Recruitment mistakes we're all pretty good at making...
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As my new start-up starts to take flight I thought I’d share some of my lessons from nearly 20 years of growing businesses, and how I’m applying them now. They’re taken from my free book which you can request here.
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It’s EXTREMELY tempting to try and fill open positions as quickly as possible, especially when you have loads on your plate. But when you rush your recruitment and get it wrong, it costs you so much more in the long run.
Lowering the bar
It’s easy to accept lower-quality hires simply to get the job done quickly.
But if you lower the bar for who you’re prepared to hire just once the chances it will become a habit.
Over time, this leads to a weakening of your whole team and, if left unchecked, can result in a downward spiral of epic proportions!
The hidden costs of lowering the bar
Consider the time and money you waste when you choose the wrong person. On average, it takes between 3 and 6 months for a new sales recruit to get up to speed properly
So, if you choose the wrong person, the business loses out on a number of counts:
- Time and money required to hire and train the 1st recruit
- Lead costs and clawback from the 1st recruit
- Time and money required to hire and train the 2nd recruit
In fact, the productivity loss can be anywhere from 90% to 200% of their annual salary. And that’s not all. Think about the profit you would have gained had you waited a little longer and chosen the right person!
Beware of bums on seats
Avoid the ‘bums on seats’ hiring strategy at all costs. If you find yourself in this position, it’s time to overhaul your recruitment strategy. Be patient and take your time while recruiting.
“If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking” – Steve Jobs
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Luke Ashworth is the founder of Adviser.ai. For more information on how to build a great protection business, request his free book, the 16 biggest mistakes protection distributors make.
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OR find out more about Adviser.ai
Which solution suits your business best?
How much has COVID improved your business?
******************************************
As my new start-up starts to take flight I thought I’d share some of my lessons from nearly 20 years of growing businesses, and how I’m applying them now. They’re taken from my free book which you can request here.
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I know the “zoom life” has posed many challenges, but has anyone noticed just how efficient your business is these days compared to before COVID?
The difference for us is insane! 🚀
Much as it was terrifying at first trying to grow a new business through the pandemic, we’re certainly now seeing the benefits.
Without the travel back and forth alone it is saving so much time, and able to deliver so much more effectively for our clients.
For us, it’s meant a chance to use so many other great pieces of software, sometimes in slightly different ways than before, so that we can focus our time on making our software as good as it can be!
Some software examples…
- Google Sheets
Shared with clients to replace meeting whiteboards, which also double up as good places to keep shared notes (saving everyone so much time!). Just do a tab for each meeting / call!
- Asana
I used to often focus mainly on using it for tech, now using it for every part of our project planning cycle. Email really should be banned… 😂
- Calendly
With multiple different meeting set ups / times this saves so much time. I think it should be the standard way to book meetings with each other.
- Whatsapp Voicenotes
Instead of waiting for a call time for certain clients (data protection issues permitting of course!), we can go back and forth using voice notes. So much faster than typing to each other!
- Figma
For online design collaboration, this tool is absolutely incredible. I’m not sure how we coped without it…
- Trello
For personal “to do” lists. For some reason, it works better for me than Asana for personal stuff.
- Lucidcharts
This has been particularly useful for shared documents for outlining processes for Infosec (we’re ISO27001 accredited so especially important for all our process controls)
Perhaps we’ll just save the meetups now for celebratory beers with our clients once they’re so pleased with our service they want to take US out! 😂
******************************************
Luke Ashworth is the founder of Adviser.ai. For more information on how to build a great protection business, request his free book, the 16 biggest mistakes protection distributors make.
******************************************
OR find out more about Adviser.ai
Which solution suits your business best?
Hiring the wrong people wrecked my life... but was also my best business lesson
******************************************
As my new start-up starts to take flight I thought I’d share some of my lessons from nearly 20 years of growing businesses, and how I’m applying them now. They’re taken from my free book which you can request here.
******************************************
When it comes to hiring people, I’ve made some of the worst mistakes going.
How could I – or anyone – resist someone that…
- Looks great on paper
- Oozes self-confidence
- Talks GREAT talk
Well, I definitely got this one wrong…
I thought the person I had hired was one of the best salespeople, with all the attributes above, from one of the biggest protection insurance brokerages.
He had even won holidays for being their top salesperson.
But it was bad, really bad
Within the first 2 weeks of him joining our team, I very quickly realised my mistake. He asked across the floor which insurer he could use to get “standard rates” for a customer… with angina!*
*for non-insurance people that is a very, very bad thing indeed and NOT something you could ever expect in any salesperson, let alone a top one. Says as much about the broker he was working for as him!
Could you really sleep at night knowing such things were happening in your business?!
I made sure he was back out the door as quickly as he had entered. But this scenario is a great example of just how easy it can be to hire the wrong people, and for the wrong reasons.
The ones to watch out for, the most dangerous salespeople, are the ones that sell themselves better than anything else.
They typically put on an intriguing act of bravado, arrogance or perhaps even charity; but underneath they’re just out for themselves.
What’s worse, you may ask?
Well, more often than not, they are VERY good at cheating the system – including yours! Something you’ll discover soon enough, should you not deal with it as swiftly and quickly as you can.
Trust me. You DEFINITELY don’t want these kinds of people involved in your business.
And just be very aware. If a salesperson like the ones we’ve been talking about reach a MANAGEMENT position, then you’ve really got your work cut out. I’ve made that mistake before too.
My worst mistake of all…
…was to allow one of these types of sales people to run my business after my son had passed away unexpectedly. To be totally honest looking back I wasn’t of sound mind; I had found my 11 year old boy dead in his bed and was really struggling to keep going each day, let alone run a business!
All seemed to go well at first, but as time went on with hindsight it seems he found it harder and harder to deliver according to pre-agreed standards and processes. He could have admitted to me that he couldn’t hit the mark, but of course honesty never plays with these types of sales people.
Who are they selling to? Your customers, or you?
Instead he lied through his teeth to me, making the numbers “on top” look good and putting on a good “front”. But underneath he was pulling out all the systems and controls just to hit sales, and allowing the business to rot.
When I discovered this, he admitted it at first but then proceeded to work against me at trying to turn the business around. I worked harder than I ever have to turn it around but ended up losing my business, my livelihood, my home (for the 2nd time in three years) and every penny I had ever earned.
My best business lesson – trust your gut!
Now I think back, I always knew in my gut he wasn’t right from the first day I hired him. I should have trusted my gut, but I prioritised my desire for sales.
It’s best to nip these things in the bud as quickly as you can if you pick up an issue. Most importantly, trust your gut! Act swiftly and decisively if you feel there is an issue. If you feel something is amiss, then act on it.
Start hiring – and firing – based on values, and not just someone’s ability to sell.
Some salespeople (not my kind of salespeople, and probably not yours either, if you’re reading this post) are prepared to gamble with a customer’s financial security and prospective future for a chance at increasing their commission cheque.
Salespeople that find it easy to lie to customers are not the kind of people you need in your business. How you do you know they’re not lying to you?
So skills and experience are not usually the problem. It is a fundamental difference in values and ethics.
Think about WHO you are looking for when hiring, as well as WHAT.
Skills can be taught, and experience gained – but values are a defining part of someone’s personality and almost impossible to change or un-teach.
It was a very expensive lesson for me, and I hope you learn it before it really hurts!
******************************************
Luke Ashworth is the founder of Adviser.ai. For more information on how to build a great protection business, request his free book, the 16 biggest mistakes protection distributors make.
******************************************
OR find out more about Adviser.ai
Which solution which suits your business best?