You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. – Wayne Gretzky
I’m a hockey nut, so I love this quote, and I was reminded of it on a recent NPAworldwide Practice Group call, when a member pointed out that the recruiters should look at ways to maximize opportunities with their current clients and focus on all their customer’s needs. For example, a healthcare recruiter may primarily make nursing placements with a major hospital client, but it doesn’t hurt to ask that client if they have placement needs in IT, administrative or clerical. While you may not specialize in these areas, you can partner up with another firm who does – and you may just become a one-stop-shop for your client, ultimately leading to more job orders in the end.
What do you do if your client comes to you with a job order that you don’t have the bandwidth to help fill? How can you keep your client happy without adding to your costs by hiring another recruiter or opening a branch in another location?
Many recruiters turn to a split placement network, which gives you access to trading partners all over the globe, to help gain more clients, get more work from current clients, and start to broaden their reach nationally and even internationally. While some recruiters may balk at having to split a fee, recruiters who do splits understand that half a fee is better than no fee at all.
Here are a few recent examples of how NPAworldwide members were able to help fulfill their clients’ needs by utilizing network resources – and pocketing part of a split fee they otherwise would not have been able to obtain:
1. Make yourself your client’s #1 resource for all their needs – even if they fall outside your geographic focus area.
An NPA member in Louisville, KY connected with a former client in Chicago who had some recent job openings…
“As I followed up with leadership at this company about current openings in Chicago, they asked if I could help internationally. They had a General Manager/VP of Distribution role in Mexico and really needed help with local recruitment. I had only recently heard about NPA and just became a member. I asked our NPA contacts if we have any recruiters who are members in Mexico and the connection was made! [The Mexico affiliate] found some outstanding candidates for this high-level role… we were both able to close the deal together and gain an offer acceptance by the candidate. The client company was extremely happy and so was the candidate!”
2. Utilize trading partners when you don’t have the bandwidth to take on your clients roles yourself.
A longstanding client of a CA-based NPA firm reached out to them with a very challenging search, and they utilized an NPA exporter based in India to help source candidates for the role, a Plant Operations Manager.
“Our client’s situation had become urgent because they had 5 similar open positions, which their internal team had not been able to fill. Of course, when our client reached out we agreed to help, but internally, we had our own concerns about meeting the challenge due to lack of bandwidth with our current searches, plus these 5 new searches,” she said.
She posted the job on NPA’s internal database and the India-based affiliate came to her assistance, sending well-qualified candidates with great write-ups. Ultimately, one of the candidates reached the final round of interviews and was offered the position.
“We felt particularly good about this placement,” the CA-based member said. “After being a member of NPA for a short while, we were able to achieve two important goals: First, we were able to meet the needs of a good client, and second, we were able to validate our decision to partner with NPA.”
3. Learn from your peers and branch out of your typical niche to get more work and add to your bottom line.
“Imagine never ever splitting a fee before, then joining NPA and having three offers (two acceptances) in three months! That is my first experience as an NPA Exporter,” said a VA-based recruiter who joined NPA just prior to the New Year.
This recruiter works in technology, and while the importer she worked with on this placement also is in the technology realm, his focus is within the aerospace/defense industry, which has some rather particular skillsets and qualifications needed.
“We’ve both worked in Technology with security clearance requirements, but I had never worked within his clients’ specific fields,” she said. “He quickly brought me up to speed on the nuances of candidate skills, clients, and industry terms. Two of our three offers resulted in accepts, with both start dates in April. I’m tremendously excited about the synergy here at NPA, and future splits!”
4. A network allows you to never say “no” to your clients, because you can lean on your partners
“My main client had asked if we had anyone in the Malaysia market who could help them with a Plant manager role, as they had engaged a firm there who had not performed very well. Having been successful with many other affiliates in the US and EMEA, it was easy for me to very confidently say YES!,” said a CT-based NPA member.
“When I reached out to my NPA member engagement specialist, she recommended two firms for me and I connected with both to understand their strengths. One had a Chemical Engineering background, was familiar with the chemicals industry & had previously done recruiting for my client in that region, so I figured he would be the most successful. Right out of the gate, his team had someone that was worth considering for my client on day 1, while they continued to vet for more people. Needless to say, they came out of the gate strong and my client was pretty impressed that they were able to bring a couple viable candidates to the table. Although they wanted to have more people get to an onsite interview to ‘pick’ their top candidate, we were able to get the decision makers to move on our candidate before too long. Placement done!”
Do you ever run into obstacles when trying to gain new clients or fulfill all the needs of your current ones? Have you ever considered joining a split placement network?