Ever Been Spammed By a Contingency Recruiter?

Admit it - you've been there.  You fought the good fight, then opened up a search on your chart to contingency recruiters, because it was obvious you weren't going to get it filled.  If you really, REALLY needed to get the job filled, you wondered aloud whether you should contact multiple recruiters.

Why did you ask that question?  Because you played the contingency game in the past, and it seemed like the people who were around to answer the bell slammed you with candidates that really didn't fit the bill.  Some of the candidates were duplicates to what you had access to in Monster or CareerBuilder.  So you play the odds and have multiples working the search.

So, you're jaded on contingency search.  That's OK, because so are the good recruiters.  From Harry Joiner's Marketing Headhunter:

"Recently I undertook a contingency-based executive search for a Chicago-based ecommerce company.  Without being long winded here, the client's standards were really high.  But mine were higher.

Throughout the process, the client asked me to "increase the flow" of candidates -- but I refused to exceed my limit of four A-players at a time.  Like Mt. Rushmore ...

It's not that I couldn't submit dozens of average candidates.  It's that I simply didn't want to, and on a contingency-based search, clients are going to get what I want them to have.  Contingency clients use multiple recruiters for their projects, and if I'm one of, say, three recruiters chasing a search -- then I know that the client can get average candidates from my competitors.  And it's not my job to build the hiring company's database.  After all, until I close a search and they pay my invoice, I'm working for free.

I realize this makes me sound difficult.

But it's just good business.  I can't build a stellar reputation by submitting candidates who are marginally better than what the hiring company could get through Monster or from an unspecialized recruiter.  I need to win each search in a total BLOWOUT, and I can only do that by working with highly specialized rock stars and then learning to tell their story in a way that engages the client."

Harry's a sharp guy who doesn't have to be everything to everyone.   He's got a micro-niche, and he tries to own it.  That's refreshing, and I'm guessing, lucrative once he got established.

So here's the litmus test.  I'm guessing Harry does quite a bit of retained search.  If you're a recruiter looking to draw a retainer or even an exclusive contingency search arrangement, here's the 64K question:

"What niche do you recruit for?"

If you said, "We place IT professionals in the software industry", or something like that, you're too broad.  When I need a .net developer with healthcare experience, you have to throw darts like the rest of us.   

But if you own a niche like Harry and can get established, I'm only too happy to provide you with an exclusive, because I know you have a network that can produce 4 "A" players.

Of course, you have to get through some pretty lean times from a biz development perspective to get there. 

But once you are there, life could be nice.... If you pick the right niche.... 

Comments

[management recruiter]

Kris,

Thanks for the shout out. I was blessed: I started contingency recruiting for ecommerce in 2004, and although I closed accounting and logistics searches along the way -- I stuck to my knitting. As soon as I understood the nature of SEO, I bought every single ecommerce recruiting domain available -- along with a few very expensive, non-limiting, others. Had I not been self-employed, NONE of this would have been possible.

As of this writing, I have six major blogs parked on top of the domains ...

ManagementRecruiter.com
MarketingHeadhunter.com
LogisticsRecruiter.com
FinanceRecruiter.com
SearchEngineExperts.com and
OnlineRetailJobs.com

Other domains (like CIORecruiter.com) will launch later this year.

We are in the first recession I have ever had to recruit through, and I confess that my phone rings a lot -- mostly because of my blogs' placement in organic search. Beyond that, I'm really good -- which helps my "word of mouth" buzz in the business.

But many recruiters "are really good."

The primary difference is that there is a self-reinforcing loop at work in my business: My SEO work attracts great candidates, who tell their hiring manager friends about me, who tell HR people to call me when there's a legitimate need, who give me great searches -- which allow me to attract the best candidates.

100% of my work is contingency based.

Thanks again for writing.
Harry

[Jim Durbin]

Harry is seriously the best at what he does, and you only need to search Google to see that he walks the walk in this industry.

I guess we could say, there's something about harry. heh

[Jennifer Kennedy]

A new job matching technology site launched this week, I read the article on Venture Beat here:

http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/13/realmatch-offers-a-fresh-take-on-job-sites

[Shannon]

Kris -
thanks much for a great post - building networks and having specialized perspective is key. On this side of the fence (& certainly now), the greater challenge is getting your message heard and fighting against the managers that just want flow - becasue they are used to it and do not appreciate the inherent dysfunction of that model - they get what they are asking for.
Shannon

www.kinetixhr.com