As a recruiter hiring new consultants for a new desk is always a risk, there’s danger of the dip in your overall resources and the danger they’ll churn quickly. Unfortunately, this industry has a lot of ‘passers-by’, with real talent often hard to attract and retain.

But, that aside, there’s nothing better than a consultant placing their first candidate or scoring a big contract and sometimes this is enough to keep the most tenacious around.

When making that decision to build up a new desk and get new people in, whether experienced or recent grads, it’s essential that you start seeing some return from your consultants, with a few quick wins you need to keep in mind.

As the shape of this industry continues to shift we also need some legacy strategies in place too, to make sure the consultants not only stay in the role but are able to perform to the best of their ability and close some of those meatier deals.

 

Here’s our 9 quick wins for a new desk:

Win 1: Have a bank of dormant leads

A fantastic beginning to a new desk is allowing the new consultant to go through your archive of dormant leads, those candidates or clients who’re collecting cobwebs in the back of the CRM.

There’s always the potential of some quick easy wins, but if not, it introduces your new consultant to your typical database of clients and candidates, helping them find their feet.

 

Win 2: Put aside some BD time

If you want your new consultant to emulate your big billers they’re going to need to put in some quality time for a bit of business development.

Research, list building and understanding their niche will all help them to build the kind of foundation that will help them in the short term, and hopefully the long run too.

 

Win 3: Revisit old clients

I’m sure you’ve got some old clients that you’ve worked with in the past that have fallen off the radar and really need someone to go back in and introduce themselves and bring your service to the front of their mind again. If, your consultant isn’t too green this could be a perfect way for them to achieve some easy wins.

 

Win 4: Early morning job spec

Many prospective candidates will upload their CV’s or register their accounts through job boards in the morning, meaning the early bird really gets the worm on this one. Getting your consultant in early in the morning to go through the latest on the job board may equal some very quick wins.

Building this as a skill and becoming an expert on the different ways to spec in a candidate will certainly help them both in the long and short term.

 

Win 5: Utilise the consultant’s existing clients

A little bit of a grey area here, but if the consultant isn’t under any threat from a NDA or protected convenience then it’s a good idea to get them to go through their old contact book and update them on the change of employment.

 

Win 6: Hit the phones

It’s not the most glamorous of jobs and there are many arguments about its effectiveness in this day and age, but some good old fashioned cold calling can still wield results, especially if you’re looking for some short term gains.

 

Win 7: Assign a billing manager

Have you got some experienced billing managers or feel one of your top billers is ready to take the next step. Assigning a mentor and an effective billing manager to your consultant can help them get into the thick of the effective recruiting practices for your sector.

 

Win 8: Assign them a marketer

If you have a marketing professional to spare, why not assign your new consultant and hopeful desk some their time for the first couple of months. A marketer can help improve the consultant’s web presence and bring in some all-important leads for them to work with, possibly giving the new desk and consultant the boost they need to really get going.

 

Win 9: Collaboration throughout your business

Whether you’re working on a 180 or 360 model, it’s vital that you have collaboration throughout your business. If someone on a different desk comes across a potential candidate or client that would be great for the new desk, then making sure they pass these leads over will really help.

 

But don’t live and breathe by these…
Sure, it’s natural to want some quick wins for your consultants in the first few months, but there needs to be some quality groundwork put in, before their schedule becomes absolutely jam-packed.

Within 6 months your new desk should be known to your market, have a strong network, hold advanced relationships with clients, be penetrating the bigger clients, looking to score retained work and billing big.

Much of this starts with smart thinking, network growth and most importantly, effective BD.

 

Here’s our 8 foundation builders for a future top biller:

Tip 1: Business development

BD, can be a quick win like we said before, but it’s also definitely a foundation builder. The consultant needs to spend time in this area, picking up the phone and building those relationships in order to build the desk.

 

Tip 2: Establish thought-leadership status

It’s important for all your consultants, new and existing, to build a reputation for being knowledgeable in your chosen field, fulfilling the ‘consultant’ part of recruitment consultant.

 

Tip 3: Building a network

Fill up that virtual Rolodex. A consultant with a healthy pool of candidates in their large, ever building network will have a better chance at placing candidates.

 

Tip 4: Internal training programmes

Maybe your consultant is new to this, or you have a certain way of doing things at your company or in the industry you recruit for. Smart companies establish internal training programmes for their new hires to make sure they’re following best practice and performing to their best.

 

Tip 5: Getting prepped for social selling

Social selling in the world of recruitment is important, but when we lean on social it’s important we build a network and a voice on our respective channels. Social selling takes work and research to truly nail it.

 

Tip 6: Learning recruitment tech

The market is flooded with great rectech that are designed to make many stages of the process easier, but sometimes it takes a bit of time to learn all their tricks and effectively utilise them.

From Recruitment Chatbots to CRMs, if consultants are unfamiliar with the tech, they may need to some time and help to learn it. You wouldn’t give an apprentice on his first day welding equipment if he wasn’t trained on it first!

 

Tip 7: Network

Networking is an important part of recruitment for sure. We work in a profession that works when strong relationships are built. Attending industry events and reaching out on LinkedIn will help consultants build genuine relationships which will help with future BD and network building.

 

Tip 8: Creative writing / copywriting courses

It’s important for a recruiter to find their voice and it’s also important to nail the value proposition of a job ad. In this highly competitive market one tactic to stand out from the crowd is creative job ads.

There’s hundreds of online courses and workshops that teach the art of copywriting. Apple are one who know the importance of good copywriting – Job ads need to sell the dream.

 

There’s no doubt that building a new desk is going to be hard work, but you and your new consultants need to be resilient. Don’t be afraid to get on the phone, build those important relationships and follow up the leads.

You may take some knocks along the way but get back up and keeping moving forward. Ultimately you need to have confidence in what you’re doing but follow this process and the hard work will be worth it in the end.

Good luck with your new desk and let us know how you get on and the problems you come across on the way.

 

About The Recruitment Network

This blog article was provided by The Recruitment Network.

The Recruitment Network is the ultimate support club for recruitment business leaders. We give our members an unparalleled level of support, guidance and tools to help them transform their recruitment businesses with the ultimate objective of improving business performance, increasing business efficiency and significantly growing profitability and shareholder value.

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