What strategies can you use to close a candidate who has multiple offers?

Closing candidates with multiple offers demands a nuanced approach. Understand their motivations deeply—what drives their career choices? Tailor your pitch to align with their aspirations. Showcase unique aspects of your company culture and growth opportunities. Emphasize the value they bring to your team. Establish a personal connection to reinforce trust. By addressing their individual motivations, you'll elevate your chances of securing their commitment amidst competing offers.

Let's face it, the most competitive candidates have options and won't settle for less than the best. In my experience, you have to find out exactly what they're seeking during structured and unstructured interviews, and do your best to align it with your current opportunity. This can be achieved by building a close relationship to build rapport and trust with them and collaborating closely with hiring stakeholders to secure them the best possible outcome.

In recruiting, closing a candidate with multiple offers is nuanced. Understanding their emotional and professional triggers is crucial. It's more than just salary; highlight your role’s alignment with their aspirations, company culture, and growth opportunities. Build genuine rapport, showing they're valued beyond the position. While being responsive and flexible, standing firm on your offer can also be effective, demonstrating confidence in the value you provide. This approach ensures your offer stands out, appealing to the candidate’s broader career and personal goals.

Demonstrate a clear understanding of the candidate's career goals and how your organization aligns with their aspirations. Personalize the offer by highlighting specific benefits or opportunities tailored to their needs. Showcase success stories of employees who faced similar choices and thrived within your company. Be transparent about the growth potential, professional development programs, and unique projects the candidate can contribute to. If feasible, expedite the decision-making process and keep communication lines open. Building a genuine relationship and addressing the candidate's concerns proactively can tip the scales in your favor, showing them that your organization is not just an option but the right choice for their career.

This is where a good recruiter can be SO valuable. From the initial conversation there should be data gathered about why the candidate is looking for a new gig or interested in a new job. When the candidate has multiple offers that's where this information becomes crucial. Lean on that data to help them realize your company is the best fit because it checks all the boxes.

The idea here is to standout from your candidates other offers. By this stage, you should understand a little more about their motivations, desires, and competing offers. Now, you will delve deeper and give specific examples highlighting what they're seeking, but be completely honest - do not lie or mislead. Compare your offers to theirs and show that you care and are willing to try your best to be flexible. Leave nothing out.

Articulating your value proposition to a candidate with multiple offers is about demonstrating how your unique benefits, like a flexible work environment, meet their specific career and lifestyle needs. For instance, illustrating how your company's flexible scheduling has enhanced work-life balance for employees can set your offer apart for candidates who value both professional growth and personal well-being.

This is a key differentiator for many candidates. If you understand what motivates them, tie this to the the culture and values of your company. People want to connect to something greater than themselves so to be successful, you have to first know what it is and then tap into it!

Keeping things interesting and delivering on your promises is the key here. By this stage, you should have strongly aligned your employment package and value prospects to their unique needs. You may be waiting for flexibility or approvals on particular requests of theirs, but you want to make sure that you're highlighting these efforts. Determine where your offer ranks in relation to the others. Now that the ball is in their court, make it clear that you require some form of timeline for a decision or commitment to the offer should you meet their specific requests.

We should always create the excitment as we should be just excited as the candidates, working with the bet opportunities in the world, right?

Personally I don’t agree with creating urgency, this has to be conditioned in the candidates themselves. Your 2nd priority is to know your candidates timeline and understand why they have that timeline themselves. If you push a candidate to make a decision when they aren’t personally ready you will never win the game of loyalty and respect. You’re just another car salesman in a nice suit.

Make the candidate feel as comfortable as possible with their decision to move forward with the offer. Bring them onsite for a tour or meeting, listen to their concerns, and show them you are willing to compromise. This might include being flexible with work format, providing relocation assistance, or compensation.

It's crucial to have a precise understanding of what your candidates are seeking. Keeping a candidate on your track requires a lot of communication, patience, and active-listetning in which you can deliver the value of the opportunity especially top talents who will never settle for average benefits. This way, you will be able to remind them constantly about the benefits of joining your organization and keep them interested.

Win top talent with multiple offers by focusing on what truly matters to them. Understand their specific desires, from culture to growth, and tailor your offer to match. Highlight your unique strengths and show genuine enthusiasm for their potential. Move fast, but with care, and be prepared to negotiate beyond just salary. Remember, it's about building a meaningful connection and proving your company is the perfect fit for their journey.

Open communication from day one is the key to offer acceptances. Have frequent and open communication with your candidates. Leverage your hiring manager to clarify any concerns the candidate may have, and ask them to get the candidate excited about the opportunity.

Understand the career aspirations and motivations of the candidate. Ask the candidate to rate the current offer out of 10 on how much its meeting his expectations. Try to get more details on what the other offers are offering additional. Share with candidate the clear and honest value add that we are going to add in his career. Clearly explain the benefits and perks we offer (Culture, Values, monetary and others). Share with candidate the recent achievements of the company and appreciations received. Try to get the candidate interact with team members so that the candidate will feel more close and involved. Don't make any fake promises.

Why is this even a discussion? If your candidate has multiple offers/a counter offer… it’s simple. Remove the other offers from the table. Hire 27 people to file civil lawsuits against the candidate for various reasons ranging from harassment, petty theft, arson, and indecent exposure. Then leave an “anonymous” tip with each companies HR. Before the end of the week the candidate will be crawling back to you to accept the only offer they have left. You can probably talk them down 10K or so as well.

As Recruiters, we often become attached to hiring outcomes. You might discover an exceptional candidate with multiple competing offers whom you've exerted effort to compromise with, only to find they choose another offer. You may feel defeated, thinking all the effort was wasted. However, don't take it personally; their decision is beyond your control. They may seek employment at a different time, refer similar friends, or build a lasting professional relationship with you. After all, the future holds endless possibilities.

Building trust with candidates is critical. Be open and transparent about the entire hiring process, including timelines, expectations, and any potential delays. Honest communication fosters trust and helps candidates make informed decisions. By creating a positive candidate experience, and showcasing your organization's unique strengths are ongoing efforts that contribute to successful candidate closures. It's important to approach the process with empathy and a genuine interest in the candidate's career aspirations.

I’ve never lost a candidate to the competition before, I’ve never lost an employee to s better job or more money before. It’s the simplest thing imaginable that creates loyalty and makes candidates choose us. Treat them like you value them, show them the words have meaning and care about them outside of what I need them for. I’ve seen employees go from self destruction to thriving and growing in all areas just by ending a tardy policy. The best assets any company can have are its employees, show them that from the moment they meet you and never waiver from it. Thriving managers will sweep your floors, young sawyers will stand for hours in the snow etc if they care. They will care if you care more about them then the job they do for you.

For highly prized candidates, recruiters / hiring managers should ensure a fine balance during salary package negotiations. Keyword, negotiation, not total surrender! We get it, the candidate is unique, possessing a rare blend of skills, qualifications and experience etc., but is it really worth it bend your knees to them? Sure, maybe go the extra mile to secure that candidate, but not at the cost of your (and by extension, your organization's) values and principles. Once again, the keyword is balance.