A short story for frustrated consultants with petulant clients.
This year we received a “notice” letter from one of our largest clients – in terms of historical placements made. The letter informed us that they would like to re-engage our services for another 12 months as a preferred supply partner. The letter went on to state that all placement fees would be lowered again, from an already basement level fee structure.
Being a small agency these moments don’t get taken lightly, particularly when considering the volume of work that had been completed until date.
Our initial perception of the letter was that this is in essence a parent / child relationship, not a business partnership. This is not the way we believe talent acquisition should work. We only partner with clients who respect and value our service. Ultimately, if a company does not require the expertise and solutions we offer, that’s fine, but we won’t be hanging around long to play ball.
We subsequently responded with some questions in areas that were “grey” in their communications. The procurement manager completely disappeared and returned no phone calls or emails. This informed us about their level of respect and professionalism for their suppliers and their own recruitment function, and that sealed it for us. We politely declined the offer to renew.
What happened next was peculiar.
We received emails and phone calls asking for reconsideration.
Key stakeholders had vigorously recommended us as their preferred talent partner, and apparently feathers were being ruffled about losing us a service provider. There was a very obvious disconnect and friction between Procurement, HR; and the technical decision makers ie. Hiring managers who have at-risk projects and need great people to get s*&t done.
We walked away from the kerfuffle.
We were a bit nervous because for a period approximately 20% of our revenue came from this client.
3 months later.
What an amazing decision! We no longer have a headache client who demands urgency and gives none back, and then demands low fees in return. We have since more than compensated through increased account development of other key customers and new business development. Our job fill ratio has improved.
We truly learned about the false economy some large customers can create. We are well on the path to better business intelligence. We are now developing data driven dashboards that help our team to understand where their activity is best directed, which talent sourcing and BD strategies work best, the areas where we are most effective at delivering, and which customers truly need us – which is what it all boils down to.
Our mission is to place great people often. To achieve this we partner with the right customers. As we’ve learned, we are definitely not one size fits all.