From Corporate Finance to Solo Recruitment Success With Natalie Wells
Tuesday, September 17, 2024 • Duration 47:12
Welcome to the Recruitment, Marketing and Sales Podcast. I’m Sharon Newey, and today, I’m thrilled to bring you an insightful conversation with Natalie Wells, a super successful finance recruiter who has successfully transitioned from corporate life to running her own independent recruitment business.
In this episode, Natalie shares her unique journey from her beginnings in actuarial science to becoming a sought-after finance recruiter. Her path is not the typical one, and her success is a testament to the possibilities in our industry.
We delve into the dramatic changes she’s witnessed in the industry over the past 25 years and explore her people-centric approach to recruitment, which has led to remarkably long-lasting placements.
Whether you’re a seasoned recruiter considering going solo or a business owner looking to improve your hiring process, Natalie’s experiences and strategies offer valuable lessons.
She provides a candid look at the challenges and rewards of independent recruitment and shares her vision for the future of our industry.
Get ready for an engaging discussion filled with practical advice and inspiring insights. Natalie’s experiences and strategies offer valuable lessons that can enlighten your understanding of the recruitment industry and inspire your own professional journey.
Where it All Started
I started my career in finance after studying maths and statistics. Because career advice was limited back then, I followed the traditional path into actuarial science. After a few years in a global insurer, I realised I wanted to work more closely with people.
Unlike many who fall into recruitment, I took a considered approach. I engaged a careers consultant, and we concluded that financial recruitment or training would suit me best.
I joined a large corporate recruiter, benefiting from their excellent training. Over the next 25 years, I witnessed massive changes in the industry. When I started, we didn’t have mobile phones or email. Business was done via landlines, and shortlists were printed, posted, or faxed. The recruiting process wasn’t necessarily longer, but there was less white noise to cut through.
Adapting To Industry Changes
LinkedIn’s arrival disrupted our industry, making extensive databases available to anyone. This shift and my growing focus on working with business owners of growing SMEs led me to consider going independent. I found myself increasingly in situations where I’d qualify a client’s needs, only to realise the role fell outside my remit in the corporate structure.
I decided to simplify my approach and focus on the client, their business, and how to help them grow. I wanted to invest time in nurturing individuals’ careers. With LinkedIn in full flight and clients buying into the individual rather than the corporate brand, there was no reason not to go independent.
Building Successful Client Relationships
My approach to recruitment is people-centric. I treat everyone as an individual with their own vulnerabilities, wants, and needs. By getting someone to know, like, and trust me, I can ensure the solution I provide addresses their needs. This works particularly well with business owners.
I’m not interested in ‘bums on seats’ recruitment. I’m concerned with how the individual I place will contribute to the business in five years. My placements tend to last 5-8 years, with some retiring after 20 years. Understanding the company’s culture, leadership personality, and values is crucial. It’s about finding candidates who can share and buy into that vision.
The Importance Of Thorough Stakeholder Engagement
Before starting the recruitment process, I interview all stakeholders for senior roles like FDs. This includes direct reports, internal customers, and non-executive directors. It helps me understand the issues, test the quality of relationships at the top table, and shape the job spec.
This detailed approach means the actual interview process can be quick. For more junior roles, I still ensure I understand who’s involved in the interview process and get a feel for their needs and expectations. This allows me to address pain points upfront and helps line managers get more comfortable with their decisions.
The Challenges And Rewards Of Independent Recruitment
As an independent recruiter, I’m particular about who I work with. I work on a sole agency basis and get paid for what I do. If I sense that I care more about getting it right than the client, I walk away. This approach has led to some challenging situations, like having to advise withdrawing an offer to a candidate who seemed perfect on paper but raised cultural red flags.
Looking to the future, I believe technology will continue to play a crucial role in recruitment. However, it won’t replace the human elements of building relationships with business owners and helping people nurture their careers. It can take away much of the transactional heavy lifting, but the personal touch remains crucial.
Balancing Act: Love, Family, and Building Ice Recruitment
Monday, September 9, 2024 • Duration 49:04
Having worked with Rachel and Neo as their marketing partner, I’ve always been fascinated by their journey with Ice Recruitment.
Their story of building a successful business while handling the complexities of a husband-wife partnership is inspiring.
I decided to record this podcast because their experiences offer valuable insights for other recruitment business owners, especially those considering working with their partners.
Rachel and Neo’s candid discussion about their challenges, triumphs, and personal growth provides a unique perspective on entrepreneurship and relationships.
Their journey from a crisis-driven start-up to a thriving 16-year-old business is not just about recruitment strategies; it’s a testament to resilience, adaptability, and the power of shared values.
I hope this conversation will inspire and guide others in our industry, showing that it’s possible to blend personal and professional lives with the right approach successfully.
So, let’s dive into the Ice Recruitment story and learn from this remarkable couple who’ve mastered the art of building a business and a life together.
The Birth of Ice Recruitment
The idea for Ice Recruitment came about when Rachel and Neo wanted to start their own business. They come from families where both sets of parents had their businesses, so it seemed like a logical step. Due to family commitments, Rachel had left recruitment and was freelancing while their children were younger, while Neo was working in the city.
In 2008, the financial crisis hit, and Neo lost his job. Getting another role at Neo’s level was difficult, so they set up their own business. They combined Neo’s sales and technology background with Rachel’s recruitment background.
Over a coffee in Starbucks, Ice Recruitment was born.
Rachel explains, “We naturally combined Neo’s background in sales and technology with my background in recruitment. Over a coffee in Starbucks, Ice recruitment was set up pretty much as quickly as that. We lasted longer than Starbucks. That’s not there anymore.”
Investing in Recruitment Marketing: A Guide For Business Owners
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 • Duration 31:33
One of the best parts of my job is chatting with recruitment business owners daily. Each has unique challenges, but I often hear a common theme: business growth is slowing down. Market dynamics are always shifting, impacting different sectors in various ways.
Many owners have relied heavily on their existing clients, who, until recently, consistently provided business and referrals. However, this year, we have seen a dip in business volume from these clients and a significant drop in referrals, slowing growth.
So investing in your marketing is a good idea, yes?
Then, what do you need to consider.
Pinpointing the Core Problem
The core issue here is the need for more clients and jobs. While we can see the symptoms—a decrease in roles from existing clients and fewer referrals—the real challenge is not knowing how to generate new business and create demand for their services in today’s market, which is the purpose of marketing in any company.
Exploring different investment options is crucial for overcoming the lack of growth. Each strategy requires a unique approach tailored to your business’s needs and circumstances. Here are some to consider:
Reskilling the Team and Upgrading Your Tech
One option is to invest in reskilling your team, especially in business development (BD) activities. Many teams haven’t done BD for years and could use some updated training. Boosting these skills can rejuvenate efforts to attract new business.
Investing in technology can also increase productivity. Automating processes, implementing advanced tools, and streamlining operations will free up time for strategic activities like BD.
Self-Investment
As a business owner, investing in personal development through coaching or mentoring can spark new ideas and growth strategies. This can help you evaluate your business models, services and sectors and gain fresh insights to drive your business forward.
Marketing Investment
You know marketing is a topic close to my heart. Investing in marketing is crucial for creating demand and attracting new clients. Effective strategies are key to sustained growth, whether outsourcing marketing efforts or building internal capabilities.
Food Recruit Search and Selection Are Smashing Their Target Every Month
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 • Duration 18:24
Today we share with you an interview with one of our clients. This is with an amazing guy called Scott Williams, who has a recruitment company based in the Midlands. Scott works in a very buoyant, challenging market. He joined Superfast Circle towards the back end of last year and is one massive action taker.
Scott was a very brave soul and set up his company in 2020, just before the pandemic landed on us. However, he’s doing incredibly well. Since he’s been working with us, he’s hit his target already, four months into the year. Obviously, he now knows he needs to increase that but he jumped on everything that we do and is a really fast implementer. I thought it might be interesting for you to hear his story of some of his challenges, what he’s done, and how he’s managed to nail his market.
Introduction
Scott Williams started Food Recruit Search and Selection in 2020 and specialises in the food manufacturing industry.
Scott has been in the industry since 2007 and has a wealth of experience in the sector. His focus now is working with professionals in the industry from engineers through to CEO and C-Suite hires.
As a business owner, what was “it” like before you joined Superfast Circle?
I launched Food Recruit in September 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, and I thought the only way was up. Obviously, recruitment is evergreen; it was only ever going to get busier. And like with any other business owner, as you say, I was spinning multiple plates, from the website to HMRC, and the most important part of that was marketing. The landscape in my industry is very competitive.
You have to be unique. You have to have your message and personality behind it, but my job is to fill roles, and marketing is a major part of my role.
The first year was about trying to keep my head above water and marketing, was very important to my strategy. Finding the time to do it was very stressful.
What specific marketing problem were you looking to solve?
Year one was all about establishing the name, getting Food Recruit out there and making a noise in the market.
Then, as you progress into year two, you have to start putting stronger foundations in place, which is branding and marketing, but along with marketing, it’s also about your message.
How did you find Superfast Recruitment?
What made you decide to join Superfast Circle?
While you have only been a member for a short time, what have you been able to achieve so far? What were your most significant benefits/results?
What have you been able to put in place so far?
What has been your experience of the resources available to you as a member of SFC?
What is it like to work with Denise and Sharon?
From the extra level of marketing you’ve been doing, what have you noticed so far?
What would you tell someone in a similar position who is considering joining Superfast Circle?
Marketing Basics to Move Your Forward
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 • Duration 22:01
[Excuse any strange typing errors; this is a direct transcription for your benefit.]
Today we’re talking about five marketing basics to action in your recruitment business.
As a first start, download our recruitment marketing audit checklist on our website, which will be incredibly useful.
Download it from http://www.superfastrecruitment.co.uk/mcl. Please put your Name and email address in, and it will download for you; 30 questions will help you as you start to think about the basics of marketing.
I have five particular areas to share with you. Before I do, let’s stand back and think about why we market in the first place. Marketing is about creating demand; the more demand you have for you and your products and service in the market that fulfil a need of your clients and candidates, the more successful you will be.
This is critical as we are in a particularly competitive environment.
In the U.K. alone, 7,000 new recruitment companies registered last year. Many people are also expanding, which means more competition, so you need to stand out and be distinctive. These are fundamentals you need to nail because you have to stand out in the environment today.
In light of the last few years, you have to market yourself to become the recruiter of choice in people’s minds.
Let’s talk about these basics.
1. Your Recruiting Sector
Decide on your particular area of expertise and where you’re working. For example, if you are a tech recruiter, which particular tech areas are you going to work with?
What is your particular sector?
Where is it that you can add the most value?
Where is the market growing?
When we launched our own business, we provided services to anybody and everybody in coaching and consulting because of our corporate background. However, we decided to work in the recruitment sector, because it was an area that we enjoyed.
2. Your Recruiting Offer
3. Your Promotional Messaging
4. Your Added-Value Content
5. Your Website
Summary
How We Can Help
7 Content Assets For Recruitment Marketers
Wednesday, April 6, 2022 • Duration 24:27
Today, we’re talking about content assets, what they are and how they might work. I’m going to share seven assets that would be useful for you to create as a recruitment marketer or business owner that wants to take their business forward.
If you’re new here, welcome. There are transcriptions for most of our podcasts which you’ll find if you go over to superfastrecruitment.co.uk/blog. You will also find information about Superfast Circle, our membership program.
Candidates are still, in theory, in short supply. So, what do you need to do to become a magnet to those people so that they will start to work and engage with you? Content assets are the way.
What is a Content Asset?
Over time, it compares to owning an investment property where the value grows over time. We create it once, and over time this develops into something that gives us increased revenue, increased profile, increased presence in the market.
If you have several content assets that have been created over time, they will attract candidates. They’ll demonstrate your expertise and showcase the brand and what it’s like to work with you.
You can create assets once and leave them to work time and time again. For example, we have a blog post that brings in thousands of views every year. It’s got a life of its own. It was optimised for the search engines, and it continually brings traffic to our website. Of course, once people have read that, they start reading something else on the website or subscribe to our podcast.
I bet the first time some of you found us was because of this particular post about lead generation strategies. It’s called 10 Lead Generation Strategies for Recruiters. It’s been bringing awareness to our brand for absolutely years.
Types of Content Assets
I’ve narrowed it down to seven that consistently work for our clients. Let’s start with number one, which is the good old blog post.
1. Blog Posts
I’ve already shared an example of how a blog post continues to bring in traffic year after year after year.
2. Reports For Your Market
3. Longform Social Media Posts
4. Video
5. Podcasting
6. Training Classes
7. Download Pages
How We Can Help
The Anatomy of Effective Reports For Recruitment and Staffing Companies
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 • Duration 20:01
Today, we’re talking reports, ethical bribes or white papers. They are incredibly useful for building your profile, your personal recruitment brand and your authority positioning in the market.
If you’re new here, welcome. There are transcriptions for most of our podcasts which you’ll find if you go over to superfastrecruitment.co.uk/blog.
Reports and guides are a great way to stand out in the market. We create reports and campaigns around them for our clients because they work so well to build authority, particularly in a competitive environment.
I want to give you a framework and some top tips on creating your own report, what to include, and getting them working for you. You need to build authority and demonstrate your expertise in your area.
Creating a guide or a report is one way of doing that. It’s a document that answers questions your clients and candidates might have, that demonstrates you know what you’re talking about, and that you can help them.
These reports are real assets for your business, just like all the content you create is an asset. You can use reports to get people to give you their name and email address or as an added value for people.
Things to Consider
What do you need to be considering when writing this piece of content? Let’s start with answering questions clients and candidates might have. There is a lot of talk about the four-day work week, pay rises, talent attraction and the great resignation. Make your report relevant to what is going on in the market.
1. Decide on a Topic Area
The first thing you need is a compelling title because you want to hook people in. There are 2 ways you can use reports.
You can use them as gated content through a landing page on your website, and you can grab the report for a name and email address.
2. It’s All About the Title
You need a compelling title, eg ‘X ways to do Y’. People love listicles; they love titles with list in it.
3. Make It Longer
4. Planning It Out
5. Include Some Data
6. Link To Other Content
7. Add an About Us Section
8. Add Social Proof
9. Use Smart Branding
10. Plan How You Want to Deliver Your Report
How We Can Help
Today we’re talking about some really interesting questions that you can ask yourself, which will make you rethink your messaging.
We create a transcription of the majority of our podcasts. If you go to Superfastrecruitment.co.uk/blog, you will see all our podcasts there.
You can watch our video series at superfastrecruitment.co.uk/clf, but I also suggest downloading our audit checklist at superfastrecruitment.co.uk/mcl as it relates to some of the questions that I cover today. Fill your name and email address in, and it will download for you.
I have four questions for you to think about.
1. What Are You selling?
Think about the features versus the benefits and how you communicate what you sell. People will buy solutions to their problems. People tend to communicate the features of their service rather than communicate the benefits.
Think about what your particular recruiting service mean for your candidate or client. For a candidate unsure about what to do, you can remove all the stress and angst by representing them to a company. You can do that in multiple ways.
Think about clients and what you do for them. You help them build their talent pool, but what does that mean for them? Less stress, more productivity, higher revenues, or the ability to enter new markets.
2. Who Do We Help and How?
Who is your avatar or business persona, and how do you help them?
Do you help stressed-out business owners that want to scale but can’t find the right people?
3. Why Would People Buy From Us?
4. How do You Make Your Offer Irresistible?
How We Can Help
We were asked a great question by one of the new members of Superfast Circle. They are a new marketer working with a company that’s just joined, so I thought I would answer that here because it might give a few of you some insights.
We create a transcription of the majority of our podcasts. If you go to Superfastrecruitment.co.uk/blog, you will see all of our podcasts there.
And if you haven’t downloaded our new video series on Consistent Lead Flow, I suggest you do that now. Go to superfastrecruitment.co.uk/clf after you’ve listened to this podcast. Sharon will explain everything to you on the page; then, there’s a series of videos that you can watch.
The videos share our proprietary frameworks that we go through with all our clients.
Head over there and pop your name and email address into the page. Remember to check out your spam folders because the email deliverability can be odd sometimes, as we all know.
Let’s talk about these three questions. Today we had one of our Superfast Circle calls. Part of our Superfast Circle program, as some of you may have worked out, is we coach and we consult, and of course, there’s all the content we provide.
Today, we had a new member, a new marketer in an organisation who has joined the Circle this month. Because our program works, you can have multiple people join from your company under the one fee.
Our new member asked, what would you advise a new marketer to consider as they start their role?
The three things that we suggested to this particular individual were as follow.
Be Curious
Read Voraciously
Finish The Foundations
Bonus Idea – Planning and Process
How We Can Help
Lessons In Leadership Being A Successful Woman in Recruitment
Tuesday, March 8, 2022 • Duration 38:12
Today we are celebrating International Women’s Day by interviewing Lynn Sedgwick, the MD and owner of the Clayton Recruitment group.
In this candid interview, Lynn shares her inspiring story, including her short-lived accountancy career, studying for her postgrad qualification, becoming a successful corporate recruiter, building multiple high-performing desks, and owning and scaling Clayton into two recruitment teams of over twenty-five billers.
Along the way, we hear about the importance of self-development and outside help and Lynn’s eight lessons on successful scaling she has learned throughout this time.
You can read the full transcription of the podcast below.
Sharon: Hi, Lynn. It’s an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast today as we celebrate International Women’s Day.
Thank you for taking the time to share your story and journey with me. I think our listeners will be interested to hear about your recruitment journey over 30 years
Lynn: Indeed, thank you for having me. The expression is a recruitment life, I think.
How Did You Come To Work In Recruitment and Join Clayton?
Sharon: First of all, I guess it would be really helpful to know how you came to work in recruitment and join Clayton?
Lynn: I was a graduate in the ’80s. In those days, you got a new role as a trainee. For me, I started as a trainee accountant, and my goodness, I was in the wrong position. I ended up working insolvency and quickly realised that taking people’s wedding rings off them and double-entry bookkeeping was not the job for me.
Then like many people, I saw an advert for a recruitment consultant position. It sounded exciting, varied, and challenging.
What I particularly liked about it was the idea of being successful based on your efforts and having that work ethic from an early age; I thought I would go and explore the option, and it happened to be with an accountancy recruiter. I went in to register, and the guys saw something in me as well, and I got the job straight away; That was with Hays back in the ’80s.
How We Can Help
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Overcoming Early Challenges
The early days weren’t without challenges. Neo came from a $5 billion global company with 75 to 105 people under his umbrella. He was naive in thinking he could replicate that culture with just two people. The processes and approaches might have been spot on, but the execution, delivery, and demeanour of a smaller company, especially a husband-and-wife team, differed.
Neo reflects, “I was probably quite naive that I thought I could replicate that culture with two of us because it worked with 200. Why would it not work with the two of us? And the processes and approaches would have been spot on. But the execution, delivery, and demeanour of a smaller company and a husband and wife are that it will never work.”
There was a reasonable amount of “storming,” in which two people put their stakes in the ground. Rachel, a freelancer, felt she couldn’t be told what to do, while Neo, a sales director, felt he should be listened to. Neither was budging.
The sense of urgency was high. Due to the financial pressures, they had to get up and running quickly. It wasn’t a panic situation but one of urgency. They had to work hard and accept the problem to find ways around the challenges.
Neo adds, “From a financial perspective, you must get onto that treadmill quickly. It’s not a panic situation but an urgent one.”
Balancing Work And Personal Life
One of the biggest challenges was differentiating between work conflicts and personal life. For a long time, it wasn’t easy to separate the two. If this continues, many partnerships might crumble by year two, but for Rachel and Neo, it was still happening in year two, although becoming less frequent as the years went on.
Rachel shares, “For a long time, it was very difficult to differentiate between the work conflict and then, you know, making dinner. That wasn’t easy. And that was some of the conflict I think as a partnership; you have to get over if you are a husband and wife, wife and wife or husband and husband.”
They had to work through it and figure out how to turn off the laptop and leave work at work. If conflicts weren’t personal and directed at each other, they could close it and deal with it the next day. They learned to keep it business-focused.
They also learned to separate personal conversations from work conversations. They focused on work during work hours, saving personal discussions for evenings. This separation helped maintain a healthy balance between their work and personal lives.
Rachel explains, “We don’t talk about those things at work. We have conversations about work as much as we can. And then in the evening, oh, you know, so-and-so said, do we want to go to a concert?”
The Benefits Of Working Together
Despite the challenges, the benefits of working together far outweigh the downsides. Neo has never missed a sports day, parent’s evening, or any significant event in their children’s lives. This flexibility and ability to be present for family events is enormous.
Neo emphasises, “I’ve never missed a sports day or a parent’s evening. My son had a six-week trial down at Watford, and I went to all six trials and took him down there and never missed a game. We always went to the swimming tournament. We’ve never missed anything. Ever. For me, that alone is enormous.”
Another significant upside is how working together has brought them closer as a couple. Many couples grow apart over the years as they pursue separate careers. Rachel and Neo have grown closer because they both have to grow as people together.
Neo reflects, “We’re closer now than we were 15, 18 years ago because we must grow as people. The people who are most successful in relationships and the people who are most successful in business, whether it’s parenting, friendships, or whatever, are the people who have the best coping mechanisms.”
They’ve created a life sustained on their terms. They’ve balanced running a successful business with being there for their children’s activities and sports events. It’s been challenging, requiring early mornings, late nights, and working weekends, but they’ve made it work.
Rachel shares, “We had the business in the daytime, but my daughter was a swimmer, so I was up at 4:30 a.m. doing early morning swims. Our son is a footballer, and Neo is the coach. So off they would go from 6:00 a couple of times a week or on a weekend. That was a priority they got from us, and they could develop their sports as they wanted to.”
Advice For Couples In Business
Rachel and Neo offer some advice for couples considering working together. Rachel emphasises the importance of being prepared for challenges and having clear intentions. “It is give and take,” she says. “You’re not going to win everything. It’s not going to go at the speed you want it. There are going to be hurdles.”
Neo adds, “Be prepared for conflict. Be prepared for very dark periods. But you’ll get those if you work for someone else anyway.” He emphasises that the benefits far outweigh the downsides, but it’s crucial to stick to agreed parameters and be ready for personal growth.
They both stress the importance of having separate spaces and interests outside of work. Rachel, like Neo, has her own “tribe” of friends and colleagues. This allows them to maintain their individuality while working closely together.
The Highlights And Future Plans
For Rachel, the key highlights have been having a business they love and knowing they’re fortunate. They genuinely enjoy what they do, finding it rewarding to help people find the right job opportunities. Rachel says, “It’s so rewarding when you help someone. There’s something so rewarding about that. And that’s actually the essence of what we do.”
They’ve been able to create a life on their terms and are excited about entering a new era in their business. Rachel adds, “We’ve managed it. We look back now and go, wow, we seem to have done that bit. Let’s keep going. And we’ve got so many goals we still want to hit.”
For Neo, the highlights include their ability to do things their way and maintain their values of honesty, integrity, and trust. He’s proud of their standards of work and energy. He also sees their personal growth as a major highlight, noting how they’ve developed the ability to handle situations calmly that would have caused meltdowns years ago.
Neo shares an example: “There was an incident a fortnight ago that, without going into detail, had that same incident happened 15 years ago, I’d have had a meltdown. The ability to cope with something you couldn’t cope with before genuinely doesn’t mean you’ll get out of it because sometimes circumstances don’t deal with that.”
Looking ahead, they’re excited about the next phase of their business. With their children now grown and pursuing their careers, Rachel and Neo are ready to focus even more on growing Ice recruitment. They aim to accomplish in the next ten years what most people do in 30, building on the strong foundation they’ve established over the past 16 years.
Neo concludes, “The highlight for me is knowing what we want to do. I’m really proud of our standards of work and energy. The highlight has been how much we’ve developed as individuals. I think that would be it.”
There are different models to choose from, varying based on how much of the business’s profit is reinvested.
50% Profit Reinvestment Model
This aggressive approach involves reinvesting 50% of the business’s profit back into the company. While it might reduce short-term personal income, it can significantly accelerate your growth.
20% Profit Reinvestment Model
This is a more conservative approach. It involves reinvesting 20% of profits. With 50% allocated for personal income and 30% for taxes, it balances business growth with personal financial stability.
Marketing Strategies: DIY, Outsourcing, and Do-It-With-You
DIY Marketing
Doing it yourself involves learning and implementing marketing strategies independently. It’s cost-effective but demands significant time and effort, which can be tough for busy owners.
Outsourcing Marketing
Outsourcing marketing to agencies can be a lifesaver for those short on time. However, it can be pricey, with costs ranging from £2,000 to £3,000 per month. This investment can be uncomfortable if you haven’t used marketing activities before, but professional and consistent marketing efforts often yield significant returns.
Do-It-With-You Marketing
A hybrid approach, the do-it-with-you model, involves working with a marketing partner who provides guidance, marketing resources, and support while owners and/or a team member/marketer focus on implementation. This builds internal capability and offers flexibility in resource allocation.
Building Internal Capability
Developing internal marketing capabilities ensures the company has systems and processes it can leverage, even during busy periods or if external support isn’t available. This involves training and developing team members to handle various marketing tasks and creating a self-sufficient system.
Consistency in Marketing
Consistency is key to successful marketing. Maintaining a constant presence through regular social media posts, consistent email campaigns, or ongoing content creation is crucial. Experience shows that inconsistent marketing eventually reflects in the company’s results.
Overcoming Time Constraints
Time management is a common challenge for most businesspeople. We can procrastinate, get distracted, and focus on tasks that keep us busy but aren’t crucial for delivering results. By assessing how we use our time and prioritizing revenue-generating and client-delivery activities while delegating admin and other tasks to team members or outsourcing them, we can create time for essential marketing activities.
Measuring Marketing Success
Success in marketing isn’t just about financial returns. Other metrics like brand awareness, engagement rates, lead generation, and customer feedback are also important. A comprehensive approach to measuring success ensures a holistic understanding of marketing’s impact on the business.
Long-Term Marketing Strategies
Marketing isn’t a quick fix; it requires consistent effort and strategic planning. While some activities deliver quick results, the focus should be on building strong foundations for long-term success. This involves setting up systems that consistently create demand regardless of market conditions.
Practical Steps for Recruitment Business Owners
Recruiting business owners need to make strategic investments to address the slowdown in growth. Here are some steps to consider:
Identifying Core Problems: Understand the fundamental issues and focus on generating new clients and creating demand.
Exploring Investment Models: Choose an investment model that aligns with your business’s revenue and profit levels.
Implementing Marketing Strategies: Based on time and financial resources, decide between DIY, outsourcing, or a do-it-yourself approach.
Building Internal Capabilities: Invest in training and developing internal marketing skills to sustain efforts.
Ensuring Consistency: Maintain consistent marketing activities to build a steady presence.
Measuring Success: Use various metrics to gauge marketing’s impact and adjust strategies accordingly.
Planning for the Long Term: Focus on sustainable growth by building systems and processes that create ongoing demand for your recruitment services.
In Summary
Investing in marketing is a strategic decision that can significantly impact the growth trajectory of a recruitment business.
Business owners can navigate current market challenges and achieve sustainable growth by understanding core challenges, exploring various investment models, and implementing consistent marketing strategies.
This comprehensive approach ensures that businesses are no longer solely reliant on existing clients and referrals but have multiple strategies to generate new clients and candidates to drive success.
Thanks
Sharon
P.S. If you relate to the saying, “My problem is I don’t know what I don’t know,” and would like to explore how we can support you and your business in building long-term success, email Sharon@Superfastrecruitment.co.uk.
I was trying to establish my message; what makes me different, is the personal service I provide and I didn’t find it easy. To do it, you need to move the cloud, so to speak, to have clarity, and I wasn’t getting that.
From my point of view, I think it’s important to find a specialist in marketing. There are thousands of marketing agencies out there, but the idea of me speaking with Superfast was to get a specialist in recruitment marketing.
If I were to go with a generalist, then I’d spend all my time reconfirming what I want to do and re-explaining who my client base is, what my marketing tactic is, and the industry as a whole. I set about finding a specific recruitment marketing agency, which is when I stumbled across yourself and Denise.
Just like anyone in the world today, you’ve got to do your background checks, and your due diligence, and obviously, I went through the reviews on the websites. I read through the testimonials. I watched the videos. I knew about your business before you even called me. That’s my job; I’m a recruiter.
When you called me, I felt like I already knew your business; I already knew a bit about yourself and what you do, but it wasn’t until our call that you sold it to me. I think it’s important, just like in recruitment, you’ve got to connect with the person you’re working with, because, at the end of the day, you’re my business partner now. You’re part of my business.
It’s important that you understand where I’m coming from, understand where I want to get to, and understand how I’m going to get there, and then you enable me to do that, which is why we clicked straight away, and I invested in Superfast.
Superfast has basically had a ripple effect through my business.
Before, I was spinning dozens of plates, not getting anywhere with marketing, and not having the time to do it.
Being part of Superfast Circle has allowed me to put more time into my day, knowing that the recruitment and marketing part of my business is being looked after and ‘cuddled’ by yourself and Denise. Basically, you both keep me on the straight and narrow.
That, in turn, has enabled me to have more time in my day, which means more focus on job searching and fulfilling more business. It’s all cause and effect. Without Superfast Circle, I certainly wouldn’t have progressed to where I am now within the last few months.
With Superfast, you’ve got the portal, which is my access to the data I need, but you’ve also got the wider community.
I think that the most important part so far was within the first week we had a call, obviously, to establish myself, where I want to go, what I want to do, and on that call, I sat with you and Denise, and we went through my website. You gave me some advice on it. I think I had 20 points off you guys as to how I could improve the site.
For me, it looked fine before, but then when you gave me the reasonings and suggestions, it all just clicked into place. Of course, that’s another plate I’m spinning. It really helped me to have an outside professional view that’s been there and done that to assist me. I’ve changed my website because of you guys.
I’ve also managed to put in blogs, which before were written by me, in my voice. I know what I wanted to say but didn’t quite say it right. It wasn’t quite hitting the tone. Now, I’ve got consistency on my site and also managed to put in downloadable content, which I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing in year two but these are so important.
The reports are really detailed, and you guys have enabled me to do that. The content is another value-add for my site, which is now found in the ‘Insights’ tab.
As a business owner and a brand, sometimes you know what you want to say, but you don’t know how to say it or when to say it.
Now I have clarity on that, and I can fine-tune my message. Now, the wheels are turning, and I know exactly what I’m going to say and how I’m going to say it.
It’s had such an impact on my day-to-day. I’m not having to sit in the evening pulling ideas together for a blog or think about how I am going to write it.
Most of the time, when you do it yourself, you look at it and go, “Is that right, or–?” You doubt it, and then you park it, and then it’s never to be seen again.
With SFC, there is consistency. Obviously, it’s every month.
Also, it goes back to my original point, which is that if you speak to a generalist marketer, they’ll be asking me, “What do you think we should talk about, and what issues your industry is facing at the moment?” If I were doing that, that’s again taking more time out of my day, but with yourself and Denise, you’re enabling me to do my marketing and do what I want to do which is, fill roles.
Where I am now with Food Recruit Search and Selection is that I’ve got consistency and a strategy in place, and you’ve enabled me to do that. Down the line, as we continue, that will start being tweaked as my business model changes, and you’ll be there to change with me.
Lovely, of course. You guys are absolute lifesavers.
No matter how big or small, whether I think it’s a problem and you don’t think it is, you’re always there to give me advice. I now have people to lean on, someone who understands not only the market but also my business and where I want to go. You’re actually lifesavers, and I consider you an extension of my business.
I have been able to add so much content to my website with access to the bonus campaigns, and content booster pack. This, in turn, has driven website visits.
I’m now being ranked on Google.
I’m being ranked for keyword matches on food manufacturing and this is due to being able to get up and running so quickly, and driving out content.
I haven’t got a dedicated marketing team behind me, and I haven’t got a finance team and an IT team, yet you’ve taken away the pressure of marketing from me, hence why I see yourself and Denise as part of my business.
Do it, absolutely do it.
You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. The moment you press the button with Superfast, you’ll start seeing the content come through; you’ll start seeing how much that changes your day-to-day mindset.
I’m a lot more relaxed. I’m not worried about marketing; about how I’m going to do it and when I’m going to do it. It’s such an important investment for my business. You’re now going to be part of me growing my business. Absolutely, if anyone’s on the fence, definitely jump.
We nailed our flags to the mast and worked at becoming real experts in everything in the sector. We’ve been doing that for 15 years now, so we understand the market.
As you’re thinking about your market, ask yourself questions like, “Is this a growth area? Is this going to continue to grow or maybe not?”
For instance, if you’re a retail recruiter, will most of your business now come from online e-commerce sites rather than the typical brick and mortar retail organisation? What is your ideal company size? What is the ideal company size that you want to work with? Because there is a different process when working with companies of various sizes.
Think about the ideal candidates and the clients who will work within the sector you’re working with. In our coaching program in Superfast Circle, we work closely with our clients to identify their ideal client and candidate avatar, the people they can serve best and will add more profit to the business.
Once you know your market, you can start to move. You know it’s in a growth area, you know you enjoy working there, and you know it will be profitable.
It is vital to nail your recruiting offer, product, or service.
You may productise parts of your recruiting service. We’re doing a whole session on this with our Superfast Circle members at our virtual event, where we look at productisation. Because standing out in the market is all about your offer, and if you can make your offer the most logical next step for people to say yes to, That will make a massive difference to how you can move forward.
You may have a retained service where you only work with select clients and have different elements to your service. We know that some of our clients have a completely different approach and do other things to help their clients, such as personality profiling.
They make their offer completely irresistible to clients and candidates in how they help them. It’s much easier to create demand for something that people want. Think about the elements that make you stand out that will make you distinctive.
The messages that you put out into the market have to be aligned to the service that you’re offering:
how you help people and the problems they have around filling their vacancies,
how you help candidates develop their careers and get the next role.
To be successful, you must communicate how you solve your candidate’s and clients’ problems.
The good news is you can get your message out in front of your market 24/7 through various mediums.
First of all, you need to identify your key communication points. Know your ideal avatars and their problems; know how you can help them and communicate this to the market.
There’s a reason why the likes of Apple and Microsoft make billions.
They do that because they get that foundational piece dialled in.
These foundational elements make all the other parts of your business work.
We can help you with this when you become a member of Superfast Circle. If you want to chat about that, drop Sharon or me a quick email.
We live in a knowledge world; people are fascinated by knowledge. They want to know more. Every social channel has more visitors than ever engaging with content.
It’s the same for service-based industries because it takes a while for conversions to happen in the B2B market. They want to know that you are the recruiter who can help them; this is where added-value content comes into play.
Are you the recruiter who has a report they can download that could help them? What happens is that it sets up reciprocity in people’s minds. “Oh, those recruiters know an awful lot about what they’re doing because they’ve got reports, they’ve got blogs, I can go on to their website. You know what, when I’m moving, it’s them that I’m going to go and work with. Their emails drop-in, and I like their emails. There’s always added value there.”
You need to have a blog on your website; you need content, an email system, and social media. You need those key basics to be in front of your market because your market will not always come to you.
You need a website. That is your online real estate. That is your shopfront. I’d recommend that you have a job board for many of you. It helps to develop your authority piece. You’ve got to think about having a good website that communicates value and shouts out who you are and who you serve.
You also need to have social channels set up and working. Here I’m talking about LinkedIn. It’s key for most people listening to this podcast.
Then, depending on your sector or niche, you’ve also got Instagram. We work with some hospitality recruiters, and they’re all over Instagram, and it works well for them. Then, of course, there’s Facebook. Love it or hate it, approaching half of the planet, and nearly 45% of the U.K. population, has a Facebook account.
You need to make sure you have a presence on the key social media channels. You then become an authority, and people like to work with authorities.
There are some fascinating data around how people move to the smaller supplier because they get a personal service.
The other key things to think about with your go-to-market strategy are to use email campaigns and messenger. It still provides one of the highest ROIs of any marketing strategy known to man. If you are not using emails to nurture clients and candidates, you are losing out.
So, know your market in your sector, decide which areas you will focus on, and start to identify the ideal clients and candidates to work with.
Then, think about your offer. Think about designing your service in a way that adds value to your market. Have your promotional messages, think about the features, advantages, and benefits of working with you and your organisation and saying yes to your recruiting service or product rather than somebody else’s. Think about the content you’re sharing that builds your brand and your authority in the market.
Have a blog with some content on it; have some content going down your social channels.
Then finally, in your go-to-market strategy, you need a good website. I would strongly suggest having a job board, claiming your social channels, not just LinkedIn, but you want to be thinking about Facebook and Instagram depending on your sector.
Have emails, use an email campaign to reach out to candidates and clients to nurture them through the process, and you will be amazed at the difference that will make.
We have many clients who are on for their best quarter because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we provide.
Book your call and demonstration here if you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you too.
Thanks,
Denise
P.S. If you want to join Superfast Circle and would like to find out more, speak to us here.
Create blog posts that align with important topics for both candidates and clients where you answer the questions that are going on in your clients’ and candidates’ minds. You promote yourself and your brand, and you’re demonstrating your expertise.
It’s very easy to find out what those questions are if you just talk to them. Think about the candidate and client journey, and you have got more than enough topics to write about there.
Last week we did a deep dive into the anatomy of an ideal report or guide for your market. These are pivotal as you move forward.
Hubspot shares a lot of PDFs and guides, and in a recent survey about what they should be creating, their clients indicated that they wanted PDFs and reports.
You can make your reports gated, which is where people give you their name and email address, or if they are a connection on LinkedIn, of course, you can send them a link because you are already connected to them, but it helps you bring in new people into your area of expertise, into your recruitment sphere, into your sector that you could potentially work with.
These posts engage your market and share a little piece of advice, a tip, an idea or a strategy. We have talked so many times about the bias cycle. You can read a couple of posts we’ve written on the subject here and here.
They tend to work well if you have a nice image with them; maybe a picture of you or a picture of your working environment or your local town. They do tend to get more views and responses. Of course, when that happens, LinkedIn and Facebook push them out more into the LinkedIn sphere, so more people will potentially read them or look at them. You can use them again and again and again. In fact, I saw a post of mine on social media that I know I wrote two years ago. At the time, I think it was talking about a particular marketing strategy that you could use and giving people some tips and advice on it.
That post is going out and still gets viewed each time it’s shared. So it’s still working and getting eyeballs onto the Superfast brand time and time again. What if you wrote several posts like that or outsourced that writing?
They are an asset for you and your brand. Social media is often the first place that people will come across you. If you’re reaching out to a candidate about a great opportunity that you have, first thing they’re going to do is research you on social media or check you out on your website.
Love it or hate it, video is the way. You’ll notice we do a fair bit of video, and we do some other things as well. Video gets engagement. In a recent poll on LinkedIn, people were asked what they preferred to look at and read. People talked about visual content as something that they enjoyed reading, and they got value from.
Two years ago we put out a video on procrastination. We probably got something like 400 views on it. Procrastination is something we all experience no matter how good or how ninja-ish we think we are. It was a bit of content that helped people with some ideas and strategies around what they could do to get out of the funk that they were in when it came to procrastination.
Video content also promotes you and your brand. Recruitment is a relationship to relationship business. I always encourage our clients to get their MDs on video because being the figurehead of a brand, being out there makes massive difference because also, it impacts clients.
I did a really long and detailed post about podcasting, which obviously was leading up to this post, which you can read here.
I record this podcast in batches two or three weeks before it’s launched. They’re very easy to do. I just note down some things that I want to share, talk about it, and then it goes into a process. Having a podcast you means you are then on the biggest search engines in the world – Google, iTunes and of course, you can upload it to YouTube as well.
I won’t go into it too much, but please go and check out that post. Podcasting elevates your brand, particularly if you are a recruiter working in the professional services sector. It can make a massive difference because you tend to find that business owners or the business leaders tend to listen to podcasts. They’re as obsessed with the business as we are.
I know there are a little bit more to do, but many of you listening to this podcast will have been on one of our webinars or master classes, and will have listened to content. Some of you may have even downloaded our latest video series.
If you want to look at our different frameworks that we use with clients, and we go into a lot more detail about things then, go to superfastrecruitment.co.uk/clf. Pop your name and email address in, and then you can get access to all the videos. We’re not taking them down anytime soon, so you’ve got them there, and that you can go and look at. That content asset is already bringing in clients for us.
It will continue to do that because we share some classic strategies that people often forget. We shared a framework that we’ve developed over the last 15 years.
Something that we share with you now might spark interest in someone that will probably get in contact after they’ve listened to this podcast and say, “You know you talked about all this content assets, and we understand that you create a lot of these in your Superfast circle membership. What do we need to do to join?”
The final content asset is so easy to do, and it works like gangbusters: you collate everything that you have in one page on your website, a downloads or resources page. We have multiple things you can download on our downloads page.
Some require name and email address, some don’t but it’s a magnet for people that go to that page, and it’s an asset for us because we’ve already created all the other content pieces. We just go and put them all on there.
If you want to know more about Superfast Circle, where we actually create a number of these elements for you and we give you scripts to create the others, get in contact with one of us, just go to superfastrecruitment.co.uk/call. That’s our web address/call, book yourself into one of our diaries and we can have a chat with you.
We have many clients who are on for their best quarter because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we provide.
Book your call and demonstration here if you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you too.
Thanks,
Denise
P.S. If you want to join Superfast Circle and would like to find out more, speak to us here.
Another is a how-to, eg ‘How to do X without Y’. Or the classic ‘The ultimate way to do X’, or ‘The ultimate guide for X or Y’.
Generally, make them longer than blog posts, so anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 words. It’s much easier to do that once you get deeper into a subject.
Plan how you are going to sequence your report. If you have several ideas that you want to communicate, you need to make it read like a story, known as sequencing.
This is where a lot of people go wrong when they write. They wonder why people don’t come back and read their content because they haven’t sequenced it in such a way that makes sense for people. If you’re giving people instructions, they want to know how reading it will benefit them. When they read it, they want to know exactly what they need to do. Remember, you are educating people with your knowledge as a recruiter.
Include any research data that validates your point. It’s always good to direct people to go and read a little bit more on the subjects. I often include data from Harvard Business Review or HRZone. Start with the end in mind.
I also recommend easy-to-read books where people can go and help themselves. You’re adding value to people for free, elevating your position in the market.
It would help if you also built some links back to your website. That reader will then go onto your website and start reading things on your website, making a difference for them. Who knows, they might then end up on your job page.
Because PDFs are often shared, I would always add an About Us section. If the person you share the PDF with wants to contact the authors, the information will be there for them. It doesn’t need to be war and peace.
You could offer a career consultation, a deep dive on your talent building pipeline, or a consultancy piece – anything that people can hyperlink to and book a call with you.
You can also all your social proof; maybe some testimonials from people you work with. Then add all your links to your social media to say come and connect with me.
Today there is no excuse for not having a well-branded and smart report. Members of our Circle programme have access to a couple of really good people who help them. Or you can, of course, do it yourself. A tool like Canva has lots of templates you can use, and you can make it look very smart.
Gated content means someone giving you their name and email address in exchange for the report. You can, of course, attach the PDF to an email and send it out. Alternatively, you may be able to create a media link on your website. We use Amazon S3, which is very inexpensive. Our podcasts and all our PDFs are hosted on there, and it makes it very easy to grab the link and share it with people.
We have many clients who are on for their best quarter because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we provide.
Book your call and demonstration here if you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you too.
Thanks,
Denise
P.S. If you want to join Superfast Circle and would like to find out more, speak to us here.
Do you help a candidate that is good at what they do but not good at communicating that in an interview? How specifically do you help them? Many have been around a long time, they’re very good at what they do, but they do not communicate who and how they help.
When you look at your website, does it say who exactly you help and how you do it?
Be very clear in your communication about who you help. Communicate that on all your marketing collateral. People want to know who you are and if you can help them. Be clear and specific about:
Is this a done-for-you service?
Will you represent them to a candidate?
Do you do the advertising?
Will you help with the interviews?
Why would people choose to buy from you and not others who do something similar? How strong is your offer?
Last year we looked at exactly how strong our offer is and how we can make Superfast Circle irresistible. We added more content and resources because that’s what our clients were struggling with.
What would you need to do to ensure that your offer is a no brainer? How do you make it irresistible to your candidates and clients? Do some competitive research and look at what they are doing. What are the gaps? How can you add X, Y, and Z to your service, make a profit, and deliver things that your clients and candidates want?
Don’t assume you’ve got all that dialled in.
Start talking about the benefits again. Be clear on what you are selling, who you help, how strong your offer is, and why people would choose to buy from you and not others who do something similar? These are killer questions that you should be asking yourself all the time.
We have many clients who are on for their best quarter because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we provide.
Book your call and demonstration here if you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you too.
Thanks,
Denise
P.S. If you want to join Superfast Circle and would like to find out more, speak to us here.
As a marketer, always be curious because marketing is about the human psyche and the psychology around how we:
Motivate ourselves;
What we do;
What impacts us, and how we move forward.
Marketing is all about creating demand.
Understanding what people’s drivers are, what their motivations are, what’s going right in their life, what’s not going right in their life, could make a huge difference to whether somebody buys something or not.
I think that is particularly relevant when working in the recruitment sector because recruitment is a relationship business.
I shared a story on this morning’s call about random purchases; it is amazing why we buy what we buy, so always be curious about people’s buying behaviours.
Always be curious, ask lots of questions because questions are fantastic for giving you information and data.
For marketers listening to this podcast, you’ll well know that you might create a marketing campaign and it dies on its feet, or you’ll put something out on LinkedIn you spent ages writing and get no response.
No likes, no thumbs up!
Yet you write something else another day, and it’s taking a few minutes to do, and suddenly it’s got 5000 views!
……….. and you think, “How did that happen?”
Be curious about.
What was that about?
What did I do differently here?
Did I send it at a different time of day?
Was it a particular day?
Did I do it in the evening?
Was it the image that I used?”
I would say as a marketeer, always be curious, be incredibly curious.
Next, I recommend people read.
I’m always reading books because they give me lots of ideas. They’ll give me lots of context, support, and enjoyment. I have always got a book on the go.
At the moment, I’m reading something by Steve Chandler.
It’s been a few years since it was published, but it’s absolute gold; it is called Time Warrior.
I’m creating a new planning and productivity training for our S.F.C. members. I always study the latest techniques first, so our clients don’t have to, and then I can hone the parts that will work for them.
I would suggest being curious, always educating yourself, always be ‘trying’ something new, and having four or five different marketing campaigns on the go that you are testing as you move into the role.
Number three is, finish your foundations.
I know everyone likes the sexy bits of marketing; everybody wants to get going on campaigns.
However, nobody likes doing the non-sexy bits, which is all of the following.
The research,
all the validation,
all the message to market match,
realigning with your ideal customer,
your ideal client, your ideal candidate.
What is it that they want?
What are the solutions that they want from us now?
Because as we all know, the world has changed quite significantly; there’s quite a candidate shortage depending on what market you’re in.
Maybe you need to realign your service offering on what you deliver.
There are times when we need to look at the key foundations of who are we selling to before we rush in and start implementing.
Because you have to do the foundational work first, look at successful companies, they’ve always done their groundwork first.
For instance, what candidates and clients do you now want.
We have one of our particular clients who now want to work on bigger roles because they’ve realised “we know a lot, we’ve got a lot of contacts here, we need to be going for bigger roles and at a higher fee”.
Maybe some of you can relate to this too, and therefore it is important to re-evaluate your foundations.
I would do it every six months; it isn’t a huge task.
Review and ask yourself the question.
Is our marketing still working?
Have we got our message dialled in?
Are there other things that we need to do?
The final thing to talk about, which aligns with what I said before, is planning and process.
Always focus on planning and process.
Marketing is incredibly busy, and there are many moving parts in marketing because marketing and sales are the growth engines of a business.
That is where you want to be put in a lot of resources. You have that with your recruiters, but marketing should go alongside that because marketing can make a massive difference and create demand for you.
You need to think about planning, and you look at any company that you see who’s successful; they will always have a process.
Lynn: Yes, so I started with them as a graduate and worked for a couple of corporates. I did fall into it. It is everything I thought it would be.
Sharon: I guess even though you fell into it, it was with a sector that you were familiar with as an accountant?
Lynn: I knew that they were recruiting, and as an accountancy trainee, I had not appreciated that I would be an ideal fit. Yes, having that experience in the niche helped me recruit accountants and professionals in those early days. It was super helpful to come from that background. Yes.
Sharon: What was the catalyst then to transition into joining Clayton Recruitment as the company was called then?
Tell Us About and Your Clayton Journey and Your Postgraduate Qualification?
Lynn: Yes, well, as a graduate, I had wanted to stay on and do a postgraduate, but I came from a background where that was not possible. I had to get a job. I always felt that even though I was successful with two corporates, I wanted to go back and study for a professional qualification.
I joined Clayton initially, and I said, “Look, I’ll set up a niche, financial recruitment desk, I’ll stay for a short while. Then I am going to go off and do other things,” which is what I did. I left for about four years and got myself a postgrad.
I became a social worker, helping people.
Sharon: That is different.
Lynn: It was, and then I realised that the public sector and social work were not for me. Having the professional qualification mentally, I got the tick, so I felt I had done what I needed to do. After setting up a financial recruitment division for them, I went back to Clayton, the company that I had left four years earlier.
Now, not having a specific desk, I thought, “Right. I’m going to set up a legal brand,” and that’s what I did. In 1999 and 23 years later, we are a brand leader in the sector, placing legal professionals in law firms across the UK.
How Did You Set Up Clayton Legal?
Sharon: Yes, so you were the instigator when you went back to Clayton then to set up the whole legal division of the business?
Lynn: Yes. Well, I progressed in my managerial and recruitment capability with two corporates. Then took that interim role to set up and troubleshoot and help this one-person band scale.
My strengths were in business development and being at the coal face. As your readers and listeners will know, when you are small, you are doing everything, so you are business development, servicing, and doing all the marketing.
I knew I had those skills, so I came back on the basis that I would set up a new business and take ownership of it. Well, 25% of it initially, and build on that experience that I had had. I think I did not appreciate how entrepreneurial I was at that stage. I was still in my twenties and just wanted to be a success.
What Were The Challenges As You Grew Clayton Legal?
Sharon: At that point, what were some of the challenges as you were building and growing the legal side of the business, which was your ‘baby’, I guess, and your responsibility?
Lynn: It is an interesting way of putting it because that is exactly how it felt. Literally, there was nothing, so it was starting from stage one, but I enjoyed that and the big picture, the details and wearing all those hats. We began in 1999, and then five years, and ten years flew very quickly.
It was very much a lifestyle business at that stage. We operated regionally only, and I had a business partner and myself, and my role was recruiting, training, servicing recruitment, running a busy recruitment desk.
Wearing all the hats with my business partner, who was the business’s accountant. It was a small business, but a lifestyle business because life happens simultaneously, children come along, so balancing those two things occupied the first ten years.
Then building a real brand regionally, and when I came into legal recruitment, there were no other legal recruiters around. We were the only people doing it. It was quite common in the accountancy profession but not in legal. The role was to educate our clients about serving, improving business performance, and time efficiency, saving them time and money. I enjoyed that.
It was educating and nurturing a new market. Business development was my lead. That is what I brought to the table. Then over time, my business partner became older and wanted to retire, so the opportunity presented itself to buy the remaining shares.
That was in the early 2000s. I thought long and hard about it; my children had grown up a little bit. They were at high school at that point.
I decided to take on the business and buy the remaining shares, with a definite plan and vision to grow from a regional to a national player.
You only want to buy a business if you can grow it, so that was the intention, the vision, at that time, to grow nationally and scale.
Sharon: Picking up on that, on your vision about growth. I know you are enthusiastic about growth. I understand from a business and a development point of view as well. You are also passionate and committed, in my experience, in terms of investing. The things you decided to invest in as part of that scaling were moving the business away from regional to something much bigger.
Investing and Growth: What is Your Advice?
Lynn: My three keywords and business strategy have always been; people, product, and process. People are your key asset, and investing in recruitment was part of that. During those initial stages, very much organic growth, so promoting from within. Then investment in products, so having the best products. What do I mean by that? Everything from IT to the entire range of business IT which runs a business.
Then also processes, and so what do I mean by processes? Everything across the business, every aspect of what you do, has a process behind it.
I was a recruitment expert, but there were other areas within the business that I needed to go out and find that expertise in the market. We did not have it in-house.
As I bought the company and started to grow, you are wearing multiple hats on a bigger scale. And there comes the point when you have over twenty people, you can’t run the business on your own; you need to bring in a management tier and specific skills; and initially, we went out to get those skills.
That was training and marketing to be able to scale.
First of all, coming back to training, I always felt that I was also a marketer in terms of marketing as a business developer.
Specifically, what I mean is I worked in sales and marketing. I was selling the service, but I was also marketing why Clayton. I also knew that marketing methodologies underpinned business growth, and I did not have all the expertise I needed in this area.
Initially, it was trial and error. Of course, that is the right thing to do, but it needs to be applied in a logical process and format.
Seeking marketing expertise, firstly, external was an absolutely crucial part of understanding those fundamental marketing tools. I invested absolutely from day one of taking the business over into setting up a marketing department.
Initially, one team member is now three, but also in the tools that drive marketing. Whether that be automation or content, or whatever that may be to drive the nurturing of that new business, that has been an enormous success, and we have continued to invest. Everything from shop windows and websites; we are about to launch two new websites.
SEO, content marketing, and the brand process are part of the marketing approach that cycles around and continually develops.
We are just about to rebrand and relaunch our Clayton brands that have been cyclical, and as we’ve grown and scaled, that’s become even more critical.
Sharon: When we first met four years ago, you had just launched your then-new rebrand?
Lynn: Yes, everything from a marketing perspective has been a learning curve. Even that. As I am chatting today, our public face is about to change, but having the expertise in-house, we did not have the expertise in-house, and getting that right was important.
The reason we are doing it again is it needs revamping and modernising. Yes, I think being aware of your strengths and areas where you have no expertise is key when scaling.
It is certainly being self-aware, and then going out and bridging those gaps in your knowledge and expertise is crucial.
How Have You Navigated The Last Challenging Few Years?
Sharon: Thinking in recent times, I guess it would not make sense to have this conversation and not recognise that we have had a challenging couple of years. It would be interesting to hear about your experience as a business leader that you have been investing in, growing, and scaling. How did you navigate such challenging times?
Lynn: Yes. For everybody, I am sure yourself included and all your listeners, but a crisis brings out real resilience and the opportunity to use the tools you have at your disposal.
For me, it was a real awakening.
Although I always said, “I’ve been through three recessions, and we’ve done well,” this was different, wasn’t it?
It was all bets are off. Knowing how to, I do not like the word pivot, but know what to do in those situations. We were alone. As business leaders, we were alone. It was a definite feeling I can still tap into.
What you do is dig deep, and the internal resources I found was resourcefulness, so how to be resourceful and use the associates that I had.
I invested in some strategic support at that time in those early weeks. That did confirm that what I was feeling and thinking, I was on the right track.
It also gave me some new tools, and to focus, in those early days, to focus energy and effort. That was helpful, and very quickly, I identified what needed to change because what you thought was one thing was not, and so you had to– I will use the word pivot but get rid of the things that did not serve you anymore and built on the things that did. That was my biggest insight.
It was that feeling when I initially set the business up about one vision, having a set of goals, no fear, inner resilience, being single-minded. Those traits came to the fore but were coupled this time with strategic input. We were fortunate to get a bit of funding for some strategic input.
Sharon: I remember we talked about that.
Lynn: Yes, and this idea about taking us from where we were to be world-class just fed into my vision for the business. That was a platform, but I think like everybody through COVID, and I remember it very well now, although it was 2020 and 2021. It was 2020 that allowed me to shake things up for us. I mentioned before that people, product and process, and marketing have been a big part of business development, but people are your most valuable asset.
When you grow organically, which I had done, you promote from within, which is fantastic and empowers your team, which is amazing, but there are still skill gaps that have to be filled.
It was a time of growth as a leader because it did develop your leadership skills in a way that the previous recessions had not. I have always been a decision-maker but have been scared to make decisions, but I learned to make more informed choices.
What Has Been Your Experience As A Female Leader in The Industry?
Sharon: You were talking there about leadership. I am just curious. In the recruitment industry, for over 29 years, as you have been describing that you have been in the industry with a small gap, what has been your experience as a female leader?
Lynn: An interesting one. I have thought a lot about this over the years, and I came into the industry in the late ’80s, ’90s when it was that era. Shops, suits, and shoulder pads. Being a woman, I think, was not celebrated in the way it is today.
You had to compete and compete like a man with masculine qualities. You had to compete to succeed, and I was all about being successful. That persona, I think, was the persona that I had to build my career, and it worked. I was super successful working in a corporate setting.
But when I became a business leader, as in an owner-manager, that persona, in some ways, had to change. I learned to wear different hats and different personas. It was not just one persona, let us say, of the whole person. I became an all-around leader by wearing different hats and feeling compassion.
I had not drawn on all those traits in my earlier career.
Your question about the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role, the obvious ones, I think, was in my thirties. Balancing family and children with career-building and building a business. Then also, managing as well.
That was a challenge, and managing diverse types of people, often people, brought something different to the table, but I have not ever felt that I have been disadvantaged or hit any ceilings in my recruitment career.
As a leader, I am all about empowering the whole team to ensure everybody has a career goal and a career path within the business. That may be professional qualifications or career development in terms of promotion or not quite being in the right role but finding the right role and supporting the whole team but women particularly, that have had this similar journey as I had. It is a challenge and continues to be so. I have never felt that being a woman in recruitment has been negative.
Sharon: Good.
Lynn: Although I am sure it may be perceived as that by others, for me, it has been an actual superpower to be a woman in the recruitment industry.
What Was Your Journey Over The Last Few Years The Has Instigated The Strategic and Personal Changes You Are Making?
Sharon: Going back then to what you were describing in terms of seeing 2020 as an opportunity, making some changes; How were you able to build on that, in terms of your success, and how things evolved in 2021?
Because I know from our conversations, recently you’ve made some big strategic decisions for the next step of the growth of the business and yourself, personally. I am curious about what has been that journey in 2021 that has led you to where you are today?
Lynn: Like many business owners of SME recruitment teams, that is. You look at the quantity of SME recruitment businesses out there, and the majority have less than a £5m turnover; unless you are looking at corporates.
I am in my fifties now, and you think about the future differently when you hit fifty. Where I had held onto structures and people, the COVID opportunity to make changes did focus my mind on the future goals, and looking forward three, five years, where do we want to be as a business?
Rather than operating less strategically and just year-to-year, really setting longer-term goals, not only financial goals for the business but also business goals behind that.
Then mapping out how we would get there with key points along the way. That has been a huge change in how I have operated.
What I decided to do was to go up in terms of the seniority of the senior leadership team and bring in expertise in marketing, training, operations, finance, and working as a senior leadership team to deliver a more strategic business plan rather than spinning plates and not employing an executive board; having an executive board now has helped.
Sharon: What has that meant in terms of creating your future? Because you touched on the fact that you think differently when you hit fifty, with which I can associate. What has that meant for yourself regarding what you are reaping as the rewards? I do not mean financially, but in terms of your time in the business, your contribution to the business, and what it means for you personally outside of Clayton.
Lynn: Mindset has been huge. Business coaching has been a huge part of my investment in me and, ultimately, the impact on the business too. I had always felt it was a luxury previously to do that. Having a business coach has been invaluable along with a senior leadership team, and to keep on track, stay focused on what that vision is because the day-to-day can take over, can’t it? As we all know.
Sharon: Completely, yes.
Lynn: Mindset and mind shift. What has that allowed me to do? Well, first of all, it has given me: Oh, my goodness me.
It is stopped the sleepless nights. It has taken away overwhelm.
It has given me a supportive working environment that I did not have before. We have built a team now, and we have redefined our vision, our values behind that, and we have a successful performing team that are all bought into this one vision.
Although, I have felt that I had that before, and that is what I was aspiring to.
I did not. We were just growing slowly.
We could not get past that size of thirty employees. Yet now, it is a real platform, and people, products, and processes are in place now to scale, and it has allowed me to now take a step back.
I still have a bunch of projects in which I am involved. Yet now, I can also be involved in other things outside of the business. New ventures, new projects, which is exciting.
What Are Some of Your Lessons On Your Recruitment Journey?
Sharon: Brilliant. What would you say are some of your lessons from your experiences and your journey over the years?
Lynn: I have written a few down because I did not want to miss anything out; there are so many lessons I want to share. I have got eight in total.
Take risks and chances. I bought a building in the last financial recession without any security. It was a risk, and it was an opportunity simultaneously, and that was a big significant change as well. When those opportunities knock at your door, take them. Take risk. Do not be scared even if you make a wrong decision; it is not bad. It is a learning opportunity.
Surround yourself with positive people. Do not allow yourself to move away from your vision. That is important. Negative people in business aren’t useful. The expression is mood hoovers; Mood hoovers in the business are not so great. That is not to say you have not got to have diverse voices.
Stick to the vision; it is your vision, get your team behind you. Do not waste time on people, investing in people, products, and processes; if it is not right, if it does not fit, you are not serving those individuals by keeping a hold of them, and equally, they are not serving the business.
Make decisive choices. That can be difficult. That has been my challenge. Recruit and promote the absolute best. Here we are, we are a recruitment business, we say this to clients all the time, “We can recruit the best for you, the best talent,” and it is true, surround yourself with the absolute best that you can afford.
Invest in the best people you can. When you are small and growing, that’s not always easy because budgets limit you, but do get the absolute best, make sure you have robust recruitment processes, recruit in line with the business’s values, and take time to recruit the right people.
Focus on your self-development. My last one was about self-development. It took me many years to invest in myself; I was spinning plates on a hamster wheel, going faster and faster and faster. Business coaching, you must have the support of a business coach, and I have been fortunate to have two brilliant business coaches.
Invest in your training, as well as that of your team. We have a department. That has been important in our development. Invest in yourself as well. I think as entrepreneurs, you are constantly looking for new opportunities. I see myself as a captain of a ship looking out for opportunities and obstacles, but do not forget to look after yourself; it is really important.
Mindset is really important. I cannot stress that enough.
Surround yourself with the best recruitment partners, whether that’s marketing, like you guys at Superfast Recruitment or outside external associates, do the research and surround yourself with the best; it will save you buying years and years and years of expertise. Do not look at the cost; look at the gain. Those are my words of wisdom.
Lynn: We’ve got a website, Clayton-legal.co.uk. Our recruitment brand is a commercial, regional brand, and our legal brand is national and soon to be international, which is exciting.
Sharon: Exciting that is another conversation for another day.
Lynn: It definitely is. Yes, absolutely. Happy to add anybody listening or reading this; if they would like to contact me directly, then by all means, LinkedIn is ideal.
With all the experience, I am happy to offer any words of wisdom or mentor anybody in a particular area if that is a pickup conversation, so feel free to get in touch.
Sharon: That’s brilliant. Thank you for extending that invitation. I am sure you will get some people taking you up on that. Thank you for your time. It has been great. We have known each other for several years now, and I have learned some things I had not realised tonight. I am glad we have had a chance to have this conversation. Thank you so much, Lynn.
More About The Clayton Group
Clayton Recruitment has been recruiting on behalf of businesses across the Northwest since 1989, placing upwards of five thousand professionals into exciting new careers. Our 30-year record of success has enabled us to develop trusted relationships with many of the North West’s reputable businesses.
Clayton Legal have been partnering with law firms since 1999 to find, recruit, place and uncover the brightest legal talent in the UK into exciting new careers.
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Thanks
Denise
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