Guaranteed ways to impress clients

Two tips to show how confident you are in your service

I was fortunate enough to have a market research budget in a former role, and the most important thing I learnt about hiring managers is that they choose their recruiters based on how confident they are.

The easiest way to impress a hiring manager with your confidence is through your guarantee. The problem is, most recruiters don’t give their guarantees a second thought… and it shows.

So, here are two ways to present a guarantee that’ll show hiring managers you’re deadly serious about the quality of your service:

1. Offer a big guarantee that blows your competitors out of the water 

2. Offer no guarantee at all

The power of a big guarantee is like a peacock’s tail. It shows your clients that you can afford to offer an extremely generous rebate, either because you can afford it (presumably because you’re a great recruiter) or because you find candidates who stay for the long term (because, you’ve guessed it, you’re a great recruiter).

Interestingly, offering no guarantee also tells your clients that you’re a great recruiter. It tells your clients that you don’t need to tempt people to work with you with added extras - you’re in demand, so you work on terms that work for you. If a client wants a guarantee, they can go somewhere else to get it (but then they don’t get to work with you).

Your biggest risk? Offering a middle-of-the-road guarantee. It’s not impressive enough to help you win more business… but there’s still a cost to you whenever a candidate falls out. Perhaps most costly is what you’re telling your clients: we offer the same thing everyone else does. So when it comes to fees, don’t be surprised if you’re getting paid the same as everyone else.

So make sure you show your clients how confident you are by offering them a stand-out service.

Whether you choose to go big or offer nothing at all, you’ll find that your clients react to your confidence. They become more confident in you. They’re less likely to negotiate on fees. They’re more likely to trust you with their role exclusively. To pay you part of the fee up front. And to treat you like a partner.

Of course this doesn’t just apply to guarantees.

Every part of your service is telling your clients something. If you want to tell them that you’re a great recruiter (without having to use those words), reply to this email and we can talk about designing services that win you more business at better fees.

Jon

P.S. I don’t guarantee what I do. Maybe that tells you something.

If you want to understand the best way to offer guarantees (or not) to your clients, reply to this email and we can talk.