It wasn’t a client calling to make an offer.  I didn’t get any offers last week.

Nor did I close any deals last week. So it wasn’t that.

And it wasn’t a client or prospect calling with a great new search for me to work on; I didn’t get any new searches last week.

I did set up a great sendout for a client, but that wasn’t the best call of my week.

My best call of the week came late Thursday afternoon from a woman on the East Coast who I have been working with in my mentor program.

Now, I have to admit, when I saw Veronica’s name come up on my iPhone, I wondered what problem or concern she was having that we would be addressing.  Let’s face it, when you take on the responsibility to be someone’s coach, they usually don’t call and tell you about an average day when everything went great.

But that is exactly why I got this call from Veronica Mollica of Indigo Partners last Wednesday.

She simply wanted to thank me for pushing her to move away from her contingency only method of working with her clients to one where she added engaged search to her mix.  Working that business model exclusively was her long term business goal.

Veronica was thrilled to have finally arranged two sendouts with one of her first engaged client searches, a particularly challenging client in that they were looking for a candidate who possessed two mutually exclusive set of skills (how often do we all get to deal with that?).  The feedback after one of the interviews was exactly what she had hoped it would be, great enthusiasm for a candidate who really didn’t have everything they wanted technically, but had the intangibles that she ferreted out from them in her excellent work with them to earn the engaged search.  Veronica nailed it, and now had their complete respect.

What is engaged search?

It is my favorite way of doing search, it is a hybrid between the contingency and retained business processes.  I get paid a non-refundable search initiation fee of anywhere between a third of the expected fee (in good markets like 2007) to as little as a few thousand dollars (in not so good markets like 2009) to “engage” me on their search.  Upon the completion of the search, the balance of the fee is due.

In my career, I have completed 94% of the engaged searches I have written.

I have only failed to complete 4 of the engaged searches I began, and in all 4 of those searches I got paid a partial fee for the partial work I did on my clients behalf, as it should be.

But more important than that, and ask anyone, I think a 94% completion rate is very important, as is getting paid for hard work expended on searches my clients don’t complete with me; the most important part of this whole process is something Dave Knutson tried to teach me years ago when I first stepped into the world of engaged search, respect.

In the end, that was what Veronica was most excited about when she called me Thursday of last week.  She was beaming with the confidence that a search professional has when their client has genuine respect for them, the kind of respect that they will pay for upfront because they believe in you and the ability of your service to deliver successful resutls that much.

That was what made my day.

It is not every day that a search process coach like me gets to see a exceptionally talented search professional, one who would be more than capable of staying successful without making a single change to what she was doing, take the risk, do what was uncomfortable and fraught with risk, and succeed in a way that surprised even her.

My reward was hearing the confidence in her voice.  I knew that her business and success were forever going to be at a new level because she had the guts to try.  I got to hear the transformation take place in her in that one call.  She was really going to make the transition to engaged search which would change the way she did business, was seen by her clients, and brought success to her business and herself.

How cool is that?

It was the best call of my week.

Jeff Skrentny, CERS, had an inauspicious start in the recruiting profession as his first placement quit after 93 days.  Then he was sued.  Despite that start, Jeff  has been an executive recruiter for 23 years, and has also been a trainer, author and motivator for his profession for the last 15 years, as well as being a business consultant and adviser for its producers, managers & owners for the last 10 years; all while still running a busy IT search business in Chicago at his firm Jefferson Group Search.

.

Watch for my forthcoming white paper and webinar on transitioning your contingency practice to engaged search right after Thanksgiving in the first week of December.

Sometimes great advice is best said by someone else.  That is indeed the case when it comes to how to effectively communicate and set communication expectations as Search, Staffing and Recruiting Professionals.

Craig Silverman has produced a great blog post on Fordyce Network titled “Can We Talk“…an excellent reminder / best practice outline for this often over looked, yet oh so critical part of our work.  Read what Craig had to say at:

http://www.fordyceletter.com/2009/11/02/can-we-talk/

Reading this will be worth a few minutes of your day today!

Jeff Skrentny, CERS, had an inauspicious start in the recruiting profession as his first placement quit after 93 days.  Then he was sued.  Despite that start, Jeff  has been an executive recruiter for 23 years, and has also been a trainer, author and motivator for his profession for the last 15 years, as well as being a business consultant and adviser for its producers, managers & owners for the last 10 years; all while still running a busy IT search business in Chicago at his firm Jefferson Group Search.

For many the scramble has already begun.  When will we take our holiday card photo, where, what should we all wear?

And what fruit basket or gift will really say “thank you dear client” the best at the Christmas-time holiday giving season?

What a racket.

What a drag on my psyche.

Are my December Holidays really designed to send out hundreds of cards to candidates, clients and prospects who are bombarded with this kind of “thank you” detritus this time of year?  Or should I save that precious time of year for those who matter most, my family and friends?

We have decided to do the latter and gave up doing holiday/Christmas cards and client appreciation gifts.  In our opinion the gesture no longer has meaning, and sours our overall attitude about a time of year that should be special and cherished.

But this doesn’t mean we have given up on showing our clients sincere gestures of appreciation.  We definitely believe saying thanks to our clients, candidates and a few key prospects makes a lot of sense.  But at Christmas-time?  Is there no better opportunity to say THANKS?

There is, and in the States, and even for our brethren to the north in Canada, we have a perfect holiday for saying Thank You…you guessed it, Thanksgiving!  You know, that time for Giving THANKS.

Not only do I use this time to conclude my billing year (my year ends November 30th); and not only do I craft most of my personal and business goals by the time the Thanksgiving weekend is over;  I now see to it that my annual client appreciation gestures, cards and gifts of thanks are delivered before the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.

Not only does this free me up to enjoy the holidays with those who matter most to me, my family and friends;  and not only does it free up a big chunk of time at the holidays to start selling again when everybody else is running around with their heads cut off signing cards and delivering gifts;  it gives me one of my best competitive advantages of the year…I go first, and get remembered longer, throughout the whole holiday season, because my gesture of appreciation made sense as it was delivered when it seemed to matter, at a time designed for giving thanks, Thanksgiving.

You can read more of how we have made this such a successful best practice by reading my article, A Holiday Scrooge Or Sage Thanksgiving Advice.  In this short article I share what holiday gift we give that has the added bonus of client interaction and conversation throughout the year.  How many holiday gifts do that?

http://skrentnyspeaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/A-Holiday-Scrooge-Or-Sage-Thanksgiving-Advice.pdf

This article can also be found in your November issue of the Fordyce Letter (http://www.fordyceletter.com/), or find it by following the link above.  If you would like a printable copy of this article to share in your office, please feel free to email me at AskJeff@JeffersonInc.com and I will promptly email you a copy that you can print.

Do you have best practices you use to blunt the Holiday Client Appreciation Blues?  Please comment or share them here, or email me.  We would love to hear how you manage during this stressful time of year all while keeping your Holiday Cheer.

Jeff Skrentny, CERS, had an inauspicious start in the recruiting profession as his first placement quit after 93 days.  Then he was sued.  Despite that start, Jeff  has been an executive recruiter for 23 years, and has also been a trainer, author and motivator for his profession for the last 15 years, as well as being a business consultant and adviser for its producers, managers & owners for the last 10 years; all while still running a busy IT search business in Chicago at his firm Jefferson Group Search.