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Zac Stephens
Search and Selection Headhunter Digital, Technology, Sales & Rec2Rec (US / UK) at Concilio
Professional Background
Zac Stephens is an accomplished recruitment specialist with over twenty-five years of extensive experience working in the field, including nineteen years spent as an independent recruitment business owner. He has perfected his ability to uncover hard-to-find talent within the Digital, Technology, and Sales sectors. Well-known within the industry for his unique approach, Zac excels in discovering top-tier professionals who may not be actively seeking new opportunities but are open to career advancements that align with their professional goals.
His recruitment process is defined by a strong focus on networking and headhunting. Rather than relying on traditional job boards or mass advertising strategies, Zac utilizes his vast industry connections to engage with high-caliber candidates who are often busy managing their existing commitments as successful professionals. This method not only allows him to tap into exclusive talent pools but also enables him to present exceptional candidates to his clients. Zac's knack for identifying and resolving resource issues has made him a trusted partner for businesses looking to enhance their teams with skilled individuals.
Building relationships based on trust with clients is a cornerstone of Zac's business philosophy. He understands that recruitment is not just about filling positions but rather about matching the right candidates with the right organizational culture. This transparency and commitment to a fluid recruitment process ensure that clients receive tailored support. Furthermore, Zac emphasizes the importance of discretion in his work, providing a level of confidentiality that is paramount in the recruitment industry. He welcomes discussions with anyone contemplating a career shift or interested in exploring new opportunities, guaranteeing full confidentiality.
Zac flexibly adapts his recruitment strategies depending on client needs—whether working alone on briefs or collaborating on contingency with internal recruitment teams. His dedication to understanding the specific staffing challenges faced by organizations allows him to deliver optimal recruitment solutions that align with the business's objectives.
Education and Achievements
Zac's academic foundation in Business Studies from Chichester College equipped him with a solid understanding of business principles that serve as the backbone of his recruitment practices. This educational background, combined with his practical experience, empowers him to navigate the complexities of the recruitment landscape with skill and expertise.
His career began with recruitment roles at MSB, where Zac honed his understanding of the recruitment industry's dynamics. He subsequently progressed through various positions, including Recruitment Consultant at Eurolink and Team Leader roles at Penta Consulting, culminating in his directorship at the same company. His journey through these organizations garnered him a wealth of knowledge, establishing Zac as a leader in the recruitment genre, particularly in high-demand fields.
At Penta Consulting, he developed vital skills in client management, candidate assessment, and strategic recruitment initiatives that set him apart in the competitive landscape. Today, as the Independent Headhunter for Digital, Technology, Sales & Rec2Rec Professionals at Concilio, he leverages all his accumulated experience to benefit both candidates looking for their next career step and companies striving to build exceptional teams.
Achievements
Over the span of his extensive career, Zac has successfully transformed the lives of countless candidates, providing them with opportunities that align with their aspirations and career ambitions. His exceptional ability to identify, engage, and place top talent has made Zac a prominent figure in the recruitment industry, especially acknowledged for his focus on roles that are often difficult to fill. Furthermore, his consultative approach toward understanding client organizations has earned him a reputation for excellence and a network of loyal clients who appreciate his personalized service.
By prioritizing candidate experience and client satisfaction, Zac continues to shape the recruitment landscape within the Digital, Technology, and Sales sectors. His long-standing commitment to fostering trusting relationships and delivering results makes him an influential name in headhunting, and he welcomes the opportunity to work with organizations that seek to elevate their recruitment efforts. Whether it's filling a niche position or assisting professionals with their career transitions, Zac Stephens stands ready to offer valuable insights and solutions to advance the recruitment journey.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.