Are you allocating enough time and money to marketing? Recruitment is traditionally a sales-led business. However, the companies who recognize the power of recruitment marketing to amplify their sales enjoy a massive advantage in the marketplace.
In this interview, Matt Walsh reveals why some of the early hires he made in his recruiting business were marketing people. He also shares the specific marketing strategies they implement to attract placeable candidates as well as great clients.
Matt is the CEO, and Founder of Blue Signal, a multi-million dollar, award-winning, Phoenix-based recruitment agency specializing in IT. Some of his agency’s accolades include:
• Forbes 5-star staffing firm
• #2 Best places to work in Phoenix (Phoenix Business Journal)
• Ranked #2 Executive Search Firm 3 years in a row (Ranking AZ)
• Ranked #4 Technical Placement (Ranking AZ)
In this fun and fascinating conversation, Matt also delivers tons of insight on how he scaled his recruitment business to 45 people, including best practices for hiring and retaining great people.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [2:05] Scaling from a one-man band to a team of 45 staff – Matt reveals his story.
- [7:51] Hear a game-changing concept that Matt learned from Monte Merz and how it scaled his business drastically.
- [11:25] Matt shares the hiring decisions that helped him scale the business.
- [12:48] Brilliant marketing strategy: how Blue Signal uses targeted ads for candidates.
- [25:33] How Matt’s marketing team supports new client acquisition.
- [28:33] Retention strategy: Blue Signal’s strategy for retaining awesome recruiters.
- [30:40] Blue Signal’s internal hiring process – from onboarding, behavioural assessments, to career progression.
- [45:01] Resilience when scaling – hear Matt’s extraordinary challenge and how it led to trusting and empowering his team.
- [49:52] Learning from mistakes: Matt shares his key learnings.
Using Marketing to Find the Best Candidates and Fill More Jobs
While talking about how Matt scaled his business, he mentioned that he invested in hiring two marketing people. You will hear in our conversation why this proved to be really valuable to successfully scale his business. He then shared his strategy on how he uses SEO and targeted marketing to get placeable candidates and great clients. This is how Matt described the impact, “I’m this tiny company that nobody ever heard of. Nobody’s gonna go ‘Oh Blue Signal this, Blue Signal that’, but if I go to CareerBuilder, or Monster, or LinkedIn and some of the others, boom! I’m at the top now. If I post it there everybody sees me. That’s not only candidates but also hiring managers.”
Matt also gave details on how they would target candidates for very specific roles using technology. Whenever a new search comes in, the marketing team works hand in hand with the recruiters to fill the job. Listen as Matt describes the whole process and consider how these strategies can be applied to your recruitment business.
Motivation to Becoming a Recruiter and Eventually Scaling His Business
Back in 2016, Matt had a successful lifestyle business which meant he did not work too hard to make a living. So I had to ask, why complicate his life by taking on the massive challenge of hiring, managing, leading and training people? Matt shared motivations that really resonated with me.
- He believes that there is a big void in recruitment and he is passionate about changing the reputation of recruiting.
- He also shared an analogy about planting a tree – when is the right time to start hiring and scaling his business? The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second-best time is now.
Matt also imparted a game-changing lesson that he learned from another guest we interviewed, Monte Merz. Hear this lesson that actually led to Matt successfully scaling his business and making his business life less stressful.
Creating Awareness About Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome
Right after Matt started hiring and growing, his youngest son was diagnosed with the Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome (SKS). This was an extremely difficult and challenging time for Matt but also led him to empower and trust his team more than ever, so he could focus on his family. This leadership philosophy turned out to be one of the success factors that’s had a positive impact on the growth of Blue Signal.
If you wish to learn more about SKS and would like to help, visit the Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome Foundation website link below.
Related Podcast You Might Enjoy
- TRR #65 Recruiting Success: How to Bill $700k+ While Achieving Work-Life Balance, With John Schlegel
- TRR #59 How to Build a Multi-Million Dollar Team of Recruitment Rockstars, with Monte Merz
- TRR#55 How to Build (or Rebuild) Your Recruitment Firm to 7-Figures From Scratch, with Joe Rice
- TRR#46 How to Run a Million Dollar Recruiting Firm From Your RV, with Jordan Rayboy
- TRR#35 Inner Grit: The Traits of a Big Biller, with Jeremy Sisemore
