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Permalink Reply by Elise Reynolds on November 21, 2011 at 10:46am

When i think I have a potential candidate on the phone I find it best to be very direct and to the point, in simple language.

People are not expecting a recruiter when they pick up the phone.  They are expecting a coworker or a client, maybe a spouse or their child's babysitter.  If I say something like "I am in the buisness of matching top talent with the best career opportunities in the software industry"  The person on the other end is going to go "Huh",  "what do you need".  It is going to be confusing.

 

When I think I have a potential candidate I say something like:

Hi Tom, this is Elise Reynolds.  Did I catch you at a good time?  (typically the answer is yes, sometimes it is no whatever the next word is I just say).  I am a recruiter in the software industry and I have something I wanted to run past you very quickly.  (Typically I will get a noise of encouragement like OK or go ahead).  Then I say what the opportunity is - I am working with a mid sized software company here in Houston focused on the oil and gas industry.  They need to hire a Sr. Software Engineer with java architecture experience who has also been a team lead.  Maybe one or two details more.

Then I say " is that something you might like to hear more about?"  (remember I promised to be quick).  Sometimes they say yes, often they say no.  If they say no I try to figure out why they don't want are they not the right fit, are they already in management, whatever. 

If they say yes I ask again if this is a good time to continue or if a better time can be scheduled.  If they say no I just try to keep them on the phone longer in order to figure out why a no and if they know anyone else who might be interested.  Typically I am the first one to say "thank you for your time and goodbye". 

 

Lately I find my open and honest approach that is both respectfull of thier time but also confident that I do have a quality opportunity that is worth hearing about is working best.

In the past I used to launch into a break-neck spiel trying to keep them on the phone long enough to hear the entire "spiel" before they blew me off.  I speak with confidence in what I have to offer, I early on show respect for their time and I find that they are willing to at least hear me.  

 

Oh, I if the person seems easy to talk with and if they can't think of anyone who might be interested but seem to wish they could.  I always offer to email them the job description along with my contact info in case someone comes to mind latter. 

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on November 21, 2011 at 2:02pm

Hi Elise.  I hope you don't mind a slightly different perspective here. 

 

What you've described is more/less an elaborate way of asking whether someone wants, not only "a" new job - but specifically "this" new job. 

 

That isn't what I want to know at first.  The first thing I need to determine is whether they would want to spend a little time getting to know someone who does nothing BUT spend their work days trying to uncover every job that may open within their field.  (I don't necessarily tell them how much time I spend on Twitter though...:)

 

We use to have a saying "Wanna buy a chicken?" - meaning if you call enough people in a row and ask if they want to buy a chicken eventually you will come across someone who does.  In the meantime though you're passing up plenty of people who might want a fish, some bacon or perhaps a head of lettuce.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Elise Reynolds on November 21, 2011 at 7:05pm

Good point.  Of course within all that I try to get as much info as possible in the hopes of just getting to understand them better so that I might be helpfull to them in the future. 

I just find the direct approach is best to avoid confusion and sincere respect for their time. 

Also, I feel I get better results when I sort of slow down my speech.  We recruiters tend to be high energy fast-talkers and we might get better results if we try to match their tone. 

Jerry Albright said:

Hi Elise.  I hope you don't mind a slightly different perspective here. 

 

What you've described is more/less an elaborate way of asking whether someone wants, not only "a" new job - but specifically "this" new job. 

 

That isn't what I want to know at first.  The first thing I need to determine is whether they would want to spend a little time getting to know someone who does nothing BUT spend their work days trying to uncover every job that may open within their field.  (I don't necessarily tell them how much time I spend on Twitter though...:)

 

We use to have a saying "Wanna buy a chicken?" - meaning if you call enough people in a row and ask if they want to buy a chicken eventually you will come across someone who does.  In the meantime though you're passing up plenty of people who might want a fish, some bacon or perhaps a head of lettuce.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Julia Briggs on January 6, 2012 at 7:11am

As someone who did outbound insurance telesales in my gap year, cold calling has been part of my armoury.  However, as someone who is cold called a lot when I am on assignment I can tell you it gets really really tiresome and anything in the least bit aggressive won't work. 

When I was a recruiter I managed to get appointments (and assignments) with very senior consultants - e.g.: Senior Partner Knowledge at Arthur Andersen (it was a while back) European Senior Partner Change Mgmt and Knowledge at KMPG, Gemini Consulting etc etc.  Now, the trick was...... to be absolutely relevant.  I had built up expertise from a couple of searches and knew the market was small and very short on 'talent'.  So - I had something to talk about with these people.  Even if it was to update them on what was happening where and to whom......

It's the only way.  Be an expert.  Be relevant.  And take No for an answer - after all, you do need some target organisations when you are headhunting.

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Lovell on January 12, 2012 at 8:18pm

As a recruiter, working for an agency, or in the corporate sector - you should be familiar and willing to cold call. Until you have value to bring to the client or candidate, don't even bother calling. 

Research the client or candidate to bring a personal touch even to your first two sentences. Also, I will guarantee you they won't listen to your name. If you are able to catch their attention in your first couple of sentences they will ask "What was your name again?" or "Who are you with, again?". You should feel confident at that point that you have their attention. 

If you're using a list to call and just dialing through an extension with no insight on who the person is - you're wasting your time... even if you have the best job or the best candidate ever.

Rather, take this approach:

"Mr Candidate, I am calling to congratulate you on the award you received six months ago (or insert other accomplishment or personalization you learned about them while researching) for outstanding accomplishment in (insert accomplishment and industry etc.). I work for (Company) and we are (insert initiative) and I feel you could contribute greatly to helping this get off the ground. Do you have some time to talk?

Don't even bother with your name... you'll likely gain their attention, and they will ask. 

This is proven to work. They don't care who you are until you show you know who they are.

That's why I hated calling straight through a list of insurance agents in my current role, or Big 4 auditors when I worked for a search firm. That is a pure waste of my time and theirs. It brings no value and it's clear to the person on the other line that you are just working the extensions.

So I didn't do it.

I found out who it is I want to talk to, learn who they are and their accomplishments and just open with a factual statement about their background if a candidate, and their business issues and challenges if they were a client. 

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Permalink Reply by Noel Cocca on January 12, 2012 at 9:58pm

I love how this post keeps coming back from time to time...great headlines make great blog posts! 

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Permalink Reply by Mack on January 29, 2012 at 7:12pm

I would love to hear from people who shared on this topic what are some of the changes/additions to their cold calling ways.

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Permalink Reply by Ronald Peterson on February 16, 2012 at 10:35am

Allison Sherwood notes an absolute truth, that people want to hear about and talk about themselves, not some stranger. Try reversing the dialogue and immediately focus on the person you've called, and avoid the use of "I" and "we" as much as you can.

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Permalink Reply by Steve N Odell on February 20, 2012 at 4:07pm

Interesting discussion. Right on Jerry. I like your approach. You need to briefly explain who you are and what you do. In my 40+ yr in recruiting I have heard/seen it all (Not saying I know it all) @ Peter - Most often our initial approach is to a hiring mgr. Many times we contact the hiring mgr because HR said they didn't need us. But since I specialize in the type of position the hiring mgr is desperately seeking and HR has not been able to deliver, he wants to work with someone that can "get er done". If he sends us to HR, no problem. Our only requirement is we have a conversation with the hiring mgr to see what his vision of the department looks like. You don't get that in a job description.  We work effectively with many HR departments. But you ask why the company would have people (HR or Recruiters) if they don't perform. Honestly, you can't say you have always been able to fill every position you have had?  I disagree with your statement that the 3rd party referred by the manager doesn't have an impact. We specialize in healthcare. If a Surgeon needs a certain type of person to perform duties during surgery that HR has been unable to find, guess what? My cost of services agreement will be signed for a full fee and the search is on.

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Permalink Reply by Lionell Artemus on March 2, 2012 at 3:47pm

Hi jennifer,

I love to do research on prospects before I pitch them and Linkedin is great for intell. Mirror your sales pitch to your clients CV if you can find it or good news in their sector. Even crisis news can be a good sign that you're in the know of the prospects industry. I hope this was suscoring and FYI edit your signature great is missed spelled.

 

Success,

 

Lionell Artemus

Founder & CEO

Candidate Resource Inc

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca B. Sargeant on March 2, 2012 at 5:36pm

For Health Care cold calling I always get a big response when I say "Hi, my name is Rebecca and I am here to take your temperature.  How's your job going today?"  It breaks the ice and starts a great conversation.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on May 16, 2012 at 11:16am

How is Jerry's standard song and dance not a shpiel? Maybe we should define the term

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