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There is a well-known saying that says; ‘One in a hand is worth two in the bush’ the context of this is ‘focus on what you have rather than chasing something else that might not produce the results that you want’.
Well that’s the subject of today’s marketing podcast because I think what often happens when it comes to lead generation, whether that is client or candidate acquisition many people forget what they already have access to e.g. there current contacts, referral partners and database.
What have I got here? How can I develop the relationships I already have.
The subject is about what have you actually got underneath your nose or clients that you already have, that you already work with and candidates that are on your database where their circumstances possibly have changed… that you could do more with when it comes to either lead generation or increasing revenue in your business.
I decided to talk about this subject in today’s podcast because I was reading a recent Harvard Business School Review article. It was talking about customer retention and here’s a fascinating fact for you. Did you know that by just increasing customer retention by 5%, you potentially can increase your profits by 25 to even as high as 95%? Yet all the time people are striving for new business, when they don’t really look at the business that’s underneath their nose that they already paid to acquire, that they are building a great relationship with that potentially would like to do more with them. So that’s a key fact.
What is concerning is the data I read from a recent SME report that stated that 70% of companies still don’t look at list retention as a key factor for them in their business growth which is a surprise when you consider the following pieces of data.
61% of businesses state that half of their revenue comes from repeat business and that this particular sector of their business market spend 67% more than new customers. These may or may not be new facts for you. If they are it will be worth adding this to your plan of action because it’s likely you will get results quicker from this group.
Now obviously there’s some specific skills around developing your relationship with the clients and candidates that you already have and we’re going to cover this in another podcast.
“Okay, what have I got underneath my nose that maybe I am not leveraging or thinking about? What’s next here? What other connections may there be that can make a difference for us and our business?”
Let me start with a few things here and as in the words of Mary Poppins “Let’s start at the very beginning.” For any of you new recruiters out there just starting out, new business owners starting your a new division or venture this is important. It’s about target the right customer in the first place. You might think well, how do I know Denise whether this is the right customer. Well, think about; are you drilling down into your sector ? What is your sector? What’s the potential? What’s the growth potential? Is this a market that is in a growing ssection of the workforce? What are the salary levels ? It is always about thinking about the future?
I’m a great fan of Steve Jobs, he was always thinking about – What next? Where is the market moving next? And so for you, you need to have that mindset about “I wonder where this organization might take me and my recruitment company?” So think about how can we help them grow their business?
Now on our LinkedIn profiles for instance we put down that we work with companies that are ambitious, people that want to accelerate their growth because we know we love working with people that have a vision and they want to move forward and that’s where we can add the most value. So it’s thinking about when you’re working with your potential client or even candidate if they’re just sort of; “Well, we just need to fill this vacancy.” whilst it may fill your cash flow pipeline initially, is it really going to make your heart sing? Can you really work with these people long term as you move forward?
Ask your self the question, “How can I help them grow their business?”, because if you’re able to do that you will be amazed at how things seem to click. If you are adding huge value to an organisation and helping them grow you will never be short of clients or candidates. Remember you are in recruitment and recruitment is a relationship business. It’s all about consultancy. Your business model is fundamentally based on a consultancy principle. It’s about consulting with people helping them to move their business forward.
So okay, we’ve talked about targeting the right customer in the first place. But I think the second thing is have a vision; this is important for everybody when you bring on board a new client. You have to start somewhere and you may not land that recruitment project where you’ve got to deliver 10 or 12 people straight away. It might just be one placement and that one placement leads to something else. So it could be a small piece of work. And then it’s always “Okay, so what next? Be congruent about it. You know, where can I help you next.
You see where this can build because moving on to the second thing is about striving to be… and we can all have bad days… and we can all have amazing days… is strive to be exceptional or awesome as my nephew likes to call it! Be totally on it. I always say and I always carry this mindset with me – deliver the service that I would want to have and that can make a huge difference.
Today it sort of pricked my thoughts really about creating this podcast as well because we were doing… I won’t share the recruitment company that we’re working with in this particular context but I was doing some case studies and we’ll talk about that in another podcast. But I was actually talking to some of our particular clients / customers who were obviously a number of organisations in the south of England. And what was fantastic for me was to hear the fact that this client was perceived… and you know I’m external person for them. How awesome our client was particularly around the value, around the congruence, about the way that they approach, about the quality of the candidates they deliver. It was fabulous for me to hear that.
But again, just think about the fact how can you be awesome and you know, trust me it doesn’t take a lot to be awesome. Listen to what your market needs and give them what they need and don’t keep hassling them. You know, for instance, and this was in the internet today actually, top tip for you – if you are talking to an HR Director remember most HR Directors are stressed out to the hilt. We may not think they are, they are! Trust me. And if you’re sending them… If you’re trying to get hold of them by the phone and they don’t pick the phone up, don’t start badgering them on their mobile. Just send them an email and they will get to it. So anyway, digressed a little bit there but just a top tip for you there.
And then what happens next? Well, then they start to build trust and trust is really important because once you start to trust your supplier then you start thinking… for any of us… I know that I… Okay, boring story for you here. We have an amazing guy that helps us with our garden called Bruce. He’s a retired guy in our village and he’s just magical for us. But you know Bruce is amazing because he can do lots of practical things that sometimes I can’t do……you know man type things!. I’m sorry but that’s just a fact. I’m just saying from my own perspective. But Bruce is amazing so we’re saying “Bruce could you just do this.” So lovely Bruce that he is, last year he put together the barbecue, he created some bookshelves for us and he also put together the new lawnmower which he now uses to mow the lawn 🙂
And so just thinking about how that might work for you. If you have got a great service supplier what do you want to do? You want to put a lot more business their way because what’s easy for you as really busy entrepreneurs and business owners. Well, I wonder if ACME Marketing could do ABCD and E for me. So you imagine as a recruiter and this actually happened in a call today when I was talking about case studies with this particular client of ours and their client, and they talked about the fact that this particular company had filled one position. “So look, we’ve got these 3 other positions, is there any way you could work with this because we like your style, we like your approach, can you do this?” Now that has then helped our particular client branch out and actually be able to deliver in that particular environment.
I think I’ve talked about this before you know, Michael Mc Laughlin has written a number of books and he talks about the holy grail is to have 60% of your clients coming through referral and the context of that is as follows – Referral is all about trust and really being bought into an organisation and what they can do for you. So you might be just totally amazed. We know one of our clients who we have been working with for a number of years recommends us now to potentially almost everyone she comes across and that is just a constant stream of people.
Now remember you may be a recruitment company and you’re focused on one particular sector but that business owner you are dealing with is likely to have connections in another environment. And who are they going to recommend? They’re going to recommend you. So that working with people at a much deeper level, really go into that deeper level.
Now you know, that’s going to challenge you because you have to stand up and you have to be amazing at what you’re doing. You have to get that feedback sometimes when you’re not amazing but you have to be awesome with the way that you deliver with clients and that is actually easier than most people think. It’s about actually coming from the place of, you know, what do my clients really need and how can I service them? How can I help them?
So this is Denise… time to end this podcast from superfastrecruitment.co.uk and we look forward to next time when we talk about another subject that’s going to help your recruitment company. So this is Denise saying bye for now.
Tweetables:
Click To Tweet: [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”null”]Do you want repeat business from your current clients?[/inlinetweet]
Click To Tweet: [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”null”]Deliver the service that I would want to have and that can make a huge difference. – Denise Oyston[/inlinetweet]
Click To Tweet: [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”null”]Did you know that 61% of businesses state that half of their revenue comes from repeat business and that this particular sector of their business market spend 67% more than new customers?[/inlinetweet]
This podcast was hosted by Denise Oyston. Follow us on Google+
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