Is Red Tape Getting Your Staffing & Recruiting Teams All Tied Up?

Does it seem that everyone on your team is constantly spinning their wheels, jumping around to different sales and recruiting strategies? Is red tape getting your staffing and recruiting teams all tied up? At many staffing agencies, the sales approach can be compared to throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping one sticks. If this sounds like your firm, it’s time to re-evaluate how you’re training your employees. Failing to have an effective sales process in place can derail your team from achieving their greatest potential. This will ultimately result in lost productivity, burned out staff, and of course, missed sales opportunities.

In a recent episode of The JourneyUP podcast, Tom Erb, CEO of Tallann Resources and author of Winning the Staffing Sales Game, joined us for a conversation about how to improve the recruiting sales process, motivate teams and use metrics to track sales performance. Erb, who specializes in staffing sales, emphasized the importance of establishing a repeatable sales process that any recruiter (either new or experienced in the field) can put into practice and achieve results.

As you revisit your firm’s selling strategy (or lack thereof), take a look at this process to put into action:

1. Establish a value proposition.

The first step to any effective sales process is to create a value proposition that your team can confidently articulate to others. This means developing compelling messaging that describes what your firm delivers, the value you bring to clients and what differentiates you from others in the industry. As Erb explained in the episode, recruiters often freeze during cold calls, unsure of what to say or how to handle any particular conversation. As Erb says, many recruiters are simply “too scared to actually have those tough conversations with prospects nowadays, because they already feel that it’s going to fail before they start.” Recruiters who are highly trained and educated about their staffing firm’s value proposition will be better positioned to navigate difficult conversations and put themselves in the driver’s seat during cold calls with prospects.

2. Streamline the sales process.

As any successful salesperson knows, successful selling involves much more than effective cold calling. Unfortunately, many recruiters wake up in the morning unsure of what steps they’re going to text next with prospects and leads. Streamlining your sales process eliminates this uncertainty, serving as a blueprint of steps for your team to follow. For example, the process may be a sequence of reaching out by email, following up with a phone call and touching base again by email. Designing a communications structure to accompany your value proposition messaging will make the sales process more fluid. This will give your recruiters a clear idea of the steps they need to take to engage prospects and secure leads.

3. Track sales performance.

Tracking sales performance is one of the most important things you can do to improve your process and discover what’s working well – and what isn’t. Erb describes many tracking metrics, such as how many placements people are doing; how many candidate conversations they’re having; how many appointments is the sales team yielding; and how many client prospects and job candidates are in the pipeline. Tracking these key metrics is critical for refining your current sales pipeline and ultimately increasing gross profit quotas on both the sales and recruiting side.

4. Evaluate your internal team.

No sales rep or recruiter is created alike, and the quality and drive of your team can play a significant role in your business outcomes. Erb emphasizes the importance of hiring the right internal people with the potential to propel your company forward and asking yourself the right questions. These include, “Who is it that I want in this position? Who’s going to help me really propel my company? What is it that I really need them to do?” While you may need to invest more time and money up front to find better people, over time this will have significant payoffs for your company’s bottom line.

5. Re-think your recruitment strategy.

As the talent pool continues to shrink, it’s never been more important for recruiters to adapt to change and rethink their approach to the candidate acquisition process. With many staffing companies still doing things the same way they did several years ago, there’s a lot of benefit to focusing on your current candidate database and improving candidate management practices. Tapping into your existing network, rather than focusing on thousands of nonexistent prospects, will result in better relationship-building that will lead to future placements.

Are your sales and recruiting teams struggling to secure leads? Or is red tape getting your staffing and recruiting teams all tied up?

With these practices, you’ll empower your sales and recruiting teams with the knowledge, confidence and tools they need to excel. We’d welcome the opportunity to learn about how to improve the recruiting sales process and share more insights we have learned.