What would you do to maintain business with your current clients? That’s a questions that many recruiters have probably asked themselves over the past two to three years.
That’s also a question we asked recruiters all across the country in a recent Top Echelon survey regarding the guarantees that recruiters offer to their clients. Guarantees are a very individualistic part of a recruiter’s business model. Not every recruiter uses the same approach. In fact, how recruiters view and use guarantees can vary widely, and recruiters make decisions about guarantees based upon their personal preferences and what they believe works best for their business.
That’s why we asked the following question in our survey:
“Have you changed the guarantees you offer to your clients since 2008 in order to maintain business?”
Below are the responses to that question:
Yes—29.0%
No—69.4%
No Response—1.6%
If a recruiter answered “Yes,” we asked them to elaborate further by commenting, and that’s exactly what they did. After analyzing these comments, two patterns emerged:
- Many recruiters have extended their guarantees from 60 days to 90 days.
- Many recruiters have changed their guarantee policy in order to secure new business, as opposed to maintaining current business.
Listed below is a sampling of some of the specific comments that recruiters made:
“In some cases, we had to extend the guarantee period in order to secure the account, since other firms were giving away much longer terms.”
“If I agree to sign a client company contract specifying a different guarantee in order to take a search, I’m careful. It has to be an excellent company where the chances of a fall-off are practically zero. I don’t accept just any assignment.”
“In 16 years, I’ve had two fall-offs, so it’s an area where I’m willing to give in during [guarantee] negotiations in order to earn higher fees or get the job order over other agencies.”
“Not to maintain business, but perhaps to pick up new business. Certain aspects of our agreements are negotiable, but they have to work for both parties.”
“We approach it the same as we always have, on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the relationship with the client, the potential for additional business, etc.”
“We will give a six-month guarantee for searches where the salary is above $100K.”
What about you? Have you changed or altered the guarantee that you offer to clients over the past two years in order to maintain their business? Have you altered anything else within your firm for the same reason? Or have you only changed your guarantees—or anything else—in order to pick up new clients?
Leave a Comment..