Three Steps to Attract More International Clients / Candidates

As a motivated, professional recruiter, you might feel that you have spent so much time trying to improve your English, but you still seem to have challenges when you think about approaching international clients/candidates, you feel self-conscious, afraid that you won’t be understood or that you will just not know what to say. 

If you keep doing what you have been doing, you’re going to get the same results. Not only this, but you’re going to end up frustrated, and not even bother looking for international clients as you just don’t think you’ll be able to go through the whole recruitment cycle with them.

What you need to do is focus on what you need to do. Instead of to learn everything, you need to focus on what you need to know, how to speak with confidence, be able to engage in small talk, and speak more fluently using specific phrasal verbs and idioms that will show your expertise and fluency in English. You don’t need in-company classes, what you need is the language and skills that are specifically designed for motivated recruiters like yourself. 

You’ve learnt English using a general method. Perhaps you’ve studied for an exam, but like my dad told me about driving - there’s one way to drive for the test and another when you’re flying down the highway with the music blaring.

 Let me further explain this with an analogy.

You specialise in one area of recruitment right?

Let’s say you want to find a specific candidate for a specific role.

You don’t post an ad saying "candidate wanted for a job."

Of course not. If you did, you would get thousands of candidates.

1. Communicate clearly - Using the right tense and avoiding common mistakes.

You are a professional in your native language, and you want to transfer the confidence that you have when you speak with your international clients and candidates. However, sometimes things don’t quite go as you planned, as you make a mistake in the tense that you use - was it past perfect or present continuous that you should have used?

You know that those candidates and clients who can help you make big commissions need to know that you can interview and deliver the English speaking client they want. 

Then you hear yourself making a simple mistake that you know you should not make, and you may lose confidence.

Here’s what you need to do:

Review the more difficult tenses and see examples that are relevant to human resource situations. 

Go over the common mistakes that even advanced students make!

2. Sound Professional - Use Small Talk and Discourse Markers

You know those first few minutes when you start a call, and you are waiting for someone to join. There’s an empty silence, and you don’t know what to say, so you say nothing. If you were to take charge of the call right away, it would that you are more in control of the process.

Once the call or interview starts, you find yourself reusing the same vocabulary again and again, and while this may be OK if you don’t talk to the same client or candidate, you really feel that having a wider range of vocabulary would help you sound even more professional.

And what about when you want to move the conversation along, you want to be able to use phrases rather than, “now let’s talk about…”

Having all of these phrases and vocabulary will help you increase your confidence.

Here’s what you need to do to improve in this aspect of your English:

Learn the phrases and expressions that are used in HR and in high English meetings and then practice them to ensure you can use them effectively and in the right content.

3. Sound Professional - Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Idioms and phrasal verbs are something that most clients have challenges with. They just don’t make sense (it’s true), however, when you fully understand the phrasal verbs for your industry, not only will you understand more of the meetings you may be in, but you’ll sound even more professional.

Reading about idioms and phrasal verbs or learning them will not achieve anything unless you use them and use them correctly!

You see, you can learn English or you can live English, and living English is the best way.

So, how can you achieve the success you deserve?

Well, I help my clients to achieve more success by following the exact approach above.

 I have clients that started with me that felt nervous when giving presentations, or conducting interviews, after a few weeks working with me (some decide to continue after my program ends for reinforcement and to further enhance their confidence. 

Do make sure you check out what my previous clients have said.

 What can you do next?

That’s a great question. If you’re a motivated HR professional, reach out to me, and we can set up a strategy call - in fact, there’s a link below to find out more about this strategy call.

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