Getting on the Super Highway!

By Bill Malone  

I was teaching a recruiting seminar recently and while I was on a short break I was approached by a Recruiter who, after a little small talk, told me that he was not doing well in recruiting.  In fact, he said he was five enlistments behind on his assigned mission and wanted to know what I could suggest that might help him. 

Looking for symptoms

That’s a big question because we know that in all likelihood there is very often more than one factor that will effect marginal production.  However, it’s been my experience that usually the problem of low production is due to lack of or poor prospecting for appointments or poor presentation and closing skills of the Recruiter.  So, I started asking questions about his prospecting and following that, I asked about his closing ratios, all of which seemed to be okay based on what he told me.

More Diagnosis Needed

On the next break I asked the Recruiter some questions about his market and he told me that he was a Recruiter supporting an Infantry unit in a small rural community.  After a few more questions I found that the Recruiter was quite proud that all of his enlistments were either High School Juniors or Seniors.  Therein was the problem!  This Recruiter is a SLR!

Analyzing the Cause for Failure

The professional Recruiter, to ensure successful production, will work all the market segments that are available.  Quite often, whether recruiting in a rural or metro market, many Recruiters will become “SLRs”.  A “SLR” or “Single Lane Recruiter” is a Recruiter who works primarily one market such as the High School Market or the Under-employed market.  Most of the time, the reason is this market may be the only one the Recruiter is “comfortable” working in or has developed the skills for.   Also, the Recruiter might be working a particular market because it is “easy”.   Or, sometimes a Recruiter may not be taking advantage of the demographics by working in areas where the demographics are larger and more productive. However, in some if not most communities, to find the outstanding and qualified people to serve our great nation, the successful Recruiter must work all the markets or at least the markets that are available and productive.  The Recruiter will need to develop the skills that are particular to each market as well as learn the prospecting and marketing techniques that are unique to each market.  For example, the most helpful prospecting source for the GED prospect is the GED education training centers that are usually affiliated with a college or community college. 

Working on the Solution

Expanding to other markets takes development and research time.  Additionally, in preparing to “open up” new markets the Recruiter must first answer questions critical to the process such as:

-What different prospecting and presentation skill sets must be learned for each unique market?

-What markets are available or likely to provide success (For example, not all communities have a college or a high concentration of Prior Service prospects)?

-What is the type of support and resources are going to be needed to develop each of these different markets?

-How can these markets be developed without a reduction in current mission production?

-How long will it take to develop each of the markets selected?

Recommendations

What was recommended to the Recruiter was: 

-To first develop a plan that includes market research as well as the who, what, where, when, why and how the markets are going to be expanded.  The Army’s 5-Paragraph Order format is ideal for this

-Ensure that the Recruiter’s supervisor is aware of what the Recruiter is trying to do

-Enlist the support and experience of the Recruiter’s supervisor in helping train the Recruiter to exploit new markets

-Gather the resources to support the market development plan (such as brochures and market specific RPIs)

-Spend time with Recruiters that have developed the skills and techniques to be successful in the markets identified for expansion

-Research, study and develop the prospecting and presentation skills for the different markets

-Work on developing one new target market at a time (while, of course, not sending away any prospects from the other markets during the process)

-Exercise patience in market development as developing a new market is difficult, and will not always be immediately successful despite best efforts

-Develop a time management plan to provide the time necessary to develop new markets

-Begin immediately

Conclusion

This is a lot to do and the Recruiter appeared to be a little overwhelmed but I assured him that all this could be done if the Recruiter developed a good plan and was careful to allocate the time, while still continuing his mission production activities.  I am happy to report that the Recruiter is being successful in expanding his markets and is “catching up” on his mission.  He has left that one lane highway and moved onto the Super Highway! 

Yes, I know that sometimes the best learning is not accomplished sitting in a classroom but it is here that all of us can sure learn the directions that we need to go based on the knowledge acquired. 

Now, let’s all move out smartly and make some good things happen.