Providing positive experiences for people is one of the biggest factors in generating recruitment referrals. And the best thing about these types of referrals is that you don’t even have to ask for them—they’re self-perpetuating. That means the person tells other people about you without you having to prompt them.
The reason: the experience that you gave them was so positive, you’ve stayed at the top of their mind. Consequently, when one of their friends or colleagues encounters a problem or situation that you helped them with, they’re more than happy to drop your name and give you a ringing endorsement.
In fact, what you’ve created is a sales force, people who will “sell” you for free. It’s the ultimate recruitment campaign, as grass roots as they come and arguably the most effective. It’s certainly the most effective in terms of the amount of time, energy, and money you have to expend in order to launch it. All it takes is the proper mindset and a commitment to providing a positive experience for everybody you talk with or meet on a daily basis.
Furthermore, even if you DO ask these people for a referral, they will be infinitely more likely to give you one. You’ll notice that referral reluctance will decline . . . and that’s a good thing, in any economy.
“Differentiation” and recruitment referrals
As you might imagine, this has a personal application, in addition to its role in recruiting and in business. By providing positive experiences to the other people in your life, you draw them to you and strengthen the relationships you have with them. The principles and action steps outlined above are the same, and the results are the same, as well.
In general terms, the rules are simple. People like to be around those who provide them with a positive experience. They like to interact with them and like to talk with them.
On the other hand, they will go out of their way to avoid those who provide them with a negative experience. After all, there’s a seemingly unending supply of people who specialize in giving negative experiences. They don’t need another.
So what experience do YOU provide—for candidates, hiring managers, and even other recruiters?
Recruiting is is a “people-centric” business. People are the key to success, and to ignore the human element or to downplay it will only hamper your efforts. But by paying close attention to giving people what they want, you’ll stand out in the crowd and set yourself apart.
“Differentiation” has always been a big buzz word in the business world. How are you different from your competition?
What makes YOU stand out?
Forget for a moment about the specific services that you offer. Think instead about the overall experience. Is your competition providing a better one?
What can you do to ensure that what you provide is the best experience possible? Placements have been made and lost because of a lack of attention to giving a candidate or hiring manager the best experience. Of all the reasons to lose a placement, that is the one that’s the most preventable.
Start to build more loyalty with an approach that emphasizes positive communication, low-pressure interaction, and targeted problem-solving. Loyalty is a commodity that’s valuable in any market, whether it’s a boom time or a down time.
Position yourself correctly for the rest of this year and beyond. Focus on providing everything that a candidate or hiring manager might want—in other words, the complete experience—and you can bolster your recruiting business.
Generating recruitment referrals through training
If you’re an agency recruiter or search consultant and you’re looking to generate more recruitment referrals for making placements, you can do so with continuous training and education. The good news is that we can help with the Top Echelon Expert Recruiter Coaching Series of webinars!
These webinars are conducted by some of the most popular trainers in the recruiting and staffing industry on the second Tuesday or Wednesday of every month. If you register for a live webinar and can not attend, we record the session so that you can access it at a later date. These recorded versions are then posted on our website as free recruitment training courses in the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Library.
Top Echelon’s coaching series of webinars addresses the fundamentals of the recruiting and staffing profession. They also include the latest tips, trends, and strategies in the industry. These topics deal with candidates, clients, and sometimes both, depending upon the speaker and their areas of specialization and expertise. As always, our goal with these webinars (and corresponding videos) is to help agency recruiters and search consultants make more placements.
Training videos about recruitment referrals
Below are two of the videos in the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Library that deal with recruitment referrals. Click on the title of each video for access.
- “Capturing Candidate Loyalty: Three Ways to Keep Hot Candidates” by Scott Love
- “Personal Branding: Your Secret to More Applications and Better Candidates” by Scott Bialy
In addition to training and webinars, Top Echelon offers other recruiting solutions. These solutions include the following:
- Big Biller recruiter software
- Top Echelon recruiting network
Find out more about the recruitment tools that Top Echelon offers to agency recruiters and search consultants!