The Resilient Recruiter Retained Recruitment: How to Pitch and Win Retained Projects with Confidence, with James O'Brien, Ep #115
Are you ready to progress from contingency to retained recruitment services but aren’t sure how to pitch it? It is often a lack of confidence in what truly differentiates your brand – and the value you can deliver – that keeps recruitment business owners trapped in a position of earning less than they deserve.
As the COO of i-intro, James O’Brien has helped hundreds of recruiters transition to a retained recruitment model. He’s also a champion and advocate for recruiters, a true thought leader who is committed to sharing knowledge and insight to benefit the recruitment industry. In this podcast, he shares many helpful tips and offers valuable guidance to make the shift from contingency to retained services easy. He provides ways to overcome a lack of confidence and how to distinguish yourself by effectively differentiating your service.
James has more than 30 years of experience in the recruitment industry and understands all the pain points of recruiters and he has the solutions to help them overcome this with outstanding success.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [02:15] The obstacles to generating video content - and how to overcome them
- [07:02] Why and how to create authentic videos that build your personal brand
- [10:30] What equipment do you need to create valuable video content? The answer might surprise you!
- [13:55] James’ career transition from running a large executive recruitment firm to jumping into the world of “rec tech” with i-intro
- [19:13] Why retained recruitment isn’t just for executive search assignments
- [21:00] How can you earn a better return on your efforts and triple your income?
- [24:10] How to present yourself with confidence as someone adding value to your clients
- [32:20] Teaming up with the right people to take your business to the next level
- [35:20] How to pitch the added value that your service delivers in the form of ROI
- [37:23] What are the “three promises” James makes to clients that enable him (and i-intro users) to get paid up-front payment?
- [40:00] How James uses a “bad hire calculator” to show clients the true cost of staff turnover
- [42:35] Clients only see recruiters when they have a problem - use it to your advantage
- [44:00] Exploring the different solutions that you can present to your clients
- [45:30] Steps on how to distinguish your brand by differentiating your service
Escaping The Grip of Limiting Beliefs
Creating videos or podcasts is one of the most powerful tools to establish yourself as an authoritative figure inside your niche market. Yet, many professionals still shy away from capturing themselves on video or audio because they can only see and hear their shortcomings. They convince themselves that the value of their message is overshadowed by these imperfections that are so prominent in their eyes.
James disagrees: “If you are saying something that is going to be useful to somebody, then people do want to hear.” He believes that people “appreciate the realness of who you are,” and will overlook a less-than studio quality production. This belief that you are not capable of doing it is merely self-limiting, holding you back from achieving the success you deserve.
How To Tripple Your Income
“I am not here saying that retained recruitment is the only way to deliver service. But I am someone who says that retained recruitment is not just the executive search assignments,” James states his belief that this is the way to increase your revenue without increasing your efforts.
He explains that by opting for retained recruitment, you can increase your conversion rate from 20% which is the norm for contingency recruitment, to 60% or more. It means that you can triple your income without working harder. You will also be able to work smarter with your clients and candidates and have more fun doing so. The secret is not in working harder but in being able to convince a client of your value of your service.
How to Convince Clients to Appreciate You
“There is a perception of what a recruiter is and what they do that the market has and they have that for a very good reason…but if you hold yourself and have your self-worth and believe that you are worth it, then you should have the confidence to tell your clients what you do,” James states.
He says that you should refrain from positioning yourself as a recruiter for you deliver much more than merely sourcing a few CVs. You should be able to differentiate yourself from the rest by being able to express to your clients what you truly offer them and how hiring you will benefit them. He explains some of the practical steps that will help you to do this with great success.
Are you ready to make the transition from offering a contingency service to the position where you can rather enjoy a fair exchange for your expertise through a retained recruitment model?
Our Sponsors
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®.
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
James O’Brien Bio and Contact Info
James O-Brien has been the COO of i-intro for the past six years and during this time he grasped an in-depth understanding of the challenges that recruiters face when they transition to retained recruitment services. During his career, James trained hundreds of recruitment firms and helped them to fully understand and be able to utilize the i-intro platform. He was an early adopter of the i-intro platform and process while he was still running EO Executives, an international interim management and executive search firm. James’s career in recruitment dates back to the 1980s. During most of the past 30 years in the field, he has been involved in coaching and training recruiters as well as being the coalface of the industry.
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