By: Shari Dalton
One of my favorite rules for work and life is to be intentional. What does it mean to be intentional? Your life is made of choices, decisions and opportunity. Your circumstances do not define who you are. You do, and the choices and decisions you make every day determine the opportunities that you create for yourself. There are a hundred versions of the old adage “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Think about that for a second.
Know what you do and why you do it. When I go to the grocery store, I am intentional. I have a list, I know what we need. I get it and I get the hell out. I wish I could say the same for Target. But I am also intentional about my trips to Target, and trying to make every effort possible not to have to take the kids with me….nothing like strolling thru the isles with a Starbucks and an hour of me time.
So, lets put this in terms of sales for a minute-more specifically, Healthcare Staffing recruiting. When you pick up the phone to call a travel nurse, what is your objective? Let me guess, “to get them to travel with me!” And then you start purging all this info about why you’re company is so great and all these great jobs that you have available. No, no, NO!!!
Why, you may ask? Because that is what every other recruiter is doing. And if you aren’t setting yourself apart, then you are just another fish in a barrel. I’ll let you in on a little secret….every travel nurse staffing company offers insurance, and weekly pay, and some type of referral bonus, and they all think they are the best ones in the industry to work for. Just look at their websites. Short of a few fancy, overpriced pictures, they are all “selling” the SAME THING as you and your company.
The answer to the question is SOLVING, not SELLING. Travel nurses are not dollar signs, or tick marks on a leaderboard. They are not a product that can outperform the competition. They are people. If you can’t solve a legitimate problem for them and help them with something, then you are no different than the others. And if you are no different than the others, then you’ll never earn that nurses trust or loyalty. And without that loyalty, unless you’re working 60 hours a week to make up for it, your desk looks like a slice of Swiss cheese.
If a nurse wanted an order taker, they would go to McD’s. Deep down, they want someone that they can trust…yes, even the ones who say “I just want the highest paying job you have.” Now that may be true, but why is that important to them? Some of the highest paying positions I see are in inner city hospitals or North Dakota in the middle of winter….is the highest paying job still what they are looking for if those are the options? You may solve their pay problem, but are you creating another problem for them?
Know why you do what you do. Be intentional. Go into every call, and every interaction with the belief that you are their wingman! You are there to help them. You are there for them, not you. Find out what it is that they need help with and create opportunity for them. If it’s about them, the sales will come, the numbers will be there. The commissions will be there. But it has GOT to be about them.
One of my favorite clients operates under the premise that if you do the right things, for the right reasons, you will always be successful. And I can tell you that not only are they a success for their nurses and clients, but they’ve got a fantastic crew of people working internally. Be intentional in sales. It is the ONLY way to be, especially when your products are people!
