Early Bird Registration is underway for the upcoming 2017 Top Echelon National Convention. However, we have another announcement: Jordan Rayboy of Rayboy Insider Search will be the keynote speaker for the convention!

Of course, you might already know that if you had looked at the convention’s preliminary agenda in the Members’ Area. If you haven’t, though, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Jordan Rayboy was the keynote speaker for us once before, at the 2014 National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The photo above this blog post is from that convention. We presented Jordan with the gift of a Star Wars T-shirt emblazoned with one of his favorite sayings: “Do or do not . . . there is no try.”

Not only are we announcing that Jordan is the keynote speaker, but we also have the titles of the three sessions that he will be presenting at the convention. They are as follows:

“Riding the Recruiting Wave—and Getting Back to the Top”

“The Power of Leverage: a Blueprint for Full-Desk Recruiters to Multiply Their Billings and Freedom by Growing and Leading a Team’

“You Deserve What You Tolerate”

Now, let’s review the specifics of the 2017 Top Echelon Network National Convention, shall we? Below is important information related to the event:

• The dates are Tuesday, April 25, and Wednesday, April 26.
• The location is the DoubleTree Hilton located at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.
• The cost of Early Bird Registration is $395 per person.
• The Early Bird Registration period ends on Friday, February 17.

Attending an event like the National Convention is one of the best ways to receive an investment on your Top Echelon Network membership. Meeting other Network recruiters face-to-face and building trading partners relationships leads to more placements. It’s as simple as that.

We’ve been holding these events since 1990, and that has been the case every single year. There’s money waiting for you in Orlando.

Are you looking to make more placements this year? Do you want to make 2017 your best year in the recruiting profession?

“Do or do not . . . there is no try.”

Every year recruiters lose placements. They’re right there, within their grasp, and then . . . they’re gone. The reasons for these lost placements varies, of course, but clients are sometimes involved.

But how often are they involved? And how many placements are lost? We decided to “take to the streets” (not really) and find out the answers to these questions.

How, you ask? A poll question, of course:

How many times last year did you lose a placement because of a client?

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of Network recruiters that selected each one:

• None — 17.8%
• Between 1 and 3 — 63.3%
• Between 4 and 6 — 14.4%
• Between 7 and 9 — 2.2%
• More than 9 times — 2.2%

Placement paradise lost

So, the carnage was not as bad as anticipated. Although even the loss of one placement during a calendar year could be considered “carnage” on the part of the recruiter who lost it. The “sweet spot” of our poll results appears to be “between 1 and 3.” That answer garnered 63.3% of the vote.

The good news for 17.8% of the Network recruiters participating in the poll is that they didn’t have any lost placements due to clients. Ah, but then there’s the other end of the spectrum, the 14.4% who chose “between 4 and 6” as their answer.

Can you imagine losing six placements in a year because of something one of your clients did (or did not do)? That’s one lost placement every other month. That’s disheartening, to say the least.

Then there were a few stragglers who lost “between 7 and 9 placements” and lost placements “more than 9 times” because of client antics. Both of those categories registered at 2.2%. Those are small percentages, to be sure, but the recruiters who had to endure such misery deserve our heartfelt sympathy.

These are the types of results that illustrate how recruiters have a love/hate relationship with their clients. They love them for the job orders and placements, but they hate them when they go “space cadet” and cost them a big, fat, juicy placement fee.

Here’s to another year of job orders, fat fees, and lost placements!

If you’d like to make more split placements in TE this year, then contact Top Echelon Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS. You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Not only is it a new year with new Top Echelon Network recruiting firms, but it’s also a new year for networking in TE! Specifically, it’s a new year for our Regional Core Group meetings.

I mention this because I have a “save the date” announcement for one of our groups. That group is the Midwest Mid-Winter Regional Core Group, which will be meeting on Wednesday, February 15.

Below is the location of the meeting, including the address:

Potawatomi Inn
Wig Wam Room
6 Lane 100A Lake James
Angola, IN  46703

As I mentioned, the agenda for the meeting is now set. Here it is:

9:30 to 9:50 a.m. — Networking Breakfast
9:45 to 9:50 a.m. — Opening Comments
9:50 to 11 a.m. — Lightning Rounds
11:00 to 11:15 a.m. — Break
11:15 to 11:45 a.m. — Business-Building Discussion Groups (round 1)
11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — Networking Lunch
12:30 to 1:00 p.m. — Business-Building Discussion Groups (round 2)
1:00 to 1:30 p.m. — Business-Building Discussion Groups (round 3)
1:30 to 1:45 p.m. — Closing Comments

The best of the Midwest

In last week’s article, I mentioned that the cost to attend would be $45 per person. That’s not exactly true. The cost is actually $50 per person. However, that price does include both breakfast and lunch. And if you think about the value you’ll receive from attending this meeting, the cost is almost inconsequential. (And that’s even after throwing in travel time and gas.)

And remember: even though this event is technically in the great state of Indiana, it is most definitely open to recruiters from other states. That’s why the name of the core group is the Midwest Mid-Winter Regional Core Group. We want recruiters from the Midwest to attend, not just recruiters from Indiana.

The states considered to be part of the Midwest include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. That’s a lot of states!

And remember this, too: the #1 goal of this meeting is to help those recruiters who attend make more placements. We at Top Echelon want to help Network recruiters generate more revenue through their desk and for their firm. Split placements is an excellent way to accomplish this, and attending events like this one lead to more split placements.

If you’d like to attend this Indiana recruiters meeting in Top Echelon, please contact me at 330.455.1433, x156 or via email at drea@topechelon.com. OR if you’d like to help start a new regional core group, we can do that, too.

The new year is here, and we’re kicking things off with Top Echelon Network anniversaries. In fact, we’re kicking the year off with a dozen anniversaries!

Not only that, but three of the 12 firms that we’re recognizing for anniversaries this month are celebrating anniversaries of 20 years or longer. Those three firms are as follows:

• Markent Personnel (28 years)
• Adel-Lawrence Associates (26 years)
• Fitzpatrick & Associates (25 years)

The dirty placement dozen

Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the longevity of these recruiting agencies has been their production within the Network. The 12 firms recognized in this issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog have made a total of 859 placements combined.

Now that’s not the most placements ever by a group of Network firms recognized for their anniversaries, but it’s definitely a healthy total. Not only that, but we also have plenty of recognizable names mixed among these firms, including Tom Udulutch, Mark Udulutch, Jim Fitzpatrick, Joe Noto, Pamela Ratz Deville, Suzanne Griffth, Stephanie McGinty, John Moskonas, Rudy Garcia, Joe Pelayo, John Peterson, and Adam Krueger.

The recruiters represented here believe in split placements and they believe in the Top Echelon system. That’s why they’ve made hundreds of placements and could still make hundreds of placements in the future.

Congratulations to the dozen recruiting firms listed below and everybody else celebrating a Top Echelon Network anniversary this month!

(Editor’s note: Top Echelon recognizes firms celebrating five, 10, 15, and 20-year Network anniversaries, plus any firm celebrating an anniversary in excess of 20 years.)

— — —

28-Year Anniversary

Markent Personnel in Portage, Wisconsin
Staff Members: Thomas Udulutch; Mark Udulutch, CPC; Kelly Kallungi; Kelly Zahn; Rhona Pratsch; Christy Parmley; and Dawn Lochner
Agency Join Date: January 20, 1989
Placements: 221

— — —

26-Year Anniversary

Adel-Lawrence Associates, Inc. in Aberdeen, New Jersey
Staff Members: Larry Radzely
Agency Join Date: January 28, 1991
Placements: 105

— — —

25-Year Anniversary

Fitzpatrick & Associates in Canton, Ohio
Staff Members: Jim Fitzpatrick
Agency Join Date: January 1, 1992
Placements: 180

— — —

15-Year Anniversary

Paragon Group International, LLC in Camas, Washington
Staff Members: Nicole Sirois and Carl Sirois
Agency Join Date: January 23, 2002
Placements: 3

Regency Search Group in South Bend, Indiana
Staff Members: Joe Noto, Lorri Noto, and Erika Staszewski
Agency Join Date: January 30, 2002
Placements: 49

— — —

10-Year Anniversary

CMD and Associates Executive Search in Woodbury, Minnesota
Staff Members: Twanda DeBorde
Agency Join Date: January 3, 2007
Placements: 22

The MMS Group in Franklin, Tennessee
Staff Members: Richard Yadon; Pamela Ratz DeVille, CPC; Bob Vogt; Valarie Dorion; and Alex Winkler
Agency Join Date: January 8, 2007
Placements: 48

Newlon Services 1, Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Staff Members: George Rossi
Agency Join Date: January 19, 2007
Placements: 42

Ives & Associates, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio
Staff Members: Phyllis Ives, Suzanne Griffith, Stephanie McGinty, Jay Canowitz, Amy Lock, Brian Shaw, and Sharon Rader
Agency Join Date: January 24, 2007
Placements: 83

— — —

5-Year Anniversary

The ARGroup of Search Companies in Sparta, New Jersey
Staff Members: John Moskonas
Agency Join Date: January 3, 2012
Placements: 12

Joseph Michaels International in Dallas, Texas
Staff Members: Rudy Garcia, Eddie Grado, Scott Bender, Laurie O’Hanna, and Joe Pelayo
Agency Join Date: January 27, 2012
Placements: 43

Sun Recruiting, Inc. in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Staff Members: John Peterson, Adam Krueger, and Harry Zuber
Agency Join Date: January 30, 2012
Placements: 51

Sure, we could talk about top-producing recruiter Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group winning Recruiter of the Month honors in Top Echelon Network. Boring.

Or we could talk about Trey winning Recruiter of the Year accolades in TE for 2016. Yawn.

Been there, done that. Trey has been winning those awards on a consistent basis for years now. No, we don’t want to live in the past. We want to speculate about what the future holds because, after all, that’s where we’re all going.

Top-producing top five

As of the writing of this blog post, Trey has made 546 placements in Top Echelon Network. That is a TE record.

In addition, he has billed over $4.2 million through the Network during his 14 years as a Network Member. That is also a TE record. (By the way, the Cameron Craig Group joined the Network on January 24, 2003. Happy anniversary!)

Chances are excellent that Trey will make close (or more than) 100 Network placements this year. They are also excellent that he will bill close to (or more than) $1 million through the Network this year.

That means by December 31, Trey will have made his 600th Network placement and reached a cash-in total of $5 million. Numbers like those are a lot of things, but none of them are boring.

Below are the top five top-producing recruiters in Top Echelon Network for the month of December 2016:

— — —

Recruiters of the Month:

1st Place: Trey Cameron
Agency: Cameron Craig Group
Placements: 18
Commission: $155,046

— — —

2nd Place: Pam Copeland
Agency: fulltime GiGS
Placements: 4
Commission: $34,885

— — —

3rd Place: Steve Kohn
Agency: Affinity Executive Search
Placements: 3
Commission: $23,198

— — —

4th Place: Maria Hemminger
Agency: MJ Recruiters, LLC
Placements: 3
Commission: $21,530

— — —

5th Place: Pamela Ratz DeVille, CPC
Agency: The MMS Group
Placements: 2
Commission: $33,487

— — —

If YOU are looking to make more placements with your Top Echelon Network membership, contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.