How much do you share with employees regarding sales numbers? Specific to the overall revenue target or just the number of placements tracked by first-time interviews, marketing presentations, and recruiting presentations? Most curious people will be good at basic math, but as an owner, I've held revenue targets tightly. Thoughts? Trevor. 

Well, Trevor, you might want to discuss that with your mindset coach. It is a great question. I did not share profit and loss statements with my recruiters. I am not saying I should not have because there is still a debate. I did say here is our goal as a company. First, lets' discuss how to motivate your recruiters to hit the company revenue goals.

I remember the first time I set a goal of $2 million, and we had done $1.1 million. This was the late 1990s – when I first really started adapting metrics. I could not do it with the existing team in place, but we hired a bunch of people in the 4th quarter. I had a peer group that said the plan was too aggressive. It worked out to 16 interviews a week. We were already doing 12 or 13, and the new people had not yet begun producing.

This is a little deeper than your question, but I share this because I want to show how I thought. If you are growing a team, you will do less in the 1st quarter and more in the 4th quarter because you are ramping up production. For us to say we will have 16 interviews a week over a year to hit $2 million, this is what we have to do. We will not go from 10 to 16 interviews/week next week. In the 1st quarter, it was, okay, I have got these new people that came on in November, they are going to be producing a couple of interviews a week, and I might lose one, so we are going to go from 10 to 14 straight away if my production from my existing recruiters does not change.

We ended up doing in that year $2.5 million. Not only did we blow through the 80% or 90%, but I also kept using the revenue we were producing to fuel the investments in my firm on the marketing side with search associates that fueled the growth. That was the year I became completely comfortable falling back and trusting metrics versus waiting for placements to happen and waiting for the money to come in before investing in our growth. I just said, okay, at our current 10 interviews a week, it is going to produce this much revenue. As these people come on board, it will go to 14 interviews a week. That is going to create this kind of revenue. I had to sell myself.

To your question, what do you share? I shared all of it with them. It motivates them because they are not responsible for the 16 interviews. I am. They are responsible for their 2 interviews. They would all say their goal was 2 interviews a week.  

But now, here is how it ties into the bigger picture. Last year at The RecruiterU, we started the President's Club, which rewards the $300,000 and over producers. We are going to go to Punta Cana this year. Now the owners pay for that, just like I did when I was a franchisee. It helps to tie a reward of going on a trip to their production goals. I could sit down with somebody. Let's say you were averaging $240,000 or $250,000, and $300,000 is the qualifier. Say, okay, if you want to go on the trip this year, you need another $60,000 in production. If your average fee is $20,000, 3 placements times 8 interviews is 24 more interviews per year or one more interview every 2 weeks. I need to know if you want that because then I can take 0.5 off my goal of 16, knowing I can count on you, Mr. or Ms. Recruiter.  

I am answering this question in such a long-winded way, Trevor, because I get to tie how much their production contributes to growing the team. You may want to consider doing that. We have many clients, especially in Platinum - Platinum is the group of owners that want to scale - that run short-term contests to spike first-time interviews.

Several clients have mini-trips where they go away for a long weekend to a resort. They say the office has to get X interviews, and each recruiter has to get at least Y interviews. If the office succeeds, based on the number of interviews - never based on billings (you have to know in your soul that the interviews always lead to the placements)- for a 4 to 6-month contest.

Net, net, net, to answer your question, share the revenue goals. I am not saying share the profit and loss. I am not saying don't share the profit and loss. Here is the vision for the firm this year. Here is our revenue target, how many people I need to hire, where I need your help, and where I need your commitment. It was incredibly motivating for team members when they could produce individually yet feel like they were part of something bigger.  

That is a great question.