Tapping Into Latin American Talent to Grow Digital Agency Profits with Carlos Corredor | Ep #601
Have you considered hiring remotely to help cut costs? Where would you look for remote employees that are still a good culture fit? Finding the right talent can be very challenging even if you’re looking locally. Trying to find great talent in a different country could be next to impossible without the right help. Today’s guests run an agency that offers white-label services and runs highly efficient recruitment services for US companies. They’ve perfected a process to find the best talent in Latin American countries and connect them to small and medium US companies looking to source top talent. They’ll reveal the basic parameters they consider as part of their recruitment process and how they match candidates according to their clients’ needs.
Carlos Corredor & Antonio Santana are the co-founders of Condor Agency, a digital marketing agency that helps US companies become more competitive by leveraging the best talent in Latin America. They serve as an agency partner that offers managing services and also recruits talent directly for their clients.
In this episode, we’ll discuss:
Finding a gap in the market and providing high-quality services.
Tapping into the Latin American market to source top agency talent.
Understanding clients' needs and best interests.
Sponsors and Resources
E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service.
Podcast Takeover!!
Get to know your Smart Agency Guest Host: Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the co-founder of Rise25, an agency that helps companies launch and run podcasts profitably. He followed Jason’s podcast and eventually joined the mastermind and has been a guest on the podcast before. Today, he’s helping Jason bring something new to the Smart Agency podcast audience by interviewing a special guest and getting a new perspective to the show.
Finding a Gap in the Market and Providing High-Quality Options
Over ten years ago, Carlos and Antonio were on the client side of the business, unimpressed by the quality of the work from agencies. Some didn’t understand their business and took forever to deliver results. Fortune 1,000 companies and other big clients get most of the agency's attention. Seeing the low quality of service agencies provided for small and medium businesses, they realized there was an opportunity to serve that sector.
Their agency, Condor, began as a managed services agency that worked with B2B companies in consulting, finance, and IT. They leveraged Latin American talent to help small and medium US companies grow. Years later, as things changed with the pandemic and people seemed more open to the idea of hiring remote talent they also started recruiting directly for their clients. Their recruiting service is targeted at agencies, offering an opportunity for smaller agencies to find skilled talent at more affordable rates.
Connecting US Companies with Untapped Latin American Talent
Coming from Venezuela where salaries were much lower, Carlos and Antonio were struck by the cost of agency work. This was especially shocking considering how little attention agencies pay to small and medium clients. However, they had a lot to learn from the US market.
Living in Chicago, they could see agencies delivering top-notch, specialized work. Nonetheless, they paid much more attention to the bigger clients. As a result, smaller clients were not seeing the same level of service or results. They were built to serve Fortune 1,000 clients, charging around $200 an hour or more. They were also very well structured, with dedicated teams handling the different service areas.
Hence, if they were serious about entering the agency space, Carlos and Antonio needed to play in the same league. They needed to offer quality and speed in order to be competitive in the US market.
Additionally, they understood Latin America is a great source of untapped talent that most US agencies hadn’t considered. At first, they struggled with employee retention and learning to be leaders. With time, they developed a solid recruitment system.
Prioritizing Soft Kills and a Good Culture Fit for Agency Roles
As an agency constantly looking for talent, Condor has a scoring system to assess candidates’ skills. One of the most important factors is proficiency in the English language. These candidates are referred to American companies so they must be able to maintain conversations and provide clear explanations.
Soft skills are also highly valued, as well as being a good culture fit. They’d rather hire someone who is passionate about learning and improving than someone with the right skills who’s just going through the motions. Ideal candidates are excited to be challenged and willing to learn from their mistakes. They look for a winning mentality, not necessarily about never losing but taking the right lessons. For the technical skills, they have a number of tests based on the needed skills required by clients.
Condor's clients are agencies looking to fill positions such as account managers, paid media analysts, designers, email marketers, and SEO experts with 3+ years of experience. However, sometimes clients are willing to take candidates with less experience but with great personalities and a willingness to learn. It just depends on their urgency to fill the position and how much training is necessary.
The Five Steps to Source the Best Agency Talent in the Latin American Market
Carlos and Antonio developed a layered process meant to assess many aspects and weed out uncommitted candidates.
LinkedIn messages. To start, they have a dedicated team to contact people through LinkedIn. This team messages about 1,000 people yielding about 100 responses.
Basic information. Before an interview, candidates fill out a form with basic questions like salary expectations.
First interview. Candidates get scored on a scale from 0-5. Those who pass the first interview with a score of 3 or better go on to the next step of the process.
The test. Selected candidates are tested in a simulation scenario in order to demonstrate their skills or solve a complex issue.
The panel interview. The leadership team interviews the candidate in a panel format. They ask them situational questions and it's a much more candid-style interview where candidates tend to be very honest and transparent.
They weed out candidates who are not a good fit by following this 5-step process. This way, they’re able to refer at least five great candidates to their US clients. Their process has come a long way; 3 years ago it would take them a couple of months to find one qualified candidate. Now that they’ve perfected the process, it takes them about two weeks to get 5.
Understanding Clients' Needs and Best Interests
Once a client comes to them, how do they know whether to stick to offering recruiting services or offering agency services? A big factor for them is whether they have the bandwidth and expertise the client needs. If they do, especially when it comes to management, then it makes sense to offer their in-house services. If not, they offer to build a team ready to perform and dedicated to that client.
Ultimately, the goal is to help clients save time with a plug-and-play team that knows what they’re doing to achieve successful results.
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