An Example of how we do, what we do

I wanted to share with you an example of how we do what we do.

 

Starting Point

Recruitment agency specialising in temporary industrial staff in local area.

Established 9 years ago had been very successful. But after a few difficult years, Shirley had lost her oomph and didn’t know where to start to get things back on track. She was feeling as jaded as the office looked; a sad reminder of the mid nineties, all pastels and floral borders. Money was tight and holiday pay, tax and vat payments were a time of sleepless nights for Sue, Shirley’s business partner and keeper of the purse strings. 

They knew they had to do something, but didn’t know what.

 

Step 1

What did they want the business to do for them?

“BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND”

The girls had never thought about their work in that way. After much discussion they realised that they would like to sell the business in 5 years and clear their mortgages with some cash left over.

 

Step 2

What numbers do you need to achieve this goal?

How does that compare to where you are now?

So having identified the size of the task, we could work out how to get there.

 

Step 3

Why do people buy from you? What is it that they buy?

“To fill a job vacancy” came the reply. Well there are many ways to fill a vacancy and many other agencies out there that don’t survive very long so what was it about these girls that made them different?

They took away the hassle of looking for people and sifting through the dross, they respond incredibly quickly to requests and are very flexible in dealing with both clients and candidates. They really want to fill the jobs with the right person so take great care in selection. And do you know what; they are really nice to deal with. They are fun, a little crazy sometimes, but always incredibly good at what they do. Who wouldn’t want to deal with them?

 

It was around this time that sprits started to lift a bit, and the girls started to realise that they were actually pretty good at what they did.                                                                                                        

 

Join me next week to see how we identified who were their "good" and "bad" customers and created a business plan.

 

Oh, and by the way, if you need great temporary or permanent staff contact

Ruddick Recruitment 0116 269 5151 and ask for Shirley or Sue.

First Blog

So here we go, this is our first blog.

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning and why we do what we do.

 

Both Phil and I spent many years selling lots of “stuff”, creating very successful relationships with customers. Understanding what our customers really wanted to achieve, then making that happen. Our greatest pleasure came from developing the people who worked for us, by creating training and mentoring programmes and seeing them grow into talented successful salespeople.

 

When we started Precept in 2005 we wanted to find an area where we could use our experience and success to help others.

 

Business advisor and consultants generally don’t get a great press and are so often seen as hugely expensive, unregulated, and not delivering value. Most consultants focus on the large companies with big budgets and can get away with delivering low relative value.

 

We clearly identified at an early stage that the people who really needed help, and who were consistently ignored (or out priced) by the consultants and business advisors were the small “owner managed” businesses. These businesses set up with such enthusiasm and energy. Businesses set up out of a passion for what they did. This can be a great way to start; we have found the “owner” is the best salesman a company could ever have, because, although their sales techniques might not be great, their passion carries them through. But as things progress, and the business develops that original enthusiasm and passion isn’t enough to create the growth the ambitious owner wants.

 

This is where we come in, as Sales Specialists to add skills, techniques, processes and knowledge. We then coach our client so all the new skills take root and take the business to where he wants it to go.

 

Now, a lot of people think we look for failing businesses, which are desperate and we can ride in like a white knight and save them. Well we have done that, but if a business is really failing it is generally more than just not having enough sales that causes the problems, and the problems are so deep rooted that the changes we would implement are too hard for the business owner to take on board.

 

We look for successful ambitious business owners who really want to take that leap forward and know that they will have to change things for that to happen. That is where the fun starts and we love seeing how the changes we make together help them to realise their dreams.