Why Your Client Handoff is Sabotaging Your Success (and How to Fix It)

• The recruiting team is essentially starting off with a cold call. They weren’t brought into the sales process, know little to nothing about the new client, and now have to reach out to them cold to understand more about what their needs are and start to build a relationship.
• It's a bad new client experience. We just got done telling them in the sales process how much better we were than the previous staffing companies, only to start out the process exactly the same way all the others did. Nothing in this process instills confidence in the new client that they’ve made the right choice or that things will be different this time around.
• It trivializes the new relationship. Bringing on a new client should be exciting for both us and the customer. When we make it a non-event by sending an email that someone will get in touch, we are saying that this isn’t that big of a deal for either of us. We end up reinforcing the idea that we are just another staffing vendor to try out and see if they are any better than the previous ones.
• It significantly hampers your odds of success. How many contracts have you gotten back signed, only to never realize any revenue from them? From my experience, most of those are due to the botched handoff process. There is a gap between the sales process and service delivery that often results in poor communication, lack of ownership, and ghosting from the new client. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, just a couple minor tweaks can significantly improve the new client experience, resulting in better customer relationships and maximizing revenue. 

Step 1: Get the service team involved before the contract is signed. Formally introducing recruiters, client service, and others involved in service delivery provides a host of benefits. It starts the relationship sooner, making the transition from salesperson to delivery team seamless. It gives the recruiting team a chance to identify any red flags or potential issues before you commit to servicing the account. It creates greater accountability on both the recruiting team and client side, as they commit to each other in the sales process that they’ll work together. And it ultimately closes more deals because it naturally progresses the sales process.

Step 2: Formalize the onboarding process. You don’t need to have balloons fall from the ceiling or release doves into the air (although that would be kind of cool), but there should be some formality and celebration that the two organizations are going to work together to solve the client’s talent acquisition issues. Conduct a formal intake meeting, ideally in person. Provide a welcome package that has some branded swag. Walk the client through your processes, timeline for delivery, and recommendations for getting the best results from your service. 

Step 3: Schedule meetings to measure progress and make improvements. Start with weekly meetings to get feedback from the client, make adjustments, and build rapport with the client. After a few weeks, drop back to bi-weekly, then monthly. During this process the salesperson should be moving more into the background while the service team steps up into the primary relationship holder. 

“But Tom, my client won’t meet with us weekly!” That’s probably because you started the relationship off as a commoditized service like the one described at the beginning of this article. If we take a more consultative approach, they will be much more likely to see the value in these meetings, and it will further differentiate you from your competition. 

“But Tom, I talk to my clients all the time. We email daily!” That’s great, but it’s not the same as getting on a scheduled call to collaborate, proactively address issues, and strategize on improvements.” 

In staffing, there are relatively few areas to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the pack. Creating a formal handoff process that positions you as consultative, process-driven, and solutions-focused separates you from all the other staffing firms and lays the foundation for stronger, more successful client relationships.

This article was published in Staffing Success magazine by the American Staffing Association. I'm a contributor to the Recruiting Today series.

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