3 crucial steps to help you prep for a closing call

A closing call is like the finish line of a marathon. It’s nerve-wracking for you and your candidate. It’s a call steeped in emotion for everybody involved.

You’ve invested so much time in your candidate through the recruitment process when a closing call rolls around. You are excited because the candidate has stuck around through the process, the company is ready to make an offer, and things seem to be where you want them to be.

Your candidate is probably feeling just as much excitement too. They’ve invested their time in your hiring process and need to get over the offer sooner rather than later.

The worst thing that can happen on a closing call is the candidate saying, “Maybe give me two weeks to think about it.” A candidate who says “yes” becomes an employee, and a candidate who says “no” goes into your closed-lost queue. But, a candidate who says “maybe,” hangs in limbo.

Closing should be reframed as a question of a candidate's genuine commitment toward needs, wants and career goals, not the Wolf of Wall Street; we are not doing anything deceptive or manipulative in this manner.

The decision to accept the offer or not ultimately rests with your candidate. But you can increase your chances of winning by preparing for the closing call.

Staying in control is one of the keys to a successful closing call.?

This could mean, understanding what are the chances they'll accept the offer?

You should have a decent sense on this in your preparation throughout the process.

Offering a candidate blindly, not knowing unless they will accept is a big mistake.

Give up finger-crossing ??. Period.

This does not imply that you should continuously babble on and force-feed your candidate.?

You must be familiar with your playbook to make it as simple as possible for them.

Before making a closing call, I always prepare.

Here are four critical steps to help you prepare for your next closing call:

Deal with yourself mentally.

Before you have these conversations, you have to lose all expectations. You don't want to get overly excited and end up blind-spotted.?

Keep in mind your objectives and the questions you need to have answered to go to the next stage of your recruitment process.?

Make sure whatever you want to achieve is crystal apparent to you.

Have strong beliefs.?

A good point of reference will be this quote:

“If you believe your product or service can fulfill a true need, it’s your moral obligation to sell it.” ~ Zig Ziglar.

In recruiting terms, if you believe your company can help the candidate achieve their hopes and dream, it’s your moral obligation to get them in.

You have to be clear that the company is the right fit for them and that it can help them.?

Why?

Your ability to close the candidate becomes easier when you strongly believe in the value behind the company and role you are recruiting for.?

Without a strong belief, you face an ethical dilemma about whether you are manipulating the candidate to make a move they might regret.

Your belief and confidence are transferable- they lend credence that there is something worthwhile in your value proposition.?

Also, your belief puts you in a position of high moral authority that allows you to challenge the paradigm of the candidate when you're making an offer.

The candidate has beliefs (or biases) of their own that you need to overcome.?

For example,?

-They may not believe in you as a recruiter.

-They might not believe in the company or role,?

-They might not believe in themselves.

Make sure to address these issues before you throw in that offer.?

Review your candidate’s needs or concerns.

It's too early to do a closing call if you don't know what your drives prospect.

So, prepare a key notes of your prospect's decision making framework.?

To provide the right context to the decision making framework, you need to implement defined checkpoints throughout the process, as they acquire more expertise and become distracted by rivals' "shiny objects" while job hunting.

Check out my article from last week to ensure that you've prepared and applied the closing techniques correctly.

The criteria used in decision-making may differ from candidate to candidate, although they usually involve this:

-Motivation for the move.

-Congruence of why your company and role is ′the right fit′.

-In the absence of competing offers, what is the minimum compensation required for acceptance.

-In the existence of a competing offers, whats their guiding star.

-Acceptance timeline.

Most candidates seek more than a bigger paycheck. Address those concerns. They could be job security, career trajectory, or anyone in their influence group, their family, for example.?

Set a vision for the call.

You should have a clear vision of the call before going into it.

If you haven’t determined what you hope to achieve before going into the call with the candidate, it's hard to figure out what to say once you have them on the phone.

Ask yourself:

What will success look like for this call?

Based on the available information, you can decide whether you want to make the offer or push the candidate one step closer to accepting your offer.?

Closing calls need not be a scary experience. They are frequently only formalities.?

If you have conducted an efficient, effective recruitment process, your candidates should fully comprehend what they require from you and how to obtain it.

Get ready to run effective closing calls, it′s fun and the best part of the process.