Management Solutions, Inc, San Jose, CA

“I started a boutique exempt-level contract staffing firm specializing in accounting and finance professionals. My two partners and I were all former Big Four management executives and had only participated as “hiring managers” before starting our firm, Management Solutions Inc. (currently, Kula Consulting) in San Jose, California. With only two people from a big national temp placement firm we set up our “process” . Within a year we were generating over a million dollars in contract revenue and another $300,000 in “perm” billings. Through a referral, I attended a one-day training class in San Francisco put on by a guy named Peter Leffkowitz. I was hooked from that session on a very unique style of recruiting and the need to set-up a daily time-management process to become structured in my new profession. I still use the skills that Peter demonstrated in that training session.

I loaded up with his videos, daily planners and the Objector “flip chart”, and a script manual, tabbed for every call and went back to our San Jose office. Over the next four or five years, Management Solutions grew to be one of the largest finance and accounting staffing firms in the Silicon Valley with over 25 placement people on staff. During this growth spurt, we used the Morgan Method training videos to start new employees off on how we did business.

Then, we decided to take the company to another level and put an expansion plan in place that included a significant emphasis on his training. We felt we needed a way of doing business that would ensure that every office we opened would have the same consistency of technique, messaging and corporate culture as our San Jose office. We asked Peter to spend a couple of days reviewing our operation and then install a replicable “in-house” management plan for multiple office growth. Within one day, Peter opened my eyes to the power of managing by activity, not dollars. We developed a Secret Sauce Recipe for daily activity that we could train to and manage to, that helped us build the foundation for our expansion.

 We then asked Peter to help us set-up a customized training program for our people.

The program included training everyone at the Tall Pony Ranch, and a two month on-the-job, in-house training program for all new hires. We then launched our expansion plans and over the next six-year period we grew organically and through some strategic acquisitions to a ten-office firm, with over 200 recruiters who produced over $55,000,000 a year in revenue. Our per desk averages on the direct hire side were 2.5 deals per desk, 20 new qualified candidates per month and a 3.5 to 1 send out to placement ratio. We also had less than one percent fall-offs on placements.

In early 2001, we sold the firm to one of the big international staffing firms for over seven times EBITDA.

After sitting out my non-compete agreement, I started a boutique staffing firm in Santa Cruz called Kula Consulting doing finance and accounting placement specifically in the California market place. I’ve revised my secret sauce to accommodate staff working remotely compared to my former firm. But the thing that remains a constant is the training provided by Morgan Consulting. We have attended his Zoom “Morginars” and still use the Morgan Planners and Situational Guides and will send new staff to his Tall Pony Ranch to get them started as only Peter can do.”

AcctKnowledge, Tulsa/OKC

“Both my temp and search firms have been a client of Morgan Consulting Group from 2000 to present (most recently July 28^th – 30^th).  My firm has grown tremendously from one office with 3 of us to two offices (Tulsa, Oklahoma City) supporting 17 total employees.  Our focus for the last 16 years has been accounting/finance and engineering primarily in the energy and manufacturing sectors.  I met Peter in Dallas back in the day when he was ‘doing his thing’ in front of a couple hundred folks in the same room… how times have changed.  Now, I send him 10-12 of my people and he tucks them away in a log cabin for 3 days and they come back all in sync. 

The growth of my firm in the last 8 years has a lot to do with my “buy in” of the Morgan Methodology.  You cannot attend a few days here and there and expect results….this is what I did the first few years.  We’d train with multiple trainers, all with different, “here’s-how-I-do-it”. We’d get back home, were pumped, excited, ready to conquer yet within 30 days we were right back to where we started. I, as an owner-failed by giving everyone too many options resulting to no one committing to a training culture. 

Morgan Methodology teaches you how to build the correct infrastructure, how to stay and work within your sweet spot, how to compensate and incent your staff by things they can control and measure (APP’s Searches and Sendouts) and how to find and capture the best rookies in our marketplace. Morgan Methodology sets a standard, a bar, as Peter calls it. Those that fall behind, given Peter’s training, were not the right hires to begin with. I learned not to drop or compromise my corporate “bar” to accommodate an imperfect hire. His system keeps things unemotional and non-subjective. The system works. The system is the “bad cop” and I am the “good cop” teaching and coaching so my recruiters stay in the system. My relationship has changed dramatically with my staff. I lead now. I’m not their crutch.”

The Kidder Group, Greenville, SC

“I started recruiting in 1998 and was relatively successful for many years.  I used my gut instinct to run my company and developed a good system for presenting my candidates to my clients.  Many of the major trainers in the industry turned me off because they were teaching recruiters methods of recruiting based in “pitching jobs to candidates before understanding a candidate’s desire for change.

In 2007, a fellow recruiter recommended Peter Leffkowitz and let me borrow a CD.  It only took a few minutes for me to get hooked, and I was soon on my way to the Tall Pony Ranch.  Over the years, I have taken all the classes he has developed: the 2 Day Recruiter Marathon, Recession Fight Club, 3 Day Recruiter Start-up, 24 Hours of Client Development, Management Clinic. We have fully implemented the Morgan Method into The Kidder Group.  The results speak for themselves; our clients and our candidates both constantly complement our process.The rigor of the Morgan Method also dramatically reduces the “pain” in recruiting; by this I mean the “finger crossing” and hoping a candidate accepts an offer, etc.  We know what our candidates want first and we only present opportunities that fit their goals. Send out to placement ratios are tight 2.7 to1).  Our client companies know this, and it saves everyone’s time. 

We are completely transparent in our process and the end result is that everyone feels that we operate as a company of integrity.  There are recruiters who make money by simply sending more “submittals” but our contentment comes from the relationships with our clients and our candidates.  After 7 years on the Morgan Method, I am under little stress as an owner and in total control of my life and my company.  On top of all this, I look at Peter like a brother. I know he has a wealth of clients, but I always feel like I am “his” client. He is welcome in my home any time.”

The Austin Group Energy LP, Houston, TX

The Story: My first 1.2 million dollar fee.

Recently I was contacted by Talent Acq. for the leader of Natural Resources for one of the largest investment banks in North America. He said he was putting a list of names together to be considered for a potential up and coming search for a Managing Director of their North American Energy practice. A face to face meeting was set between my team and the hiring manager for early January. It was made very clear that there would be no retainer, only contingency, for this search. They also made it very clear that a team hire would be considered. A face-to-face meeting was set for early January.

I took Ted, the last guy your trained for me at the ranch. I’ll skip a lot of the details but, they grilled the hell out of us. I shared with him how our firm was different from the competition. I actually leaned on you, sharing with them how Morgan Methodology’s process made us so much efficient in the last 15 years.  Towards the end of the meeting, the Natural Resources MD expressed concern that we hadn’t completed a similar team search like this.  We explained that we had recruited the individual pieces, but never the whole team at once.  Ted took advantage of the tough personality of the Managing Director and mirrored the guy to close hard.  He looked at the MD and said, “I don’t know any other way to say this, but at the risk of sounding offensive, we are very f^#king good at what we do and it doesn’t matter what we recruit.  Our style of recruiting is unparalleled and our process was created by the best in class and we follow it to a Tee . If you want the highest performance janitor from your competitor, we’ll find him.”  The MD started laughing and said, “I’ve said that to my clients before. You’re hired.”

Within 2 weeks, we had a spreadsheet of nearly 50 potential targets. We shared the spreadsheet with the client and they handpicked several individuals that they wanted to explore. We gained permission from the client to make the calls and begin the evaluating process. In May, after several months of interviews the bank decided to move forward with the (you ready?) 11 person team we recruited. They made their final cut using our Morgan Assessment write-ups. Not one resume was submitted. Just our PPT presentations. Although Ted and I were co-project leads, everyone contributed to the finalists.

After nearly 7 months of work, we coordinated all the resignations. 2 in person, the rest by email, EVERY 10 MINUTES! Cruel, but it worked.

Thank you, brother.