The Best Way to Win Back Lost Clients.

I guess we get— we've— you've already covered it and, and sort of mentioned bits, but we got our next step is like sales strategy, and we put start small. I guess we're talking here in terms of like you've just— you've moved, you know, you've gone to Dubai, you're on a new business. So I think what can often be maybe overlooked, or like the automatic thing that we can think about, is like new, new, new, right? But I've got a couple of bullets here that we put when we prepared for this, which was you also made sure that you put time and energy into lapsed clients or clients that maybe you got to final stage but didn't quite get it over the line. Do you want to talk a bit about that? Did you really make sure that you spent just as much time on those types of customers that, you know, you already had information on? You could see the sort of journey they'd been on with Hallion, and just as much as putting energy into like net new clients?

Definitely, yeah. I think the first strategy that I took anyway, and I would most likely take it if I was to join a new business, and I did take, was to obviously understand who our existing customers were, look at all of our lapsed clients, clients that perhaps used to bill with us and then have fallen off for whatever reason. People move. It's a business where people are constantly moving, right? One recruiter leaves, that relationship drops off, client then goes somewhere else, and you've lost a massive opportunity. So I kind of looked at the different sections and areas in which I could get, let's say, easier wins. And for sure, I went after those first. And I sat down with the key people, right? I looked at the people that had worked in the business for a long time, who would perhaps already are successful, or who are too busy, right, dealing with their own clients to say, You know, who were the big customers we used to work with? What's happened to them? And I asked all those questions because if you don't ask those questions, you're never going to get anywhere, right? So that really helped. You know, I was speaking to the CEO, I was speaking to the other senior directors, and that gave me a bit of a foundation to kind of lead from. So yeah, 100%, it was net new, but it was companies that perhaps fallen off a cliff or you know, had once done, had 20, 30 contractors. What's happened and how can we get that moving again?

Yeah. And I put here as well, we put here cybersecurity space and then built out from here. Did that like organically happen? Was it just helpful to have a bit of a focus in terms of industry or—

Yeah, I mean, that was kind of like a bit of an internal, I guess, decision that we made at the start. Having come from non-tech and then going into that side, it would be impossible for me to begin to sell all the different technologies. Like, if one minute I'm speaking to a software director, next minute I'm speaking to a CISO, you know, then I'm speaking to a head of PMO about project managers, like, you can't get a huge amount of traction, right? And your brain can get scrambled. So we decided that I guess in order for me to become maybe an expert, or at least like a, you know, say an expert, at least get better at all areas, is to start and do like different projects on each area. So over time, I think I started with cybersecurity, picked that up, learnt the kind of roles we filled in that market, learnt what a brilliant candidate looked like in that field, learnt what a typical hiring manager looked like in that field, et cetera. And then I worked my way through from that. Then moved to software, then moved to data, then ended up in the project management and change space, Scrum Masters, BAs, etc. So yeah, I kind of— you're absolutely right— like worked my way through those so that I became a bit of a, you know, a bit of a— had a good knowledge of all of them, let's say.

Yeah, I mean, you're going to make your job so much harder if, like you said, every single day you're speaking to entirely different types of people, do you know what I mean? Um, And then, and then what, how has it ended? Have you ended up staying within that sort of world or have you then just expanded it from that?

So I think what eventually happens though is that you do generally become a bit of an overall expert. And I think a lot of people might disagree and say, look, you know, there's people, you know, in our business who are still absolutely specialists in one area who are solely cybersecurity or solely software. Recruiters, but I've learned enough in that period of time in the last 2 years to be able to get by and have decent conversations about the different verticals. So I've, and doing BD constantly day in, day out, I've now got networks in each of those areas that I'm still following up with and still doing cadence with that I'm not going to drop off. 'Yes, I started in one space, but now I've been able to pick up the sales acumen and the knowledge and the terminologies, let's say, to be able to sell to anyone.' Does that make sense? [Speaker] Yeah. [Speaker] So, it just comes with time, but some people may disagree. But I haven't got a problem speaking to someone that heads up the SAP function of a business or someone that's heading up the software side. In fact, I've won clients in both of those. Not being necessarily a complete expert in both, but being able to uncover their problems and sell a solution. Because remember, I'm not obviously filling all these jobs, so I'm relying on an expert delivery team behind me to do that, which I have full faith in them doing, which obviously makes a big difference.

Yeah, no, for sure. But what we're saying is it was helpful for you to have a bit more of that focus at the start. And then, yes, that makes sense. Because look, I think it's fair— there will be nuances, but it's fair to say that CTOs or CISOs or heads of project management, when we're talking about talent, when we're talking about workforce, that there's definitely going to be similarities in terms of problems, right? But again, you're gonna just understand the nuances more if you just speak to more CISOs over CTOs, and you have to learn that. But I totally get why you're going to be able to get by if you're having decisions with those type of people in those seats. But they're sort of, um, environment's a bit different.