How to Close Your Client with Absolute Certainty

Most salesperson closing ratio is usually quite low and many of them if they were to have 10-20% closure rate, they are pretty much very satisfied with the results.

The challenges are that if you have the mindset of using 10-20% closure rate as a benchmark, most of the time your closing rate will be not more than that level and once you reach the 20% mark, you will have the thinking that you had reached your maximum level.

The good news is that you are able to set the standard to ANY level that you want, you can set at 30%, 40%, 50% or even up to 100%, there are strategies to do so. Read on…

The best way is to mentally program you to absolute certainty. When I mean absolute certainty, it is a situation where you have absolute confidence where you will DEFINITELY able to close the sales when you see the client. To do this you will need to work on the following:

1)      Ensure you know EVERYTHING and ANYTHING about the product or service you are going to sell. Including the competitors offering and packages.

2)      Ask yourself what make you so special that they must buy from you, list out 50 reasons for it, yes, squeeze out 50 valid reasons why the clients must really buy from you.

If you cannot even list out 5 of them, I strongly believe the product you are selling is nothing really special.

People don’t buy things which have nothing special, you will need to add that extra spice to me it worth going for it.

3)      Filter, filter and filter, ensure that the potential prospects you are meeting are the one you believe that is able to buy the product and services. In term of statues, needs and ability to afford the product.

4)      60 minutes before meeting the client, condition yourself mentally that you are able to win this deal, rehearses it mentally for at least 30 minutes so that your brain tells you that you have the absolute certainty to get this deal done.

5)      When you are talking to the client, talk to them with absolute confidence, chest up, look straight to their eyes, with good body language and posture. 

Remember that in communication, body language plays a very important part of the entire process.

6)      Practice, practice and practice your communication and presentation skill, do it at least a few times per day, talk to as many people as possible. To become a master in communication you will need to practice is at least 10,000 hours. Keep on doing it and never gives up.

Wish you success in everything that you do. Cheers.

An article by Dougles Chan, SEO Singapore Master | Digital Marketing Singapore Guru

Strategies to Generate More Business - Recruitment Business

Business in Recruitment – Strategies to Generate More Business.

Many recruitment companies, regardless of whether in Singapore or anywhere in the world, face the same problem: they are not able to generate enough business and sales to break-even or even make money. As such, many of these recruitment companies are not able to survive and eventually have to close down and either work for another company or switch to another industry.

To generate more business for your recruitment company, you will need to follow the steps:

1)      Have a powerful website – When you meet someone, most of the time, you will judge how he dresses and how well he communicates. It is the same way online—you need to dress well on your website, which means your website must be quality work done by a professional designer.

Do not just DIY and save money; an expert will usually create something better than you can—and you WILL be judged by your website. The content of the website must be great; don’t just copy and paste from another website. The reader will know, if they are smart enough. In short, make an effort to put aside some funds for your website. It will be worthwhile.

2)      Have a corporate email address- Do not use the free email services such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail. If you have corporate business, you need to project a corporate image. Having a FREE email account will never give a great impression. This is a very basic requirement, and it is quite surprising that there are still many people using a FREE email account for their corporate business.

3)      Engage in Search Engine Optimization – Do ensure your website is optimized. You see, a website without relevant traffic is like opening a shop without any customers. Your presence in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others will bring many visitors to your website.

On my website www.dougleschan.com, which is branded as SEO Master Shifu, also known as the SEO Master, I have over 53.24% of my visitors coming directly from the search engine itself.

This is just a snapshot of how search engines can really bring your business to another level. However, be very cautious—if you are new to search engines, I would suggest that you read plenty of books in this area. If you are not careful, you can be seriously burned in this business when you are not totally familiar with it.

4) Engage in social media – You will need to be visible to the public. This is part of branding and marketing. The cost is very cheap, and it will have a positive effect on your business.

Some of the social media platforms you can engage in are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and many more…if you are still not into this, make an effort to do so….

5) Use technology to the maximum – In this Internet era, if you are still using fax machines, (I assume you are NOT!) please throw them away and move yourself to a different generation. In this era, we are using email marketing, harvesting software,SEO, SEM, SMO, Stumbleupon, Pinterest, etc.

You see, it’s all about technology, and with technology, it is like having 20-50 full time people working for you at once….It is simply amazing—you just need to know how and what to use.

Strategies to Recruit Good Quality Candidates

Recruiters continually navigate the debate between quality versus quantity of candidates.  No recruiter wants to send unqualified or less-than-stellar candidates to an assignment.  However, certain positions are considered high-frequency needs, have a greater turnover rate, are seasonal, or require mass hiring (e.g. call centers).  In those instances, it makes sense to have a pool of qualified candidates available to fill positions rapidly.

Is it possible to maintain a pool of highly-qualified candidates?

The answer is a resounding…maybe.  That’s because the answer centers on the answers to some other essential questions.  First, who is your customer? It’s easier to maintain a pool of candidates if your customer is only filling five positions a year instead of five positions per week.  Although, in today’s highly competitive market, it’s also harder to keep quality candidates in a pool because they can find other opportunities faster.  The second essential question is, what is your market?  Maintaining a pool of qualified software developers might be easier in larger cities than in rural communities.  Regardless of how you answered those two essential questions, the bottom line is that you have to have a good 360 recruitment process in place just to attract and retain quality people. It should, at a minimum, include the following elements.

Accurate job descriptions – No matter what position needs to be filled, the first step in any effective recruiting strategy will be to create a job description that clearly outlines the purpose, primary tasks, key responsibilities, and required qualifications.  Detailed job descriptions can help you eliminate unqualified candidates from the start and save you, your customer, and your candidate a lot of time.

Effective Employee Profiles – In addition to the tasks and responsibilities required of the job, it’s equally important to identify behavioral characteristics of those who succeed in the role.  If twenty percent of your team are top producers, it’s worth uncovering what traits those individuals possess and narrowing your search to candidates with similar characteristics.  These traits might not appear in the job description itself, but could be the basis for your pre-screening questions.

Advertise jobs in the right places – Once you identify the required hard- and soft skills for a successful candidate, it’s time to decide where to post your job.  There are countless options available, but some are more successful than others.

Referrals are the most impactful candidate source around.  Employees hired by referral are more likely to be regarded as quality employees and tend to stay on the job longer than those from other sources.  Ensure your current employees are aware of opportunities—both present and future—and ask them to send referrals.  Also, encourage your employees to the network through social media, professional organizations, and community associations. When your employees have a large network, you increase the number of potential referrals.

Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have made a huge impact on the recruiting process.  However, your recruiting strategy can become bogged down by posting, reposting, updating and removing posts from multiple sites.  It’s imperative to know which social media sites will target the candidates you’re seeking and the capabilities of each site.

Job boards have not lost their place in the recruiting industry.  This year, Indeed topped the list as the top online recruiting source and CareerBuilder is still growing.   Niche job boards are also a nice place to seek candidates for certain industries.

Trade and professional publications are still read by industry professionals. Unfortunately, it’s an often forgotten avenue for recruiting.  Advertising jobs in these publications might be beneficial, especially if your ad is one of 20 instead of one of the thousands on social media or job boards.

Your company website should be a primary source for recruiting.  Make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck out of your website by ensuring it’s branded; it expresses your values, mission, and vision statements; it’s mobile-optimized, and it calls job seekers to action.  To attract candidates for high-frequency needs, maintain posts with generic position descriptions.

Pre-screen through phone or video – Once applicants begin to respond, use your employee profiles to develop pre-screening questions. Make use of the telephone or video interviews to pre-screen candidates before bringing them in for interviews.

Develop Relationships – Your most important task once you develop a candidate pool is to keep in touch.  Make sure your candidates don’t think they’ve been forgotten.  Send them frequent updates on company news.  Ask them to subscribe to the company newsletter, blog, email.  Offer valuable services, like coaching or training.

Measure Success –Track important sourcing and hiring data to determine areas of your recruiting strategy that could be strengthened.  Here are some metrics that are important for recruiters.

Where did your successful candidates come from?
How long did it take to present a candidate to your customer after the job request came through?
How long did it take to make an offer?
What was the cost of the hire?

Overall, recruitment of good quality candidates are very possible, if you know HOW, WHEN and WHAT to do.

The Market Tumours In Recruitment Business

What is a Market Tumour In the Recruitment Industry?

It is a deadly process in the recruitment and head-hunting agencies, and clients and candidates exploit the process so much so that the agents are usually at their mercy. With this market tumour, the agent will spend plenty of time working on the job orders, but eventually, it will not be fruitful and will be a total waste of time.

Let us explore specific examples and see how they can affect ALL recruitment agencies and head-hunters.

Client XYZ Pte Ltd gave you the assignment after meeting them and after several conversations and emails. You worked on it, placing many advertisements on the Internet, placing some paid ads in the newspapers, etc.

You managed to get some positive responses, and you filtered the resumes/CVs you received. After hours of filtering, you interviewed a couple of candidates and decided that two of the candidates we revery suitable.

You sent the candidates’ CVsto Client XYZ.

One day has gone, and no reply from the client. Three days are gone, no reply. You decided to call the company.

“Good Morning, Mr XYZ. I sent you the CVs for two potential candidates; did you get them?

Mr XYZ: “Oh yes indeed, I received them. Thank you so much. I am so busy that I have not had the chance to go through them. Give me a few more days, and I will get back to you.”

A few days later, you received an email from XYZ saying that, with regards to the position above, they would like to inform you that the position has already been filled, but thank you for your time in assisting the search…

OH MY!!!!!
You spent many days posting 100s of advertisements…

Spent hundreds of dollars on the newspaper ads…

Spent hours filtering CVs.

Spent your time interviewing candidates….

The Result = “thank you for your time in assisting the search…”
Do you really know what is happening behind the scenes that cause such results? YOU WILL BE SURPRISED by what really happens….

THE FACT: Company XYZ has “delegated” the job assignment to 20 or even 50 recruitment agencies, (Psst…don’t tell other people)and you are ONE OF THEM! They have also advertised themselves, and they don’t have to give you the exclusive deal.

They may have also hired someone from within the same company. Well, the list goes on and on. Are you getting the basics of the Market Tumour? Hang on—this is NOT the real Market Tumour. We are only touching the tip of the iceberg! There are three levels in this Tumour, and we are only touching on the 1st level.

The Market Tumour has 3 levels: one is from the clients, the 2nd is from the candidates, and the 3rd is based on the computation of both the 1st and 2nd Tumour.

With the tabulation, it actually makes it almost impossible for any recruiter or recruitment consultant to close more sales, let alone hit their KPIs. They would need to work even harder and may be able to close only2-3 cases per month.

The math is not favorable to the recruiters or consultants in the recruitment industry. Even people who have many years of experience in the industry still fall into the trap of the Tumour itself.

Once a recruiter understands the basics of the Market Tumour, what he or she can do is to change the ratio of the clients to candidates. Once they have lowered the ratio from the normal 1:20 or even 1:50 and have moved it to 1:3 or even 1:5, the possibility of closing more cases will be very high.

Once they change the ratio of the client and candidate Tumour, the 3rdTumour will automatically become less. Hence, the ratio will not be so daunting and then it is more possible to easily hit and even exceed the KPI set by the company.

It is extremely important that any consultants or recruiters realize the existence of the Market Tumour.

Many do not know, and even those who do know fail to change the environment so the “problem” will continue to be there. No matter how hard a recruitment consultant or recruiter works, they will never win the MarketTumour.

The rule is simple – Know the rules of the game, and find a way to overcome them or even change them. Then you will have a better chance to survive or even excel in the industry.

The Market Tumour always goes against what the players are doing, regardless of what happens. Understand them, be friends with them, and eventually turn the tables around.

Good luck!

Why most smaller recruitment agencies will struggle to survive in their business

Many smaller size recruitment agencies that have fewer than 10-15 people will feel not so comfortable reading what I am going to write.

However, if you are one of them, do read what follows below with an open mind and perhaps you will be able to get something good out of it.

The reasons why recruitment agencies struggle in their business are as follows:

1) Lack of positioning – Not able to stand out from the rest of the competitors. Well, it is a very easy decision from the client’s point of view. If you are considered to be one of them, you will be treated like one of them; and what happens is that they do not get the business. Period. Sorry, but this is how it works.

2) Compete based on pricing – you may think that by having a lower price, more people will give you the business. Yes, it is true to a certain extent that if you draw the line in the demand and supply curve where you change your pricing, you will have some additional business. However, the truth is that you might have more sales numbers, but your overall sales figures might not be great. In addition, your costs could go up too. Hence, giving a price reduction might not be a great idea. Somehow it actually lowers your “GRADE.”

3) Pay no attention to branding – Well, even if you are a small player in the market, you will need to have a GREAT logo, a GREAT website, a GREAT tagline, a GREAT business card, and GREAT salesmen. If you are not putting money into these areas, you will, perhaps, be able to make some money; but those who make the extra effort will make the most money. Trust me on this. This is how the world perceives you–you are what you wear: your logo, tagline, website, business card, and salesmen represent who you are and determine whether the client would want to do business with you. It is not expensive to have the entire list above if you know how to do it.

4) Lack of a certain skill-set – Let us face the facts, when you open up a business, you do believe that you will have good sales because you take reference from someone or some experience that you have chosen a good industry to work in. But all hell breaks loose when you start the business; suddenly you need to manage the operation, sales, marketing, recruiting, HR, payroll, accounts, etc. My point is this: are you being trained to do all the things above? Most likely not. The question is that if one does not have sufficient skill, can they do things efficiently? It is a straight NO. Hence, what you need to do is to delegate the work to people who are good at it, handle the job you are best in, and focus all your time on something that you are very good at.

5) Unsure about the Market Tumor – I explained about the Market Tumor in a previous article and touched base on the potency of the tumor from three groups. The basic idea is that clients do not give you exclusivity, and you might have to work very hard on many assignments and still not be able to close.

Many agencies, including top headhunting companies, are also facing the same problem. (Just to name a few are Robert Walters, Hays, and other HUGE players) How do I know about it? Simple. By using a simple tracking method, I am able to see who are the agencies that are working on the assignments and I can also see who the client is. That’s how deadly my techniques can be. Anyhow if you still do not know what the Market Tumor is.

There are solutions to the problems above and if you were to put some effort into solving these problems, you will definitely stand out from the rest and make it in the recruitment agency industry. Cheers, and good luck.

Why the secret of the recruitment industry was revealed

Many people have asked me why I am sharing the “Secrets” in my manual Financial Success in Recruitment Industry since they are so powerful? My answer to them is very simple: for the last 20 years, the recruiting business industry profitability has gone downhill. Everyone is copying from everyone and duplicating the “methods” that are “traditional” and are not working, which eventually leads to financial failure. Nobody is WILLING to share success strategies!

I want to be the one saying: Excuse me, this is not working. You need to take a look and see why it is not working and what the better available options are. There is definitely a better way to do it!

With this direction, I am able to bring the smaller players into a better position compared to if they were doing it alone. I just have to say that it’s a HELL out there. If you are just a beginner, you will be eaten alive! Don’t believe me? Time will prove what I am saying is right.

Honestly speaking, when I wrote the manual Financial Success in Recruitment Industry some years back, I had only one objective in mind: transferring all my knowledge that I had learned and used into this book in the simplest form so that any layman could understand and apply the secrets.

I really do not know how long this special manual will be available to the public because of the nature of the content. Certain industry players in the market who are financially strong and powerful may try to stop this from being released it to the public, and especially to the smaller players. They may even use the media or any other methods to discredit this book or me whenever possible. The day will come because I know how EVIL the business world is in the real world.

Every day I receive emails and phone calls asking about this manual and the price that was intentionally positioned to encourage only serious people to own it. It is not for those library collectors who have plenty of eBooks and no success in life. It is only for those who have the guts and really want to be successful.

My reminder to those who want to are going to own this manual or who have already bought it: If you really desire to be financially successful in the recruiting industry, you will need to follow the steps very carefully and diligently. Many “smart” people will try to skip a few steps, but I do not encourage this because I was the “Smart” ass before…haha. I hit the wall many times and was financially ruined just because I thought I was “smart.”

Lastly, you need to take massive and positive action to ensure that the secret strategies are applied consistently without fail.

How to create a successful marketing plan in 4 simple steps

Most small business owners do not think they can afford big marketing plans. To them, marketing is advertising, and everyone knows that advertising is expensive. Of course, advertising is an important element of marketing strategy.  But, there are numerous low-cost tools and tactics that a small business can use to increase their visibility and attractiveness to potential customers.  And, all that is required to access these tools and tactics is research, planning, preparation, and execution.

Make no mistake; you need to include marketing in your budget. Without marketing, your business could easily become the best kept secret in the world and go bankrupt. Customers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages and images on a daily basis and their memories are short. You must establish a big enough budget to create and maintain enough visibility for your company, products, and services so customers won’t forget you.

A word of caution is in order. While it is tempting to copy the competition, what works for them may not work for you. Effective marketing must differentiate your business from the competition so you can attract and retain profitable customers. It includes everything from your company name, logo, tag lines, advertisements, public relations, presence at trade shows, community involvement, reputation, and brand.

Rather than going into depth on each and every aspect of marketing, I am going to outline four main steps that any small business owner can follow to obtain big results.

Step One: Identify Your Ideal Customer
Your marketing strategies must be designed specifically for your business and target customers. The first step is to create a detailed profile of your ideal customer.

Identify as many demographic characteristics as you can about your ideal customer. How old are they? What gender are they? Are they married or single? What nationality are they? What kind of work do they do? How much money do they make? How do they spend their money? What products or services do they buy that compete with yours?

What are their values?

The more specifically you define your ideal customer, the easier it will be to create your marketing messages so they speak to their needs, desires, and concerns. Your messages must also clearly communicate the benefits your customers will receive. Be certain your marketing messages reveal the uniqueness of your products/services and what differentiates you from the competition.

Aim your marketing efforts to the location of your primary market. If your primary market is local, then broadly focused newspaper or radio advertising might not work. Instead, consider marketing neighborhood-by-neighborhood.

Step Two: Create Your Brand Identity
In today’s world of short attention spans, a great product or service is rarely enough to secure and maintain customers.  A branding strategy includes your company’s name, logo, symbols, website, and social media tools. Your brand can position your small business with customers as one they trust enough to purchase the types of products and services they desire.  Your brand can also differentiate your company from others providing the same products or services in your target market.

A strong brand is the foundation of an effective marketing program. However, branding is complex; involving the customer’s total experience with you, your product or your service. The internet, with its powerful new Social Media tools including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and countless others, offer tremendous opportunities to promote your brand. There are also myriad ways to utilize low-cost search engine ads or interactive features on your website.

The best brands appeal to basic human emotions.  Don’t be afraid to be original in identifying your brand identity. It is what sets your small business apart from all the others. If you are having trouble developing your branding message, ask your new customers why they bought from you and ask your repeat customers why they continue to buy from you. The answers you get provide excellent guidance on developing brand messages.

You want your brand to endure, so avoid language that is tied to trends which are likely to disappear or become outdated. Keep your banding message simple. Buyers are overwhelmed by information today. Too much information confuses your brand message.

Step Three: Develop Your Pricing Strategy

One of the first questions asked by most small business owners is “How much should I charge for my products or services?”  This is not an easy question to answer. It depends on many factors including the quality of the product or service, the cost to provide it, customer location, the market rate for the industry, expected profit, and many others.

You can begin by researching your industry including price ranges in other parts of the country if you sell nationwide. Be sure to use timely and accurate information to calculate labor costs, supplies, and direct and indirect overhead for every product or service you offer. You should take into account seasonal fluctuations that might cause short-term increases.  A word of caution here. Guessing at costs can end up costing far more than it will to invest an hour or two in research.

Pricing is as much of an art as it is a science. If you price too low it cuts into profits. Pricing too high can limit sales. A common mistake new business owners make is lowering their prices to attract customers. While low prices can attract customers, it may not always be the best strategy. Customers who buy based on price alone are the most likely to leave the minute they find a lower price.

A low price strategy is even more risky for service businesses. A service business is limited by the time it takes to deliver the service. It is difficult for a service business to make up losses from low pricing by increasing volume like retailers.

Pricing has a psychological component. Your pricing should reflect your product or service “brand.”  If you want your brand to be “premium”, then your pricing should reflect that. That being said, for certain products or industries, there may be established price points.  Make sure you know what these are.

Establishing pricing will be an ongoing and dynamic process. You will need to adapt to changing conditions. Factors such as competitor prices, costs, customer perceptions and profit expectations can have a dramatic impact on your pricing. And, you may want to test different pricing models to see what works best for your business.

Step Four: Relate to Your Prospects and Customers

While relating to your customers has always been important, it is becoming absolutely critical. Why? We are in the midst of one of the most remarkable evolutions in business since the industrial revolution. With the internet, traditional marketing vehicles including radio, television, direct mail, and telemarketing, expanded into email marketing, website banner ads and pop ups. Overwhelmed with the constant onslaught of advertising, consumers have  become more and more irritated. In response, new products have been developed to give consumers the ability to skip television commercials and laws have been passed limiting Spam and telemarketing.

While many marketers are still trying to find a way to breakdown this resistance to advertising, consumer participation on social media sites is growing at a phenomenal rate in virtually every demographic category. What are consumers doing on these social media sites? They are having conversations with each other and company representatives about topics that are important to them. They are discussing, and sometimes, recommending products and services to each other. They are relating to each other.

What is happening is an evolution of old fashioned networking using new technology. So, whether it’s communicating with your customers through a visit, a phone call, a professional association, a local business group, a conference, a blog, a newsletter, a webcast, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, the most powerful marketing strategy you can employ is to relate to your prospects and customers.

When you focus on relating to your customers it gives you an opportunity to obtain valuable information you need to make sure you are offering the right products and services at the right price. You will also have an opportunity to obtain information you need about how customers perceive your brand and what changes you may need to make.

I can’t promise that these four steps will guarantee your small business will succeed. What I can guarantee is that these four steps will put you on the right path to success.

Dougles Chan - SEO Master in Singapore, also known as the Digital Marketing Guru in Singapore. Started digital marketing career since 1998 in the dot-com era.