This course is designed for experienced recruiters

Please contact Seal RTS +44(0)1491 845 555 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  if you have any questions about this course.

Objectives:
This course focuses on planning, task management and sales management and is designed to give consultants some of the skills required to develop into a professional recruitment consultant. This training will give the tools required to achieve personal fee production targets.
During these days we will work on the following areas;

Planning
Planning is the number one reason why consultants either fail to reach their full potential or simply fail in the industry all together. Delegates will learn how to create their own personal desk plan which identifies personal and business objectives. They will learn which elements should be included into a personal desk plan such as the financials, the marketplace, existing client information, existing client growth potential, and strategy for growth within new client areas.
-  Creation of personal SWOT analysis
-  Creation of Personal Development Plan. (PDP)
-  Weekly and Daily planning..

Relationships
-  Building candidate relationships. Delegates will be taught that the first step in building a relationship with a candidate begins with the first call. If they sound like a ‘me too recruiter’ and act like a ‘me too recruiter’ that is how they will be perceived by the candidate and so struggle to build a long lasting relationship with their candidates. They will learn how to break typical recruitment patterns and separate themselves from the competition.

-  Overcoming objections. Delegates will learn how to overcome and then role play the main objections they receive from candidates. This will lead to higher qualified candidates being presented to clients and also an increase in billings.

-  Presenting opportunities to existing candidates. In this session consultants will learn a method that guarantees that candidates will be receptive to their call. They will learn how to build on information gathered on previous calls and use it to their advantage.

-  Networking. The most successful RC in any market are the ones who understand and therefore become excellent networkers. Networking is a skill that can be learned and delegates will be shown a number of methods that will help them become great networkers. This is more than a simple update call because the candidate benefits as well. They will also learn the best way to gain referrals from their network.

-  Building client relationships. Just as with building strong relationships with candidates starts with the first call so does building strong client relationships.
In this module RC will be taught some of the most up to date techniques available that will truly make them stand out from the crowd. We will break from traditional recruitment habits and form new ones that will help them build robust client relationships as well as over achieving on their financial targets.

-  The Relationship Model. All too often consultants spend far too much time trying to sell and too little time on building a relationship. We will introduce the unique relationship that is designed to take to pressure off selling and puts the emphasis on building relationships.

-  Preparing effective presentations. In these all important sessions delegates will learn techniques and prepare compelling presentations.

-  Why me? People by from people and in this session consultants will be trained on how to write a “why me?” presentation.

-  Demonstrating value by asking questions. Clients will only build a relationship with you if they see the value in doing so and unfortunately all too many consultants don’t demonstrate their value. Clients can only base their decision on whom to work by the way they are treated during the process, the questions that are asked and, of course, by the results they achieve. This session is about teaching the power of questioning and learn how and when to ask key questions.

-  Case studies. How to construct informative case studies that demonstrates your capabilities.

-  10 common mistakes. There are many mistakes that consultants make in the recruitment process and in this session they will hear about the 10 most common mistakes that consultants make. Will they still make them? yes. But forewarned is forearmed.

-  The dominant buying motives. There are five dominant buying motives and delegates will learn what they are and how to identify which one(s) are relevant to the client.

-  Closing. The 5 principles of closing will be discussed in this important session. We look at stress points in closing clients – “close early and often” we look deeper into where are the natural ‘decision making points’ when selling the recruitment process. Pre closing & closing techniques clients will be shared. We will share the top 10 “real” closing techniques used by the top 20%.
-  Retain control of the sales process and ensure that when you win a project it is on mutually agreeable terms.

This course is designed for new and experienced recruiters

Please contact Seal RTS +44(0)1491 845 555 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  if you have any questions about this course.

Objectives:
The course is designed to show how to create great presentations, establish credibility, communicate information clearly and persuade or influence your audience.
This will be achieved using a range of practical skills that you will develop to become an effective presenter:
-  How to create a clear message
-  How to deliver your message effectively
-  How to fully engage with your audience.

Key areas:
-  Overcome your fear
-  Create a presentation with ease
-  Begin to present with confidence
-  Build on your confidence
-  Engage with your audience
-  Deliver more convincingly
-  Develop your presence and impact
-  Deliver with power and energy
-  Succeed with all audiences

You will also learn how to:

-  Create a more relaxed style
-  Present a polished image
-  Talk like a professional
-  Close for a positive outcome

This course is designed for experienced and non-experienced recruiters

Please contact Seal RTS +44(0)1491 845 555 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  if you have any questions about this course.

“There are two types of people, meaningful specifics and wandering generalities. Meaningful specifics have targets and goals, wandering generalities do not. You have got to have goals!” (Zig Ziglar)

Objectives:
The course is designed to show the correct practice to structure and formulate a highly effective plan for an individual by mixing cutting-edge information with highly effective strategic planning exercises.
Learn how to implement and customise set business goals in a workshop environment

Personal mission statement
Learn how to clarify the purpose of the individuals business and behind their sales veneer methods to create a vision of the future.

Vision statement for your desk
Define the desired or intended future state of the business in terms of fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Vision is a long-term view, sometimes describing how you operate the organisation would like the world to be in which it operates

The three parts of a business plan
Creating a commercial section {workshop} A practical breakout session on how to structure the commercial section compiling of up to 19 different sub sections.

Strategy vs. Tactics
This is a practical workshop looking at how to follow habits three of highly successful people
In this session we work through from the theory to the practical side of generating an ‘Action Plan’.

The Formula for setting goals
-  Write your goals down
-  Put a date on your goals
-  Identify the obstacles of your goals
-  Identify the people & groups you need to work with to reach your goals.
-  Find out what it is you need to know.
-  Develop a plan of action and write it down
-  ”What’s in it for me?” What will accomplishing this goal really mean to you?

This course is designed for new and experienced recruiters

Please contact Seal RTS +44(0)1491 845 555 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  if you have any questions about this course.