Arena Recruiting Uses Loxo For Business Development and Beyond

Background

Jon Piggins has been in the recruitment space for 14 years — and in that time, he’s seen a lot of change.

He’s also seen a lot of software providers (and business models) that have been unwilling — or maybe just ill-equipped — to adapt to said change.

After occupying several roles in the industry, Jon recognized a gap in the market for a more flexible and cost-effective recruitment solution. As a solution, he founded Arena Recruiting, a fractional recruitment services firm offering companies dedicated hiring and human resources guidance — without the expense or risk of maintaining an in-house recruiting function or relying on costly agencies.

Arena's unique value proposition is a bit genius, if you ask us. Hiring needs ebb and flow — especially in the modern recruitment landscape. Arena’s big value comes from the fact that it’s true plug-and-play, with Jon leveraging Loxo and other premium recruitment tools like LinkedIn Recruiter to offer fixed, low-cost pricing to clients. It’s like having an in-house recruitment team, with all the bells and whistles — just a whole lot more scalable.

Modern recruiters need scalable solutions

Like many recruiters, Jon wears a lot of hats.

Which is to say, he needed a platform that could support not only recruitment but also business development and marketing, all within a single, scalable system.

Having worked with Bullhorn in the past — which he described as “like going back in time to 1997 and using WordPerfect” — Jon sought a more innovative and user-friendly solution.

(Can you guess where this is going?)

Enter Loxo.

After an extensive search, Jon locked in on Loxo’s Talent Intelligence Platform. What stood out most was its ability to seamlessly integrate his recruitment workflow with his business development and marketing functions. Loxo not only met his immediate needs, but also provided a platform that could be adapted and used creatively in ways that exceeded its original design.

“I thought it was really cool that Loxo offered the all-in-one platform, so that I could go ahead and use it as an ATS and a recruiting platform, but then also run all of our marketing and BD out of it, too,” Jon shared.

A platform that goes beyond your standard recruitment workflow

What really sets Loxo apart from the pack is its flexibility, allowing users like Jon to adapt the platform to fit their unique business models.

In fact: Jon even used Loxo Outreach to run marketing campaigns, including drip campaigns for national attorney conferences.

“I’d get the attendee list and throw them into Loxo and then use that. It had nothing to do with recruiting, but I hijacked the platform for that and have been able to use it for things even beyond what it was designed for,” he explained.

It may sound crazy, but hearing about these so-called “hijackings” is one of our favorite parts of customer calls — because it makes us happy to know that Loxo is valuable in ways we couldn’t have even predicted. And based on usage and learnings like these, we can continue to adapt and perfect the product, making it even more flexible, adaptable, and able to meet your unique business needs.  

Using Loxo for business development

Business development has become a hot topic in the recruitment world. With constant changes happening across various industries (when hiring in one area is up, it’s down in another, and so on…), many recruiters are seeking a way to make their business a bit more predictable.

The cycle for many goes like this:

You get new clients, get a ton of JOs, and you spend the majority of your time trying to get those roles filled.

From there, Jon urges recruiters to shift their focus to prospecting — building a pipeline to bring in more clients, and then start the cycle all over again.

This works best if you’ve got a strong database filled with historical data that you can tap into at any time.

The problem?

“Things are so dynamic — especially in the last 5-7 years — that the information in the database isn’t good anymore after 6 months,” Jon says. “Even if you curate these company records and all this really solid information, in 6 months when you want to launch a new campaign, half of the info wasn’t good anymore, and you get emails bouncing left and right.”

At Loxo, we’ve done market research that confirms that 70% of the average database is out-of-date within a year’s time.

This is a problem because, as Jon puts it:

“A hiring manager usually stays a hiring manager.”

Think of it this way: A CTO at a start-up who changes roles is likely moving into a CTO position at a different company. Which means they’re still a viable prospect, just a viable prospect at another company. Maintaining a relationship with this person — even through their job changes — means that you can continue to nurture that opportunity.

With Loxo’s self-refreshing database, when you add a contact to your CRM (on either the candidate or client side), our AI automatically sweeps the web for updates from them. Which ensures you’ve got fresh data and are able to stay in touch.

“You guys are starting to automate a lot of that stuff, which is a huge selling point from a data integrity point and also from an efficiency and productivity standpoint,” Jon says.  

Jon’s take is that even if you’re not doing all-out business development, using Loxo’s Sales CRM can still be helpful — especially for recruiting firms who want to track information on decision makers and hiring managers.

Loxo’s continued commitment to innovation

One of the reasons Jon continues to promote Loxo is its commitment to continuous innovation. Unlike Bullhorn and other legacy platforms that force users to adapt to their limitations, Loxo actively listens to its users and evolves based on their feedback.

“When I started with Loxo, that bizdev offering part of the platform was not much of a focus — but the Loxo team listened to the voice of the customer. I’ve been able to watch that part of the platform develop into what I was looking for 4 years ago — and now, you guys have now built it out even beyond that,” Jon noted.

This ongoing innovation has resulted in numerous small but impactful improvements that have significantly enhanced the platform’s efficiency and user experience.

At Loxo, our philosophy is that if we can get 1% better every day, we’re doing something right. It’s why our #product-release is active every single day with updates and product improvements. We’re constantly hard at work building new features that enhance your experience, simplify UI, and make your workflow more efficient.

Loxo’s impact on Arena Recruiting

For Arena, Loxo has been instrumental in delivering a plug-and-play solution that allows clients to scale their recruiting efforts without the need for long-term contracts or additional tools.

Loxo’s ability to track and automate key information, such as hiring manager details and campaign data, has also improved data integrity and overall productivity.

“We use it as a tool to spark conversations. Including reports with monthly invoices to share performance insights, etc. I couldn’t imagine trying to track that stuff manually,” Jon said.

Jon says that choosing Loxo has allowed Arena to serve their clients better in several ways, listing:

• Improved efficiency → Sourcing candidates & building pipelines, automating custom outreach sequences, collaborating with hiring managers
• Decreasing time to hire & increasing access to candidates
• Access to leading technology and AI, all in one place/platform/offering

“Loxo is the cornerstone of Arena's holistic, all-in-one recruiting solution for our clients,” Jon says, “offered at a fraction of the cost or risk associated with an in-house team or expensive recruiting agency.”

Talk about a game-changer.

Conclusion

Loxo’s innovative, flexible, and user-driven platform has empowered Jon and Arena Recruiting to not only streamline their recruitment process but also to extend their capabilities into business development and marketing. By choosing Loxo over outdated systems like Bullhorn, Arena Recruiting has been able to offer clients a modern, scalable solution that aligns with their unique needs.

“Loxo is a great platform that is always looking to try and accommodate the users," Jon says, as we wrap. "Every time I do a training, there’s something new.”

For more information about how Loxo can transform your recruitment and business development processes, schedule a demo.