Five top tips for success in recruitment

It’s extremely important to remember that practice makes perfect

In this article Max Mackin, CEO of BlackFox Solutions and Reactive Recruitment explores five secrets to success that all recruitment professionals need to know in this fast-paced industry.

1.) Know your product

A strong knowledge of how the recruitment process works will help a recruiter to adapt their sales presentation skills to a candidates or a client’s needs. There are a million things that can happen or go wrong during a recruitment process. Recruiters are there to fill a need that the customer is struggling with, whether it’s looking to employ someone or helping someone find a new role, you have to be able to listen to what they want and adapt your service to their needs.

2.) Repetition is fundamental

It’s extremely important to remember that practice makes perfect. If you ever watch a professional sportsperson and marvel at how they achieve such high standards, it’s because of years of practice. So when it’s time to deliver , it looks effortless. The same applies to the recruitment process, you have to learn your stuff before you start making money. You have to work hard at the little things, canvassing, prospecting, passive candidate selection etc. You need to be good at the basics before you start winning placements effectively, which will always take time, there is no short cut to success in recruitment.

3.) Be prepared for setbacks

Working in the recruitment world varies from day to day, some weeks everything will go wrong. Other weeks you just need a few wins to make it a good week. To be successful in recruitment you must positively and pro-actively be able to deal with setbacks, so if things go wrong, use it as a learning tool, (ask yourself ‘what could I have done better? Or ‘what could I have done sooner?) Every job has setbacks, so always shake it off and move on.

4.) Learn from your mistakes

Maintain the mentality that a mistake is not a failure if you have learned something from it. There will be plenty of people and situations that will try to knock you back. Being easily demotivated in this type of work is not an option, it’s how you react that will determine your overall, long-term success. Expect knock backs, they do happen, but also try and learn why they happened and apply what you learned to future deals.

5.) Success is a journey and not a destination

It’s extremely important to not get complacent, always strive to do more than the guy next to you. If you have had a few successes and earned money from commission, it’s easy to let complacency set in. So it’s extremely important to keep evaluating how proactive you are, if your aim is to earn more money, then you need to remain productive. Getting too comfortable is when things will go south, always maintain a work ethic that involves doing the basics, but always doing them often and to a high standard.

Recruiters love this COMPLETE set of Accredited Recruitment & HR Training – View Training Brochure

Comment on this story

The British Institute of Recruiters is the Professional Body operating The Recruitment Certification Scheme

Send this to a friend