Following is what normally happens. Let’s learn from that, and then compare the norm to a better way!

Sales Reps call on companies in a city that are large enough to have sizeable IT departments that offer repeat hiring and contracting + they call on pure technology companies that hire technically skilled people.

A problem with the larger clients is most of them have an internal Vendor Manager who acts as the middleman between the staffing companies and the Hiring Managers.  Dealing with a Vendor Manager is a No Win situation.  These vendor managers simply pass resumes to the managers, and wait for the managers to get back to them, and then the Vendor Manager contacts the Sales Reps who had submitted resumes the Managers are interested in.  The problem is most of the time when an IT Manager writes a job description they are in a rush, and most always forget to add all of the info.  If an experienced recruiter were able to take the job order direct from the manager, he/she could ask important questions from which to ensure they had a complete job description, and truly understand what the manager wanted. And, usually as resumes are submitted and feedback is given from the manager to the recruiter, that feedback is how the recruiter learns exactly what the manager’s pet peeves are. Often times we learn how to narrow and hone our search when managers look at resumes or interview candidates and explain why they are not interested. With that info, we can then refine our search.   When going through a Vendor Manager all of this feedback is eliminated and the recruiting firms who support such clients are working pretty much in the dark. In this scenario there is no real recruiting going on. The staffing firms post jobs to job boards and submit any and every resume to the Vendor Manager just to get the resume in first to get credit, regardless if the resume is qualified. This whole concept of using a Vendor Manager is counter-productive to what is required to actually do a good job at recruiting.  And this is why the best recruiters and reps find a way around the Vendor Manager to develop relationships with the internal managers. Example: American Express used to be a customer of mine.  They had a Vendor Manager. I came across a resume from a programmer who used to work for Amex. I called this programmer, broke the ice, warmed up a conversation and talked the programmer into giving me the names of several internal managers within the Amex IT department.  I then sent small gifts along with letters of introduction to each of these managers.  When I called and asked for them directly, because I was the guy who sent them the gifts, they not only accepted my call, they invited me in to meet them in person.  From there I developed a personal relationship.  These managers would give me their job orders before giving them to the vendor manager. I would recruit qualified people, submit them to the hiring manager, they would interview and select a candidate, etc.  Then they would submit the job order to the vendor manager just to follow their approved process. I would then submit the resume from the person the managers already decided to hire to the vendor manager so I would get credit.  The managers would then hire the candidate, and I was given credit.  The point is I developed an inside connection so I did not have to compete with all the other staffing companies working through the vendor manager system.

In this business money is made by developing friendships with customers, beyond just being someone who submits resumes to a company.

Ok, so what normally happens?  The vendor manager, or HR – emails the job description to recruiting firms on their approved list.  The job descriptions go to one or more recruiters in the staffing company.  This is important. Inside an IT department or company is:  Software + Hardware such as networking + Database + Security + Web + Applications, etc.   There is obviously much more then just this.  So when a job comes open it can be anywhere inside of IT.  And the vendor manager or HR sends all of the jobs to the same group of recruiting firms, rather then send specific job orders to recruiters who specialize in that job type.

This means the recruiters who work for the staffing companies are forced to cover a wide range of job types.  On any given day one recruiter might work on a Mainframe Cobal, requirement, that afternoon work on an Oracle Developer job order, and the next day try to recruit a C++ software engineer.

If you look at the basic principals that are required to be a successful recruiter, one must specialize.  IT is not a specialization, it is an industry.  Unix is a specialization.  When recruiters are forced to try and cover such a wide range of job types, they will never be able to slow down and build a solid network of contacts in any specific niche. 3 years into their career they will be just as dependent on job boards as they were when they started. 

A problem with IT recruiting in general is the recruiters are conditioned to become too dependent on the internet as a source of candidates.  Example:  Most recruiting firms that specialize in Accounting, will not hire IT recruiters. Why? Because the perception is IT recruiters rely too much on job boards, while in the Accounting niche recruiters must make more cold calls.  So what you will often see out there is an IT recruiting firm that accepts pretty much any type of IT job order that comes in, the recruiters try to work on all of these job orders, they develop a junk drawer full of useless resumes instead of building a targeted database of contacts, and 3 years into their career they are not much farther ahead then they were at the end of their first year. Each month they have no clue what type of job order will be coming from which client. So each month they scramble, and never really have control over their business or future.  I use the word recruiter, but what I am talking about applies to both the sales reps and recruiters in IT.

What is the better way?

The key to making money in the staffing/recruiting business is to control the recruiting/candidate side of what we do. Sales is difficult, but it becomes much easier if we become well known as an expert recruiter in our specific niche.

1. A company should pick a niche within IT to specialize in, dominate that in a region, then expand to the next niche.  Or, hire multiple recruiters and assign each one of them a specific niche within IT to specialize in.

Example:  Assume South Florida is the region.  Some companies favor Microsoft.  Others favor Unix/Linux.  Each company does tend to favor the type of technology that the managers tend to like the most.  And some are pro Microsoft, others are Pro Unix, and even on the network side each manager has their own pet peeves.

I would focus one recruiter on Microsoft – covering everything made by Microsoft including SQL Server, VB, .Net – Access, Security, etc.  Another recruiter might focus on Oracle/Unix.  I would then direct each recruiter to start researching South Florida to try and find companies that use the type of technology they specialize in. One recruiter would build a list of companies that uses Microsoft, the other would build a list of companies that use Oracle/Unix.

Such lists of companies can be purchased, or a recruiter can do their own research.

Example:  I could go into the Monster.com resume database going back one full year searching for all IT related resumes that have the word Oracle on them.  And then look at each resume paying attention to the companies the person worked at previously.  By looking at a resume I can see the type of technology the person worked on at each company, which tells me some idea as to what type of technical environment exists within that company.  If the person was an Oracle Developer at PRC Company, then obviously PRC is likely to contain Oracle and Unix in it’s IT environment.

Important!  If I do not do the research to build my list of companies in my region, then how am I supposed to know where to recruit from, or where to market hot resumes to?

Important!  Because many staffing companies place too much pressure on recruiters to produce immediate results, none of them are building a foundation by researching and compiling a complete list.  They go back and forth between working on job orders, to working on their list.  Because they go back and forth they forget where they started, where they left off and over=look many companies therefore ending up with an incomplete list.

The smart thing to do is to slow down and do the work required to build a specialized list in a region first, then worry about selling and recruiting later. If one has the list completed, they are done with that and then focus all their time on sales and recruiting.

2. Once a specialized list is completed, and that can be multiple lists each owned by a specific recruiter, ensure each and every company is documented in the database. 
3. By searching various resume databases going back one full year, a recruiter can at least find people who “used to work” at specific companies.  Call these people, break the ice, warm them up and ask them for names of key people who might still be with the company in question.  Then call to see if these contacts are still valid, and update with new contacts as needed.
4. Find internet resources where people in your niche go to for information.  Get your name out there and let them know you specialize in what they do.
5. As you utilize various resume databases such as Monster and others, search back an entire year, pull any good resumes off their system and add them to yours.  Call, send emails to verify the contact info is good. Send letters by regular mail + emailed copies of those letters.
6. NOTE:  Each recruiter should have their own letter/brochure worded to show they specialize in a specific niche.  That is basic name branding 101.  If a letter or brochure makes one look like a Jack of all Trades, any message is lost. So the message must be clear and specialized.  And it should be personal.

Example of what a letter or email can say:

John,

I found an old copy of your resume and see that you have experience with Unix.  Allow me a moment to introduce myself. My name is David Fogg. I am a recruiter here in S. Florida who specializes only in Unix.  I am currently documenting every single company in this region that uses Unix in their IT environment, and I am seeking to network with people such as yourself to build a database of contacts.  Specifically, I want to get to know everyone in S. Florida that is skilled with Unix, and document every company that uses Unix.  This way if you or someone you know needs to find a job, I will have the contacts at various companies to get your resume in front of. Or, if my clients want to hire a person who is skilled with Unix, I will have the resume database from which to tap into to see if I can find someone for the job.

The main point I want to make is I am doing the work required to become the most well connected recruiter in the Unix niche here in S. Florida. And I am asking for your help.  Any help you can give me in terms of companies that you know of that use Unix + other people you can refer to me, will help me to build a recruiting practice that will surely help you in the future, and be of help to others you know.

Thanks, and Best Wishes.

7. A good recruiter should use the internet to find a vein, but then make the calls to tap into that vein.  An example is finding a resume of a Unix Admin, and then building a relationship with that person to where that individual feeds you leads such as companies they worked for, names of managers, names of co-workers, etc.  Another name for a good recruiter would be Professional Networker. If there 100 companies in your area that hire people within your niche, and 2000 people who are skilled with your niche, will you pick up the phone and do the work to network until you find and document all 100 companies + the 2000 people?
8. What happens if a recruiter follows my steps and builds their list of companies first, and then starts branding their name as a recruiter who specializes?

#1 – By building the list of companies there will be the foundation for a focused selling effort

#2 – By building the list of companies the recruiter or rep can rather easily find out who the top technical managers are such as the CIO or CTO and get those names documented in the database, and start sending name branding literature such as letters, emails etc.

#3 – By aggressively networking by phone, and not relying too much on the internet a recruiter can begin to build their database of candidate contacts, and through those contacts also find the names of various hiring managers within the companies.

#4 – By sending out letters, cards – US Mail and email, the recruiter should brand their name as one who specializes in a technical niche, in a defined region. Word will spread as these technical people often share such information with each other. As word spreads job seekers and contractors will start to contact the recruiter.  This is where the ball starts to roll.

#5 – Being the recruiter has already built their list of companies, that work is done. So they are focused on making calls to network and build their database of contacts.  As they do this, the various hiring managers in the region will start to remember the name of the recruiter. An example is if I focused on S. Florida as my region, and began making networking calls focusing on people and companies that use Unix, sooner or later the hiring managers over the Unix departments will begin to remember my name. And as that happens they will call me and give me their job orders. 

#6 – By focusing on the recruiting side of the business, building the company list + building the candidate database, sales will come to me. When the word spreads that I specialize, and if I brand my name properly with all the key players, business will flow to me. I will not even have to sell to go find it.

#7 – The key component is by focusing on recruiting and building your candidate database, you will condition all the candidates in your niche, in your region to come to you when they felt it was time for a new job, or a new contract.  As they are conditioned to come to you, you can then proactively market their resume to all the hiring managers within the list of companies ( which you would have already established ) and by proactively marketing resumes this way to hiring managers, you are bypassing HR and vendor managers and branding your name as a specialist recruiter at the same time.  So you can see, focusing on the recruiting side of the business is really the key component to successful sales and client development.  If you focus too much on sales, and do not have a solid recruiting plan, you will chase your own tail.  But if you focus on recruiting and name branding, the business will flow to you and sales becomes much easier.

I worked for many years as an IT recruiter. I know what it was like to receive a wide range of job orders, to where it was impossible for me to specialize. And that led me to feeling like I never had any control over my career, which I didn’t.  And, I remember back in those days it was as if sales was more important then recruiting.  The sales reps were paid more, had expense accounts, etc.  Yet later on I learned over time that the only way to make money in this business long term is to specialize and build a name for myself.  And, I learned that once I specialized and became well known in my niche, the business flowed to me both from clients and candidates. We are not selling our ability to sell.  We are selling out ability to provide companies with qualified people for temp or perm jobs. And that means the ability to recruit those people is really the key to success in this industry.  He/She that can recruit the most and the best candidates, is who will make the most money.  You can be the best sales rep in the world, but without good recruiters who are working a methodology to back you up, all the selling in the world means nothing if the recruiters are not sourcing qualified candidates.  And it is why I believe the focus must be put more on recruiting, then on sales – as if the recruiting side of a company is a well oiled machine, the selling part becomes easier.