Articles - Business / Client Dev & Marketing

Years ago a recruiting colleague of mine and I had a difference of opinion.  We placed in exactly the same specialty niche, but we disagreed about which time of the year was the most productive for our business.  He thought that the end of the year was the best for making placements and I always thought that the summer was the best.  So, he always made placements during the winter months and I did not.  And I always made placements during the summer months and he did not.  It wasn’t our niche that was operative here—it was our perception.  We were living the life of self-fulfilling prophecies.

Now when recruiters call to ask my thoughts about shutting it down for the December holidays, I always relate that story.  I remind them that salaries are still being paid and that interviewing is still taking place.  And then I add what I remember of an article I read some years ago that addressed some of the reasons why recruitment flourishes during this time of year:

1.  Many of your client companies must spend their recruitment budgets before the year runs out.  This is either because they can’t carry these budget dollars over to the New Year or their recruitment budgets may decrease during the following year when, during planning time, they are matched to what they spent, or failed to spend, in the current year.

2.  Many clients and candidates like to tie up loose ends before the year ends.  If openings exist, the Hiring Managers (HMs) want to fill them.  The “fresh start” mentality grows in popularity at this time of year.

3.  Often, employees for many reasons (no bonuses, etc.) choose this time of year to quit.  They will be able to give their two-week notices and be with their families over the holidays with the goal of looking for a new job at the beginning of the year.  This turnover will create new openings.

4.  Just because it is the holiday season, business activity doesn’t change.  Interviewing takes places.  Hiring takes place.  Turndowns and Counteroffers take place.  Believe it or not, it is business as usual.  Competition never takes a break.

Now, if all of my convincing above hasn’t motivated you to pick up the phone and market and recruit, here are a few non-phone “busy work” projects that you can do in the office:

1.   Organize your desk.
2.   Organize your general files.
3.   Do some Internet research.
4.   Update your candidate files.
5.   Update your client files.
6.   Search for new Candidate and Client Company leads.
7.   Clean out your files – delete often.
8.   Catch up on correspondence.
9.   Organize your marketing plan for New Year.
10.   Plan ahead for the first quarter of the New Year.
11.   Increase your prospective client company base.
12.   Reactivate your old candidates.
13.   Listen to your audio training tapes.
14.   Watch your video training tapes.
15.   Go over your written training material—improve your skills!! 

The bottomline:  Have a productive December!!

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BIOGRAPHY

Bob Marshall began his recruiting career in 1980 when he joined MR Reno, NV.  In 1986 he founded The Bob Marshall Group, International, training recruiters across the nation as well as in the United Kingdom, Malta and Cyprus.  In 1996, he returned to working a desk full-time, while continuing to train recruiters.  Just recently he began marketing the ‘unplugged’ version of his acclaimed 2009 43-session Classic Teleconference Series.  To learn more about his activities and descriptions of his products (including The Executive Edition Daily Planner) and services (including the ‘Double Production-guaranteed’ program), contact him directly at: 770-898-5550, www.TheMarshallPlan.org,or bob@themarshallplan.org.

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