As Director of Membership for NPAworldwide, I am responsible for bringing in firms to our split placement network. Many times, it can be intimidating joining an organization where you are unsure if you are going to encounter other recruiters that have the same clients, have better relationships with certain candidates, or even are located in your backyard. In life in general, the competitive nature of everything we do in both our personal lives and businesses has taken over and caused doubt and uncertainty in ourselves and others. I urge you to release these thoughts when joining any type of network, especially one where working together instead of against each other can turn a good profit. Here is a refreshing story of viewing things differently:
We had a member in Massachusetts USA that worked only retail and there were no other members in the network at the time that worked his industry, his name is Joel. He was a go getter and if he had IT jobs for Nike or any other large retail company he would call the members in the IT Trading Group and ask for help. At the time, he was one of the top performers in the network.
After a new application from another retail recruiting agency was received, Joel called ready to quit, since he was competition and they shared a lot of the same clients. The other firm was still approved and we called Joel to ask him to give the new member a call to find out what he is all about and what he was working on.
A few weeks later he called me and said he had no reason to worry as it turns out they did have a lot of the same clients but not all the same jobs and they both had several other clients. They ended up making 10 split placements that year and found they could work together and fill the jobs faster and get quicker turnaround on the clients they did not have in common.
Joel called me one day to tell me he and Mike were now joined at the hip, even visiting each others clients when they could.
The moral of the story is that partnering up can always cause more opportunities, better client service, and solid financial return. If you refuse to step outside of the negative line of thinking in a network that you join, or even in life in general, well Christmas is arriving shortly and you can always join the likes of the Grinch and Mr. Scrooge.
Great story Sarah! I have not heard that one before. That’s a wonderful example of those who seemingly are “competitors” doing splits. I have an NPA partner as well that has the same client as me (different divisions). We haven’t done a split yet (attempts) but I feel I get value out of just talking with her about what she is experiencing with them and handling it as well. It’s not always about the splits, sometimes the camaraderie and business intelligence is worth almost as much as the split itself too!