The wrong answer for service professionals is your professional category, in my case "headhunter".

It is the wrong answer because people have preconceived notions about headhunters and what they do, and it is often not a notion that sets you up for success.

Some of those preconceived notions:

• A CV collector and/or distributor
• Someone who will find you a job
• A secretive operator stealing employees from companies, including yours
• A scantly dressed tribesman dancing around a vat with boiling oil containing an unfortunate discoverer (the preconceived notion of my 4 year old niece).

The right answer addresses what a potential client would really want. The client does not want you to search someone. He wants the tangible and intangible benefits of what you do: more profit, more revenue, more growth, more recognition, more prestige, and so on...

The right answer provides a great opportunity for personal branding: what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. In my case, I would answer:  I help companies achieve higher performance, by attracting great talent for them.

Why I do it ? There are many reasons: I like to learn in many ways, I like to help people, I am fascinated with business dynamics, I love to see my client surge after i delivered my service, etc... The personal catch phrase that summarizes somehow all the above, must also link the "what's in it for me" of the listener. Ask why a client likes you, find out why peers and candidates respect you, all provide great material for a catch phrase that makes a powerful emotional statement.

The "why I do it" will then attract those people who will resonate with you. It is not about pleasing as many people as possible, but to connect with those that are waiting to hear your unique message. Don't water you message down to a generic professional category that represents anything to everybody, but make it reflect the unique you and make it your brand. It will make you show passion and excitement, and there is nothing more appealing and convincing about someone speaking from his  or her heart.

Search consultants trying to win search mandates by selling "benefits" are unlikely to gain much business.

Two fundamental human motivations are pain (avoiding loss), and pleasure (seeking reward.) The two often apply together, though is widely acknowledged in psychology that the avoidance of loss is a more powerful motivator than that of gaining reward.  Just think about the energy you would spend to find a 100 Euro note lost during a day in the office, and the days it will remain in the back of your head, than you would put into earning it extra.

Imagine also why people go to work. Most people would happily admit if winning the lottery, they would stop working; and even those that would not, would probably reduce their time at work.  The majority of people go to work not to gain reward, because then winning the lottery would not make any difference. They go to work because of risk avoidance.  If we don’t work we cannot pay mortgage, credit card bills or provide for the family. If most people go to work to avoid loss, then it is clear by definition that companies are full with people that are risk averse.

Selling benefits, or the gain of reward, to people who are risk averse is therefore illogical. Remember the slogan "nobody gets fired buying IBM". IT Managers will not buy a new software to become more efficient, but rather to avoid wasting money, lose market share to competitors or miss opportunities. People rarely buy to gain reward, they want to avoid loss of any kind: prestige, money, time, influence, mind and market share. A purchase is done to solve a problem.

The classic behavior of people trying to avoid loss is when they wait until the last minute, sometimes after weeks or months to place the order; a process that usually happens with customers with whom one had a positive interaction, who gave clear indications to go ahead with the order. It is clear businesses do not spend money until they really must. Who would place an order, but wanted to have it delivered in 6 months ?

Many HR directors will work with Korn Ferry , Heidrick or Egon Zehnder for the same reasons, because their brand equals high security, not excellence. This is especially true for critical positions in times of economic distress. Many firms deliver equal or better work, however, these "global brands” - even if they can’t deliver - will never be a risky choice for the buyer (especially HR). A lesser known,  or new firm with less international or segment exposure, even when demonstrated to offer better results, has few chance of winning a sale on benefits to the conservative, risk averse buyer

The focus in selling searches should therefore be shifted from realizing a transaction to building relationships, which in turn helps building reputation, building a foundation for referrals and recommendations. In such model the customer interests always come first.

With the transactional definition of sales there is no recognition of the sales person adding value towards the customer, as the value is always created on the seller’s side: “a sale was made”. and a commission gained. A strong focus on transactional sales results either in a win/lose situation, miss or overselling. Sales defined only as the customer buying the solution, with the customer situation being irrelevant, is shooting oneself in the foot.

Search consultants selling their services must fundamentally be involved in helping the customer to buy the right solution, and only when it is in the clients interest to do so. Selling must always solve a problem.

Again: every single purchase solves a problem; therefore the sales of searches is always about solving problems. In executive search, benefit selling on a transactional model does not focus on the process leading to uncovering and defining the problem, which is exactly what is required to gain the trust and respect of a client. Only relationship sales, with its focus on the customer and the process yields a beneficial outcome to the customer, candidate and consultant.

Why cling the myth to sell benefits, all about gaining reward, when people usually do things to avoid loss ? Using benefits forces sales people to use a language their customers do not use - and usually do not want to hear. They want to hear about themselves and their problem, and how it will be solved. Only then a situation is created conducive to sales.

Last week, few minutes into a presentation to a prospect, I was asked by the HR of a GSM operator if we could send them some of the more "interesting CV's" we have in our database. They would then pay us a fee if they would contact anyone in the CV's provided, within 6 to 9 months after submission.

It was clear the HR buyer assumed to go through another "been there done that" type of presentation, and decided to cut to the chase.

A question why an experienced HR is confused between Executive Search and Job Boards led to a pointed discussion as who we are and what value Executive Search delivers. In return they stressed several times that what occured was an unfortunate "misunderstanding".

By coincidence the same day, a senior and well known executive whom I met earlier that week, asked me if by any chance I had send her CV to that particular company. I told her we never send CV's to prospects or clients, and we only share candidate data with explicit approval from the individual in question. She was incensed to learn out her CV was submitted without her permission by a firm who  heard she was "in the market".

She was angry because rightfully she wanted to keep control of her privacy while evaluating and choosing opportunities herself.

The company chasing CV's missed an opportunity  because they lost out on a valuable senior talent,  the search firm that send out the CV will never be considered for future business by that executive.

Job boards hold hundreds of thousands of CV's, and offer againts a payment access to that repository. However, such a vault of CV's does not offer solutions to an employee churn and attrition rate that vastly exceeds that of the combined competition, negative cashflow, market share erosion and an unclear, confusing corporate image. Those problems are tackled by the right managers, usually brought in by Executive Search firms; and who are consulting partners into genuine, effective and lasting solutions.

This was the grist of my argument to the HR employee: We're not a meat market.

Like with accounting and law firms, some Executive Search firms present their service in a monotone, vague and generic communication. No proof, no evidence, lot's of adjectives. "Professional", "Confidential", "Discreet", "Quality", and so on..... "Commited to excellence", "A tradition of quality service", "Satisfaction guarantueed". Of course, sure thing.

The issue here is not with how good you are, it is the cliches. That means if you do not listen to cliches, there is few chance your customers will do. Furthermore, the other problem with a majority of Search Consultants is that they present themselves solely as "I want to sell you something". To the prospect that point is obvious, trite and meaningless.

Tell prospective clients in a persuasive manner why they should buy your service instead of someone else. What's your point? Get to the point or you will never get to the close.

3 one thirds

In an ideal world, spend 1/3 of your time to marketing, 1/3 to sales and 1/3 to execution to avoid an imbalance in too much or too few business (though my boss would take the notion of too much business as heretical).

Marketing consists of attending networking events, organizing events with other companies that have a interests complimentary to yours, writing articles for magazines or blogs like this one, public speaking (for those with the courage and skill), spending time on the board of trade and commercial non-profit organizations, and so on....

Sales is obvious, and consists of all the work related to understanding, consulting and getting a proposal to a prospective client.

Execution covers all activity related to delivering the value inherent in the service. Research, search,  interviewing, and reference taking. Interviewing and reference taking allow for marketing and by times even sales. In execution, researchers can be a huge time saver, essentially freeing the required time for S&M.

Business keeps flowing in at a digestible pace: an apple a day keeps the doctor away.