After working for a corporate recruiter for 10 years, Raymond To started his own firm in 2002. The economy was still sluggish from the dot-com crash.
“The whole industry hit a wall,” To said. “No one was spending money. Corporate recruiters were selling a Mercedes … when people only wanted to buy a Corolla.”
To realized that demand was still there, but not for the same product the large recruiters were still intent on selling. When he started his own business, he made sure to offer something different – an “a la carte” version of corporate headhunting.
Instead of paying $20,000 for the entire recruitment service, customers could pay $3,000 for a portion of the service and use their own staff to complete other parts of the hiring process.
“Companies started to buy pieces of it instead of the whole package,” To said. “That seemed to fit well with the economic times.”
The strategy also helped him develop a winning sales pitch: he could easily answer the question, “How are you different?”
“I think people like to know how you are new and improved, so it helps you get your foot in the door.”
To continues to focus on how his company can do things differently. It's a strategy that has served him well and enabled his firm to compete with increasing competition from other recruiters as well as social media sites like LinkedIn.
“There's more do-it-yourself mentality now,” he said. “Now we've kind of moved up and said, ‘Now we're not just recruiting. Let us plan out your whole year first and maybe you don't need to recruit. You may have existing people already.'”
