Difficult demos

I was talking to Jane yesterday and it appears she had a very similar experience to me at a PARI demo the other day. It doesn't, in my experience, happen very often but you may also come across someone who wants to either be very clever or plain difficult, so I thought I would let you know how I dealt with it. My initial thoughts were to either punch the guy or make him look really silly in-front of the others - I resisted both options and suggest that you don't go down those routes either. So what to do:

As an example of what the guy was asking me - he said that it is absolutely essential that he gets a team player who is excellent at working by themselves, these being the two ends of the scale. I explained that what we are trying to match are personality traits and if individuals excel at team work they cannot, at the same time, be as comfortable as a sole worker, so if he requires both traits he would need to choose one of the options on the middle of the grid. He was still chuntering on so I took another look this time at the flip side of the personality traits that are detailed with the text descriptions - this made life much more straight forward as the closer to the ends of the grid you go the more focussed the traits become and therefore the flip sides are also very single minded. There were definitely some traits that he did not want which forced us more to the middle again and that is where we agreed he would be measuring, to a degree, both requirements appropriately.

I have to say I didn't take a shine to the guy I was demo-ing to and I got the distinct impression that he didn't like me much, but he has not ruined my 100% record, he signed up for a free demo account to take it away and evaluate it for himself!

There is normally a reason why people are difficult, I later discovered the guy that was trying to give me a hard time had spent 18 months creating his own analysis tool and he wanted to prove that his was better - he now openly admits it is not.

Keep faith and keep pushing, there is still nothing in the UK market that I have come across that does what RMP does.

New skills for an Old Dog

They say that you can't teach new skills to old dogs - I think last week I proved that to be wrong. The choir that I sing with have had a web site for a couple of years that, not to put too fine a point on it, wasn't great. A month ago or so I was asked if there is anything I could do with it to improve it.

Now, I know nothing about building web sites as I have never do anything like that in my life, but as the Choir were desperate I said I would give it a go. The new site went live on Saturday and to be honest I am quite pleased with it. The choir now have a site that they are happy with and I now have a new skill - Web Designer! I have also found out how cheap it is to create a site and host it, so not the waste of time a thought originally it could have been.

Anyone else learnt something new recently

Welcome to Telephone Monday

Well, I hear you ask - what is Telephone Monday

Telephone Monday is the first day of the last week before the Schools have entirely broken up for the summer break and therefore the last week before floods of people desert their desks in search of a couple of weeks of peace. Therefore it is the last week that you will find the majority of folk still at work before September and your last chance to get diary time to demo PARI.

Don't forget if you miss this window you will be missing out on the much higher levels of activity in September - a big month for recruitment so not only will you be missing out on sales but it will also be difficult to get diary time as Recruiters will also be busy.

So don't delay - dial today!

Cricket again (one of my favourite subjects!

Test 2 today - although we have the most appalling record against Australia at Lords does anyone believe we will perform better than we did earlier this week in Cardiff. From my point of view, we have been slow starters in many of our recent test series and we also seem to come back stronger in the second match. So fingers crossed!

The exception proving the rule!

Morning all, i trust you had a good weekend.

Having written last week about the best way to get to see new prospects is through networking and referrals i had a very interesting conversation with Graham. He, whilst agreeing with me, also told me that he had actually put a lot of time in qualifying the right sort of agency to contact and had been cold calling as well - alas with little to show for it. Last week, independently of my piece on this blog, he decided to just start at the top of his database list and work his way down ringing everyone irrespective to anything he may know about their business. The result, he has 5 appointments this week with companies he had qualified out intially.

What can i say - 5 in a week is more than i have managed to date (but i'm not really bitter!)

Probably best to not judge who would want RMP and who wouldn't

If you have a system that works don't change it just but "Peter says"

You see i really am a master of hindsight.

Just an after thought, i have granted all you guys author status on this blog so please feel free to start new topics if you wish.

Talk to you all soon

Peter

Stating the blooming obvious

I have always been quick on the uptake - after the event, so what i am going to do is excusing my inadquacies by assuming that this posting will be useful to others!

When you demo RMP to a potential end user, rather than just walking them through the process actually get them to send out requests to some of their job seekers, even offer to help. Also try and work with them to profile a job they are currently recruiting for, that way you are already building RMP into their process and they will continue to use it - which is what we want. It bearly goes without saying that the first company i signed up - i hadn't worked this out so their usage to date has been minimal. Who said that Sutton was bright!

The Ashes

So the Ashes start today in Cardiff for the first time. Andy Flintoff in and Brett Lee out - England getting through to the Semi finals of the Twenty 20 world cup whilst Australia going out before the super 8 round - is any of this significant or does it make no difference to the Ashes as this is one of the longest standing international competitions within the cricketing calendar.

The guess the most important question is - do we have the squad and belief to beet the Auzies, what do you think?............

Could Murray have done

Did Andy Murray give his all or could he have done better

I don't think he could have done any more than he did, Roddick had very clear game plans for both him and Federer and very nearly won the title by sticking to them. Andy Murray is a really good player and as he is still very young has an excellent chance to win Wimbeldon in years to come.

I thought this year's competition overall was really good and thoroughly enjoyable. The tennis was played, in the latter stages, at a very high standard by sportsmen who were courteous on court and equally magnanimous in defeat and victory.

Did anyone else enjoy it

Benefiting from the September Rush

Guys

I know it sounds like i am nagging and very often stating the obvious but in our busy lives the obvious is not considered with anyting but hindsight!

September is traditionally one of the better months for Recruiters, folks having taken holidays in August and had time to think about their jobs and decide it is time to do something to improve their lot start to look for new opportunities in September.

August unsurprisingly is traditionally much quieter so if you want to be in a position where the September rush does you some good you need to be getting clients on the books this month.

Firstly, let me apologise - i am not a happy blogger but i'm doing my best.

So, as i was sitting in the garden at the begining of this week contemplating the sales of PARI, i took to wondering why some of you guys are finding it so difficult. Is it that the product isn't all i think it is, is that no one in the recruitment trade is interested in it - and these along with a number of others were questions to which i don't know the answer hence my call to most of you the other day requesting a 10 minute chat about this very subject.

My next thought was, as i had only actually signed one person myself, was that just by luck, so i thought it is time to put this to the test. I routed around for a couple of contacts and without ringing more than 6 people i booked 3 appointments. Today i completed the third appointment in 3 days and have signed up every one i have seen.

I can only conclude that i am doing something very different to you guys so this is it. The first sales was made to a Recruitment Company's MD that i met at a networking function. As i signed you her up i asked for some referrals - she gave me 3 names and contact details. These are my next set of potential clients to whom i now have a warm introduction as i checked i could use the referers name in my first call. I have only had a meeting with one of these so far but have signed them up as well. My initial call is very brief, i do not try to over sell it, i simply talk about a job to candidate matching tool that sits at the front end of the recruitment process negating the inital time consuming CV filtering and interviewing elements. I explain that the tool is best detailed via a demonstration and request a 45 minute appointment, i even sound pathetic if i have to. I am yet to demo the product and not sign the client - it is very bit as powerful as i have always thought. The other two clients this week came again from contacts i have - but not in the recruitment business directly but both or whom look have their own businesses and can see the benefit for either recruituing their own staff or within projects that they are delivering as Consultants.

We shall see if i am continuing to just be lucky when i try again next week, but remember every time i sign a new client i ask for referrals - why build your own database when someone else can do it for you and provide a warm intro.

That's all i want to say for now, but i look forward to talking to you all soon

I'd really like everyone of you guys to be successful sellers of PARI and if we can use this sort of feedback as we accumulate clients then it can only be for the good of all.