Doing recruitment in-house, or expecting a discount, are the two objections all recruiters must know how to overcome when prospecting, says sales coach Axel Henriksen.

No recruiter should accept either objection without further conversation, she says.

Henriksen, the director of MMI Coaching, says it’s helpful to remember that people buy for one or more of five reasons:

1. in pursuit of pleasure;
2. to avoid pain;
3. to fulfill an emotional need;
4. to gain prestige; or
5. to save time, effort and money.

“In the face of any objection you should think about the client’s current plight and how you can help them in the context of their buying reasons”, he says.

“For instance if the client says to you, ‘We have to do all the recruitment ourselves as there’s no budget for recruitment fees’, you know they are taking on more work than usual due to the economy.”

“You can answer this objection based on the ‘avoidance of pain’ buying reason and say: ‘I can just imagine that your workload has increased due to the current company policy. I can send you some candidates as a comparison to your own so you can be sure that you have the absolute best shortlist in this market. I know you will only hire my candidate if they are the best for the position and it costs you nothing to look. If, however, you do hire my candidate a fee is payable.”

Manage discount requests

“The prevalence of fee undercutting and the state of the economy generally mean clients are now more likely to ask for a discount”, Henriksen says.

If a client asks for a reduced fee you know they are buying for the “save time, effort and money” reason.

“It’s best in any negotiation if you can ‘give something to get something’ so the relationship stays on an equal footing, but also so the client knows there is a good basis for your fee in the first place,” he says.

“If you too readily agree to reduce your fee, it’s very difficult for you to charge that fee later on. Plus, you want to keep some aces up your sleeve for potential preferred supplier agreements.”

“If you do agree to reduce your fee consider whether you can reduce your guarantee as well”, Henriksen says. “You can say: ‘Our fee comes with a 90-day guarantee so if we reduce it, your guarantee will be reduced also to 60 days (or 30 days). Guarantees are a bit like buying insurance. You may never need it, but if and when you do, you’re always happy you have it. So the decision is entirely up to you.’”

“This way”, Henriksen says, “the client gets to weigh up whether the ‘saving money’ buying reason is more important than ‘avoiding pain’ “.

“Another way to tackle the discount question is to offer your client a value-add that you can provide at no extra cost”, he suggests.

“Remember it’s best for you to have the money in the bank, so you might offer to do free skills testing for the client’s staff to establish a benchmark to hire the new person against. You could say: ‘Unfortunately I can’t reduce our fee but I can do skills testing for your staff at no cost whatsoever to you. This service is normally charged at $150 per person so for your eight staff members that’s a saving of $1200. This will help you to know exactly what each of your team members can do and how to enhance their skill set.’ ” *Find out how You can Get Our Tests at Minimal Costs*

“Here you are appealing to them on the first, fourth and fifth buying reasons. You can make them look good by giving them tools to be better at hiring and training their teams, which will also save them time, effort and money in the long term.”

“Whatever objection you are faced with, it’s best to think from the client’s point of view. Think about how you can service their needs, make their lives easier, save them time and money, make them look good, and help them avoid pitfalls rather than focus on making the sale. Once you focus completely on the client, the sale will naturally follow.”

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