Being a high biller requires a combination of hard work, skills, and strategies. But what does it really take?
My special guest, David Bradley, is a 29-year veteran who averaged $750k in annual billings his entire career! In this episode, David shares the strategies and mindset that make him a very effective recruiter! On top of that, David also manages high-volume accounts with a team of 60 headhunters. If you are a recruitment leader like David, you will find insightful takes on how he manages KPIs and how they drive a culture that is geared towards performance.
In 2009, David helped start Movement. He is a Sr. Vice President of Headhunting Services with Movement and has been an instrumental part in helping the firm grow from 3 to 65 plus headhunters over the past 14 years.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [02:29] How David got into the recruiting business.
- [07:14] Top recruiter secrets & grinding on a 10-5-2 formula.
- [10:32] Structuring daily activities & time management best practices.
- [17:52] You need to get three critical pieces of information when speaking with a candidate.
- [24:26] The foundation of what makes David a successful recruiter.
- [26:50] Movement’s culture and mission.
- [34:30] Striking the balance when managing your team’s KPI.
- [37:40] Retaining the momentum in 2024 – key to continuous growth and eight-figure billings.
- [45:20] How Movement’s owners play different roles?
- [52:29] David’s future growth plans.
What it Takes to Be a Top Recruiter
What does it take to become a top recruiter? It certainly involves grind and hard work. David’s 29-year experience provides him with a credible perspective on what it takes to be successful. This also gives him an advantage as a recruitment leader – his capabilities are a testament to how his team has been performing. Below are the critical topics that David and I discussed:
- 10-5-2 Formula
- Being cognizant of your time
- Planning ahead of your phone time
- Mindset
If you are listening, as a recruiter or recruitment leader, David’s insights are inspiring!
The Foundation of Being a Successful Recruiter
Being consistently successful in a long time requires more than hard work. There is something else and David generously shared his secret sauce:
“So I think having that gratitude, understanding that we get to talk to people for a living and have just an incredible life, incredible income opportunity, incredible balance, we can manage our life any way we want it… And I think that fuels getting up in the morning and saying, you know what? This is gonna be another great day. It’s gonna be a great year. It’s gonna be a great month. Well, if it’s not been a great month, next month’s gonna be great. So having that sort of mindset, I think, is really, and factor a lot of fun into this.”
This fantastic mindset is an invisible but highly influential factor that determines your success as a recruiter or recruitment business owner. Possessing a positive mindset enables us to navigate the favorable and unfavorable changes we encounter with resilience.
The Keys to Continuous Growth and Eight-Figure BIllings
David shares how Movement produced $20M in billings around 2022-23. It was a great year for them post-Covid, and the systems and frameworks they had at the time enabled them to retain the momentum even when things appear to slow down in 2024. I wanted to pick David’s brains on the culture and systems they have in place given that not many recruiting firms get above 8 figures.
My takeaway is how they give importance to creating and enabling a culture geared towards high performance. They have annual trips for the top 10% of producers, on top of regular social activities and loyalty bonus programs. They also have annual meetings where they fly everyone in, including their staff’s spouses. Doing so contributes to relationship-building and as David said, “an essential part of the culture.”
David also discussed their profit-sharing scheme. What I also loved is his insights on managing KPIs while not micromanaging everything.
