How to Select the Right Headhunter

Before you know who a headhunter is, it is right to start with a description of who they are and what they do. A headhunter is none other than a recruiter who specializes in searching for a qualified candidates and match them with the right job post. A headhunter might be an individual working independently or an agent among many other headhunters. The headhunter agent will be specializing in certain career and mostly in a geographical area. A headhunter serves two kind of people – job seekers as well as corporations or companies. As a job seeker, you will need the services of a headhunter to help you get a job. A corporation will search for a headhunter to help it get the right member of staffs. Now you see, a headhunter’s job is wide and thus will give you an opportunity to reach your dream job.

Qualities of a Perfect Headhunter

Instead of a corporation spending huge money to advertise a job post, they can use a headhunter to help them get the right candidate. The headhunter will arrange interviews and select the best. On the other hand, instead of wasting money posting your applications, you can use a headhunter to help you get a job in the company you want. That is the reason as to why selecting the right headhunter is essential. Well, here are some of the attributes to check for to know the right headhunter for you:

1. Knowledgeable – Select a headhunter who will provide you with the information about the company he or she is working on behalf. Well, a headhunter should be able to give you information like the background of that company, the requirements of the job post, the management team, the circumstances that led to the job opening, and about the interview arrangements. The area of how the interview will be conducted, the selection process is most important. Therefore, a good headhunter will guide you through, give you high chances of succeeding in an interview until you win. It is advisable not to just concentrate on what your salary figure will be. Ask as many questions as possible concerning the job.

1. Select a recruiter who does not concentrate on your papers. If you find a recruiter who cannot ask you more questions apart from what is detailed in your resume, most likely that is not the right one. A perfect recruiter will at least be interested to know more about you. Check whether you are fit for the position. Challenge you with tough questions. When you will be answering such tough questions, do not think as if you are intimidated. In fact, these questions will assist you during the interview process. A good recruiter will be interested in your resume just to get a hint of your background like personal information, education background as well as work experience, if any. Go for a recruiter who saves his or her valuable time to get to know you, and such a recruiter is the one to go for.

1. Check for integrity. A recruiter whom you can trust is not afraid to discuss about the business with anyone. Therefore, a recruiter should have answers to any question you ask concerning how he or she does the headhunting job. Apart from concentrating too much on the business, ask some personal questions and the relationship of his personal life with recruiting. The number of work experience and area of specialization of a recruiter matters a lot. Dig more information concerning the companies a recruiter serves and the positions he or she recruits. If you find as if the recruiter is hiding some information or the answers given are not straight, you definitely know that this is not the right recruiter to trust or rely on.

Benefits of Using a Headhunter

After knowing the attributes to look for in the right recruiter, it is now time to know how beneficial a recruiter will.

• Free services – To get the services of a headhunter, you do not have to pay. Some of them require membership fee, which might not be much. On the other hand, a good headhunter will demand a certain percentage of your first salary.
• Time savers – When searching for a headhunter, it takes a short time. If you have no idea of any headhunter in your region, you can use the internet to get one. In addition, a headhunter will save you time that you would have wasted searching for a job.
• A headhunter will get his or her percentage after you are employed. As you will know, a good headhunter’s main goal is getting you a job. Therefore, a headhunter will do her best to get you an employment. Otherwise, they will not get payment.
• A headhunter will search a job on your behalf. This is advantageous because you do not have to apply to any post you see online or in the newsletter. A headhunter has the network and knows the human resource managers and they will do the walking and talking.
• Negotiate a high salary. The higher your salary the more pay they get. Therefore, a headhunter will try his or her best to get you a big salary figure.
• Interview skills improved. A headhunter will guide you on the kind of questions, how the interview will be conducted as well as guide you on how to answer the questions.

One of the major challenges we see in the industry – particularly in the storm damage replacement arena – is attrition in the sales area. One thing is undeniable: ensuring that you have the sales talent that you require, where you need it and when you need it is a constant battle.

There are two ways to get sales talent: you can hunt it down and secure it, or you can develop it yourself. A good plan generally consists of a combination of both hunting and farming.

Hunting

Many contractors make the mistake of allowing their recruiting efforts to stall out. While you may have sufficient numbers today, by the time the next storm hits you may have lost 25% or more of your sales force to attrition. Recruiting efforts should never stop completely. When you’re fully-staffed, you can ease off a bit, but you should always be seeking out top talent and bringing it on board as needed. When you consider the revenue and profit losses from just one missing salesman in a storm, it’s easy to see that a diligent, ongoing effort will more than pay for itself.

Look for a combination of candidates from traditional contractor sales, as well as candidates from outside the industry with similar, applicable skills. Above all, look for those who are in a lifestyle situation that lends itself well to the seasonal, traveling nature of this work. Too often we see people attracted to the money, but who put themselves in a situation which isn’t sustainable for the long term. This is often due to family pressures and they simply shouldn’t be in the situation in the first place. Looking for people who can pick up and go and stay on the road for a month or more at a time will help tremendously.

Farming

Another pitfall we see in the industry is that contractors hire 1099 salesmen and because of this, feel no responsibility to invest in their training. But who is really being hurt here? If your sales force could be closing at a 20% higher rate, shouldn’t you do everything you can to ensure that they do? Again, it’s in your best interest to ensure that the sales force you do have is at peak performance, so that you get the most out of every opportunity and every storm. In addition, higher performance translates into lower need for a volume of salespeople, easing the pressure to hunt down more new people all season long.

Incentives

We’re constantly advising our clients to create a situation where salespeople have every reason not to leave. From paid housing to monthly, quarterly and annual sales contests, giving away everything from digital cameras and cell phones to an iPad to a company truck, incentives go a long way toward keeping people focused on maximizing their results in both the short and long term. These friendly competitions keep people out there selling every day, so that they won’t fall behind the others. They keep them at the storms longer and get them to move more quickly and they easily pay for themselves.

Locking Talent In

When you realize an asset, make it your own. Don’t leave it out there on the free market to be taken by someone else when you can readily create programs that will instill loyalty. Consistent top sellers should be considered for W2 employment, profit sharing programs, etc which will turn them into long-term company assets.

After reading this, you probably now realize that you do have far more control over this situation than it seems. There are any number of possibilities to improve your sales force, in terms of performance, size and quality. Strong commitment to improvement in this area is the key to consistently hitting and exceeding your revenue goals.

If you’d like more information on how Airo Consulting can help you staff, train and maintain a top-performing sales team, please contact us today.