Well well well – Tilbury Douglas pipped Briggs & Forester to win the HVAC Contractor of the Year Award for 2022
As a Building Services Recruiter did you attend the awards? Sponsor an event?
Please tell me you at least followed the awards and used the nominations, shortlist and winners announcement as content for your LinkedIn profiles, newsletters and client and candidate calls?
This is just one of many industry events and awards programmes that give you something different to talk about as a Recruiter and if you’re not using this free gift I’m going to have be tough here and ask you why not?
I can tell you that the no.1 request from the industry when asked what makes a good Recruiter is technical / industry expertise and these publications and awards offer a wealth of information. Just reading the publication each month, looking at events and awards and monitoring project awards – even those that might be outside of your geographical remit – will fill up your knowledge tank, they are facts and golden nuggets of knowledge that can be drawn down on in client meetings and pitches or candidate registrations. They give you confidence as an expert in your field.
Let’s take this ONE single award (there were 25 category wins in all for both individuals, suppliers, manufacturers and contractors) as an example. As a Recruiter – what does this gift you to help you in your role?
Here’s a few (let me know if you think of more):
- LinkedIn post congratulating the winners and tagging your known contacts
Watch as unknown contacts join the comments and hey presto – some very easy ways to open conversations with previously hidden contacts and candidates as well as showing you know what’s happening in your market. If you really want to amp this one up leave a LinkedIn voice note for the powers that be - Client Calls
Whether you’re calling the runners up, the shortlisted or the winners (let’s face it you can even call rivals and ask them what they think – I’m sure they’ll have a few choice words) – you have something non-job, non-sales related to talk to them about. A call that has no other agenda, no sales content relaxes your client, they get something for nothing, it builds like and trust and the next time you call your conversation will be easier, I guarantee it - Newsletter / Email Content
You’d be amazed at how your email open rates increase when you don’t just send jobs to your candidate network – a blend of both means your candidates have a reason to open your emails whether they think they’re looking for a new role or not – try it (consistently) and see what happens. If you really want to maximise this combine this with a client call and ask your contact for a quote. Explain you keep your candidate updated with industry news and you’d love a quote to add to the email. - Jobs
If you’re already managing roles for this client get those jobs updated to “award-winning”, include it in the next call to a candidate, call your contact back and ask has this impacted their confidence in expansion, are there new roles as a result of this win that you should know about, advise them that if there are roles in pipeline now is the time to launch them while this news is fresh, you might just get ahead of the curve on new roles. - Candidates
Call candidates on your database that you know to work there or have done in the past. Use it as a topic of discussion. Ask their advice – What does it mean to an employee (if anything) when an employer wins an award? Once again it’s a conversation you can have that isn’t sales in their eyes. - LinkedIn/Website Poll
Start more conversations – ask your network what they think of industry awards and events? Do they rate them? Are they meaningful to them? Put a question or poll on LinkedIn and tag some of your friendlier contacts to get the conversation started… Tag some of the judges and ask what judges typically look for. If someone that comments is relevant to you – connect, follow up …
Take a step back from this for a moment… Look whats happened already…
Already we have six highly effective strategies here based on ONE award from ONE event from ONE industry publication….
You have so much more available to you than you know. Sales calls are easy when you have something to talk about, clients that are already receptive to calls and a network that look forward to what you post or email
Or…
You can just go back to making calls asking for jobs and posting the same job links I guess..
I know what I’d rather do…
P.S – This was one of 2 awards won on the night racking up a total of around 30 awards in 2022 – if you’re not working within them on Building Services or FM – why not?
Data Sources
H&V News
Tilbury Douglas
