Personal branding · HR and talent
The candidate you want has six messages this week and will open one profile.
Personal branding for a recruiter or headhunter is what a passive candidate finds in the ten seconds after your message lands.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Personal branding for a recruiter or headhunter is what a passive candidate finds in the ten seconds after your message lands. It answers whether you really work their field, and whether you reply once the CV has gone in. GullySales writes and runs that presence from a regular conversation with you.
Also written for
Recruiter, Headhunter, Talent acquisition specialist, Recruitment manager, Executive search consultant.
Where this sits
For recruiters and headhunters
Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.
“The scarce side is the candidate, not the client”
A mandate can be won on a good call. The senior engineer who is content where she is will not take that call. What changes her mind is recognising your name from somewhere that was not an inbox.
“Your reputation is your follow-up”
Candidates talk to each other. If people who interviewed through you never heard back, more visibility spreads that faster than anything else you could buy. Fix the follow-up before you buy an audience.
“A generalist profile gets generalist replies”
Saying you recruit across IT, banking and manufacturing tells a specialist you do not know their work. The recruiters candidates answer are the ones who have placed twenty people into the same three job families.
“Clients are deciding whether you understand the role”
A hiring manager who has rejected nine of your CVs is weighing whether to open the tenth. What you have written about the role, the market rate and why good people leave it is the argument you cannot fit into an email.
What we do
What we deliver for recruiters and headhunters.
Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.
A profile written for the person you are chasing
Your bio rebuilt around the job families you place and the companies you know from the inside. It also states what happens after somebody sends you a CV, with reply times you are willing to be held to.
Result: Replies from people who ignore recruiter messages as a matter of policy.
An hour on the search that took five months
The counter-offer you saw coming, or the brief that could not be filled at the salary written on it. One call carries the writing.
Result: Material out of one conversation you were going to have anyway.
What you know about pay and process, written down
The stages of a hiring process in your field, what a counter-offer usually looks like, and the questions a candidate should be asking before the second round. No client's salary band published without permission.
Result: Candidates come to you with their own questions instead of being chased.
Proof for clients that names no client
Search write-ups covering the brief, the market and how the placement was made, anonymised wherever the mandate requires it.
Result: A new client sees how you work before the first meeting.
A candidate list that is yours
A subscriber list and a way for people to stay in touch while they are not looking, with consent recorded, because a scraped list is a complaint waiting to happen.
Result: A shortlist built in a week because you kept in touch for three years.
How the result is measured
- Enquiries that name you or came through your profile
- Searches for your name, from Search Console
- Profile views and connection requests from your industry
- Speaking invitations, press enquiries and podcast requests
- Posts published against posts planned, and what held up the rest
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
How it works
How the work runs for recruiters and headhunters
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Work out whether this is even your bottleneck
The first conversation covers how enquiries reach you today. If the company's own site is the weaker link, that comes first, and we say so.
- 2
Search your own name with you
We look at what a buyer sees today: every profile, old listing and photograph. Some of it you will want taken down, and some of it only you can take down.
- 3
Agree what you will and will not say
The subjects you know cold, the ones that belong to your clients, and the lines your regulator or association draws. Written down before anything is published.
- 4
Rebuild the profiles
The bio page, LinkedIn and the directories that matter in your field, done once and done properly.
- 5
The routine
Interview, drafts, your approval, publication. The interview is the only part that needs you, and it is the part that cannot be skipped.
- 6
Hand it over
The subject list, the drafting notes and the calendar are yours. If you would rather keep it running yourself, that is a fair outcome.
Before you hire anyone
The first thing to do yourself.
It costs nothing, and it shows what a buyer sees before they ever call you.
- Search your own name and your practice or business name in a private browser window, and list the first ten results.
- Open your profile on each major platform and check that the name, photo, description and contact details agree.
- Ask two people who recently chose you what they looked up first, and write down their answers.
Judge any provider
What to ask any agency or ghost-writer.
Useful whoever you choose, including us.
- Who writes my words, and do I approve everything before it goes out?
- Which of my own details and claims will you need to check with me before publishing?
- What will you not write because of the rules my profession follows?
- Whose account do the profiles and the content sit in, and what happens to them if we stop?
- What do you count as a result, and what will you not promise?
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
I am in-house talent acquisition, not an agency. Is this for me?
Should this be my name or the firm's?
Can you send us candidates?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
HR and talent
Personal branding for the rest of the hr and talent.
Or start from personal branding.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.