Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

I think what’s also very important that helped me throughout the years is to find like minded people that are kind of in the same position that are building their career building their network are eager to work with one another but also keen enough to share. And I think that I have a couple of individuals that you know came across my path throughout the years that I still actively work with today and some of them are even you know really close friends that I go on holidays with. Just because you’re so like minded and that again comes the kind of back you know being personable it doesn’t only apply a prospect but also applies to your direct network that you utilize you know if you show yourself and who you are People will either like you or they don’t. And if they like you you can do a lot of great things together. When looking at friends that might be you’re going to go to the cinema or do fun stuff together with people that you meet in business related occasions it’s means that you can have drive a nice business with one another.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

Sounds like in a lot of ways as the Bullhorn brand has grown in that industry along with your personal brand you’re now at a point where with the network that you have you’re just able to get into enough opportunities and deals which obviously that would I think at some level explain your 64 percent close ratio is when you’re being introduced and you’re being referred that’s a completely different animal. Then when you’re cold calling somebody. Absolutely. Absolutely and that’s definitely been a change of experience. I mean I can remember about six years ago I was doing those 70 calls a day 300 meetings a year all face to face. Driving ninety three thousand kilometers a year just getting out there meeting people. That was so exhausting. And if I look at the ratios from that investment on activities and time versus revenue and performance. It’s a complete different ratio compared to what I experience today. And it’s also way more enjoyable. But in all honesty one cannot live without the other. You need to build up a network. You need to build up a territory and relationship within that territory to kind of be in that sweet spot where you can kind of more think about strategies instead of just creating pipeline. So yeah but it’s definitely a nicer way.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

I’m not using a lot of tools right now because to be honest I’m getting a lot of business from my network that allows me to stay busy enough to not have to get out there too much. Got it. And is that what do you attribute that to is it just longevity in the business you’ve been doing this long enough. Your are well-established enough and you’ve built that network up over time that you know it is generating enough intros for you? Talk about that a little bit more. So definitely absolutely that. So I’ve worked a lot of the first couple of years when I came into the recruitment industry when I was recruited myself to build that network spend a lot of time on on Twitter and Linked-In building connections building relationships with people meeting them on events. I think I attended like one or two events every single month over a couple of years and that really you know did a lot of the ground work and the legwork for building out my network. So I think the last couple of years it’s also due to the fact that we have a good presence globally and we can make a lot of impact to the business so it’s quite easy to use that and work with the accounts and prospect that you work with.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

More than five years ago you know I had targets of like 70 calls a day and did all that. But I actually found out that going via introductions is so much better then doing cold calling. So I’m really working on the introduction piece and you know getting a personal introduction because of my personal relationship with the people in my network. So I would say yeah definitely personable.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

I’ll often tell my clients and prospects that if they’re not being smart I’ll just share that. But I’ll always try to tell them what they can learn from that and why they’re doing things that I think they’re not really smart in how we can do things differently. Because it’s important that you’re seen as a partner not as a supplier. That’s very important and really emphasize that a lot in my interaction with the people that I work with.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

I’ll often tell my clients and prospects that if they’re not being smart I’ll just share that. But I’ll always try to tell them what they can learn from that and why they’re doing things that I think they’re not really smart in how we can do things differently. Because it’s important that you’re seen as a partner not as a supplier. That’s very important and really emphasize that a lot in my interaction with the people that I work with.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

I would say that every loss is an opportunity to learn. I think that’s a catch phrase that we hear more frequently but definitely bear in mind with every single challenge or obstacle or loss that you face in a sales experience. What can you learn from this and I think one of the biggest things that I’ve learned throughout the years is being me to be honest I think that when I started being until I was quite young that I always wanted to position myself as very professional. So I always wore a suit and tie tried to address people very formally and you know that was only you know getting me in a fairly average performance to be honest. But it was only until like my manager of my previous employer really taught me that they need to do is I want to do business with Jelle. So I need to be personable. I need to be myself in the way that I communicate the way that I work with them. My personal traits I need to show them I can be informal because that’s who I am. And I think that has made a lot of impact in my relationships at work but also with the relationships that I have with clients and prospects.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

Once I’ve kind of recognized the deals that I have in my pipeline and I qualify them on you know how live they are how real they are. I also look at how much of a match are they not only with the technology that we provide but also with our company our culture and the way that we do things as well as that I do things personally because the personal relationship that you have with your prospects is very important as well. If you can’t get along then you won’t sell it to them eventually or it’s going to be a lot a lot of work. Versus how easy it can be when you have a good relationship so that’s also a very important criteria for me as well. In my day to day work I would say that every single day I look at my key deals and see what can I do for these deals today. What are the open items that I still need to do. So that’s kind of how I look on a day to day basis. On a per deal strategy. I think the interviews are most important that we do quite early on in the process to understand more about the business of the prospect itself their goals their challenges and where you can make an impact for them. And that’s what I used to recognize and decide what the right strategy is.

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Clip from Episode 30: Getting to #1 Through Personal Relationships – Jelle den Dunnen of Bullhorn:

I think that the most important thing for me to start with would be qualification of pipeline. It’s so easy for any sales rep to kind of you know start working on every opportunity that passes by. But what really makes people stand out what I’ve seen in my organization is the people that qualify their deals and pick their cherries to focus on. And that’s what I’ve been working on a lot in the last couple of years to really nurture down and get it right on what the key deals are for me. And I not only use that to qualify my pipeline, but also use that throughout the day in my day to day work as well. Yeah, and that’s really become a consistent theme on the show. I think that the best sellers are really focusing on the right deals. How are you. What what is that qualification process for you? How are you making those decisions? So we have a qualification mechanism in our company that we use but it’s also of course coming from experience and I think the most important thing is definitely you know look at the fact that I sell software is are they in an active buying cycle. Then second would be have they quantified the impact of not changing their technology to their business. And then of course you know are you really differentiating and it’s not just like us piece that you see yourself as as a company but what would the customer or prospect tell you what your differentiators are. Those are the most important things I would say.

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