Last week at the ERE expo, I had dinner with Joel Cheesman and Ben Gotkin one night. Of course we talked about Blogs and different ideas and things like that. After dinner, we made our way back to the bar at the hotel and the conversation turned to recruiting. It’s been a while since I was engaged in a good hour long discussion about good old fashion cold calling and thanks to Ben, there was no shortage of things to talk about.
The reason I bring this up is because Recruiting is a sales job. The Recruiting Animal dealt with this in his last radio show and though I did not listen to the entire episode, I was thoroughly entertained by the first three minutes.
You know, when you have a position to fill for a real talented individual, chances are, the candidate you seek has a job. Chances are, everyone else is also looking for him as well. What does this mean? It means that the candidate probably gets multiple calls a day from recruiters. Big Problem? Or big Opportunity?
How many times do you call the guy back before giving up? I mean, that candidate cannot call every recruiter back can he? Well I can safely say that you must ultimately get in touch. There is too much money on the line to give up. Sure, it is always a mistake to think that the next candidate you speak to will become a placement but it is the referrals that drive this business so you just have to make sure you get that candidate to call you back and tell you what they know. Of course if all you are pitching is a new job, they may never call you back. It is an interesting problem with big rewards if you can solve it.
You can always try this:
“Hi Mr. Candidate, I am a recruiter with a great client looking for someone I think exactly like you. Problem is, today is Wednesday so I bet that I am the 8th recruiter to call you this week. I won’t be able to sleep tonight knowing that for sure you won’t call me back so how about I talk myself into thinking that you will call me back because you would want to know more about what I want to talk to you about. I am excited to talk to you and look forward to it.”
I bet that candidate has not gotten a message like that before. Make sure you leave your number slowly and make sure you point that candidate to your blog so they know you are up-to-date with industry happenings. The point here is that recruiting should be fun and the people you talk to about it should feel the enthusiasm.
Be creative and also, make sure your client knows you are not going to send more than three candidates for the position. You don’t have to. If you have a handle on the position, three is enough and everyone should know it.
Fantastic post, fantastic comments. I appreciate the first comment. I bought a great domain name today. I'll tell you about it later.
Everybody's comments are appreciated and the conversation here on this particular post is closed. Maybe we'll pick it up again. Maybe not.