4.    Respect the phone time of others.  Would you interrupt a surgeon in the middle of surgery to talk about your weekend?  Why do you do that with your colleagues?  Are you working on a search together with another recruiter? Then schedule your ‘connection time’ in advance so both of you know when you’re going to talk about it.  Set up specific protocols of when it is acceptable to socialize and when it’s not.  This doesn’t institutionalize a cold and formal culture in an organization.  In fact, it frees it up to know when it’s time to hustle on the phone and when it’s time to goof off.  Goof off time is important, but it’s important that you do it when it doesn’t interfere with the core business of building external relationships.

5.    Schedule your own breaks in advance.  Schedule your stretch-breaks and lunches in your plan.  Reward yourself once you have completed each blocked group of time.

6.    Hustle throughout the day, especially after a good call.  Did you just close a deal?  Then spend the rest of the day involved in business-development activities or marketing a candidate.  The biggest mistake that recruiters make after they achieve success is that they limit themselves to that one singular success and take the rest of the day off.  Success begets success.  Leverage it to your advantage to get you to the next level of success that you deserve.

7.    Inspect each other’s plans.  We’re recruiters, for crying out loud. We don’t do anything unless we know someone else will be checking up on us, so at your next team meeting, discuss what your plan for the week is and bring a copy of your plan for today.  Show your colleagues how you block out your groups of time (you can even just print out a blank page of Microsoft Outlook’s daily calendar and schedule your time on that in pencil) and how you assemble your call lists from the database.  Make a commitment to each other that for the next 90 days nobody leaves the office until they have a plan in place for the next day.

To summarize, here are the three components of a solid plan:
 
1.    Specific goals of achievement written out: Two or three things that need to be accomplished.
2.    Blocks of time carved out on a daily calendar, and what you are going to accomplish during those times.
3.    Printed out call lists from the database for each of those blocks of time.

Bonus tip: Stay off the internet during your call time.  Use it to plan during your plan time.  If you must use it, then schedule ten minute internet breaks throughout the day to catch up on phone numbers that you need to find for candidates who have been referred to you.  Schedule admin breaks to email candidate resumes to clients or to check your personal email.  The tighter your plan is, the more focused you are on your effectiveness of achieving your daily objectives.


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Copyright © 2009 Scott Love
Scott Love improves recruiter performance by teaching a system of big billing success so that average people can achieve above average production. Nearly 2,500 search firms and staffing agencies from sixteen countries have invested in themselves through his training tools and online programs. Visit his online recruiter training center for free audio downloads, free videos, training tools, quizzes, instruments, and articles at www.GreatRecruiterTraining.com