With the credit crunch continuing to tighten the corporate purse strings, the pressure to recruit the right people into an ever-shrinking job pool has never been higher, and recruitment sales training specialist Andy Preston has warned that many recruitment organisations are failing to maximise the potential of their consultants by continuing to use outdated training methods which do not fit with current market conditions.
After speaking at this latest Sales Breakfast club on 18th June in Manchester, Preston stressed that most recruitment training was based on how the market was ten to twenty years ago and that modern recruitment organisations needed to adapt their sales training programmes to capitalise on a downturned market.
ìMany recruiters assume that the credit crunch has reduced the amount of job vacancies or candidates in the pot and so they canít possibly be expected to meet their targets, so just stop trying. But ironically, it is those who approach the market as if there is nothing wrong who will prosper as they will win business from those who have already accepted defeatî suggests Preston, founder of sales performance training company Outstanding Results.
Preston believes that most recruitment organisations donít invest in appropriate sales training, preferring instead to train consultants in the way the managers or owners of the company were taught.
ìWhilst the basic skills of the job havenít changed, when it comes to the attitude and skills required to bring in new clients, the average recruiter is often found wanting and with the market conditions changing, consultants are finding themselves poorly equipped when it comes to new business sales skills. And when this is mentioned to management, it only seems to encounter resistance, as management continue to insist that ìtheir way is bestî, even in the face of evidence to the contraryî, says Preston.
This sentiment has been reflected in recent research by Perriam & Everret, which revealed that almost a third of the 1200 recruitment consultants they surveyed were not satisfied with the level of training they received from their organisation.
ìThere is a definite sink or swim mentality in the recruitment industry and so the assumption made by management is that youíre either going to make it as a consultant or not. But how in earth can new, under-pressure consultants be expected to deliver results if they arenít equipped with the right skills from the onset?î adds Preston, who has worked with clients such as Antal International, Evolution Recruitment and SQ Computer Personnel.
Training gap threatens to leave Recruiters out in the cold
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