reesonance.com

The Heist

There was once a knight who went to a week long tournament.

Each day during that tournament he would come in and tell the guard at the door:

“I am a famous thief and this tournament will not go unplundered”

These words disturbed the guard deeply as the event was full of valuable weapons and equipment.

Each day the guard would watch the knight carefully and meticulously search him after the games were over, but to no avail.

At the end of the competition the knight told the guard that he had plundered a vast supply of booty.

Greatly perplexed, the guard asked what booty was the knight talking about, since nothing was found on him.

The knight smiled and said: “I’ve been stealing strategies”


This is apparently a derivative work from one of the many  "Tao of" pages.

How to Sell Recruiting Services (Job Opening)

This is a strange follow up to my last entry: We have an opening for someone who wants to sell technical recruiting services in Austin. You should have experience doing this and our preference is that you actually enjoy your work (this will help you fit in with the rest of us).

We are seeking an experienced account management/sales person with technical contract staffing experience. We are looking for someone to help us build our contract and direct hire business in Austin and beyond. We have offices in Austin, Houston and Beaumont. The ideal candidate will have experience in building a contract technical staffing business.

 
Our firm is a vibrant organization that values and rewards hard work.  We offer an equity program for our most successful employees. If you or anyone you know may be interested please forward this email or a resume. Resumes can be sent to david_rees@hotmail.com

We are located in North Austin, near the Arboretum. I have not seen our firm pay relocation, but it would be worth it to move yourself (that's what I did).

How Not to Sell Recruiting Services

A corporate recruiting manager here in Austin sent me this today. Names are changed to protect the witty and the hapless.

From: **** ***** [mailto:*****.*******.**.**@[ACME RECRUITING].com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:32 AM
To: *Recruiting Manager*
Subject: Are you still hiring for your Senior Sales Executive opening

Hello,

Hope you are doing well!

Did you ever fill your Senior Sales Executive position?

If so, great!  Do you have other positions that we can help you fill?

If it is still open, we can help!  We have great candidates who you may want to interview.  Your company only pays a fee if you hire our candidate.

[ACME RECRUITING] recruits exceptional candidates for some of the best companies nationwide and we would be honored to recruit qualified local candidates for you as well!   

There is no charge to interview our candidates and we stand behind all of our candidates and will replace them if for any reason they do not work out.

What does it cost?  Our standard fee is 30%.  However, we would like to offer [NAME OF A DIFFERENT COMPANY] our discounted rate of only 25%. 

How do I get started? Attached is our discounted agreement.  Simply review, sign and fax it back and we will get started!  J

Any questions?  Just email me and I’ll get right back to you.

Of course, there are no fees unless you decide to hire one of our candidates.

Looking forward to working with you!

****
[ACME RECRUITING]
 

Recruiting Manager
We focus on great local candidates!
***.***.**** [West Coast phone numbers]
***.***.**** Fax

I was surprised to see that they left the name of another company in the email when they mailed it to the person that sent it to me. Corporate recruiters and HR people are flooded with these kinds of solicitations on a daily basis. You get a sense of the frustration when you read the reply but the point of posting this is not drama, but to illustrate how important it is to pay attention to details when you are trying to earn business:

****,

Thank you so much for the email. Unfortunately, for 25%, I expect a level of service not reflected in your communication.

    * First, you did not address the email to me even though you had my name. If you did not have my name, a very simple search would’ve turned it up. This shows lack of effort and initiative.
    * Second, the benefits of your service that you list are no different from standard industry practices, so I do not find them compelling reasons to select your company over your competitors.
    * Your use of platitudes through such words as “great”, “exceptional”, “best”, and “honored” reveals that either you do not understand the meaning of these words or do not apply the same value to them that I do. I can only conclude that you will use the same subjective value judgments about of the candidates you represent. I would prefer a more objective judgment with the firms I work with.
    * You addressed your discount offer to [SOME OTHER COMPANY], not my company. This shows me that you are not detail oriented and are likely to overlook important details.
    * You gave no explanation as to why the discount was offered. You asked for nothing in return for it. This tells me that you do not believe your service is worth 30%. If you do not believe it is worth 30%, why should I believe it is worth 25%?
    * Your tag line in your email signature reads, “We focus on great local candidates!” Yet, your phone number and company headquarters are not local. I can only conclude that either a) you focus on candidates local to [WEST COAST CITY]; b) you focus on candidates local to Austin, even though you are in [WEST COAST CITY]; c) this is an empty brand promise that goes to every one of your prospects around the country. Of the three options, option c seems most likely to me.
    * The attached fee agreement is pre-signed, yet it is not a locked document or a PDF, which opens you up to risk if an unscrupulous client were to change the language and print it out. This demonstrates poor risk awareness and foresight in the management of your company.

Based on this analysis, I would like to offer a counter of a 3% fee reduction for each of the bullet points above. That takes the total fee to 4%. If you and [name of CEO who pre-signed the agreement] are agreeable to this, please send an updated agreement for my signature.

Regards,

[Corporate Recruiting Manager]
Austin, Texas

I am sure not everyone will have the same reaction, but the point is that details count. They count because they show that you think and you care.

Work, Music and Books

The last 2 weeks have been some of the busiest since I started with my current agency. I filled the VP of Sales role and my candidate started today so that was excellent and to date, it was the largest billed fee at our company.

Tomorrow our company is going to the Rodeo to see Willie Nelson in concert which I am pretty excited about. Not only is he a local legend, but he is an actual music legend and word is he puts on a phenomenal show.

I am finding it very hard to read lately due to lack of time. Since December I have been listening to several audio books (www.audible.com) on my Zen V. So far, I would say that Malcolm Gladwell is my favorite both in terms of his books and his voice. I listened to "Blink" and "Tipping Point" and I am finishing up "The Art of Woo" (spun from Buckinghams "winning over others") which is not a direct counter point to Art of War, but an interesting study in persuasion.

Since I am on the topic, I highly recommend you own at least one MP3 player. I am very product agnostic so I won't go on about how good or bad the ipod is or is not. I have nothing against the ipod, but I have not been able to make myself buy one as I find I can get more storage space in a device for less money by going with other brands.

About a year ago, I bought a Sansa e260 which I generally loved save for two things: first, it did not support audible.com and second, it did not have any kind of sleep timer. I used it heavily for most of last year until it developed a problem with the jog dial. The mechanical dial is a great feature when you have a lot of music to scroll through as it is much faster and more accurate than a single speed scroll button. In early December I contacted Sansa to get an RMA on my player and I nearly waited too long to send it (mostly due to traveling back to California and then forgetting about it). Long story short, Sansa replaced my unit inside of 1 week and they replaced it with a factory sealed unit that included new headphones and accessories. Not only that, but I got their revised model that now supports audible.com and includes a sleep timer! The new model boots much faster and generally feels "snappier" - highly recommended.

The Zen V I picked up just after Christmas. It is also a 4GB player but about half the size of the Sansa. There are trade offs but I would say the two devices are both very good and I like them equally. I use the Zen V to commute and listen to books (thanks to its better book mark system) and the Sansa more for music (due to the jog dial).