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

I would say qualification and efficiency. So typically if your average performing and you know there’s more there that you can do. Look at what you’re already doing where are you being less efficient. Where are you losing time. Where are you putting in a lot of efforts where you perhaps can you know be quicker or be more accurate on things. So it also comes down at looking at efficiency and deal qualification that would kind of make sure that you decrease the time that you spend in waste on deals that you were never going to win in the first place. And that often means that you have to be rigid. You have to be direct. Last year I worked on I think an average number of opportunities per quarter. There were like 18 today I’d like to work on like eight opportunities at a time and I’m closing more deals. Right. Quality over quantity. Absolutely.

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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’m surprised the most about that people are afraid to look at losses recognizes what they did wrong there or that they can learn from it more and more importantly that people just don’t do that. I know it’s not easy to reflect and look back and look yourself in the eyes you know what did I screw up there or what can I improve the next time or why did I make a misjudgment. But it’s it’s great because you can learn so much from it. I spend a lot of time actually going through that you know every quarter we have like a quarterly business review. And I’ll. Can I really spend a lot of time on every deal that I lost and worked on what did I do here what could I have done differently what would have been the impact. And the same thing on this thing under deals that I did win. What did that do right. How how did that make a difference this time. How can I use that for other deals and keep it going what’s for definitely working for me. And I spend a fair amount of time on that. And in the last couple years I’ve seen some people around me that were a little bit afraid of spending time on that and looking back because there’s so much to learn.

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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.

Continue Reading …

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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