By GSR2R Admin | 30th November 2020

4 surefire ways to get hold of clients in a Covid world

Over the past few blogs, I have written that there has been a huge focus on BD – and rightly so.  

Many of the recruiters I speak to want to get ‘back to normal’, and that means getting deals done every week. 

The challenge is the recruitment market is changing. Let’s be honest – B.D. isn’t the easiest part of a recruiter’s role at the best of times and COVID has thrown an additional massive spanner in the works too! 

WARNING! The way everything is working now you are going to have to do more than you have done before to get a similar result. Please don’t shoot the messenger; it’s a fact of life. The good news is when you do the work, the results will follow. 

So, with the threat of a second wave of the pandemic forecast, what can you do to get hold of the clients and candidates you want? 

I have a few ideas for you based on what is working here @gsr2r and the consultants I speak to. 

Fish in Your Favourite Pond First 

Let’s look at the facts here. 

From the early days of this pandemic in March, a lot has happened; and changed. Though your clients, and for that matter, candidates might have been reeling from the shock, we are all in a different place now.  

Last week Roger Martin-Fagg, a globally respected economist on a webinar for the recruitment industry, revealed that the economy is improving better than initially expected. 

That being the case – think about those clients who were on the edge of converting ‘just’ before lockdown. Or those who you have always had a great relationship with.  

In sales speak this is the ‘low hanging fruit’ we all have access to.  Check out your database and ‘hit’ (in a nice way) every medium where you have their contacts details. 

That might be landline, email, or messenger. I know from what has happened for my clients and me, I am getting a totally different response when I reach out now compared to a few months ago. 

Leverage LinkedIn 

Did you know that LinkedIn has had a significant hike on member visits since March? Earlier in lockdown, the daily visit figure had increased by 2500%!  

Though your clients and candidates might not always answer their phone at the office, they are certainly hanging out on social media. 

Though the rate of growth has slowed down slightly, both your clients and candidates are more active on LinkedIn than ever. 

The question is, are you? 

LinkedIn members are now more likely to accept your connection request and open your messages too. In the past, you might have thought that LinkedIn was ‘just’ a sourcing tool.  

Not so; it’s a vehicle where you can market and sell your expertise as THE recruiter in your clients and candidates’ sector they need to speak to. 

The great thing about this social networking platform is you are ‘pinged’ when someone sends a connection request both on your phone and email; who can’t resist opening a notification? 

It is then up to you to use your fabulous recruiter skills and move this offline and onto a Zoom or telephone call. 

The good news is most recruiters aren’t bothering to do this and are losing out because of it. 

Marketing a meeting 

Here is a fabulous strategy; one of my recruitment clients is using this, and it is working incredibly well.  

I have already mentioned that social media visits are going through the roof. Well, they are promoting mini-training events that they are running on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Insta.  

They create a quick PowerPoint and a relevant topic and then present it over Zoom. They tell people what they are doing and share a link to register. They use Eventbrite, which is free and then follow up afterwards. 

Because learning is so popular, and everyone is out to help each other, their current connections are sharing the invites around too. 

Worth considering isn’t it?  

 Making the most of your messenger apps 

SMS text, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are all vehicles where you can connect with clients and candidates. 

Something I have noticed in the past few months is that many of my connections are telling me how willing their contacts are to engage on all these platforms. 

It is the easiest thing to do to ask permission so that you can keep in touch. Logical isn’t it, with so many people working remotely? 

And the good news is you will get a higher open rate from the messages you send too. 

Useful? I hope so. 

Until next time, 

Cheryl