As I write this I am on a flight headed home from the Fall 2009 meeting of the Pinnacle Society. Pinnacle is an honor society of 75 of the top producing recruiters in the country. Every meeting I attend leaves me inspired and challenged and this one was no exception. While my list of takeaways is long, there is one image in particular that will stay with me a long time.

I facilitated a roundtable discussion on increasing personal production. The ideas that the group offered up ranged from the highly strategic to the very tactical. There were discussions of brand building, referral marketing, time management, technology tools and more. Carl Coco sat across from me and took it all in before he spoke. Now, if you haven’t met Carl let me tell you that he is a man that has absolute credibility with me. He has been a top producing recruiter for 40–that’s right, 40–years. He didn’t get into Pinnacle by stringing together a half dozen solid years in a hot economy. He has been putting up big numbers for four decades in good markets and bad. When Carl speaks, we should all listen.

Carl explained, in his matter-of-fact way, that he had increased his personal production by increasing his call time. He reached into a folder that he had tucked under his arm and pulled out the most recent call accounting report and shared with the group exactly how many calls he had made in the last week. He knows down to the minute the exact amount of time he spent on the phone. He knows how many connects, how many sendouts, how many new searches, how many new candidates and more. Carl knows his numbers. He sets goals based on his numbers. Most importantly, Carl controls his results by his numbers.

I compare this to the people who I meet in the business who tell me that they refuse to keep track of their numbers. An underperforming recruiter told me in a recent phone call that he had “moved beyond putting tick marks on some sheet of paper.” This guy boasted that he was a senior recruiter and that keeping track of numbers is for rookies. But I have news for this “senior” guy. He is a rookie. In fact, I know many recruiters in their first year on the job who are putting up better billings than this self-appointed senior recruiter. Recruiting isn’t a union job. Time in the job doesn’t make you “senior” and there is no special status confered on recruiters based on tenure.

A professional athlete’s worth is measured by his win-loss ratio. A Hollywood actress is judged by her box office draw. A recruiter’s value come from his or her billings. That’s the way it works. It boils down to a number.

Numbers matter. Carl knows that. That’s why he has such a deep and abiding respect for his numbers. I wish I had taken a picture of Carl sitting across from me with his metrics report tucked under his arm, nestled right next to his heart. I would send it to every recruiter who tells me that this business is about more than numbers. Even after 40 years in this business producing at the highest levels, he knows he hasn’t “outgrown” the numbers. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.