Is It Time To Start A Perm Practice?

Compelling reasons and helpful tips for starting a permanent placement division.

Keywords:
staffing software,recruiting software

The national unemployment rate is dropping. Your temp staffing operation is starting to take off. You often hear that the direct hire business is on the move. What should you do? Consider starting a perm placement division. Here are some compelling reasons to do so and some helpful tips to start you on your way.

Why now?

The time is right.
With unemployment dropping and the demand for qualified workers outstripping supply, it’s the best time to do this. Many of your existing clients will likely be interested in this service.

You can make a lot of money in a short amount of time.
The industry standard fee (depending on your industry) is any where from 15 to 30 percent of the first year’s salary. This means a $50,000 placement could translate into $7,500 to $15,000 in new revenue, and that’s a lot of billable hours.

You have relationships in place that can be instantly leveraged.
You already have relationships with a lot of hiring managers. Even if these people don’t handle the direct hiring for their companies they’re in a good position to connect you with the right person. And, if you’ve done a good job for them, the introduction may come with a recommendation. You’re also already an expert at recruiting, matching, negotiating, etc., so use these skills for additional profits. You also have relationships with a lot of the people who will become direct hire candidates for another firm. By offering this service to your temp employees you can get one last big revenue hit instead of just wishing them well when they leave.

Some helpful hints:

Do it with a team.
It’s probably best to tackle this with a team instead of with a guy. As tempting as it will be to minimize the start up expense, a three person team offers several advantages:They can share relationships. What we don’t want to see is the new line of business getting off to a good start, and the person bolt to start his or her own firm. As much as any business, this is a relationship sale. We want that relationship to be the property of the firm, not the employee. It shows you’re serious. One person all alone may not adequately convey your intentions to be in it for the long haul (even if you’re not sure yourself).They can feed off of each other. Without someone to compete with many sales people become complacent. Having a friendly competition in the perm placement division will benefit everyone. The weekly meetings will become much livelier if they’re all vying to be the top dog. One of them can emerge as the manager. It’s a good idea to hire at least one person with experience. The job of manager of a growing division is the carrot.
What’s in a name?
This is a tougher issue. Should this perm division operate under the same brand as your established temp business? Or should it brand itself as a new entity. The answer is: “I don’t know”. By using the existing name, you have a chance to capitalize on all the good work you’ve done with your temp business. This will lead to more instantaneous brand recognition. On the other hand, if the perm thing doesn’t work out, it could have a negative impact on you brand. You should consider this carefully before starting.

Have the right system in place.
While you probably have a system in place to manage your temp placement effort already, it may not be suited to the nuances of the perm placement process. It will not be good enough to fill out a job order and check a box or add a code to indicate that it’s a perm order. The actual data you have to collect is different. The search and placement processes will be different. You’ll even find that the things you want to search on are different. Also, since you’re hoping to leverage your temp placement data into perm placements, the best system is one that offers a side-by-side temp and perm placement capability. The system must offer more in the document management area as well.

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Selling to the C-Suite

Having trouble gaining access to the C-Suite? There’s a good reason why…

Keywords:
Selling Skills

According to the 2001 U.S. Census Bureau survey, there are over 10 million non-retail sales representatives in the United States. As there is no listing for C-Level Executive (hereafter, CLE) in the Census, let’s estimate the number of CLEs in the B2B selling world using the Global 2000 list of companies. If we estimate an average of five CLEs (CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, President) and seven additional “close to C-Level” executives” (i.e., EVP Sales, SVP marketing, SVP HR, Divisional President, etc.) then we arrive at a total of approximately 24,000.

That’s 417 sales professionals for each C-Level Executive! How can you possibly differentiate yourself in this crowded market?

And let’s face it, few in the C-Suite care to spend much—if any—time with salespeople. Nonetheless, you are told by your boss that in today’s selling environment it is imperative that you reach the C-Level.

Huthwaite’s research has revealed that getting into the C-Suite requires three very particular skills:

* The ability to identify when a CLE would be most receptive to your request for time
* The ability to navigate the most effective route to obtain an audience with a CLE
* The ability to properly execute a meeting with a CLE to increase your chances for success

Our research reveals that the optimal time to approach a CLE is at the beginning of the buying process. It is the time when senior managers are looking for diagnosis and are open to new insights about their business. After that, the C-Level will take little to no interest in the buying process until his buying team has evaluated various options and made a tentative decision.
To learn more about the ideal time to reach out to a C-Level Executive, the best method to secure a meeting with a CLE and how to execute a C-Level sales call, please download our latest free whitepaper: Selling to the C-Suite

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It’ll Be All Right On The Night

There was only a week to go before the major product launch and Sara had a “concern”; a phrase she used when she was shaking in her boots with sheer panic. She had been checking with all of the presenters to make sure that their presentations were well into development, if not complete and, although she had not heard or read them all from end-to-end, she could tell that there was an unacceptable amount of repetition. The audience was in danger of walking out after the first h…

Keywords:
online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

There was only a week to go before the major product launch and Sara had a “concern”; a phrase she used when she was shaking in her boots with sheer panic. She had been checking with all of the presenters to make sure that their presentations were well into development, if not complete and, although she had not heard or read them all from end-to-end, she could tell that there was an unacceptable amount of repetition. The audience was in danger of walking out after the first hour if she could not convince these high-flying executives to modify their approach.

Originally, Sara, as the event organizer, thought she could avoid a rehearsal to save cost and time, she now saw that this might be the only way to rapidly convince the presentation team to “adjust” their material. “Adjust”, in this case, might mean “completely rewrite” but it sounds less challenging.

Wherever possible, it makes sense for the entire event team to assemble before the event to run through the complete timetable. If this cannot be done at the venue, then find somewhere that is a close approximation to the venue in size and shape. Lay out the audience seating as you believe it will be and provide the equipment that will be available on the day. Invite along a few colleagues who can spare the time to act as the audience and provide valuable feedback.

As the event organizer, you should be most interested in the timing of each activity and, if elements of the program turn out to be too long or too short, don’t try to debate how to change them there and then. Let the entire event run its course, take copious notes about areas for improvement and then once the final words of the event have been spoken, hold a formal review meeting to discuss how the program or the timetable should be modified in order to better fit the time available.

Other review subjects may include:

• presentation content

• quality, consistency and clarity of slides

• segue design between elements

• energy levels in the audience throughout the event

If you have not run an event before, this is a useful opportunity to gauge how much time you will need to set up and dismantle everything that is to be used on the day and to plan any last minute changes that might need to be made.

Sara’s “concern” was quickly taken on board by the entire presentation team when they were given an opportunity to sit and listen to each other’s scripts during the rehearsal day and they quickly decided on a recovery strategy. As a result, on the day the event flowed effortlessly from beginning to end without noticeable repetition. According to the audience feedback, they were entertained and informed and they found the presentations to be slick and professional. Although Sara may not have been fully recognized for saving the day, she was praised for her quiet efficiency as event organizer.

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