Avoid Confusion and Frustration with BD in Recruitment
by Ben Browning founder Resonant
BD strategy isn’t as clear cut as it once was.
350+ recruitment leaders joined last weeks debate; ‘Why Speccing Isn’t Working’. In the conversations that followed we’ve heard a lot of confusion, frustration and fear.
So what’s going on?
Pre-COVID Tones
Five years ago, as we worked through the initial shock of the COVID pandemic, face-to-face communication was replaced by email. Our need for emotional security rose, and our trust in strangers reached anew all time low.
A new sales language emerged, replacing the ‘Personalisation Playbook’ that preceded it.
For too long Recruiters persisted with an approach full of Pre-COVID tones. But, now sales has developed another new language (thanks to AI).
Recruiters, founders and leaders know they can’t watch their profits fall, confidence drop and market share shrink further without taking action. The question I’m asked most right now is this;
“Where do we start?”
WEIGHING THE OPTIONS
There is keen a desire – and commercial need – to reboot the way recruiters sell. But recruitment business leaders face a lot of uncertainty over how.
Of course, there’s a real clamour – and a lot of marketing – telling you to start with your tech stack. And it seems likely that AI will boost your productivity and reach, and you don’t want to get left behind.
On the other hand you could start closer to home, going all in on Social Media and Inbound campaigns in the hope they will deliver a consistent flow of high quality business. And if you were already reluctant about BD then this seems like a dream.
But for most businesses those strategies should come later.
There is a time for adding sophisticated automation and leveraging your sales message to generate inbound. But unless you are consistently and confidently winning high quality business then now is not the time.
For most recruiters the first act should be sorting your strategy.
Why?
Because adding automation and more channels, will only amplify your results. It will not update an outmoded strategy.
UPDATING YOUR BD STRATEGY
Pointing out the need for improving your fundamentals first, is not new.
You’ve always known that there is no silver bullet. And that adding complexity is not the same as making improvements. Yet, whilst budgets are rewritten to incorporate the latest software, BD strategy lags behind.
And when it comes to Strategy there are four levels you must get right:
- Clarity over your BD value, process and data
- Precision; in your market, message and solution
- Campaigns; that turn strategic plans into simple daily action
- Conversion strategies that maximise the value of every win
The very tip of the iceberg; CLARITY
In specific terms this means laying out your sales strategy in a one page document, like this:
It means writing down you value proposition and sales culture. It means outlining your sales process. And it means identifying what data you need to keep it on track. That’s how you start to gain clarity and share it with your team.
And when your team has clarity, everything else starts to fall into place.
Seeking clarity?
Just reply to this email and I’ll be in touch to talk it over.
Kind regards,
Ben
P.S. If you recognize the need for greater clarity in your BD strategy there are several ways I can help. For details, reply to this email or BOOK A CALL
P.P.S, you can view the debate and get the bonus content here -> Exclusive Event Content Hub | Resonant
