Bang, Your Dead!

In order to be an entrepreneur you ultimately have to be a multi-life cat. Forget about 9 lives; you need at least 100. Basically, you get shot down so many times and need to pick yourself back up that you need some type of Heroes power (I like the Claire Bennet, the cheerleader).

Today I presented the goals for Val-ID-ate to an executive recruiter - and she said the same thing that many recruiters say, "oh, we don't deal with background screening. Our clients have a much more sophisticated background screening process and they handle everything". I still say: what happens when you give the client confidence that the credentials check part of their screening is redundant? Are you seen as a valuable provider? Well, maybe the person whose job it is to manage the background screening process may not like you because you may threaten his or her job (and in this day and age EVERYONE is trying to justify their existence), but to the small- to mid-sized company where the recruiter is also the hiring manager you will be seen as golden! "What? You mean that when I get a candidate from you, he or she has already been vetted? You mean that all I have to do are criminal and drug tests (when applicable)? Wow!"

One of our star interns also started some pre-sales activities today and she has learned of the frustrations associated with sales. The doors are slamming quickly and I am trying to explain the "law of numbers", but as the person who has to listen to people barely hide their annoyance, the "laws" are moot. I am ecstatic that she doesn't give up easily!

It is the really strong person who can talk themselves into trying to "win a sale" everyday. To not get frustrated when hearing "no". My strength has wavered (which is why I always find an excuse not to do cold calls), but I would like to think that I am getting better at explaining why a prospective client should not be too quick to say "no".

I also have this dream of being like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and going back to these same executive recruiters who didn't see the value in our service and saying, "Oh, you lost over 50% of your client base because they wanted to see more value for the money they spent? Our clients have seen an INCREASE in their client base. BIG mistake not using Val-ID-ate!"