"Dealer Eat Dealer Recruiting: How to Hit Your Competitor Where it Hurts All on Your Own"
The Business of Furniture - 22/2/17 Edition
Stephen Says Column

Stephen writes:

The one type of inquiry The Viscusi Group gets more than anything else is from contract furniture dealers seeking to recruit top-selling producers from their competitors. "Bring me someone with a base of business, and I'll pay you a fee" is what I and the many other recruiters that work in the industry hear over and over again.

Fair enough, I get it.

Every company wants to increase its revenue and the idea of paying a third party to poach someone from a competitor with a "book of business" seems like a logical way to do that quickly. Seems like a no-brainer from the client's perspective.

But, be it The Viscusi Group, or any one of our fine competitors, prying people from competitors is easier said than done. Some dealerships seem to think they can handle the job on their own. Eventually, though, they come crawling into my office on their hands and knees begging my team to help them fill these positions. There's a reason I have a job. Finding the right people is no simple task, as I have expressed in this column many times.

A few months ago in this column, I gave a bit of advice about how companies can work to pull people away from competitors. Since then, I have received more letters and emails than usual from people at dealers asking me how they can steal talent on their own and expressing frustration they are not able to poach top sales producers from their direct competitors. There are two roads I can take here. The first road is the one where I write "tough luck." I've spent a career figuring this stuff out, and I'm not just going to hand it over like a free literary journal a high schooler is hawking on a street corner. The second road is the one where I explain how thankful I am to all my readers for making this column a success, and as a sign of good faith and mutual respect I generously offer to divulge my secrets.

I like to live on the edge, so I'll split the difference, and as a public service and a thank-you, I dedicate this week's column to sharing the "headhunter's guide" entry on the next best thing to recruiting top sales people from your competitors. This is my best tip ever for you dealers out there, so pay attention.

Headhunters are so busy with requests to poach dealer salespeople from competitors that at The Viscusi Group we have a waiting list. That's right, you pay to get on our waiting list in the hopes we will accept you as a future client. Most of my competitors tell me they have to do the same thing. The reason for these waitlists is a headhunter with any integrity will only accept a limited number of dealer clients, who represent one major manufacturer, in each geographical area where they work. So let's say I am recruiting in Houston or Dallas — two cities where we do a lot of business with dealers. We accept assignments from only one Steelcase dealer, only one Knoll dealer and only one Haworth dealer. You get the idea. We charge them a fee upfront, then poach the hell out of their competitors. At The Viscusi Group we guarantee each hire for two full years (a lifetime at a dealer) and then "block" the same dealership from our poaching efforts for the same period of time, meaning we promise not to steal their salespeople.

It can take six months or even a year to get just one salesperson to jump from a company to its competitor. And guess what? Even professional recruiters struggle to snag the "top producers" (you have to love that term) most of the time. To be honest, these men and women have no reason to change jobs, as you have read before in this column. Short of a massive "sign-on bonus" — which I have also written about here and which few dealers want to do — there is not much you can do to pull these people away. Money talks in this business, the rest is a game. If the money doesn't talk loudly enough, you have to be an expert at the game, and that is why people come to us.
 

I have received more letters and emails than usual from people at dealers asking me how they can steal talent on their own
and expressing frustration they are not able to poach top sales producers from their direct competitors.

But let's say you want to recruit on your own and aren't willing to let the money talk as loudly as you need it to. First thing you have to do is come to terms with the fact you won't be getting that "top producer." Ok, now that you've mourned that loss, what's the next best strategy? Do what headhunters do when we are not working with a dealer as a client: recruit sales assistants and project managers. A good sales assistant is worth his or her weight in gold, and they are usually underpaid. They have less loyalty to their current companies because they are not earning income from the accounts they handle, it doesn't cost that much to offer them significantly more money than they make, and most of their bosses (dealer salespeople) treat them like they are the assistant in "The Devil Wears Prada." It's a great dealer-eat-dealer win for you.

Losing a good sales assistant creates chaos for your competitor and in the accounts that assistant was working on. It even makes the strong salesperson upset and affects their psyche and morale. Besides, everyone needs more assistants and project managers. So start there. Grab up as many good assistants as you can. Sales assistants rarely sign non-competes, and they may know more about a competitive account than you think. It gets people talking about your dealership, and it hits your competitor where it hurts. Subliminally you are helping to build your brand and reputation in the marketplace, as well. So, yeah, do not stop trying to get that salesperson from another dealer, but start with smaller goals. It gets the marketplace talking about your company, and it is only once they stop talking about you that you have to worry. This little trick is why so many dealers hate me and all headhunters — and why the hire us.

Stephen
 

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You can send your workplace questions to Stephen at: StephenSays@bellow.press
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Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group,
global executive recruiters located in New York.
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