Every executive search firm claims to be the best at what they do. Do you truly stand out, or blend into the crowd?
Among the tens of thousands of executive search firms worldwide, everyone talks a good game.
Ask any search firm owner about his or her business, and they’ll have a story about why they’re the best – what sets them apart, why they’re a step ahead of the competition.
But how many of these value propositions withstand real scrutiny?
Beyond a slick website and paying lip service to a set of core values… what really makes an executive search firm unique?
The answer is rarely found in a neatly-packaged list of buzzwords – a commitment to ‘quality’, or a profession of ‘expertise’.
It’s unlikely to be ‘experience’, either, when hundreds of other agencies also boast decades in the game.
Standing out from the noise means more than just spinning a story – it means demonstrating the competitive edge your agency delivers for its clients, backed up with facts and figures.
How do you add value?
Providing candidates for search projects is only one aspect of the way truly world-class executive search firms support their clients.
Along with the ultimate ability to locate and engage the right individuals for an assignment, top search firms supply their customers with a wealth of valuable market intelligence which helps shape their hiring strategy and search parameters.
This can include market research, salary and compensation data, performance benchmarking, benefit and incentive reports and much more.
How do you measure performance?
Backing up market intelligence is a search firm’s ability to quantify their own performance.
All data needs a story, and there’s still plenty of space for a compelling narrative and some personality in the way search firms present themselves.
But the bottom line is simple: no data = hollow claims.
Leading executive search firms tell their stories not only with brand-building marketing copy but with raw stats that prove the results they deliver for clients.
This can include:
- Project completion rates
- Time to shortlist
- The average tenure of placed candidates
- Quantified savings and business impact
Having the confidence to let data do the talking shows transparency and adds some backbone to the familiar sales pitches common across so many similar-looking competitors.
Without this supporting evidence, executive search firms around the world find themselves competing purely on the sheer effort of their business development activities. Instead, they can acquire new customers on the back of the great work they do for their customers.
Does your executive search technology sell your story?
Attempting to build a convincing pitch without access to the right information is tough, and proving to new prospective customers that your data is accurate is even tougher.
Leading executive search software helps collect and store vital performance data as you work. In turn, it is easy and painless to weave it into your sales and marketing activities. As a result, it’s easy to show your future customers reliable information pulled straight from your daily operating systems.
By ensuring that technology has the ability to analyse and present powerful information in this way, executive search firms can realise a massive increase in their software ROI.
As a result, from simply acting as a platform to deliver searches, the right technology can play an important and pro-active role in helping executive search firms to grow. Therefore, using reporting and data on successful project completion can contribute to the client acquisition process.
