When above-and-beyond can be over-the-top

Why you shouldn’t provide a first class service to everyone

One of the most powerful ways to improve your fees and win more business is to create a menu of services. After all, we know that people like to have a choice - whether they’re buying a new car or a cup of coffee - and the same is true in recruitment.

But one regular concern I hear from progressive recruiters is this: I already provide my highest level of service to all my clients.

These recruiters don’t want to offer their clients the option of a less valuable service. Which is fair enough. After all, these recruiters have often spent years developing their skills, networks, and relationships, and they don’t want to devalue them by taking parts of their service away.

However, when I dig a little deeper we see that these are the concerns of the recruiter, and not the worries of their clients.

I’ve worked with recruiters who will go the extra mile at every stage of the recruitment process, for every client… even when some of their clients say they don’t need it.

This isn’t providing extra value, because the client doesn’t value it. Instead, this is doing extra work that does nothing to increase your fees (because people don’t want to pay more for things they don’t want).

In fact, those clients would be happier if the service only included the things they valued. Then they know the fee is going towards a process that meets their needs, without worrying that they’re paying for unwanted extras.

Think of it like a complimentary glass of champagne with a meal when you’re not drinking alcohol - you’d rather the cost of the champagne came off the bill, right?

Once recruiters see that different clients value different things - and don’t always want to pay top price for their first class service - then the menu of services makes more sense to them.

The lesson here is to think about what your clients value from you, not what you want to do for your clients. And remember that a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to make your clients happy, no matter how good it is.

So if you provide a high quality recruitment service and want to make sure you’re delivering what your clients value, simply reply to this email and I will reply with your next step to pricing success.

Jon

PS. One of the high value recruiters I work with had a real lightbulb moment when they realised that their clients didn't need all their best services all of the time.

Rather than going all-out for every role, the recruiter started talking to their clients about what support they wanted for each assignment. It turned out the recruiter could delight their clients more by giving them the right level of service for each role than by giving them the red carpet treatment every time.

So if you provide a high quality recruitment service and want to make sure you’re delivering what your clients value, simply reply to this email and I will reply with your next step to pricing success.