The People You Need to Call

I was discussing strategies with one of the headhunters on my team this morning and we were trying to develop the answer to a question:

How do you reach the maximum number of people per day?

This question follows a long line of questions that ends, theoretically, with "How do you make more placements?".

One area that is overlooked when strategizing around this question is the people you've already called.

The ones that have said no.  That they're not interested.  That it's a bad time.  That they're totally, one hundred percent, absolutely thrilled with the role they're in now.

Why should we call these people back? When should we call these people back?

I believe that calling back the people who have told you no is just as important.  Usually I wait for a day.  If the role I'm hunting for is unchanged - and the urgency to fill is unchanged - I'll call that person again, regardless of why they dismissed the opportunity last time.

This is a principle I learned in door-to-door sales, where I would keep a 'no' sheet of all the houses that did not want my service. Talking to them later in the afternoon tended to result in homeowners that saw how much work I had done by that point, how hard I was working - and might have talked to their spouse at that point, who was actually interested in what I had to offer.  All it took was for me to come back.

Why do this as headhunters? Firstly, many people that you called the day before that rejected you have likely spent a portion of the last 24 hours thinking about the conversation they had with you.  Between that call and the next one the day after, that candidate has likely discovered one or two reasons why they might have actually considered the role.

This is especially true for those that rejected your offer early into the conversation, without being willing to hear the details.

Now that you've got them on the phone again, this candidate may or may not be willing to talk to you again.

Secondly, now that you have spoken with this candidate once, and have either sent them an email, or gotten a resume, you've increased your rapport with that candidate.  This should cause them to be a bit more open - and a bit more honest with you.  This will be especially important, as mentioned, for those candidates that 'stonewalled' you on the first call, for whatever reason.  Their conviction was very high - but the next day, it may be low enough for you to have a more extended, open conversation about their actual career happiness.

This will result in having more effective conversations with your candidates, and utilizing your existing pool that much better - while creating candidates that will be very appreciative when you've landed them a job that they initially dismissed.

Thirdly, this gives your candidates that 'stonewalled' you an effective chance to learn what they're saying no to. This is an important observation in any sales environment: make sure that those who tell you no, know what they're saying no to.  Tying back in with the first point, once you've had a chance to be heard out about the role, and have discussed the particulars with the candidate, they may realize right on that call that the job sounds better than the one they've got. At that point, if the candidate says no again, at least you are convinced that they know they don't want it.

Also: don't worry about someone complaining that you've called them twice.  Most people won't be that irritated that you're trying your hardest to fill your role.  I've occasionally called candidates back three or four times, and had success - but most I stop at two with, since by the second conversation, I can generally 'feel' whether a candidate will be a fit or not based on their feedback to me.

Try this out - and see how effective it is for you. 

The 5 Chalices Script to Increase Candidate "YES" Calls

One of the things that all recruiters keep an eye on is the number of calls they make, and how effective each call is each time.  Most recruiters have a goal as they gain skills over time to increase the number of calls where their candidate says YES to their opportunity, increasing their daily effectiveness.

I'm going to detail a script that incorporates my "5 Chalices" that should be helpful in increasing the amount of "YES" calls you make. This script seems to work well with candidates that would be required to relocate - so I've made this script a 'relocation' feature as well, that you may omit if not necessary.

You: "Is this Peter Truro?"
Peter: "Yes, it is."
You: Hi Peter. My name is Jesse, and I'm a consultant with a company called Headhunters R' Us in Toronto.
Peter: "Hi Jesse.  What do you do?"
You: "Well, Peter, I'm a consultant there, but I also commonly go by the names 'recruiter' or 'headhunter'.  I'm giving you a call today because there's a client of mine in Vancouver, BC that has tasked me very specifically with helping them find an Applications Engineer - someone with 7+ years of experience working on large-scale projects with LAMP and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering.  I came across your profile on LinkedIn, and noticed that you've got all of that - so I just wanted to talk with you and see how you were doing at your current company, and whether you might be interested in considering another role."

Peter: "Hmm ... well, I'm really happy at the company I'm with now, I'm not looking for new opportunities - especially not in Vancouver, my family is here in Toronto."

You: "That's fine Peter - most of the people that I call are happy where they are. And what I wanted to do is have a short conversation with you about the different areas of your career where my opportunity might improve on.  There's usually five of them - one which we've already talked about, location - but the others are:
Job, whether you like what you do on a daily basis (and whether you feel challenged enough),
People, whether you like or dislike the people you work with, from your reports to your managers,
Advancement, how quickly - and how well defined - your opportunities for advancement are,
Location, which we have discussed somewhat - and ultimately,  
Money - whether or not you feel you're getting paid what you're worth.

"If we have this discussion, Peter, and we determine that those other four areas - Job, People, Advancement, and Money - are all significantly, or even slightly improved, do you think that might warrant you considering relocating?  Remember, I'm obviously not asking for a commitment - just your consideration."

Peter: "Well, if the job you have improves my career in all of those areas, then yeah, it might be worth considering."

You: "Excellent.  Let's talk about these four other areas - and see if they're stronger than what you're doing right now.  Firstly - bringing all of those four things into your head, Job, People, Advancement, and Money - where would you place your career on a scale of 1 - 100, in terms of how satisfied you are?"

Peter: "Well, I think if I considered all of those things, I might say 60 - 70."

You: "Okay, that's not too bad.  However, if I was to put that on a highschool report card, I'd get either a D+ or a C-.  That's not too great, if you look at it that way."

Peter: Yeah, I suppose you're right."

You: "So what of those four things do you think are the ones you take most issue with right now?"

This type of script works for a few reasons.
1. It focuses the candidate's mind into really thinking about their career, by giving them multiple things to think about - this will lead to more accurate answers.

2. You're giving the candidate multiple reasons to say yes.  One reason to consider a new opportunity is good, two is better - three is usually the tipping point where the candidate does not even question whether or not you might be wasting their time.

3. It shows the candidate your interest in improving their career.  Using this approach is showing the candidate that you are interested first and foremost in making sure that your opportunity is going to be good for them.  This taps into the human being's primal area of motivation - in that a person will only do what they feel is in their best interests. 

4. It increases the likelihood of relocation consideration.  Breaking down the benefits of considering the opportunity highly increases the chances of considering your role over another one in that candidate's city.

Another note: I have a preference to give the candidate the location of the company right upfront, because this ensures there are no surprises there. It brings out the concept of relocation right away, which is a topic that you now can build on.  By giving them the bad news right away, you can lighten their outlook on the conversation as you go, but if you give them all of the strong points of the position, and then tell them where it is - you may be more likely to hear them say no. 

Another note: I've inserted a strong psychological feature at the end of the conversation that highlights a candidate's true satisfaction level with their job, by comparing the number (on a scale of 1 - 100) they give me to a high-school report card.  Nobody likes D's and C's, and highlighting that number in this regard is a strong way to encourage a candidate to keep listening to your role - because now you've given them a good reason to.

Try this script out and see if it makes a change in the amount of YES calls you end up with at the end of the day. :) And let me know what your results are!