How to stay motivated in a tough market
I LOVE a "tough" market.
It's the filter that separates the wheat from the chaff.
It's where your market share can increase exponentially at the expense of crap recruiters.
But first, a reality check.
It can be hard to find the motivation when it feels like all the cards are stacked against you.
In a tough market, it's easy to get to a point where it seems:
- Every Client wants an unreasonable bargain
- Candidates have unrealistic expectations of their value.
- Most recruiters are in survival mode.
Faced with all this market negativity, how do you find the strength to stay disciplined and positive?
This article is packed with guides, strategies and tools. Make sure you level up your game and use at least two of them.
The recruitment industry is all about relationships, credibility and numbers.
If you look around this overcrowded market you’ll see recruiters struggling. The ones hit the most have the weakest relationships, credibility or activity.
You have to be up for the challenge in order to survive.
You need a plan in order to thrive.
The big commission paydays are rarer now than they’ve ever been. Your old strategy of sitting by the phone as unicorn deals came thick and fast is long gone.
Instead, the rewards are for any Recruiter who can adapt, plan and implement their strategy.
In this guide, I'll run you through specific steps to fight through the negativity and keep your desk on track.
By the end, you'll see why this market is actually the best one to work in.
Ready? Let's go...
Step 1. Breathe.
I don’t mean yoga type breathing either (although that’s useful too).
I mean take a breath, pause and recalibrate.
When market conditions become difficult the most common reaction is to panic.
Those who haven’t experienced the tough times quickly lose their way. They second guess themselves because they lack a game plan.
The gift of recruitment though is that at any point in time, you can engage in a series of actions (connecting with potential clients) that can generate a huge amount of income in the not-too-distant future (today, tomorrow or 3-9 months).
Few jobs can increase their income in a short period of time the way you can in this industry.
Step 2. Keep your glass half full.
Negativity is contagious.
As the market gets tougher, the negativity will spread throughout your office and other recruiters will want you to feel like they do.
Misery loves company as they say.
What this fails to recognise, however, is that opportunities are everywhere.
It takes courage, discipline and a strategic approach to capitalise on these opportunities.
A positive client meeting here, one great chat on the phone and before you know it, your confidence is growing as others fade.
One way you can boost this is to spend more time with positive colleagues.
You know the ones - they stay purposeful, focused and upbeat in the darkest of times.
They like to focus on solutions, not problems.
Positivity has it’s own gravity. It draws positivity in, it grows, it's contagious.
When you plant the seeds of positivity, unsurprisingly, positivity will grow.
Step 3. Be Strategic, Be Flexible
The truth about recruitment consultants who struggle in these conditions is that they don’t adapt.
They rely on the same tactics they used when the market was pumping.
They still use the process when roles were a text away and easy commissions were everywhere. The days when you could put a pumpkin in the role and still get paid.
As you review your previous strategy, ask yourself this question:
Where are the opportunities that others aren't seeing?
This will help you see why this market is better than any other to work in.
Here are a few reasons:
1) Recruitment Consultants who survive this tough market will thrive when conditions change.
This market is the pressure point for natural selection. The negative Nigels lose hope and quit the industry, leaving more opportunities for you when things get easier.
And yes - it will definitely get easier.
2) Working with one client on a vacancy creates a lot of contact time to build life long relationships with them.
Take the time to be the gold standard in service.
Roll out the red carpet while you're not working dozens of roles. Be purposeful in how you're adding value, then beat it each time.
They will remember how you made them feel.
3) Clients need you and your specific skill set in this market.
As internal talent teams look to reduce spend, they’ll use in-house expertise.
This is NOT the same level of service that you can offer.
You are a subject matter expert with domain experience and in-depth market analysis. Even if you’re not receiving a commission for a placement, being close to the source and helping HR advisors over coffee puts you in their ‘team’ of experts.
4) This is where innovation thrives.
There are more candidates available than we've seen in over a decade. You can build a massive local profile by targeting and connecting with the A grade talent.
A simple “how to shortlist faster” session, allows you to get 10s of Clients into a room or online.
You can even help refine their phone screening with this resource:
Use this to share knowledge and position yourself as the go to person in the market.
You can also get smarter by using Top Biller Club newsletters to be front of mind each week, and with minimal effort.
Here's how:
Liking this guide so far? Become a member today and start growing your desk.
Step 4. Set realistic goals
Focus on what you can influence and what you can control. Then create a plan to achieve your goals.
Remember how I said "Recruitment is about relationships, credibility and numbers?"
Now it’s time to put that last piece of the puzzle to good use.
Numbers you can control:
1) Outbound phone calls.
Look at your portfolio and all your contacts.
How many clients or candidates have you spoken to in the last 6 weeks?
20% ?
50% ?
90% ?
A common mistake is to narrow your field of focus on those you’ve had success with. Instead, broaden your search and go deeper.
Every phone call is a potential vacancy.
Every call is a potential client meeting.
Every call is a chance to map an organisation and who they deal with.
Every call can tell you who to call next.
Go through your CRM, old emails, texts, calendar invites - the works.
When a client moved jobs, who replaced them? Who did they report to? Who do they report to now? Which other business units are connected to their delivery and are they hiring?
Remember, 'No' in the recruitment industry is a temporary status.
Your next 'Yes' could be a phone call away.
This step is a real stumbling block for recruiters low on confidence.
They get ‘call reluctance’ and find it too difficult to pick up the phone.
They overanalyse the situation and get paralysis by analysis. “What should I say?” “What if they don’t want to speak to me?”. Before they know it, another week has gone by.
Here's how to break this challenge down:
- Spend 5 mins doing homework on the Client's goals.
- Relate it to problems you’ve solved previously and how they might benefit from this knowledge.
- Book a coffee catch up.
This article contains industry leader insights on why you should chase client meetings:
- Call conversion rates
How many calls are you making per Client meeting?
Review your phone pitch including the tone, language and value offering.
Remember, you’re a subject matter expert. You can help solve their problems simply by offering an external perspective.
Your cold call rates versus warm leads will have different conversion rates. Goes without saying but management of expectations is fine here.
Be ambitious though and set a goal of 3x your current conversion rates.
Look for opportunities to fine tune each conversation to maximise the value add to Clients. Let the rest of your processes kick in from there.
- How many touch points do you have with your Clients/Candidates?
Are you sending your database an email newsletter using Top Biller Club content?
Are you creating LinkedIn posts, reels, substack articles?
This is an easy win for you to create a touch point consistently and at scale.
You can be front of mind for hundreds (if not thousands) of Clients, Candidates and talent teams every, single, week.
Share Top Biller Club content to position yourself as the expert, with minimal effort.
- How often are you strategically floating candidates?
Another low hanging fruit is to float star candidates more regularly, or at the very least, more tactfully.
You should float at least 2 candidates per week.
Each time you do this, you demonstrate your ability to find quality talent. This increases your reputation and credibility.
Sometimes you can even solve a pain point for talent teams before the issue presents itself.
Step 5. Influence and Interest
Spend 30 minutes crafting a list of as many potential contacts as you can.
DO NOT FOCUS ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF FINDING A VACANCY.
This rigid thinking stops relationships from starting and vacancies landing on your desk.
Instead, look at organisations increasing their hires, additional budget to spend or high staff churn.
Growth sectors and government ministries are always in the news. This information needs to be gathered, analysed and leveraged to your benefit.
Map them out on a matrix of Influence vs Interest.
It's a wickedly powerful network prioritisation tool that should be part of your problem solving toolbox.
You can find an Influence vs Interest walk through guide here, in one of the toughest challenges to crack - finding budget for the role:
Review your processes.
Use the time to review your processes to improve them.
Simple measures like Timeboxing (identified by Harvard Business Review as the #1 way to improve productivity) can make all the difference.
What can you streamline?
What is no longer fit for purpose?
What are you missing from your toolbox?
While others are in full panic mode, take the time and optimise your desk. 'Future You' will thank you for it.
Conclusion
Focus on what you can control.
Identify what you can do and what is out of your control.
Develop a plan and the actionable steps.
Now implement them.
Judge your day and your week by whether you achieve the goals you set for yourself. When you get your activity level right, the sales (and commission) will come.
Take advantage of this market. It's tailored made for you to become the Top Biller.
We wish you every success,
The Top Biller Club
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