“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit”, so says Vincent Lombardi, football’s winningest coach.

The Staffing industry has seen more change in the last twelve months than in the past five years. Million dollar companies – gone! And not just one or two… We are talking about scores of them – bankruptcies, mergers, acquisitions and total retrenchments – Monster deals!

Recruiters are at a strategic “fork in the road.” One path is to hunker down, cut costs, discount fees and opt for incremental tactics. The other is to boldly make changes – to transform ourselves into businesses. To lead our industry, you must walk the bold road. Now, more than anytime in the past five years, you need to start building a long-term sustainable business based on something beside the transactional model we’ve used for so long. That will give you the “winners edge”.

Tomorrow’s next generation of winners is already busy plotting the technologies and business processes that will revolutionize the world. These are the smartest, savviest, most well educated and ambitious people in the world. Your company’s success depends on them and last year’s tech-wreck is a constant reminder of how seldom companies institutionalize the practice of winning, of running a solid business.

For example, in the old days (5 years ago), a talent search was like a two-dimensional board game. It allowed a recruiter a leisured amount of time to send out requests for resumes, which could then be judged along a price/performance set of axis. It allowed for a precise, two-dimensional grid, and a search process so structured and simple that even a corporate H.R. Department’s less skilled staff could handle judgments. Recruiters were paid to tap into the pool of passive candidates.

Now, the world moves in three dimensions, at a speed more resembling a video game. It's Zap or get Zapped, in real time. The Internet has upped the ante. In such a fast-paced dogfight, you need to define your missions very carefully: no wasted energy, no blurred vision. The right people are even more important to find than ever before. And more people know how to use our technology and tools than ever before.

Is your business keeping up? Or is your company still running on the old-fashioned transaction based model? Are you still trying to fill in a box on a standard employee recruitment form? Still marketing/pitching candidates to find job orders? Still fighting the “toothpaste wars” as I refer to them, (whiter/brighter/vitamin “C”)?

Clients today have received brochures with every conceivable “we only hire the best” pitch known to mankind. Clients know what recruiters do. They just question the claims. They’re looking for something more nebulous, and more important from Recruiters. They’re looking for a business person who can deliver a QUALITY, not a quantity. Instead of filling in a box, they’re looking for you to explode out from an open-ended, initiative-driven space to build out their business.

How to do you market into a sea of disbelief and super saturation? You don’t. At least not in the traditional sense. For more than 10 years now Perry-Martel International has focused on getting other people to do our marketing for us. To bring us in as the “experts”. It’s not that I’m overly shy; it’s just that our high-tech clients are skeptical of anyone’s claims. They have highly sensitive “BS” detectors. After all, that industry invented vaporware and made billions.

We have built our business on the good word of others: industry associations, VC’s (hard to believe I know), CPAs, lawyers, advertising firms, public relations agencies, etc. A strong association for example can deliver a continuous supply of new business so long as you guarantee to deliver 100% of the time and give their members a break on fees. Funny thing is though seldom do Clients care if the fee is discounted, they’re more interested in having someone else stand behind your work. And when they see their clients are happy they turn into Zealots. It’s not just that it’s in their best interest to grow ALL their Clients it ‘s also because they know how poor most search/recruitment/agency firms are. When they find a good one watch out!

Skeptical? After 16 years we still haven’t found it necessary to print even a simple brochure. No pens, mugs, tee-shirts, concert tickets or free lunches either. I have personally negotiated more than $100 million in salaries. Most of which were referrals. My personal record is 848 wins – 2 cancellations – 1 failure for 851 searches. What’s the secret? Flawless execution + the relentless good will of others.

Clients don’t want the best price or even the lowest they want a flawless search conducted by a firm they can build a long-term relationship with. For Clients, training a recruiter to understand their business is a long arduous and time intensive proposition. Clients are looking for business partners now, not transaction driven agencies.

We have built a business on ALL the best practices that drive our industry and if a bus hits me tomorrow my Partner can run it or sell it. The business doesn’t need me. There’s value in the business rather than just me, because it’s not transaction based. It’s process driven.

We’ve built our business by doing what other industries do - stand behind our work. We offer a 1-year guarantee for example. Sure it comforts Clients that we’ll be there if something goes wrong, but more importantly it forces us to build a “methodology” that accounts for all the things that can go wrong in a search. To date we’ve replaced 1 candidate. The 137-question Position Opportunity Profile tool and the 68-question Reference Check, limit our Client’s exposure to the liability of a bad hire.

By now, most companies have become used to paying out more money for 1 body than they do for a new car. No one said they liked it. No one guaranteed the gravy train would keep running! It will for those of us that move away from the transaction based agency business and build businesses with real value.

By providing the latest innovations in executive search and creating exclusive business models and process, your clients benefit from a faster, easier, and more reliable search process which brings them exactly what they desire … exceptional leadership ... and what you desire … a sustainable business you can sell your children when you retire. Now that’s a winning idea Lombardi would approve of.

David Perry is managing partner of Perry-Martel International Inc. and author of Workinsight: A Headhunter’s Guide to Finding the Perfect Job. He can be reached at dperry@perrymartel.com