Page 130 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

‘Well, it’d be tough but I think we’d go there.’
Now I’d increased the salary bracket, too – as well as my
potential commission. Most recruiters would just write down
‘Senior Manager needed, £80k salary’. By the time I left the client
I would know exactly who their ideal candidate was and what I
would have to say to that candidate to tempt them to leave. I’d
also know if there were issues that would mean a candidate got
rejected.
Sometimes I would meet a client who described the kind of
candidate they wanted to attract – dynamic, high achiever, the
kind of person who would be an asset to any company – and I
wouldn’t take the brief. I’d tell the client that we were over-
stretched and wouldn’t have the time to dedicate to their needs.
The truth was that I hadn’t been impressed by the client and I just
didn’t believe the sort of person they wanted to hire would ever
agree to work with someone like them. I had learned that the
single biggest reason why most people accept job offers is because
they like the person who interviewed them. Clearly, by turning
down opportunities where my chances of a successful placement
were slim, and by widening the brief from the clients I took on,
my hit rate was that much better than virtually any other agency’s.
As I passed these techniques on to the staff, Alexander Mann got
stronger and stronger.
In Aisha’s boutiques the biggest cheque we could expect was
perhaps £500. At Alexander Mann it was several thousand, so I
was always interested in keeping an eye on the books. In the early
days, I asked the accountant we’d used for the boutiques to do
Alexander Mann’s bookkeeping, but I could always have told you
within a couple of hundred quid what our bank balance was
because I was the one collecting the invoices and writing the
cheques.
As we grew, I hired an in-house administrator whose job it was
to raise the invoices, check they were paid on time, get new

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