Consistency and commitment… That’s all it takes!  If a recruiter/owner were both consistent and committed they would achieve their targets over 90% of the time!  Probably 99%, but let’s be conservative!

This is easy in theory and more difficult in execution.  Recently I spent a week with my most advanced clients.  They came in two groups, the first were solo operators who are performing at a very strong level.  The next group was a group of owners whose focus is on building a business where revenue is leveraged across multiple recruiters.

Each group consisted of about 14 recruiting firm owners.  As I reflected on the meeting agenda those two words jumped out at me … consistency and commitment!  You see, for stretches of time they were consistent and committed.  Yet, some events—usually a very strong billing month/quarter/year—unraveled their focus.

Has this happened to you?  Have you gone through some tough times and consciously or unconsciously got really consistent and committed for an extended period?  That probably led to some great success weeks or months later.  Did you then find yourself “exhaling” when the placements were consummated and the invoices typed?  Did that then lead to entropy of your performance only to have the process repeat itself again and again?

There are several reasons why this happens and my clients and I have been working through these the past couple of years the result being they are minimizing the “ups and downs” of the revenue roller coaster!!

Many of you will wrongly surmise that you need more discipline.  As my coach once reminded me “you are already 100% disciplined to your existing set of habits!”  You see you already have routines.  Again, you may not even be completely aware of them.  For example do you think about what you do EVERY morning when you wake up?  Probably not… you probably have a set routine for showering, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, etc.  Similarly at your recruiting desk or in your office you probably have a similar routine.

My instinct tells me one of the habits you are completely 100% disciplined to is constantly checking emails and allowing interruptions and distractions.  Now, when things are going well, there is no short term penalty for allowing this.

On the other hand, when you are in a bit of a drought and your last fee has come in my experience is that many will significantly ramp up their production in panic mode.  How do you fix this permanently and forever?  How does one become consistent while maintaining commitment?

First, get crystal clear on you goals and your vision for yourself.  Most of you set goals.  The exercise is fun, you may even go away for a weekend with your significant other, dream about them, write them down, yet they still don’t happen--consistently.  Why?  Let me ask you, were those goals “nice-to-haves” or were they something you ardently desired, and, wait for it…. Were COMPLETELY committed to achieving?  

If you didn’t hit your goals were you extremely disappointed?  If not, I would challenge you that you were also not very committed either.  “But, Mike, how can you say that?”  For most people goals, especially “stretch goals” are nice to haves.  “Nice to haves” often cease to motivate when resistance comes into place and as recruiters we constantly face resistance!  This is also when our commitment fades.  When our commitment fades we allow more distractions and when this happens we have just begun the process of inconsistency.  See how they all tie together?

Second, after you find something you are ardently committed to achieving figure out exactly what you have to do to get it.  Here’s where most recruiters break down.  Most recruiters don’t know exactly what $300k or $500k looks like in daily and weekly activity because they don’t track their metrics!

How can one be consistent when their goal is 1 or 2 placements a month if all they know is “stay on the phone”?  As you all know placements are a function of first time interviews.  To generate first time interviews you need to speak to a certain number of candidates.  The good news is one can predict their revenue within ten percent if they track their numbers the right way.  I have studied this for over twenty years and ran my desk and my office this way and revenue was completely predictable over time.  I now do this with my clients, we set a goal (that they ardently desire), and then reverse engineer what exactly has to happen every day/week they plan on working to insure they get it.

Do they all hit it all the time? Bluntly, no.  However, we can then quickly analyze if the goal was worth pursuing and/or how to adjust our habits to achieve the target.  You see when you know EXACTLY what activity needs to be generated every month and you miss those targets for just a week or two, you can make fine tune adjustments to your desk/business.  However, my experience is that most Recruiters live on hope and wait till the year-end profit and loss statement to reveal their lack of commitment and consistency!  Decide now, don’t wait till the end of the year.

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Michael Gionta has over 20 years as an owner and billing manager.  He has ranked in the top 2 to 3% of Management Recruiters offices for several years.  As a billing manager, he ranked as high as 2nd with over $2,200,000 in annual personal production.  Additionally, Michael is sought out by recruiting firms who have plateaued and want to break through to the next level of revenue and success.