Smashing Through Mediocrity

Last week I introduced the concept of “The Strategy of Pre-eminence” by Jay Abraham; a way to become the most called upon agency in your niche.

If you missed it, here is the video explaining the strategy and its benefits.

If you’re looking to work with more great clients who view you as a critical partner to their business growth, keep reading!

Most recruitment agency owners get their businesses stuck on the treadmill delivering a reasonably good service to reasonably good clients.

In essence, “The Strategy of Pre-eminence” is giving your clients abundant and often unexpected value well over and above what would typically be referred to as “great client service.” And, in return offers a staggering increase in revenue.

I’ve identified 3 critical factors that will help you successfully apply this strategy to your client development.

I dive heavily into this in our Next Level Accelerator program but over the next few weeks, I’m going to share enough with you so you can benefit too.

1) Building the right client list
2) Understanding your clients’ business pain points
3) Helping your clients’ solve their pain points

It all starts with…

Having the Right Client List

Are you talking to the right people? Most client lists grow organically. They rarely get a thorough review and over time become a melting pot for the good, the bad, and the ugly!

We want to develop the good, review the bad (can they be good!?), and delete the rest.

Time to do some work 🙂

First

List your clients who meet most of the following criteria, or have the potential to:

– Share your business and personal values
– Ask and value your opinion on business matters outside recruitment
– Want you to also benefit commercially
– Sit squarely in your niche
– Refer business your way
– Are open and honest with you
– Are a place your candidates want to work
– Are enjoyable/easy to deal with
– Provide ongoing and exclusive business
– May now be someone you would see socially (out of a work situation)
– Anything else you highly value

If your list is a bit skinny, don’t panic; this just means more opportunity to grow it! Take some time to research your market listing ALL potential clients. If you are unsure, put them on the list.

Stuck finding clients for your list?

Check out, Linked In groups, industry directories and associations, conferences, membership sites, Facebook groups, on Linked In search past employers of relevant contacts, meetups. Ask current “A” clients for referrals.

(Side Note: Outsource this to a data entry person on Upwork for about $6USD/hr)

Don’t worry about how you will woo great clients – that’s next! Just make the list of potentials.

Second

Have a look at your clients that:

– Value price over service
– Getting a decent job brief is like pulling teeth
– Show little respect for you or the value you add
– Take up a lot of time for little in return
– Have higher than average drop-offs
– Never agree to exclusive or GASP a retained assignment
– In a nutshell – waste your time

Delete them from your universe. They will send you down the gurgler. Create a list “Head Hunt From” and add them to it.

Now, put your feet up!

This may seem a bit too obvious but it’s interesting how many client lists are either outdated, include too many non-viable clients or have only ever been added to in a piecemeal way over time.

Next week…

I’ll share powerful tools to uncover your clients’ pain points and set you up as an authority in your niche at the same time.

In the meantime, start to have a think about what keeps your clients up at night? All their problems; not just recruitment.

Have a great week…

Thanks for reading.

Belinda

Smashing Through Mediocrity