"Are you dissatisfied with my performance?
"No."
"Aren't the last ten people you've hired from me still working for you?"
"Yes."
"Isn't my interview to hire ratio with you 1 hire for every three interviews?"
"Yes."
"And didn't the last three people you hired from me develop systems that created several million in new revenue and the previous 4 save approximately 1.7 million?"
"Yes."
"So why are you trying to cut my fee?"
"With economy slowing down and more people looking for work, we thought you should charge less."
"Have others agreed to this change?"
"Yes."
"Well I won't. You see, I'm going to charge you the same price I charge my other clients because I don't want to give you the best of what is left over after giving the first choice of talent to the firms that respect my work sufficiently to continue to pay me fairly for my time and effort."
"So let me tell you a quick story. If you go to the store and bring a $25 package of steak to the register and offer to pay $15 for it what does the cashier tell me to do?"
"Put it back."
"That's right. I'm going to continue to charge you the same fair price I charged when times were booming, when I didn't attempt to raise them and it's up to you to recognize one thing--no professional will give you their best quality at a discount without giving it to your competitors first. If you want the "leftovers," that's what you have committed to getting from those firms with their agreement to this cut."
"If you want first cut at the best people, we'll continue to work at my existing fee. I respect you too much to threaten you with recruiting from your firm; I won't do it for some time; but people will call me and ask why I'm not working on their jobs and I'll tell them that you wanted them to interview less than the best."
"OK, let's continue as we have."
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2008 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.
He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhirednow.com
To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.
Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series
- Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
- The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
- The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
- Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
- The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
- Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
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- Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
- Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
- VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
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- Indian Job Network: Network for Work in
