Hi HR/Corporate Recruiter! It's Me, the "Different Agency Recruiter"?

Hello again, everyone! Since the last discusson was very informative, I want to pick the brains of corporate recruiters now. Since I am an agency recruiter and new to client development, I want to know the opinions of recruiters on "the other side" of the game.

I know HR and corporate recruiters are tired of being approached by one agency after another saying that they are "different" and can provide some sort of magical recruiting service that the rest cannot. When I call HR and corporate recruiters, they shrug me off as "just like everyone else" or "they are happy with the agencies they use." It's a lot harder than I thought. How can I get someone to see the value of giving me a try?

Despite what a lot of agency recruiters say, I really do screen all of my candidates, am NOT a resume pusher, love my job as a recruiter, and would work hard to make my clients happy.

Any feedback would help. Thank you!

Comment by Sandra McCartt on May 23, 2013 at 8:24pm: You are not different. Find somebody who knows the internal or HR who will introduce you or recommend you.

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on May 23, 2013 at 10:14pm: Ask me about my business. You need to know if and when my company uses TPRs and how. Are we growing? Do we hire a lot of a certain skill set? Anything that we have a hard time finding? You can't possibly solve my problem until you know what it is. A lot of recruiters think they can get in by just having some unfindable candidate or by marketing some superstar they think I can't close. Not true. Build a relationship with me, and I will either get you in or connect you with other companies that you can send invoices to. :) First and foremost you must know if I'm even a viable target. You can try connecting directly with hiring managers, and this is a great idea if the company doesn't have internal recruiters... my best clients were usually smaller companies, maybe 100-200 employees with a single harried HR person who was too busy with employee relations and benefits to recruit. If you go that route, make sure the hiring manager has budget and authority to pay a fee. EVERY TIME I've said no to a TPR that a hiring manager tried to bring in it was because the HM had zero authority to pay a fee and HIS boss said no.

I would much rather a TPR call or email me and ask me about my business and under what scenario we might be able to work together. Forget the tired old "I saw you posted an ad for a circus clown and I have the PERFECT candidate for you!" Yawn. I probably talked to that guy last week. :)

Comment by Cristina Lewis on May 23, 2013 at 10:42pm: Amy, This is great advice and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Sooo...Are you growing? Anything that you're having a hard time finding? LOL!! joking, joking ;)

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on May 23, 2013 at 11:02pm: LOL Microsoft hires hundreds if not thousands of contractors... but I have no idea how. :) I'm sure there's a whole department dedicated to it!

Comment by Cristina Lewis on May 23, 2013 at 11:14pm: I'm sure they do! :)

I will also start targeting the smaller companies, too. It makes sense.

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on May 24, 2013 at 9:58am: When the client says they already like their agency - what do you say? You have a couple of choices - thanks and hang up, OR, tell them you're happy to hear that they've found a partner worth their loyalty and you'd love to hear what the agency does to earn their trust so you can do it with your clients. You could probably word it better than that lol but it's early on the west coast. :) You'll either get them talking about why they love their agency or possibly (unlikely, but it happens) they might start wondering if their partner is all that great after all.

Comment by Cristina Lewis on May 24, 2013 at 10:17am: Good way to at least get them to talk to me lol. I am on the West coast too. Good morning!

Comment by Tiffany Branch on May 24, 2013 at 11:44am: Take the time to find out if it is even worth calling on me. I have this TPR that keeps contacting me about IT placements. IT is not located in my office or even on the same coast, NO, there is nothing I can do for you.

Comment by Tiffany Branch on May 24, 2013 at 11:46am: I swear I'm not trying to be sarcastic or negative, but yes, you all do the same thing. Some TPR's are great, some are good, some are bad. Amy Ala gave some great advice. LMAO @ "ad for circus clown."

Comment by Amber on May 24, 2013 at 12:00pm: Sandra, short & sweet! And true. :)

Amy made some great points. I usually approach the internal recruiters if I don't know anyone at the company. We can usually at least have a conversation about the recruiting world, which can be very interesting at times! I try to ask them about their world, and also look for any advice or referrals they can offer if they aren't ready to move forward with me helping them at the moment. I also try and find something I can offer them - it could be help (no charge) with a resume of someone they know (or their own), ideas for finding some intern/entry level people (or whatever they might have mentioned), etc. One recent client we started working with I think partly chose to do so because I sent her a link to a great site that I knew would interest her after the initial conversation. It had nothing to do with recruiting, but she loved the site and I think it might have tipped the scales in our favor.

Also, when making calls always remember that you do need lots of volume and attempts to get to a yes sometimes!