Advanced sales training is the engine that drives revenue at Specialist Staffing Group, a global specialist recruitment company. The RecruitMax program targets consultants with a minimum of one-plus year of sales experience or who have achieved a senior consultant promotion. This experiential learning program provides proven sales technique strategies to help senior consultants network and develop their own business within Specialist Staffing Group, as well as externally with their clients.
Program Details
RecruitMax is interactive and enables senior consultants to participate in co-creation of the learning content and the sales tools they will use in the field. This ensures that each consultant will use the company’s tools and best practices in a way that best fits their style and sales approach.
RecruitMax is run nationally both virtually and in-person by all trainers. Virtual training is broken into 17 sessions run over eight months, while in-person sessions are held four hours every month. The program contains the following sessions:
- Time Management
- Deal-Generating Activities
- Perspectives on Trust
- Retainers
- Market Specialization
- Client Engagement
- Conducting Client Meetings
- Selecting the Right Candidates
All sessions require pre- and post-work, as well as on-the-job applications that link to Specialist Staffing Group’s overall business objectives. Post-work ensures that senior consultants will implement their learning in their business through the career development tool, me@work. This tool allows the trainer, manager, and participant to set short- and long-term career objectives to use training to develop their skills. Objectives are reviewed monthly, mid-year, and yearly, so the senior consultant can measure changes and sustain knowledge. Trainers will use feedback as evidence that the training is helping the company’s advanced salespeople.
Results
The program has been running for 13 months. The fiscal year 2017 global initiative was rolled out along with RecruitMax to improve client experience through Net Promoter Score (NPS). RecruitMax has tied NPS into the Perspectives on Trust session, where senior consultants self-diagnose their client relationships and work on strategies to improve those relationships throughout the year. From fiscal year 2016 to present, as a business, Specialist Staffing Group increased NPS from 58 to 70, an increase of 20 percent.
Another result from RecruitMax training was increased productivity in selling retainers to clients. A retainer is a down payment for business before a candidate has been placed. The training help participants with a real live client in preparing for their pitches. The post-work is to pitch to the client and report the results. From the two classes that were run, nearly $200,000 of potential earnings were agreed to in retained contracts sold.
