5 Questions To Ask On A Business Development Call And Why?

Business development is a core part of building a successful recruitment desk, and everybody has their own approach to it.

However, it can be easy to fall into a repetitive questioning pattern when you’re performing well, because “if it’s not broken, why try and fix it?”

However, this is a fixed mindset, and here at Limitless Learning, we’re all about levelling up and maturing our questioning style as we progress our recruitment careers.

Here are 5 questions you can try this week on a business development call, as well as why you should ask them! 

What does a typical interview process look like for a {X} Job Title, Seniority Level etc

WHY?

There are a number of reasons why this question is effective, but for the sake of simplifying this, there’s two we want to highlight:

• It leaves room for further questioning: Whether that’s asking how the current interview process is serving them, or finding out their interview to placement ratio, this line of questioning is strategic and allows you to fact-find whilst offering a consultative view on the pain points they will naturally bring up in this line of questioning.
  

• It allows you to assess a potential client before working with them: There’s nothing more frustrating than an extensively long recruitment process, or a process which feels disjointed. It can affect not only your relationship with the client, but also your relationship with your candidates which will reflect negatively on you and the agency you work for. The more groundwork and consultative conversations you have prior to pulling a job, the smoother the partnership should be.

What are your main frustrations at the moment when it comes to attracting and retaining talent?

WHY?

This is a powerful question because it can be used in conversations with a CEO, Founder, Hiring Manager, Talent Team and the HR Team.

These pain points could be employer branding, it could be lack of resources (great for you as a recruiter as you can directly solve that!). It could be their holiday and benefits packages, it could be the salaries they are paying. It could be internal initiatives such as Diversity and Inclusion, remote working or shifts in company culture.

All of the above can be solved by you in some way or another. As recruiters, we are more than just “job fillers”. We can help with salary benchmarking, we can facilitate introductions to branding agencies and external consultants. We can assess holiday and benefits packages and conduct market research as part of our service.

Next time you ask this question - think about how you can directly help that pain point.

What can I do as a recruiter to add value to you as a potential/current client?

WHY?

In your career as a recruiter, you’ve probably been told at one point or another to never assume you know an answer, and instead ask the question.

You are providing a service to your clients - but requirements can change over time, and if you’re not engaging in conversations that foster feedback and transparency, it’s going to be difficult for you improve.

With current clients, it’s important to have regular check-ins with questions like this (or similar) to facilitate a “land and expand” model and win more business.

With prospective clients, it’s important to let them know that their opinion and input matters. It can be difficult to let go of ego sometimes - but to win business and gain trust, you need to allow clients to sit in the driving seat and steer you in the right direction.

At the end of the day - that’s why it’s called a partnership!

What are your typical hiring triggers?

WHY?

If you’re on a new business development call, it can be difficult to bat away objections which can leave you with very little material to bounce back with.

However, if you’re told the typical “we aren’t hiring” or “we’re experiencing a hiring freeze”, this is a great question to ask back in response.

Not only will it allow you to further understand their hiring strategy, but it will also help you to gauge where you can add value if they haven’t determined hiring triggers yet.

How does your current company culture impact your recruitment process? (this could be positive or negative)

WHY?

If you’ve carried out initial research before making a business development call, you’ll be armed with some resources so you aren’t going into the call blind.

Something we recommend looking at is a company’s Glassdoor page, as this usually reveals a lot of information about the culture of the business, as employees can anonymously submit reviews and statistics.

Company culture can negatively affect a clients retention rate, as well as attracting new candidates.

Asking this question doesn’t just open up a conversation that is focused on culture as opposed to recruitment, but it also allows you to present your research in a non-invasive and consultative manner.

Are you working on your mindset and mental health? 

The key to building a successful recruitment career isn’t just about doing the right actions every day.

It’s about working on your mindset and constantly checking that mentally you’re in a good place.

We all have ups and downs, but it’s important to recognise the downs and process them, so you can treat them as a learning - rather than a negative point in your personal or professional life.

We urge you this week to try journaling your thoughts at the end of each day for five minutes.

Writing down and reflecting on each day will not only give you time to yourself to be with your thoughts, but it will enable you to focus on bettering yourself each day!