The market for agency recruiters is relentlessly tough right now.

Many are battling declining demand and skittish clients who are at best unreliable, and at worst openly aggressive and uncooperative.

It’s hard to stay motivated in this environment. Yet here we are, with a job to do, overheads to cover, salaries to earn, and targets to meet.

But spare a thought for the leaders of recruiting teams who are caught in a downwards spiral of dropping fees, and ever increasing inertia.

How do recruiters get each new day started?

Mostly, it’s with a coffee, then a browse of email, then a furtive peek at Facebook, then a visit to the loo, then a chat about the weekend, then a glance at the football scores from overnight, than a chat on the phone with mum, then take your daily call from your deadbeat candidate-cum-stalker, and then…. plan for lunch.

Yes, I know, I am being harsh. But only a little. Many recruitment teams look like a group of librarians practicing being quiet for the first hour of the day. For many consulting teams it seems we start the day really, really slow… and then we slow down. I understand why too. Constant rejection will do that to you.

So how we do we start the day with a spark? With a flurry of activity? How do we get the team energised, on the phone and doing productive stuff?

There is a way…

I call it  ‘10B410’

Or if you like things a little less cryptic, “Ten before Ten”

It’s simple. At 9 am, or 8.30 am, or whatever time you want to get things cranked up, the 10B410 begins. The goal is simple.

Every team member makes 10 real, productive, meaningful, phone calls, where they connect with a client or candidate and achieve a meaningful outcome. You can define ‘outcome’ as you see fit, but typically it’s setting up a meeting with a client, or selling in a candidate, or doing a reference check, for example. With candidates it could be briefing on a job, or debriefing on an interview, or asking for a referral.

And those 10 calls have to be made, completed and documented in the database… by 10 am!

But to count, the person has to be spoken to and the outcome achieved. So it may take 30 actual calls to hit those 10 conversations.

Imagine the fireball of energy amongst a team of 8 recruiters all trying to make 10 connected calls in an hour. As mentioned, it could be clients or candidates, and it could be for a huge variety of reasons, so no one, new or veteran, could have an excuse not to hit the 10.

Suddenly, instead of 8 dopey and mopey recruiters frittering away the first hour of the day, we have 80 great connections with our customers, which inevitably will lead to 80 more.

And away we go! The start of a busy, productive and fun day.

Add your own twist to my formula, but this is the way to start the day with sprint, not an hour of yawning and aimless web-trawling.

Try it…

10B410

Call it the “Savage Power Hour” if you like, and then send me 10% of your increased billings.

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