As a busy, successful Sales Recruitment Business owner, Rob Scott shares with us his experiences in the industry and has some serious recommendations for those looking at this career path………
- You own and run Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment: tell me more about your role, company and what motivated you to establish the business.
In a highly competitive market, I felt that there was a gap in the market for a true value added specialist sales recruiter and a business that simply ‘did it better’! One of our aims in setting up Aaron Wallis was to provide genuine, tangible USP’s to both our candidate and employer clients.
For candidates we offer free career quizzes, a free library on articles to help increase business, free psychometric questionnaires, free skills testing and probably the most comprehensive career advice centre offered by any recruiter, which includes free MP3 podcasts to download.
And, for employers we offer psychometric questionnaires, skills testing, bespoke interview questions (driven by the psychometric tool) and we recruit on a fixed fee basis. We also back our service up with a 12 month rebate scheme which means that new employees aren’t under pressure in the first six weeks to ‘repay the recruitment fee’! In fact, we’re very proud of the fact that in all of the placements we’ve made we’ve only had to rebate on three of them.
My role is ultimately to run the business but I’m very hands on and really enjoy meeting employers and candidates. I’m really proud of everything we’ve achieved so far at Aaron Wallis, it’s been a fantastic journey!
- What attracted you Sales Recruitment?
If I’m honest I entered the sector like many recruiters – I fell into it rather than chose it! I went in to register with Austin Benn and was asked if I’d ever considered recruitment! I hadn’t at all so it was a real fluke and I’m tremendously grateful for the chance that I was given as I really, really enjoy what I do. As time has gone on I realise from ex-colleagues and contacts that I don’t think I’d enjoy recruiting in any other sector as it seems to be very much skills and experience matching. In sales recruitment you can still consult with your clients and place the best person for their business rather than the best CV and that’s the bit about the role I really like – making companies better!
In the last 10 years the role of a recruiter has changed dramatically. When I started at Austin Benn only the administrators had PC’s and the consultants used good old job cards, candidate cards, a rollerdex system and a pen! Our database was a hardback book of candidate notes. Funnily enough this system worked really, really well! The Internet and particularly the job boards have transformed the recruitment sector. Ten years ago a typical day for a recruiter would be half selling the service and half meeting and matching candidates. Now it has a heavy administration element as a typical recruiter receives 100 emails a day from prospective candidates and employers. It’s still great fun and I think it’s important to never lose track that recruiting is first and foremost a sales job. The top consultants across all industry sectors are still the ones that sell the most and communicate the most – with technology it’s just now a different approach!
In the last ten years basic salaries in sales have risen sharply but conversely the opportunity to earn has lowered. Sales is far more consultative now than a decade ago and I think that it’s great that more and more sales professionals are proud of their trade and their skills. Also the biggest change in the last decade is that sales professionals are now highly valued in organisations and, confirmed in some major research that I did last year, the majority of UK companies are now sales led. And so they should be!
- What are the characteristics and skills you have that you believe are particularly suited to what you do?
I’m a good blend of sales and marketing with good IT skills. I’m a well rounded character that doesn’t take life too seriously. I am a classic sales profile – brilliant at starting projects but need someone behind me to finish them! I think the greatest quality that I have that is particularly suited to the role is that I genuinely like people. I am always really interested in how individuals and businesses do things differently and wherever possible I also like to help people.
- What would you like to change about your industry?
Believe it or not I feel that as an industry we should be more highly regulated. We’re dealing with people’s lives here and I think it disgraceful that anyone could set up a recruitment business tomorrow without any qualifications or prior experience. There should be a minimum government regulated qualification required to run a recruitment business like there is in Financial Services.
- Favourite aspect of your work?
It’s so varied! It’s a cliché but true – genuinely no two days are ever the same and every day I encounter a situation that I’ve not experienced before. I love meeting different people, working in different industry sectors and getting involved in all aspects of the recruitment cycle. The biggest kick I think you can get in recruitment is placing someone in a business where they flourish and reach greater and greater heights.
- What would you do, as a career, if you weren’t working in Sales Recruitment?
Deep down I’m an anorak of quite serious proportions – my nickname is ‘Cropper’ after ‘Roy Cropper’ in Corrie! For seven years before I entered sales recruitment I used to take school kids on educational tours and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately though it didn’t pay the bills! I’m a History graduate and at the end of my career I plan to finish as a History teacher or maybe return to guiding school kids on history trips!
Plan and prepare. Research every opportunity thoroughly to make sure that it’s what you want. With the Internet it’s so easy to find out tonnes of information now about a potential employer and you can buy a report on the financials for less than a tenner.
I think the biggest problem is that people don’t really take the time out to look at what it is that they want out of a job, and in fact what they want out of life. This is why we put together our ‘Jobsearch checklist’ and comprehensive information and exercises on ‘goal setting’.
- What was your new years resolution and have you stuck to it?
I’m a phenomenal goal setter and set myself around thirty things to achieve in 2008 – around ten of which I’ve achieved already. I set myself a comprehensive five year plan in late 2007 so the resolutions I set for 2008 were milestones along the path to reach my bigger five year plan. I gave up drinking in January, have taken up half marathons again and I suppose my New Year’s resolution in the traditional sense was to watch less TV as it’s such a timewaster.
- Ultimate ambition outside of work: I want to have the letters MBE on my gravestone!
- As a successful business person, what are you never without: A smile on my face and a positive attitude. With these you can face any challenge that business throws at you!
Well thank you very much Rob, a very inspirational interview and it shows what a genuinely honest and experience professional you are.
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