Sales is the lifeblood of every business. It’s almost impossible to scale your recruitment company without a consistent flow of new business. Yet many recruitment agencies are lacking an effective and repeatable sales process.

My next guest, Alex Elliott, has designed an effective client acquisition system that yields consistent, predictable results. It enables him and his team to focus their efforts on the right things, optimize the customer experience, and make data-driven decisions to drive revenue growth and business success.

However, designing and executing an effective business development system is easier said than done! In this episode, Alex reveals how they designed their client acquisition funnel around four core sales processes.

Alex also shared best practices and tips on how to consistently share value-adding LinkedIn posts, and how to structure your business for scale.

This is Alex’s second time on the show. The last time was way back in December 2019, before the pandemic. He shared the story of co-founding Liquid Personnel with Jonathan Coxon and how they scaled to a 100M revenue business and became the number one market leader in their space before exiting via a sale to Private Equity.

Alex is now an investor and Strategic Advisor with Strive, headquartered in Manchester. Strive provides Go To Market professionals for disruptive VC-backed tech startups and scaleups across EMEA and the US.

Episode Outline and Highlights

[03:46] The three steps to consistently post good LinkedIn content.
[10:30] How to structure an effective LinkedIn post using the AIDA formula.
[14:18] Mark and Alex share perspectives on LinkedIn posts’ return on effort.
[19:15] Why Alex invested in Strive Recruitment.
[23:30] Alex discusses how they structure their business for scale.
[36:15] The four core sales processes to design an effective client acquisition system.
[44:53] How to use Sales KPIs the right way to get better results.
[55:18] Core marketing channels that Alex’s team focuses on.

Consistently Sharing Value-Adding Linked Content with a Strong Opening Hook

Posting on LinkedIn consistently can build your professional brand, expand your network, attract top talent, engage with your audience, and promote your organization. If you are a recruitment business leader, you should set an example for your team.

Alex shared his thought process on why he consistently posts:

“I think because I've gone into the SaaS space … one of the things I noticed early on sort of going into that industry, a lot of the leaders, the sales leaders, the go-to-market leaders, and also just the CEOs within that space take personal responsibility for building their own brand. Which in turn has a huge, potentially huge positive impact on the business's brand. So I think I saw that and I was kind of motivated to see whether we could do the same.”

Alex revealed his three steps to be consistent in creating good LinkedIn posts:

Decide to make posting on LinkedIn a habit.
Create a workflow. For example Alex writes all his LinkedIn content for the week on Sunday afternoon.
Bank your ideas. Alex has a note on his phone where he captures ideas throughout the week. Then when he sits down to create content, he can bang out multiple high-quality posts quite quickly.

He elaborated on how he formulates his content using the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) principle. We also talked about our perspectives on the return on effort on LinkedIn posting.

How to Structure Your Recruitment Agency for Scale with Career Pathways

“We have multiple career pathways… If you want to scale a recruitment business, you can’t just keep adding heads and heads and heads. You have to build some of the infrastructure which is going to support that growth. One of those things is career pathways.”

I am 100% aligned with Alex regarding the importance of creating a well defined career path for your team members. For Strive - it is about ensuring that a framework or path is in place for their new joiners. Specifically, they design these paths to ensure that they work on their team’s strengths, rather than the usual progression of biller to manager.

Alex shared the career path layout for their team members covering delivery, business development, account management, technical, and management routes. We also discussed how the 360, 270, or 180 models fit their organization.

How to Design an Effective Sales Strategy and Funnel

Another topic that I love in this conversation is how Strive have designed their client acquisition and sales funnel. Focusing on business development and marketing is an absolute must for building a sustainable and resilient recruitment business. Doing this minimizes the chance of getting into a feast and famine rollercoaster that many in the industry are experiencing.

You will find value in Elliott’s explanation of the four core sales processes:

Territory Management
Call Management
Opportunity Management
Account Management

Alex also generously shared the platforms or media that they mostly focus on for their business development campaigns.

Our Sponsors

This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.

i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: https://recruitmentcoach.com/retained

Alex Elliott Bio and Contact Info

Alex is an Investor and Strategic Director at Strive. Following the sale of his recruitment firm, Liquid Personnel, in 2016 (PE sale), he has now joined the Strive Board of Directors to help scale the business and support our international expansion. A Quote Alex lives by is "Excellence is achieved by mastery of the fundamentals".

Alex on LinkedIn
Strive website link
Strive on Facebook
Strive on Instagram

People and Resources Mentioned

Adam Richardson (Strive co-Founder) on LinkedIn
Harrison Scott (Strive co-Founder) on LinkedIn
Cracking the Sales Management Code by Jason Jordan

Connect with Mark Whitby

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