Ideas are powerful because they give us hope.

The more ideas you have, the more hope you have for your life. Hope that you can make it one more day. Hope that good things will happen. Hope that one day you will win.

Hope is the most powerful drug you can't buy.

People love to say "ideas are a dime a dozen" and "execution is everything".

Stay away from these people. They are wrong. 

Ideas are not cheap.

When you write a list of ideas, the first three are very easy. This is why people assume ideas are cheap, maybe the first 3 are worth a dime?

The next 7 - 10 won't be.

Good ideas are worth Millions, even Billions, and I can prove this. Open Google Finance and select the Technology sector.

Look at the market cap column for the first few companies listed in the Technology sector. This proves the value of a good idea.

"Yeah, but it has to be executed."

There is that word "execute" again. What about "execution is everything"?

The truth is execution is just another idea. A smaller idea that creates the large idea.

"What do you mean?"   

Execution can only happen, once you have an idea. The next step is to think of the next smaller idea to make this big idea happen. Execution is idea creation.

Your next smaller idea could be bad, why do you think some companies fail?

Let's try this with of one of the ideas you're about to read about. Say you want to ask for a commission from an ATS company that you recommend to your customers.

How do you make this happen???

Here's an idea you have, "I will make a list of all of the ATS companies out there".

Your next idea could be to "figure out who to contact at each company".

Then you might have the idea to "contact them and ask if they have a referral program".

What if they don't have a referral program?

You might have the idea to "suggest they start the program, you can be their first member". 

Ideas are worth Millions.

Am I wrong? Or have you have been listening to people who don't have ideas?

Who cares.

Maybe some of these ideas can help you. These are free, use them, share them, or morph them into bigger and better ideas worth Billions.

1. Renegotiate Your Comp Plan

Value, is a word we don't use or say often enough. We think "value" before we make any decision about our time or money. A problem with great recruiters is they forget how valuable they are. Are there crappy recruiters out there who could do your job for less money, or could they?

Are they as thoughtful as you are? Can they have the conversations that you have? Can they find the people that you can find? 

Maybe another recruiter can't do your job... Why are you being paid what an "average" recruiter makes? 

Take a step back and really study the value you bring to your company. Compare it to your earnings.

Note: If you don't bring much value, that doesn't mean you aren't worth much. It means you need to figure out how to add more value to your company and customers.

 

2. Improve Your Sourcing Skills

Can you find people that other recruiters cannot? 

I love talking to recruiters. Sooner or later the topic of bad recruiting comes up and they spend a few minutes venting about a company or person who has no clue when it comes to recruiting.

Great recruiters value their craft. They don't get upset because a clueless recruiter is taking their business away. If anything great recruiters love clueless recruiters.

While they can create a bunch of noise for a little while. Candidates and companies see immense value in recruiters who actually know what they are doing.

Besides clueless recruiters don't have any idea how to source beyond buzzwords.

Can you find people that other recruiters cannot? How do you do it?

3. Find Better Customers

I have worked with a number of people I'll never work with again. I don't hate them, it's just we aren't a match. They weren't the kind of customer I look for.

Customers that drain you probably aren't a good fit for your business either. Who is your favorite customer to work with?

What would happen if you decided to only work with customers like them?

4. Find 1 New Customer

To make more money you need to find 1 new customer.

That is sort of true. To make more money and enjoy it you need to find one more of the right type of customer. 

Look at your customers. Who do you work well with, what are they like? 

List out their skills, personality, traits, key phrases they use, and look at their LinkedIn profile. What groups are they in, what organizations do to they attend? 

If you go to those places I'm sure you will find more similar people.

Find the right fish by fishing in the right places.

5. Write Better

People say, "It's not what you say, it's how you say it". That's not true when you write. When you write the most important this is WHAT you say.

Read over job descriptions you work on. Look at the emails you send to candidates. If you're not getting the response you want, it's because of what you say.

Good writing is hard because it takes a time to practice and develop the skill.

That's not entirely true. Good writing is hard and takes a lot of time and practice to learn how to do it on your own.

You can learn to write better faster if you have a system. I have no shame because I think this is insanely valuable to you. I made a system that you can use to write better. Read what other recruiter customers think here.

6. Find A New Job

After looking at the value you create and having the "money talk" with your boss, it's clear you both don't agree. What do you do? Keep working at the same place for the same amount? 

I wouldn't.

Is it possible you could find a better job that pays you based on the value you create? 

Yes it is possible. 

But...... "I love the people I work with"

"I can't leave because of X"

"what if I get a new job that is terrible".

You can think of 1,000 reasons not to do something. Or you can make sound decisions and do something different to get new results.

The choice is yours.

What if you wrote down every reason you could not do something? And then came up with a plan or process to overcome each one.

Can you create an error proof method for finding a new job?

That's actually a really interesting idea. I probably shouldn't be sharing all of these.

7. Ask For Commission

I don't know what your compensation plan looks like and I don't care. This idea has nothing to do with how you currently make money. Maybe you are one of those people who is "locked in" to their current job.

There is a technology that many of your customers use or should use. Why not ask companies who make and sell it to give you a commission on the customers you refer to them? 

8. Coach 3 Job Seekers

I can't coach anyone, "'I'm not qualified". There's more to that statement than meets the eye. It's actually a limiting belief you hold.

If you're a good recruiter, I'm going to assume you know more about how to find and access companies than the average person. This knowledge is valuable. But only if you find people who are willing to pay for it.

Many people don't have a developed professional network and when the rug goes out from under them they don't have a clue what to do, who to talk to, or how to do it.

Maybe you can focus on highly compensated people who don't have a network and are looking to make a career move? 

9. Optimize Your Processes

The Big Three Consulting firms:

Bain, BCG, and Mckinsey (in no specific order).

Do you know why they exist? 

The reason these companies exist is they teach companies how to optimize a process to make more money.

Optimizing can mean any number of things depending on the customer. I don't care.

What matters most to me is that you take a look at your process and the things you do as a recruiter every day. Find one thing that you can stop doing.

Find an area where you can spend more focused time and provide better service and add more value.

Stop doing things that waste of time. Optimize your processes to add more value, deliver better service, and create more meaningful relationships.

 

10. Improve Your Work Ethic

I'm not as productive as I could be. I'm not as productive as I should be. If you're honest with yourself for 5 seconds today, reread those last two sentences. Are they true? 

Your stomach drops a little bit, or at least mine did. 

They have been true many times in my life. But they don't have to be true tomorrow. 

Improve your work ethic by 1% today. 

"how can I do this, I don't know how?"

One way I've improved my work ethic is by creating habits. Habits that keep me focused and in a productive state. I write about motivation and the habits I have here and here.

11. Charge More

"My price just went up"

If you don't follow rap music you have probably never heard of DJ Khaled. I grew up listening to him rap and promote other rappers. Today he's worth an estimated $16 Million. Who cares? 

I guess it doesn't matter. Or does it?

DJ Khaled is probably the most popular person on Snapchat right now. I don't care about popularity. I want to tell you a key phrase he said last week. "My price just went up" 

Based on an event, the people he surrounded himself with, and an action. His value increased.

When is your price going to go up?

12. Make More Of These

This isn't a post about how to be dishonest and make more money. Don't look for shortcuts. Sometimes you have to do a thing for a long time before you get the results you want.

The reward is rarely as valuable as the process and the person you become from following the process.

I can track everything in my life to the relationships I have created. Money has never showered down on me from a cloud.

You don't create relationships to get more from people. Develop relationships with people you like that you can learn from and help. 

Give more, without a thought of "what can I get from this person".

13. Make Yourself Insanely Valuable

"How do I make myself insanely valuable?" 

Information and excellence.

The people who are valuable to me know information that I don't know. They might even specialize in field and because of this specialization they know things about a market that I don't.

Minute details that I have no clue about. Details that would take me years to figure out on my own.

Their knowledge is valuable. But it doesn't make them insanely valuable.

What makes them reach this next level is a commitment to excellence. Would you rather hire an average lawyer to work for you? Or the best lawyer in your country?

I don't know you but I don't like to lose.

-  -  - 

You don't have to take any of my ideas. Use each idea as a starting point. Write down a list of 10 ideas for each point.

How would you make each idea better?

Hope is the most powerful drug you can't buy(click to tweet)

Suggested Blog Post: What It Takes To Be A Great Recruiter

About The Author:

Clinton Buelter blogs about recruiting at www.coldemailforrecruiters.com/blog He’s a tech recruiter turned entrepreneur. With more than six years of recruiting experience, starting at a staffing agency and working his way into technical recruitment for software companies like VMware and Glassdoor.

(Photo by to01)