Challenge your Clients

But don’t break the relationship!

Classic call, you can hear it now can’t you? ‘well when am I going to get feedback? Why haven’t you come back to me? You said this role was urgent’ (said in a frustrated tone). It happens every day, in every office, all over the world, when the client isn’t playing ball. However are these messages delivered in a way that is going to make or break the client-recruiter relationship? I spoke about the importance of training Rookies in Emotional Intelligence in my last blog post and this is a classic example of how some recruiters fail to keep their emotions in check and end up damaging relationships with their clients.

Why is it Top Billers have the ability to ask the uncomfortable questions though? To voice their 6^th sense when others don’t? To give the difficult message? Broken promises are common in recruitment (from client, candidate and recruiter) but do they always get addressed and in the right way? No. How does this impact our industry?

Here are 3 classic situations I find when training recruiters, I am sure you can add to these and I hope you do by posting some additional comments below.

1. Situation – CV’s sent, no feedback for 3 weeks and then 2 interview requests out of the blue

Recruiter thinks – brilliant, result. Hope my candidates are still up for it.

Top Biller says to client – I have noticed a break-down in communication between us. At this point I am not sure my candidates are still available, however before we move forward I would like to discuss how we can ensure communication improves between us?

1. Interviews have taken place but no specific feedback from the client

Recruiter thinks – Gutted. I thought that was a deal.

Top Biller says to client – Let’s be honest, I am chasing you every day and my candidate is chasing me. No one wants to be chased and I am sure you are really busy, as am I. What is the real reason behind the delay in us getting feedback? I want to be your partner but in order to do that and give you the best service possible we need to be transparent with each other.

1. Client says role is urgent and then gives no feedback on CV’s sent

Recruiter thinks – are they wasting my time or what? I thought they said urgent

Top Biller says to client – You said to me this role was urgent because of X reason and the impact on your business would be Y if you didn’t get someone to start on Z date. What is the situation now? Where is this role in your list of priorities?

Of course with all of the above messages, the key here is the voice tonality. Using a tone that is calm, respectful and encourages the other person to engage in dialogue is critical. However the hidden message behind them from the Top Biller is ‘respect me, I know what I am doing, be honest with me, my time is as important as yours and by the way I will hold you to account if you don’t follow through on our agreements’. That is how respect is built. If behaviour goes unchallenged we are giving the message that ‘it is ok to treat me like that, you are more important than me’. Some recruiters try to deliver the message but it is done with emotion, usually frustration and then they end up by doing more harm than good and the client just thinks they are being pushy. There is an art to challenging someone and them seeing the benefit of you doing it!

Let’s give Rookies all of the resources they need to be successful, knowing the recruitment process is just as important as being able to empathise, challenge, listen to our gut feelings and hear the words not being said. Delivering difficult messages isn’t easy but it is a key part of recruitment, let’s ensure Rookies have the skill to do so in a way that builds relationships, after all, it is not what you say but how you say it.