If you are recruiter what you are about to discover will add thousands to billings and increase your personal earnings so please read all of this.

John Lennon decided he wanted a swimming pool for his house; so he sat down to write a hit song that would generate the funds necessary to pay for it.

Depending on which version of the story you get, the result was ‘Imagine.’

“Imagine” is written and performed by John Lennon and is the best-selling single of his solo career, its lyrics encourage the listener to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisiveness of religions and nationalities.

This story is cynical, funny, a little subversive, and inspiring at the same time.

I find the story inspiring because there’s an innate sense of personal empowerment in it (embodied by Lennon), which essentially says: ‘go get it.’ It’s a sense of empowerment that Recruitment/Search firm owners can learn from.

I’m telling this story because I’ve recently had discussions with two partners in a Search firm in Australia who are facing a crisis as they had a tax bill for $40k. 

I challenged each of them with the question: 

“Why don’t you get your clients to pay the bill?”

“Whuddya mean?” (Imagine that in an Australian accent) 

Faced with a massive tax bill, the challenge for both of them is to ‘write a swimming pool.’

In other words, set and achieve short-term turn-around goals, which will provide the money to pay the tax bill. 

So here was the plan that they put together and executed that generated the fees to pay their $40k tax bill and have 10K left over in additional revenue.

Feel free to copy and implement into your business if you would like additional revenue. But whatever you do, do not tell your competitors.

1.   Make a list of your top 20% of clients. These are the ones responsible for 80% of your fees and profits. 

Pick up the phone and call them, and ask them what they need in terms of attracting top candidates and what challenges are they facing trying to get the top candidates in the industry. 

You could ask it like this…. 

If I could help you over come the number one challenge when recruiting (insert job Title) what would that be.

“What would be your number two challenge?”

Then ask them…

“What are the implications for the business if this was to continue?”

Then ask them…

“And what are the implications for them on a personal level if this problem was to continue” 

Don’t try and sell them on anything — just ask what they need and the implications of not getting what they need. Ask the question, then shut up and listen. Speak only if it is to ask more questions to get more information.

I’ve heard it said, “God gave us two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionately.” And it is sound advice.
So shut up and listen to what they tell you.

When you’ve done that and got the info, go away and figure out at least 3 ways of getting them what they need. 

Then call them right back.
But here’s what you say: 

“Hi Fred, I was just thinking about what you said about your recruitment problems, and I’ve done some thinking and a bit of asking around, and you’re going to be delighted when I reveal I’ve found 3 ways this can be solved for you, so that you can concentrate on the rest of your business.”

Or words to that effect.

Bit of advice here; don’t call him Fred unless he’s really called that, obviously. If you’re talking to a lady, she’s almost certainly not going to be called Fred. 

Use the real name and the real problem, right?
Here’s the thing: some of these people you won’t have to call back because you’ll get some business right there and then on the phone. Something will come out in some of the conversations, you’ll start talking about solutions... and bingo!
You’ve got business.

Now these two partners were reluctant to say the least in doing this, despite the massive tax bill hanging over them. My response was “if you have a way to get the money for your tax bill then do that, there is no shame in not having money, the shame is in not doing anything about it.”

Of course they didn’t have any alternative method for generating the business, so they figured what have we got to lose by doing this.

The result was they picked up two retained assignments and did a deal with an interim agency to supply one Interim manager for 6 months and split the profits 50-50.

Thing is, you don’t have to stop with the phone. You can, and maybe should take them out for dinner and have the same conversation — ask them what their problems are and what they need but aren’t getting and then just sit and listen. 

None of this is rocket science. All of it works.

What I’ve just shared with you is the quickest and easiest way to tap into the vast wealth present in your list of past and present buyers. 

While most recruiters are looking for new business, this is not the same as looking for new customers and clients — because as we all know and have all proven over, and over again, the easiest and most profitable sales you will ever make are to the people we’ve already sold to before. 

So don’t neglect this fertile area of your business and build yourself a “swimming pool.”