I lit my cigarette and took a hit. The morning was cooler than I thought even though the sun shone big and bold in the sky. I shivered. Dang it, I thought. Forgot my jacket again.
I looked up and there she was -- a vision of beauty and light in a white jump suit, lit up in the sun's wake.
I hadn't see her for years, but I tried to keep my cool. I stroked my goatee as if I were bored.
"Hi ya' Doll-face."
"Hi Jerry, how ya' been?"
"Swell but not yet swelling," I said nonchalantly. I took another drag on my smoke.
Doll-face crossed her arms across her chest. "Funny guy as always. I thought I'd find you in your office puffin' away on those cancer sticks."
"New law; no more smoking inside. Dang health-nut do-gooders."
Doll-face's smirk morphed to dismay. "Jerry, I'm in a pickle. Software sales are down at my firm and we're having a tough time findin' qualified leads. You know, those elusive HR buyers. Our marketing team's got the visibility and traffic covered with content campaigns, but most the so-called leads we're generating are colder than week-old pike on ice."
Week-old pike on ice, I thought. This is serious. I pushed my hat back off my forehead.
"And our sales team can close but we can't find the right buyers. Can you help us?"
I flicked my butt away and exhaled a smoke ring within a smoke ring within a smoke ring. "Listen Doll-face, if we can agree on my terms, then I'll find these fickle HR buyers for you and do it before you can bat those baby blues."
"Your terms? The last time you said that I lost my shirt, if you know what I mean."
I laughed. "My way or the highway, Doll-face. You know I'll get to gettin' and get it done."
Doll-face frowned. "You know, I can just start using social media more for free and find who I'm looking for there."
I shook my head. "First off, ain't nothin' that's free. Second, do you really think these folks all are online? I'll bet you most of your HR buyers still aren't even on LinkedIn yet."
Doll-face pondered this one. I smiled.
"Okay, Jerry. Let's talk turkey. You know, I've missed you. You're the coolest closer I know," she said, throwing her arms around me.
"Well, Doll-face, I don't call it the Hip-Cat Recruiter Detective Agency for nothin'."
I winked at the camera.
***
And, end scene.
I spent the last two days at TRU USA being blown away by the marketing and sales savvy recruiters have. (Thank you Geoff, Bill and Maha! And Julia *black widow* from BizWerks!)
Good recruiters. No, great recruiters. Recruiters who know how to source, cold call, warm up and close a prospect with nothing more than a paper clip, a rubber band and a phone.
I mean, I dabbled in sourcing and recruiting when I first got into the HR marketplace, but mercy the mad skills they have over my marketing ones. I'm telling you.
I know there are a lot of targeted marketing tools and skills that help with lead-gen, but how many times do we have to talk about 500 week-old pikes on ice versus 5 highly target qualified buyers?
Yes, you still need to have a broad ongoing marketing strategy to generate publicity, traffic, leads and improve your SEO.
But as look for ways to identify new targeted qualified leads, don't forget:
- To build relationships everywhere you turn. Period.
- To nurture that sales prospect pipeline -- the one you generate with ongoing marketing -- and keep marketing to the pipeline.
- To focus on flipping the funnel and spend time nurturing and retaining your own customers and less time neglecting them for 500 week-old pikes on ice.
- To ask your customers why they bought and use that info instead of spending all your time finding out why the others didn't.
- To target your customers' customers and competitors and partners -- referrals within referrals within referrals.
- To use social media to find prospects and influencers and build relationships while remembering that many of your buyers from SMB aren't playing in those channels yet.
And in a world where hiring is still flat, irregular and erratic, why not think about adding out-of-work or struggling recruiters to your lead-gen sales teams?
I know larger companies have already got in-house demo setters and pre-qualifiers and lead nurturers on their sales teams, but for most smaller to mid-size firms I say think about it. It's gonna cost you more, but from what I've seen they'll find the secret HR supplier buyer.
According to Marie Journey, that's the secret sauce.
Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)
Labels: marketing, recruiting, social media, sourcing, TRU USA
I lit my cigarette and took a hit. The morning was cooler than I thought even though the sun shone big and bold in the sky. I shivered. Dang it, I thought. Forgot my jacket again.