LEAN, Just-in-Time Recruiting!

The best recruiters I know execute the fundamentals of recruiting well and have developed good “habits” within each step of the recruitment process.

One simple, but powerful referral sourcing technique is closing each recruitment “cold” call with the question . . . “Can you do me a favor?”

As we all know, much has been much written about overcoming the objection; “I am not interested…” or “I am happy, thanks but no thanks . . .” But in reality, you will not be able to turn a “no” into a “yes” in many (if not most) of these situations.

Yes, they might listen to your message (or pitch) but in the majority of cases, they won’t be interested or, they won’t be qualified.

Of course, when this happens, it is your job to network with this person to get referrals. Your ability to extract referrals and/or leads to help you with your search depends on many factors; including (among others):

• How you opened your call
• If you were able to build rapport in the first 30 seconds of the call
• The thought provoking questions you ask during the call

At some point, you will exhaust your ability to harvest referrals and will end the call.

This is where the “Can you do me a favor” line can link you to your next hire!

A good habit to get into (if you are not doing it already) is to close each one of these calls with the line: “Can you do me a favor”.

Of course, expecting the worst, the prospect might come back with a line like:

(shaky, nervous voice . . .) “yeah – what is it?”

“I was wondering if I could shoot you an email outlining the specifics of this opportunity and my contact information (attach your outlook v-card)?” If you think of anyone that could benefit from the info and/or could help me with my search . . . I would appreciate if you would pass this info along.”

99.99% of the time, they will say “sure”. If for no other reason, to close the call and get on with their day.

While this may not seem like a big deal (and for most of you most of you use this technique some of the time), the benefits of this simple “habit” are huge:

• If you do not have their personal email address, this is the time you can harvest it to send the email.
• The written word is more powerful than the verbal word. Most people comprehend information better when reading it. Often times you will send a well crafted “Attention Grabber” and . . . they will shoot back an email saying they are interested!
• It will sit in their inbox. When something negative occurs at their work place, they will look you up.
• They end up passing this email to their peers and . . . we know the whole power of being “LinkedIn”.

The record in our office is a 6th generation hire. That is; an email was forwarded 6 times ending up in the hands of the person who we actually hired!

We achieved all this by implementing a simple routine at the end of a sourcing call…!

Time and money well spent!

Like sales people, one of the biggest challenges a recruiter faces is getting enough “outbound activity” (sourcing candidates, building relationships, etc.) while dealing with a steady stream of “inbound” interruptions (emails, status calls, etc.). To compound this situation, we do this in an environment of constant change (shifting priorities, new requisitions, etc.).

If not managed properly, it is easy to lose focus, get de-motivated and become non-productive.

To avoid this situation, most top sales organizations have a weekly “sales” meeting. Objectives of these meetings include (among other things):

• Make sure each sales person has a focused plan of action for the week
• Make sure each salesperson’s plan includes an adequate amount of measurable “outbound” activity
• Set team/individual priorities
• Discuss any administrative “lose-ends”
  

If for some reason you are not having a weekly “recruiting” meeting, I would encourage you to start NOW! Based on the challenges outlined above, I can’t think of a logical reason why you wouldn’t.

In our research efforts, we learned that BEST sales organizations not only have meetings, but the sales people enjoy attending them!

While the clear intent of these meetings is to get focused for a productive week, unfortunately, the majority of companies’ sales meetings are mundane, boring and unproductive!

Many/most sales professionals view these meetings as a “necessary evil” to provide management with a status of their current progress towards their goals.

I have to say that during my 19 years in recruiting, I have attended my fair share of boring, mundane meetings!

To avoid falling into this trap, I would recommend the following meeting agenda/format. It provides structure and sets the tone for a productive, positive week.

Meeting Particulars:

• I recommend having this meeting first thing Monday morning starting at 7 or 8 am (depending on company culture, attendee’s personal schedules, etc.)
• I would limit the meeting to no more than 15 participants. If you have a larger team, I assume there is some logical way to break the team into groups of 10-15 people based on line of business you support, geography, etc. There is no minimum required. If you have two people on your team – meet. If it is only you, meet with yourself!
• With today’s technology (conferencing, web-meetings, video meetings – you can’t use “geography” as an excuse for not getting together
• I would keep the meeting to 1 hour. To keep the meeting on schedule:
• The moderator is responsible for keeping the meeting positive and lively but also on time! Every minute the meeting runs over, the moderator owes one dollar!
• In addition, any participant that is late must donate one dollar for each minute they are late (it is amazing how people become respectful of being on time when you adopt this policy).
• This money can be used for a team building event, given to charity, etc.
  

Meeting Agenda:

Let’s start the week off right!

• Share a great, positive story from last week/weekend – Start the meeting on a positive note. Stories don’t have to be work related. Personal, positive stories are the best!
• Business Review – Review your current open positions. Discuss status, pending action items, next steps, etc.
• Discuss last week’s achievements – Each week, we recommend developing a Perfect Week. This is a list of billable/non-billable activities you would like to get done during the week. These action items can then get scheduled into your Perfect Day routine. At this meeting, have each person discuss the top 2-3 most critical things they accomplished last week.
• Biggest frustration(s) last week! – Let it out! We all have had weeks that things don’t go the way they were supposed to go. If your frustration is dragging into this week, ask your teammates for solutions to make it better/solve your problem.
• Visualize this week’s “Perfect Week” – Discuss the critical things you HAVE to get done (billable/non-billable) to make it a “Perfect Week.”
• Visualize your “Perfect Monday” – Discuss the critical activities you HAVE to get done today (Monday) to have a “Perfect Monday.”
• Education – Each week, have a person on the team (rotate this duty each week) discuss something we didn’t know about our clients, recruiting, our industry. Make sure this discussion is no more than 5 minutes. Providing a ‘short’ handout (don’t pass out “War & Peace”) people can take away and read is great.
• End with a Positive thought (or two or three) for the Day!

In order to accomplish these agenda items (on time) – everyone must embrace and practice the habits outlined in Milo Frank’s book – “Effective Communication in 30 seconds or Less”!

Have fun with this process! Each week, have a different person ‘moderate’ the meeting! This is a chance for us all to come together and get motivated, focused and ready for the week!

I hope your next weekly meeting is a great one!