Last week I watched a common example of one individual serving as the intellect and conscience for another. It happened at Publix, our local grocery store, where my 17-year-old son Benjamin decided to apply for a job. Standing at the application kiosk was a couple, painfully going through the questions, discussing and debating each response. The woman, who was the one applying for a job, was insecure answering the questions on her own, instead, running each one by “her man” as she referred…

Resumes are incredibly flawed sales tools that prove the common saying that “less is more.” Case in point comes from a salesperson new to the staffing and recruitment industry. Instead of the resume he sent to the buyer creating buy-in, it’s generating pushback as the hiring manager is questioning why the candidate for a contract role has worked at seven companies in the past 10 years. The answer—each of these was a contract assignment. Yet, this fact did nothing to allay the concerns of the…

While the quote “you can’t take it with you” may apply to money and material possessions, managers must require that team members take with them their greatest asset to the job each day—responsibility. Leaders of organizations doing better than others are always insisting on consistent execution, and execution can only happen if everyone does their part, being responsible for their contribution.

For example, take two recruitment companies in the UK working on the same type of growth…

We are powerless when it comes to making people do what we want. I believe this is one reason parents are given teenagers, reminding them how powerless they truly are over people, places, and things.

Too many people in our business continue to promote the myth of client and candidate control, insinuating that we can or even should manipulate the choices of others. These dangerous, Repetitive Practices (methods which cause harm) do nothing more than perpetuate the predominant, negative…

People often say knowledge is power, which is incredibly inaccurate. Knowledge applied in a compelling way is true power as it engages people in a meaningful manner. The question is, with so much available knowledge, how does one pick and choose what to acquire and what to ignore?

Companies in staffing and recruitment, in particular, often don’t have the right knowledge that will be powerful in how it helps them support prospects and customers in improving their…

Are you hiring right? “Of course we are,” answered Dan, a CEO who is a new advisory client from the West Coast of the United States. Then, he took the Hire Right Assessmentand was shocked to learn how much better other companies were doing at hiring for internal staff.

Getting hiring consistently right is difficult for most companies, which is one reason why the staffing and recruitment industry has grown and flourished over the years. However, most executives in…

Whoever said that “a failure to plan is a plan to fail” didn’t understand planning. Unless mentally impaired, no one actually plans to fail; what really happens is they fail to take into consideration the one element that kills the chances of any plan succeeding—emotion.

Logic makes people think while it’s emotion that makes them act. All variations of planning, be they strategic plans, project plans, or broader business plans are exercises in logic. Done right, they make…

I promised more potential Points of Gravity for enhancing your gravitational field in the market to those of you attending today’s webinar. Here those are:

1. College and trade school recruiting
2. Providing outplacement services
3. Contacts from trade association websites
4. Speaking at events attended by potential…

Last week I had the honor of speaking at the conference of the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) in Houston, an event with lots of smart and talented people sharing information and learning good practices. Embedded within those good ideas, unfortunately, were Repetitive Practices, inefficient routines that are often the way things have always been done. These include:

• Candidate and client control
• Feature-benefit selling
• Always…

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting done what matters most.

Getting from here to a more profitable there isn’t just about charting the right course; it…

Like a game show where it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to win, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict which companies are going to buy next. At any moment in time, only 3% of companies are buying from a staffing or recruitment firm. During that same moment, another 6% are shopping, comparing candidates, prices, or contracts.

Unless you have only one customer, no one is smart enough to accurately predict, all of the time, who’s going to give the next “yes.” That’s why achieving…

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting done what matters most.

Companies fall into one of three categories when it comes to collaboration:

• It…

In the past eight days of travel in Australia and New Zealand, I’ve asked over 100 people, chosen at random, the first word that comes to mind when they think of recruiters. In the past three months, I’ve asked this same question while in London and also about the staffing industry in several cities in the United States. I need only one hand to tick off the number of positive responses I heard, which included “helpful,” “partner,” and “beneficial.”

On the other hand, and…

Not all VMS opportunities are bad; they’re just not all created equal.

Next time you have a prospect you are pursuing using a VMS system to manage the process, apply the VMS Test. Your results will guide you in learning if it is worth your time, energy, and effort to accept this business.

Answer each question “yes” or “no.”

1. Have you been provided with detailed job descriptions, required and desired skills, details on cultural fit, and specifics on…

More people fail than succeed at selling staffing and recruitment services. One element that raises the level of difficulty is that we sell the only product on the market that can change its mind. The bigger, underlying issue, however, is not the product but the approach to selling itself.

Buyers, be they candidates buying into opportunities or hiring managers acquiring the services of the talent we represent, always believe themselves but only sometimes believe those who sell. Yet,…

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.

Many professionals want to be at the advanced level, preferring to take part in processes or…

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.

How often is the leadership of yesterday forgotten today? In at least some instances, it’s…

Buyers expect salespeople to vomit details all over them, making this expectation a huge opportunity. Practitioners of buyer-centric selling engage prospects and clients in highly collaborative conversations. This is one of the few aspects of selling we can actually control.

To achieve this:

• Eliminate leading (multiple-choice) questions as they confine the buyer to your choices instead of hearing their needs and details.
• Limit the use of locking (yes or no)…

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.

Tennis star Novak Djokovic knows a thing or two about winning and losing. Djokovic…

In an accusatorial tone, many mothers have said things like, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?” The insinuation is that real friends don’t encourage you to take risks. From my experience a true friend, or even just someone who has your best interests in mind, will ask you take to huge leaps, even giving you a shove from time to time.

Taking…