Page 116 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

same thing today that you did yesterday and to expect a different
result. I needed to change tack.
I sat in Green Park and went over what I’d learned, doing the
same kind of analysis sportsmen must do with their technique. I
looked at every approach I’d used and tried to work out where I
was going wrong. Why wasn’t I getting the results? I had spoken
to hundreds of people, all of whom had basically told me to get
lost. I went over and over my pitch and tried to think of ways I
could make it better, and as I sat on that bench I suddenly heard
what I must have sounded like to the people on the other end of
the phone. To them I was just another cold-caller wasting their
time. So I asked myself, ‘When I was at Reid Trevena, what made
me say yes when they cold-called me?’ And that was the point at
which something clicked. Putting myself in the position of the
people taking my call was what turned things around.
I realised that if an agency had called me at Reid Trevena and
said, ‘We’re currently working for a number of clients in the
financial services sector and I met somebody yesterday who’s got
five years’ outstanding experience in financial services who I think
would be perfect for you,’ I would obviously have listened really
hard. If that candidate had also had an existing client base and was
one of the top ten sales people in his company, then I’d absolutely
have made an appointment to see him because he could have
brought us a whole block of business.
I realised that I had just been giving people a generic pitch. I was
basically saying little more than ‘Hi, I’m a recruitment consultant
and I recruit,’ and it was too easy for people to say no to me. Now
I’d worked out that I had to ring potential clients with something
concrete to offer them.
Excited again, I went back to the office and started to write out
my perfect candidate. What would Mr Perfect have? I modelled
him on one of the best people at Reid Trevena, a guy who earned
a fortune and bagged one referral after another. I decided my

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