Your resources
The resources available to help you build what it is that you want.
With decades of experience in building successful search firms, Dimensional Search offers a robust suite of resources for growth.
One of the most significant decisions we will help you make as a new Dimensional Search Owner is in the selection of your niche. Most Owners choose to specialize in some combination of a specific function, industry, location and level of expertise – what we refer to as FILL. Building from previous business experience is one of the best ways to not only get up and running quickly, but also to have tremendous immediate credibility with clients and candidates. One of the biggest challenges you will face, as a recruiter, is to bridge the gap between being perceived as a vendor to your clients and candidates versus being perceived as an invaluable partner and knowledge resource to those clients and candidates. One of the best ways to bridge that gap is to develop true expertise in a very specific niche – in addition to expertise in the search process.
- Functional Examples: Accounting and Finance, Human Resources, Sales, IT
- Industry Examples: Construction, Consumer, Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance
- Location / Defined Geography: Region, City, State, National, International
- Level: Entry Level, Middle Management, C-Suite
Most niches tend to be heavily weighted towards one of three areas. Some choose to define their niche with a heavy emphasis on the “industry” component; they work in construction, or aerospace, or pharmaceuticals, or legal, or medical device. The level of depth that they have in that industry is determined by the recruiter – they might perhaps choose to place all functions within that industry because it’s a smaller industry, or they might select a couple of functions within that industry in order to narrow down their scope.
Some niches are heavily weighted within the “function” of specialization. Some recruiters choose to define their niche by placing human resource professionals, or IT professionals, or finance and accounting. They may work in a variety of industries because the functional abilities of the candidates they represent can span from industry to industry. A prospective client is not hiring this candidate because of his or her industry experience – but instead for their functional experience.
Finally, some niches are heavily weighted by geography. The recruiter may choose to span a variety of industries and functions but niche their practice by geography. As an example, a recruiter might place candidates only in Omaha – but place multiple functions and industries within Omaha. Perhaps they choose to focus specifically in the city or region in which they reside, so they have a higher level of face-to-face interaction with their candidate and client pool.
There are three objectives in market mastery:
- To know every potential company prospect in your niche
- To know every potential candidate prospect in your niche
- To know the market trends and business insights above and beyond that of the general market
Your goal is to become known as an insider to your market – not just a recruiter. As a market master, most every search you take will be for reasonably similar positions, so you will have recyclability with the candidates you recruit. This provides for a deeper understanding of the people in your market, their reputations, their departmental structures, compensation and benefit packages, and so on. With this volume of intimate market knowledge, you know more about the market than the people in it.
This level of insight generates a snowball effect; when you have success in completing a search, will get you more similar searches, and the more you get, the more you fill. The more you fill, the better your expertise and resulting reputation. The better the reputation and expertise, the more clients will be willing to retain you, if appropriate, at higher fees and more favorable terms.
The bottom line is that your clients want to hire specialists. Patients no longer see a general surgeon; they go to an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in specific areas such as the spine or the shoulder. Consumer product companies hire specialty reps that deal with specific distributors such as convenience stores, restaurants, or big-box retail chains. The drug industry does not just have one pharmaceutical sales rep that handles all products; they have a rep that handles cardiovascular products, and another that handles oncology products.
The ability to define your niche is critical – but the way a niche is formulated might vary from recruiter to recruiter, from region to region, and from company to company. You need to niche yourself in a market that’s small enough that you can maintain a level of dominance in terms of market expertise in that niche; however, it must also be large enough that it can provide you with enough space to accomplish what you want and need to accomplish.
Being a market master can also help secure your longevity in the search business. In great times, when the economy is flourishing and companies need to hire 100 people at a time, they will talk with virtually any recruiter. However, if and when things turn, and they only need to hire 15 people and not 100, they are going to be overly selective as to whom they choose to partner with. In that situation, they aren’t going to partner with the recruiter who knows very little above and beyond what’s written on their candidate’s resume. They want to talk to the recruiter who not only can continue to deliver them the best talent, but who can also give them competitive insights as to how to stay viable in the marketplace, can share with them best practices to retain the top employees they currently have, and suggest new tangential areas of possible business development opportunities. In times of economic downturn, only a select few recruiters will survive – and it’s those who can provide the value that only a true Market Master can provide.
Recruiters must therefore become experts in their space, as companies increasingly rely on search firms to be experts not only in the generalized world of search, but in the world of search in a specific industry, or a specific function, or a defined geography, or at a specific level of candidate – whichever combination of the Market Mastery method suits you best.
We will assist you with this niche definition throughout our Dimensional Search Training Program to help you define the world in which you will now be the relied upon expert!
Broken into three phases, our Dimensional Search training and mentorship program provides ongoing support and value long after a new owner’s potential success. In its entirety, new Owners receive well over 100 hours of personalized training conducted in concert with Next Level Exchange (NLE), the largest recruiting consulting organization in the industry. Owned by the parent company of Dimensional Search, NLE has become synonymous with delivering proven best practices, training, coaching, and digital marketing solutions specifically designed for the search and staffing world.
As you establish your business, we can help you set up your business entity and Employer Identification Number, and introduce you to the partners we have that will give you discounted rates on required insurance such as an E&O policy and general liability insurance. Our Dimensional Search team can help you set up an appropriate business structure with your accountant or tax advisor, establish your business account with your preferred bank, and set up your chart of accounts. Our DS Tech Team will set up your email accounts, create your email signature, and handle all of the big and small details related to technology.
Our leadership team will help you create a business plan, thinking through the niche-specific associations you need to join, conferences you need to attend, and publications you should receive. We can talk through hiring plans, growth plans, and budgeting for both. Our MarCom experts will create the entirety of your website, and help you craft your bio, marketing materials and press release announcing the launching of your new office. We will help you create outbound emails to send to candidates and clients, along with an ongoing marketing email campaign for perpetual connectivity with your market. We will provide you with a variety of fee agreement templates that can be modified with your own firm’s information and ideas, and will assist you in creating a differentiation strategy to separate from your competition.
Once we have clearly defined the initial scope of your niche, our team of data aggregation experts will get to work with the population of your database with client contacts, candidate contacts, titles, phone numbers and email addresses. We do this using a variety of tools and resources that we have purchased for this exact purpose – to help new owners get started from more than just scratch or an existing network. We will help set up and populate your Applicant Tracking System with search codes and templates for search assignments and candidate data sheets.
Dimensional Search offices not only benefit from what we believe to be the preeminent training program in the industry, but a multi-faceted infrastructure complete with an incomparable operations and finance team, state-of-the-art technology, creative and innovative marketing, and a senior leadership team and Owner Network with an unparalleled reputation and track record of success within the recruitment industry.
Learning is a journey, not an event – and the vast resources provided to our Dimensional Search Network foster an ongoing environment of education, growth, and new perspectives on a perpetual basis. Owners have access to what we believe is the leading online training program in the entire recruitment industry in Next Level Exchange, a group of just-in-time training platforms empowering Owners and recruiters to select an appropriate approach for each unique circumstance. NLE is a collaborative portal that brings together the best practices of innovative recruiting industry trainers, tenured big biller producers, and fresh up-and-coming recruiters, with content and programs for new associates and veterans – all in one place. This is the one and only place where recruiters can get fresh new material that’s available on demand at any time, from anywhere. NLE TV has over 200 hours of professionally produced training videos available on-demand and from dozens of industry insiders from around the world, and a learning library rich with documents, forms, scripts, email templates, articles, and recorded calls spanning the life cycle of the placement process.
In addition to unlimited access to Next Level Exchange training platforms, the Dimensional Search leadership team conducts network-wide training each month exclusively for the Dimensional Search network and our family of companies. These sessions cover subject matter ranging from developing your proficiencies as a search professional, to best practices related to growing your search business, to the latest tools and technologies that will keep recruiters one step ahead of their competition. Dimensional Search Owners also have the ability to enroll in on-demand live small group workshops that cover subjects such as Candidate and Client Mastery, Strategic Selling and Negotiation, and Building Cornerstone Clients to name a few. As an invaluable resource, the Dimensional Search Intranet hosts all relevant documents, fee agreement templates, supplemental materials, and proprietary information in a central location that provides access to archived training webinars, conference sessions, and business forums and can help facilitate an ongoing learning and development process.
As you can see, training and professional development truly is our passion.
Executive Coaching may very well be the most valuable component of our value proposition. Legendary basketball coach John Wooden stated “It is what you learn after you know it all that counts” – and Dimensional Search shares that same belief.
Every Dimensional Search Office is assigned a tenured coach who has a demonstrated track record in helping owners and recruiters around the globe reach their fullest potential. That coach is dedicated to helping each office accomplish their own individual and unique professional objectives, maximize proficiency as a search consultant as well as the leader and owner of a search firm. In addition to this strategic work, your coach can serve as your professional emergency room to talk through key components of a pending placement, or on the brink of landing a new client and need help in crafting a powerful presentation, creating a proposal and looking for creative approach to landing the business. The value of having immediate access to our bench of talented coaches is truly priceless, and although there are numerous challenges that will be faced, it is both comforting and encouraging to know that our team is only a phone call away when helping you solve those challenges!
One of the biggest challenges that most Producing Leaders face is how to expand the team without easing off of the gas and losing the momentum of the billings that allowed them to be a position to start hiring in the first place. There is a significant amount of time involved with the hiring, onboarding, and initial training of new lead generators and recruiters, and most search firm owners simply do not have enough time in the day to balance it all. The hiring team at Dimensional Search are experts in identifying, screening, and qualifying prospective recruiters, and the goal of our hiring support is to help in the expansion of your team while still allowing you to maintain the momentum of your core business.
Once you’ve hired, another time commitment is the time required to teach the fundamentals of the search business and ensure a solid ramp up! Every Dimensional Search office has the opportunity to enroll recruiters into our Facilitated Foundation Training Program, which is a small-group, distance-based program designed to provide students the benefits of interacting with recruiters outside their firm, role play with new and tenured associates, and complete a structured curriculum that covers the life cycle of the placement process. As the Owner, you will receive frequent feedback regarding your new hire while at the same time, the group accountability, role-playing, and script development are all eased off your plate so you can continue to maintain a high level of personal production.
Surrounding oneself with the right people is a significant contributor to professional growth and success for most any professional – but in a pure people business like recruiting, it is crucial. There is an obscure yet incredibly relevant word in the English language called conation. Simply put, conation is the will to succeed, the quest for success, the treasure of true grit and the attitude that ‘to stop me you’ll have to kill me.’ It is that elusive ‘fire in the belly’ that manifests itself in the form of drive, enthusiasm, and single-mindedness in pursuit of a goal.
All consistently successful people have it. Many well-educated, intelligent, endearing, and presentable people don’t.
Our mission at Dimensional Search is to create an environment of network collaboration that fuels the conation of every Owner and recruiter within our family. Our Owner MasterMind groups are designed to create a forum for similarly situated individuals to discuss challenges, solutions, and real-time scenarios on a perpetual basis. Not only does this allow for the interaction and sharing of best practices with one another, Owners can forge both long-term professional relationships and personal friendships with many like-minded entrepreneurs.
Having a network of other franchisees can provide you, and perhaps more importantly your clients and candidates, with additional expertise that can be leveraged to their advantage. The Dimensional Search and greater Starfish Partners family of companies have extensive split networking opportunities that exist both internally as well as externally. This could positively benefit your clients as they fill critical roles or your candidates find the right opportunity by utilizing the expertise of the totality of our networks. Our split network opportunities expand your reach, maximize your earning potential, enhance your credibility and ensure a strategic advantage in this globally competitive landscape.
Our Search Marketing Communications team recognizes the significance of a well-rounded and cohesive marketing strategy, and offers a suite of interconnected services to our Dimensional Search offices. Ensuring a quality brand and PR campaign are essentials for success; the array of MarCom resources can include:
- Website Design, Development, and Content Management Systems
- Graphic Design of Sales and Marketing Collateral
- Search Engine Optimization
- Media/PR opportunities
- Email Marketing Campaigns and Social Media Marketing
- Lead Generation eBooks and Market Guides
Your marketing communications partner understands the nuances, terminology and issues facing the staffing and search business. The Dimensional Search team is comprised of digital marketers, recruiters and researchers who specialize in digital marketing for the search industry and who have charged thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars annually to other search firms to do this kind of work in our industry. They have been doing this for decades, and thus we can offer a scale and depth of services and expertise in this area second to none.
The Dimensional Search corporate bench is the strongest group of recruiting firm experts ever assembled, and is in place to help guide and support you with the time-consuming parts of running a business that keep you out of your market and generating revenue for the firm. Your business requires systems, and our team has a proven history of creating and managing those systems at an individual level and at scale.
Our team of Information Technology experts will be your IT liaison, working with you and directly with your current “boots on the ground” technology service provider to solve any in-house network and hardware related issues that demand a hands-on solution. They will be your primary “Go To” for most all of your Help Desk remote support and basic systems maintenance, can be in your corner as your advocate with telecom providers and computer vendor solutions, and will provide you with the answers you need on hardware and software decisions. Our technology team will collaborate with you on computer systems setup, networking, off-site data backups, redundancy and mobile device support when the devices you count on to help you in business let you down. Utilizing remote access systems and phone support, the tools are in place to help eliminate risks to viruses and spyware and will help prevent the damage to your systems and software. Our Tech support team is a phone call, text message or email away from solving the vast majority of your technological needs and concerns.
From setting up your QuickBooks, establishing a chart of accounts specific to your business and the search industry, and helping you use the accounting software, the Dimensional Search Finance and Operations team can help be your safety net to keep things running smoothly. Our experts can review your tax obligations and informally audit your year-end tax filings as a second set of eyes – always looking for additional savings, ideas for future improvements, and of course, “red flags.” We have a corporate in-house counsel on our team who can assist our offices with many legal issues; although we cannot represent you from a legal perspective, we certainly can offer you the best advice possible based on our internal counsel’s decades of experience. From large to small, proactive to reactive, legal issues can include human resource policies, employment agreements, fee agreements, fee collection matters, and financial questions.
Technology, telephony, job boards, insurance and business supplies are but some of the needs of a professional search firm. As a result of our ability to aggregate the collective buying power of our Dimensional Search Network and Starfish Partners organizations, we are able to secure substantial discounts with a wide variety of vendors. Dimensional Search handles much of the information gathering, supplier proposals, pricing and contract negotiation, and fulfillment of many essential tools for efficiency and effectiveness.
The list of our partners continuously evolves reflective of the needs and desires of our network. Partners are added or removed based on the network interest and the partner pricing and service; the bigger the network demand, the greater our ability to drive amazing opportunities to our network. This list constantly grows and evolves but significant current partner discount opportunities include Applicant Tracking Systems, Data Mining and Research Services, Job Boards, Telephony and Tech, and even E&O Insurance. Signature, our turnkey back office and employer of record provider for Contract Interim services, provides us with rates not available to any other firms in our industry.
The negotiating power of a single office is nowhere near what we can do when we leverage our entire Dimensional Search and Starfish Partners organizations who collectively spends millions on such tools.
What legacy do you want to create?
Imagine the opportunity to build a business that leverages your professional experience thus far. Envision an environment in which you are in control of your lifestyle, balance, future, and income. You have flexibility as to how you can build and grow, but with the structure and support from others who have paved the way for your success. Instead of hoping that leadership will reward you with positive reviews and subjective bonuses, visualize instead a professional opportunity where your personal income is directly correlated to your knowledge, skills, and work ethic.
An architect imagines what if. A builder figures out how to. Great structures emerge only when the two work well together. You act as the architect coming up with the vision and dream; the Dimensional Search team acts as the builder to help do the work to get you there. What could you build if you had all the support and resources you needed?
Our network and our offices are doing great things. We invite you to join us as we make a Dimensional Search Difference together!