NPAworldwide recently held a Topical Call where some of NPAworldwide’s most successful members gave quick tips on growing your business and how to find success in a split placement network network.
The following tips were provided by NPAworldwide’s Hall of Fame members, which represents lifetime achievement in NPAworldwide split placement activity, achieving cumulative salaries of at least US$10 million of placed candidates.
- Build strong relationships with your fellow members and this will help in making split placements. For our most recent placement, one trading partner did not give me feedback, she called me and said ‘we have a placement.’ That’s how much we trust each other – if you can get to that point, that’s great.
- Believe in the network, attend meetings, conference calls and reach-out to people.
- Consistency and longevity. I’ve been with NPA a long time and I prioritize NPA as my most important client.
- Volume – It takes a lot of swings and misses before you get a hit. Don’t get hung up on that one candidate you put in… go to the next thing. I’ll work an affiliates job for 1-2 hours, and once I’ve fished everywhere I can, I move onto the next thing. As an exporter, you’re not married to the job, there’s plenty of jobs out there.
- Treat your NPA partners candidates and jobs as if they are your own. In other words if you decide to work on one or the other put just as much effort into it as you would your direct client / candidate. “The first recruiting firm I was in was a member of NPA, and the owner made it a point to tell us if we’re working with an NPA affiliate, treat it the same as if we were working with our clients/candidates. He was a proponent of putting as much time into NPA as our direct business.”
- Don’t be afraid to change your niche if business seems to be going south in the one you are working in. “If things are going south for you, and your niche isn’t working, don’t be afraid to change. I changed after doing IT/aerospace for probably 20 years, and changed to the chemical process industry. Partners will help you learn that niche if you need assistance.”
- Reaching out and making face to face contacts at NPA meetings and then following up!
- Know how the exporter/importer wants to work together…. steps in the process for there to be a match and successful close. “Treat partners like you treat your clients. That’s so important. When I reach out to an exporter that sent me a candidate, I tell them how I want to work it (i.e. I’ll will need your help later on but not right now… I will touch base). Set guidelines up front of what you expect and they expect, and then follow through. Know those rules. For example, I worked with a new member from Phoenix – I asked “what do you want me to do?” and he told me at exactly what point he’d be back to me.”
- Always cold recruit. Make 10/20/30 calls every day to people you have never spoken to and not the people on Indeed’s database…everyone knows them. Get creative, use directories, search for people no one else has talked to! Tell them you have an opportunity that not only would make sense for them geographically but also professionally!
- Providing prompt feedback to fellow affiliates regarding candidate exchanges will go a long way toward cementing relationships, and lead to more cigars being lit. Providing no response to submittals may negatively influence exporters decision regarding recruiting for your future jobs.
- Be visible and vocal at regional and national meetings; volunteer to serve on committees. Also, when attending those sessions, popping for an adult beverage for fellow members now and then might help them remember you.
- Treat your trading partners as you would your best client. Let them be your right hand providing them with your client information, so they can give quick and effective support on job openings.
- Be willing to share information and trust your NPA partners.
- Reach out by phone and develop the relationship. LISTEN to your trading partner so to the requirements of the position. If exporting send, quality candidates.
- Discuss with your trading partner on the process of how to work together.
A recruiting network can be a powerful tool in a recruiter’s toolbelt, but you have to learn how to use it. Some have the mindset that they will join and job orders and candidates will fall into their lap… It doesn’t work that way. You have to make working the network a habit, kind of like going to the gym – once you start going once a week, it just becomes habit. Engaging in a network is similar, it becomes habit, and it can make you money!
How do you find success in working with trading partners? Do you have any tips for members who are part of a recruitment network?