Self Assessment – Leads

Low scoring here isn’t a surprise. The market for many recruitment agencies has been quiet. There is a reason that the Job Retention Scheme exists and so many people ended up on furlough. Let’s also be clear – opportunities do still exist in the majority of markets. Adapt or die drives businesses to pivot or evolve to succeed in a new landscape. In your market there will be businesses who did that and others who chose to wait and see what happens. With fewer leads and fewer jobs there can sometimes be less energy to do new business sales. If your belief systems have stopped you from selling as your impression is there is no work out there then you could have accidentally let assumption get the better of you. I accept that in some markets things ground to a halt. Adapt or die applies to agencies too. Lift your head up and look for opportunities and reframe your thought processes. If you are arranging interviews and placing candidates then it is likely that your competitors are too. Where are they making money? How can you get in on that action? Find the leads and start a disruption process. If you’ve not been logging, tracking and nurturing your leads then you are making it more difficult to win business. It could take more than five contact points or touches to convert a lead into a committed piece of work.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Continue with the rest of the bounce back pack
• Check your belief systems – write down what you think is happening in your market and how you perceive the state of the recruitment landscape. Is it viable or do you have limiting beliefs holding you back?
• Create a lead tracking and conversion process. Start with defining a list of what you consider to be a good lead and the sources of those leads.
• Write a list of the industries and skills that you think are busy and in demand in and outside of your market. Review the list – what impact does this have on how you view your current market. Are there opportunities that you could exploit?
• Set time in your calendar today to spend a minimum of 60 minutes looking for opportunities and leads
• Write down three open questions you could ask a candidate that could reveal a potential lead. Ask EVERY candidate you talk to the three questions. No exceptions.
• Watch The Pillars on Resilience, Planning, and The Beast
• Enroll on the mission I need more jobs

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In light of the current market for many, this is a good score. It could be worse. Opportunities exist out there and many are vulnerable for the taking. Make sure it is you who capitalises on them. The chances are that you could benefit from a little more consistency across the lead generation and conversion piece. Good leads are valuable so let’s treat them as such. Record them and act on them quickly. Be tenacious. The phone is the weapon of choice so give the prospect enough opportunity to answer it! Call them three times at different times of day before you start to consider leaving voicemails or sending emails. Write emails that generate enquiries rather than are intended to close the prospect on working with you. Live in your lead list. It should be the foundation of your sales plan. Immediate business wins are possible from the hottest of leads. Nurture an approach for each lead. Select the right weapon of choice and plan your approach. Review your lead conversion plan. Break it down into an escalation process. The highest level of attrition for most consultant’s leads is lack of response or contact. Getting a response within the first 48 hours of discovering the lead will help you maintain momentum and convert it into business.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Complete the bounce back pack
• Review the leads you’ve generated in the three weeks before lockdown (1^st March to 23^rd). What happened to those? How many could be rekindled now we are in the release phase?
• Look at the leads that you consider to be live. How many are in play? An in-play lead is one that you are in dialogue with. What are you doing with those that are unresponsive? Create a lead nudge email to get more traction.
• What is your lead conversion percentage? What is your goal for the next three months?
• Watch The Pillars Urgency, The Beast and Resilience
• Start the mission I need more jobs for some great tactics to convert more leads into business (and generate some high-quality leads along the way)

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Boom! Some great results around leads can only be attributed to you being a high performing lead generator with a robust conversion plan. This is something that will help you to outperform your competitors and win business from them. It is worth looking at the quality of leads you discover and identify your most valuable sources. Cross-reference this with the leads you are best at converting and then you’ve got a money-making machine. When you know your most fruitful source and the types of leads you are best at converting then this should be what you increase the bandwidth of bringing into your sales funnel.

What opportunities exist to increase the average value of leads that you discover and convert? Is there an opportunity to go from spearfishing to whale hunting? Could you feed the entire office by landing some bigger catches? If your strengths revolve around spotting opportunities and winning new clients then play to those strengths.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Complete the bounce back pack
• Review your leads and their sources. What is your most prolific source of leads? Are there opportunities to discover more from these sources?
• Review your conversion. What types of leads do you convert most easily? What can you do to increase the bandwidth of those types of lead?
• With success at finding and converting leads, there could be a danger of opening lots of accounts and not necessarily developing business from those new clients. How many clients have you made multiple placements with? What opportunities exist to develop more business from those?
• How good are the rest of your team and business at lead management? Could there be an opportunity from a sales leadership perspective to become a subject matter expert on this topic and deliver a training session to the rest of the business?
• Keep on top of your lead management and conversion process. A daily routine of discovering, nurturing and converting leads 9as three separate activities) will help you maintain a solid pipeline of work
• Watch The Pillars Planning and Negotiation

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