Everyone is talking about business development right now

By GSR2R Admin | 27th September 2023

Some people love it, some people loath it, some recruiters have never done it!

Regardless, everyone is talking about business development right now.

However, when done well business development can super charge a recruiter’s career and have huge financial gains.

Below are my insights of how to enjoy and be successful at business development.

Reframe the name business development

Some recruiters freeze at the word and hate the idea of business development, however business dev in short is introducing you, your company, and your services to people that need those services. OK so not everyone they might your services right now however they will at some point and it’s great that you can put your name and services on their radar.  Others you contact could have a problem with their hiring that you could solve right now, that makes you a superhero!

The terms, Business development and cold calling have been around forever, are they relevant today. Reframe the name to something that makes you feel comfortable and shows how much value you add to new clients.

Believe in your offering and company you represent

Having confidence in your services and what your company stands for is top of the list when it comes to enjoying business development. If you know that you solve your clients’ problems and deliver an outstanding service and can say this with all your heart why wouldn’t you want other business, potential clients to know about and ultimately work with you. You need to share your magic.

Knowing that your company has the right values and culture for you to feel supported in will help you shine.

If you don’t believe in your company or that you can deliver on your clients’ needs, then you have nothing to talk about to new clients and this is a nonstarter! You can only shout about how good you are, if you have belief in what you do.

 Be interested and interesting

It’s no secret that other recruiters are calling and even working right now with the clients you are wanting to attract so you need to stand out from the crowd. To do this you must be interested in what they do and interesting to chat too. This is easily done. Before your call/contact arm yourself with revenant information about the sector, we have so some information we can draw on these days, however, so little take the time to learn about the contact you are calling, sector they work in and even the company.  This can make the even the most junior recruiter stand at.

A good way to start a new client business development call is to be interesting by letting them know in the first line what you can do for them, these people are busy and hard to get hold off so your opening line needs to grab their interest and let them know why they should take this call.

An example:

Hi John, I’m Carolyn and I solve internal hiring problems for companies that work within the FS sector. It’s bold put gives over straight away the benefit to taking your call and shows you stand out from the normal sales call to say they are a recruiter, Give it a go.

Planning

Some of the best advice I ever received as a recruiter when I started 23 years again was around planning, and today I still plan every day without fail. It’s true that poor planning brings poor performance, you can’t expect results without planning the doing the actions that gives you the results.

When it comes to business development, I would suggest planning two different sessions.

1. List of potential clients and HOW I am going to contact them.
2. Time to business develop.

Actioning point one gives they you the foundations and information to be able to approach new candidates. Depending on your market you could have 30-100 potential clients to business development. Keep toping this up and you turn the potentials into clients. From here you can plan your strategy of how you are going to contact them. Making a call and sending an e mail is not going to cut it in 2023 you need a longer-term plan of how to attract these clients to work with you. The goal is to book in a call however there can be several steps to get there. Think about what tools you have and put together a plan of how best to attract and nurture these contacts until they become clients. Sending one e mail or leaving a message is not going to make you stand out.

Schedule in the right time to business develop weekly, in blocks of 3 hours, this gives you enough time to get some traction and enjoy it. The best time to do this is when you feel at your best, are you a morning or later in the day person? Work out when you are at your best and block out three hours that are not movable, if business development at this stage is not your favourite you need to be stick with yourself, you are only going to nail it by doing it.

Keep going

“The difference between a successful salesperson and others is not a lack of strength or knowledge but a lack of will”  – Vince Lombardi.

Give it a got it works

Thanks for reading, I wish you an abundance of new clients.

Cheryl Wing