Welcome to my Open Kitchen
Behind the scenes at Pricing Towers
The wonderful Hung Lee shares the inner workings of his business in his weekly emails, in a section he calls ‘Open Kitchen’.
I’ve got a few things going on that I think you’ll be interested in, so this is a chance for you to see behind the scenes and maybe pick up a few ideas that you won’t see on LinkedIn.
I’m a podcast sponsor
…and not just any podcast! Ben Browning has launched a new show that answers the big recruitment questions each week. I think it’ll add value to how you do business, so check it out - and let me know what you think of my advert in the middle :-)
Also, a heads up that I’ll be on Steve Guest’s podcast in the next few weeks. We had a really interesting chat about the value of recruitment, negotiating tactics, and inspirational people in recruitment - worth a listen too.
The power of ‘free’
My email last week about coffee subscriptions had a 20% higher open rate than any other email I’ve sent this year. The subject line was ‘Free coffee’, which demonstrates how effective the word ‘free’ is at getting attention.
The question for people selling professional services (you and me) is how to harness that power without devaluing our prices and value proposition. After all, attracting a crowd who like free stuff doesn't make for good business.
Feel free (pun intended) to email me with your experiences of using ‘free’ in recruitment.
One-day workshop
I mentioned I'm running a one-day strategy course with the fantastic Angela Cripps later this month in London. It’s for recruitment leaders from agencies with 30+ headcount; we’re being specific because we want you to learn from your peers as well as us.
If you’re looking for expert advice and ideas to help you grow in 2023 it’s worth checking out here. (If you’re from a smaller agency but like the idea, let me know and I’ll see if we can put on another course for you and your peers).
Developing ‘see it through’
A few weeks ago I wrote about taking inspiration from Yoda. Rather than ‘trying’ a pricing change, I wanted to focus on helping you ‘do’ your pricing change. In other words, making sure you get the maximum benefit from taking a new approach.
I’ve talked with several recruitment leaders about this, and I’ve discovered more about the challenges you face when bringing in a big change.
Some people have told me they can’t roll out change all at once. Others want a big bang launch, but need to see that turn into momentum. Some rightly question how they can roll out a new approach to a team with different levels of experience.
I’ll explain more in future emails about how I’m working with recruitment leaders to answer these questions, and giving them confidence that they are making the most of the change in approach.
And that brings your tour of the kitchen to an end :-) Hopefully lots of value in there for you.
And if you’re looking to make 2023 the year that you focus on the value that you bring to your clients, simply reply to this email and I’ll explain how I can help you.
Jon
P.S. If you’ve noticed that TotalJobs and Indeed have ramped up their prices, you’ll probably be wondering which job board is next (answer: most likely the rest of them, plus LinkedIn).
I’m sure you know from experience that talking to clients about rising costs and trying to bring in your own pricing increases is a painful process.
The good news is when you focus your conversation around the value you create for your clients, you can charge more without ever having to mention costs.
So if you’re looking to make 2023 the year that you focus on the value that you bring to your clients, simply reply to this email and I’ll explain how I can help you.