Me and My Big Fat Pipeline Collapse

Me and My Pipeline Collapse

It was coming up to a Christmas period and everything had been going great. I have 4 offers out for five-figure fees. It was going to be a great end to the year. On form did not describe how I felt, I was Naked Recruiter, champion of the world.

Superstart recruiter. Recruitment god. Then the offer rejection came in, then a counteroffer, then another rejection and then an offer was pulled due to an internal financial situation. In the space of three days, I went from being (as we British say) the 'dogs bollocks' into a dog's dinner.

Due to my hubris whilst being King of Recruiters, I had ignored business development and resourcing and was starting right at the abyss of a totally dead pipeline.

What happened afterwards?

Christmas happened. We went right into the Christmas period and then come out into the new year. I let myself enjoy the Christmas period, as there was nothing I could really do. Or maybe I just ignored it.

However, what I realized was that over the next three to four weeks I could not shake the sense of loss that all these job offers had failed and had fallen apart. I went over every conversation again and again and again and again. I spent the commission money in my head time and time again.

In a sense, I mourned deals. I did not get back up after being knocked down. It really, really hit me hard, knocked my confidence. It was shocking to my system. I barely called anyone, candidates, and clients. Indeed it took six weeks before the sense of impending doom kickstarted me again and I began to rebuild.

How did I rebuild?

Simply I took action. Any action. That action was nonsense projects around my digital and accounting responsibilities but it got me working instead of being stuck in a self-made rut. We are after all our own worse enemy.

Ok, Napoleon's worst enemy was the Russian Winter, but for 99% of humans, we are our own worst enemies. Me included. And you as well. Once I got going, doing actual work, actual tasks I was able

What did I learn?

Looking back now, I learned three things:

I allowed a sense of hubris to take over my daily thinking, essentially I had mentally "cashed" the cheques.
I took the rejections personally. It's never personal, just business. Up to that point, I was on a 95% success rate for offers so in a sense for about two years I had been outperforming the law of averages.
All parts of the cycle have to happen each week, I neglected Sales and Resourcing. I knew that these candidates were going to get offers and I sat on my hands. That I needed to change.

How can you get over your own pipeline collapse?