In a previous blog post, I shared three key principles to establishing a strong marketing foundation. Of course, it all starts with obtaining high-quality searches.
After that, though, you need to know how to have an appropriate conversation with potential new clients, and the best way to do this is by having a pre-written script to help you. Today, I bring you the first three of the top 10 marketing approaches that could rock the recruiting world.
Below are three marketing and business development scripts for recruiters that work:
#1—Reference from an internal champion
As discussed, the quickest way to bring in new assignments is with existing accounts. To get high and wide in those accounts, the first step is to ask your existing contact for a reference. It may sound like this:
“Joe, It’s Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. How are you? . . . Good to hear. Joe I have a question for you. How have I done in providing your team with the talent you’ve been looking for over the last few years?” (You may have to remind your client of whom you’ve placed with them.) I’m glad you’re satisfied with how we’re doing. Based on our success with your business unit, I would like to be able to help the other teams in your organization, as well. Here is where I need your help. Who else in your organization is looking to hire talent in the next three to six months? . . . Tim Brown . . . in Engineering is bringing on engineers? Great. As a favor, would you mind giving Tim a quick call or dropping him an email to let him know I will be reaching out to him to introduce myself? If you could share with him how your experience has been with my organization, that would be fantastic and I certainly would owe you one.”
Once you have an internal reference, with or without a written or verbal testimonial, your marketing approach gets pretty simple.
“Hi Tim, this is Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. I’ve worked with your organization, specifically with Joe in Marketing, over the last few years. He suggested I might want to reach out to you to see if you need help finding talented engineers. I’ve helped Joe successfully build his team, and I would like to discuss the critical needs you’re trying to fill on your team in the next three to six months . . .”
#2—C-level approach (“Rick Ball” approach)
Selling to the C-suite (CEO, CIO, CFO, COO) can be intimidating to some recruiters. A great book to read about selling to this level is Selling to VITO by Anthony Parinello. In his book, Parinello talks about how the language you need to use for the C-suite is different than that of a rank-and-file manager or director. The C-suite is interested in increased revenue, decreased costs, increased profits, and their critical metric—increased shareholder value. Here is how the script goes:
Existing client: “Hi, Mr. President, this is Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. We haven’t spoken before, but my organization has helped your company save over $300 million last year. We did this by finding the best talent in the marketplace for your VP of Supply Chain position in Rick Ball. I wanted to reach out to you today to see if there are other places on your executive team or within your organization that you could use another superstar like Rick Ball.”
New client: “Hi, Mr. President, this is Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. We haven’t spoken before, but my organization has helped one of your largest competitors save over $300 million last year. This gave them the opportunity to reach a record profit year and achieve their best year in over 25 years. I don’t know if we can do the same for your organization, but I would love to share the details with you and thought it might be worth a five-minute conversation.”
By knowing the successes and impact your placed candidates have had with their organizations, you can use that data to create additional business.
#3—Vertical market approach (“insight”)
The vertical market approach is one that adds value based upon your experience in the marketplace in which you work. This works well and applies if you have a specific market or a specific position.
“Hi, Mr. Prospect, this is Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. Have you heard of us before? We work with many of your competitors in the industry, focusing specifically on the [your marketplace here]. We have helped organizations such as [company names here] grow over 30% per year in revenue and increase profits by over 40% by finding the critical talent they needed to achieve their goals. We’ve done this because we are niche-focused and are in touch with the ‘A’ players in your marketplace on a daily basis. We have relationships with the individuals who are blind to job boards due to performing at high levels for your competitors and not looking for other positions. I don’t know if we could help your organization or not, but thought it might be worth a five minute conversation.”
Editor’s note: For the rest of Bartos’ top 10 marketing scripts, check out these blog articles:
3 More Scripts for Marketing and Business Development
2 More Recruiting Scripts for Business Development
Yet 2 More Recruiter Scripts for Generating More Business
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Jon Bartos, a guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog, is a premier writer, speaker, and consultant on all aspects of personal performance, human capital, and the analytics behind them. In 2010, Bartos founded Revenue Performance Management, LLC. The RPM Dashboard System is a business intelligence tool used worldwide for metrics management for individual and team performance improvement. In 2012, Bartos achieved national certification in Hypnotherapy, furthering his interest in learning the dynamics behind what motivates others to achieve higher levels of success. Click here to visit Bartos’s website.