Talented professionals know they have many options when it comes to employment, and in this hot market, it’s becoming even more difficult to recruit these A-players to join your team. In order to land this top talent, you need to get more aggressive in how you reach out to these professionals and how you pique their interest. One way to become more aggressive is to approach recruiting with a sales mindset. Keep reading to discover 5 techniques that will help you approach recruiting like a sales rep and ultimately hire more highly qualified professionals.
Solicit Passive Candidates
Before sales reps begin a warm or cold calling session to potential prospects, they will first find and research their target company or prospect, locate a valid phone number, determine who is the decision maker, and have an idea of what they’re going to say and how to handle any objections. This method can easily be transferred over to recruiting when reaching out to passive candidates. You must first locate potential candidates by targeting specific industries, companies and even competitors for passive candidates who will meet your job qualifications. Next, you will need to find the best way to contact them. You can use sites like ZoomInfo or LinkedIn to find out more about the candidate and their contact details. Next, you should figure out who exactly you want to call, and then decide what you’re going to say to them that will get them interested in the position. Reaching out to passive candidates requires the right preparation, and completing all these steps beforehand will ensure you a better outcome in the long run.
Pique Their Interest
Like sales, your ability to grab the candidate’s attention is a major factor in whether you get more time on the call. And a big part of that is preparing what you’re going to say before you actually call them. Your script needs to include your reason for calling, why this position is better than their current job, and answers for any objections or questions they might have. If you’re able to hook the candidate in the beginning, then you can schedule some time to expand on the position itself and dive further into why this is such a great opportunity.
Highlight Culture
Once you’re able to get a candidate interested in the position, then you can really start to get into the culture of the company and why people like to work there. You should also talk about the day to day feel of the organization and the management style of the person they will be reporting to. Another great way to convince candidates to take the job is to mention any new announcements or big wins the company has had lately. Candidates are attracted to jobs where they will be able to have a direct impact. Make sure you are clear about what impact this position has on the company and talk about future growth opportunities. And above all, make that you’re positioning your company and the position in a positive light. An example of a company announcement would be ‘We just won a big deal we’ve been working on with a multi-billion dollar business. There were three finalist companies on this deal and our business won it because of XYZ.’
Constant Communication
Another trait of sales reps is their persistence and constant communication. Sales reps are very good about reaching out to prospects throughout their buying stage to see where they are in the process and if they can’t help them with their decision. This is a great technique to use when soliciting passive candidates, but one that many hiring managers don’t use because it takes a lot of time and effort. Once a candidate is in the hiring process, there are many factors that could change whether they’re still interested in the position. As a hiring manager, you need to be in constant communication with the candidate throughout the hiring process. Even if you don’t have any new updates for the candidate, it’s important to reach out to them just to see how they’re doing in order to keep them engaged and interested in the opportunity.
Don’t Stop Until the Deal Is Closed
Just because a candidate had their interview, doesn’t mean your job is over. Just as in sales when a customer can back out of a deal until the contract is signed, candidates can back out of a verbal agreement if a better offer comes up elsewhere. It’s important to keep the candidate engaged in the process all the way until an agreement is reached. Give them updates about when you think a final decision will be made and be sure to answer any questions or concerns they might have about the position.
Top talent is getting harder and harder to secure, so make sure you’re aggressive about finding these professionals and getting them interested in the position. Approaching recruiting like a sales person approaches their job will help you add more qualified candidates to your team.
