Tracking business development in recruitment is all about consistency, automation and personalisation.
If your recruitment agency is seeing significant fluctuations in the business coming in month to month it might be time to examine how you track and prioritise your business development efforts.
Our team recently did a bunch of research into how recruitment agencies and professionals conduct business development and we uncovered some common mistakes that we see time and time again.
Check out the five common mistakes that crop up when conducting and tracking business development in recruitment below.
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1. Not tracking your recruitment agency’s business development leads consistently
Many recruiters track their business development leads in multiple locations, whether it’s in an applicant tracking software (ATS) or in an Excel spreadsheet or just written down in their notes on their desk.
The human brain can’t collate all these different sources in a meaningful way, it’s crucial that recruiters use one central source for their business development leads.
By collating these leads in one place, it will be easier to track what leads are coming in each month and how they’re progressing.
2. Adopting a scattershot approach to your recruitment agency’s business development
We’ve all been on the receiving end of unwanted spam emails hitting “select all” on their contact list.
Sending an impersonal and unsolicited email will do more hard than good. Fun fact, repeatedly sending mass emails out can actually harm your email reputation, meaning any email you send could automatically end up in a spam folder.
If your recruiters are taking a scattershot approach to their business development, where they’re sending out mass emails and just hoping to get some responses back, then it’s not going to be effective.
Business development in recruitment needs to be targeted and personalised to the prospects you’re reaching out to.
3. Not prioritising business development properly
With leads all over the place, and sparse details about how far each lead has progressed, how can you prioritise?
Each day, prioritise the business development opportunities that are nearest to close, then work your way back.
If you’re not prioritising these leads and nurturing them, then you’re going to see significant dips in revenue each month as you scramble to find new opportunities.
4. Not following up on your business development efforts
You should always have a follow up when conducting business development in recruitment.
At the end of each call, meeting or interaction you have with a lead, there should always be a follow-up task.
Even if that task is to call the lead back in a few months, it’s important to set tasks for yourself so you make the most of the leads you have. So many deals go stale because no follow ups were booked in.
5. Not warming up your cold calling
Everybody hates cold calling, it’s awkward and can be pretty demoralising. Shake things up by ensuring your cold calls are as warm as possible.
Know who you’re talking to, take the time to go through your database to see any notes or info you already have on your prospect.
If they are brand new, do your due diligence and research them!
Whether you’re avoiding these common mistakes yourself or teaching your agency’s recruiters to avoid these mistakes, keep these tips in mind and boost your business development in recruitment game!
Discover more about boosting and tracking your recruitment agency’s business development with our Opportunity Pipeline module.
Ready to take your recruitment agency’s business development to the next level?
