Cold Calling: Can it be done well?

Is cold-calling hurtling towards being obsolete?

Who remembers Blockbuster? That staple of leisure in the 90s. Renting video games and movies as a precursor to your evening or weekend. Family life in a simpler era. Then along came Netflix and the world changed forever; the idea of walking into a shop to rent a physical VHS or even Blu-ray now seems incredibly quaint.

Things change and sometimes are replaced by a better and more refined approach.

All very well and good, you might say, but what has this got to do with recruitment?

Well, many moons ago when I started in recruitment, there was a certain orthodoxy about developing business. There was a view that calling clients unsolicited or 'cold calling' was the best way to develop new business.

Recruitment businesses setup shallow management systems to measure KPI's (key performance indicators) simply based on the number of calls made or the length of time someone spent on the phone, as this was seen as a major predictor of whether or not someone would be successful.

?"The view was that a large number of calls, however unsophisticated, would lead to conversion."

The view was that a large number of calls, however unsophisticated, would lead to conversion. And generally for a time they were right. It might not have been the most nuanced method but it kind of worked - recruiters did do business this way!

Then two things happened, I would argue largely because of the success of cold-calling from an agency perspective and the resulting frustration on the part of clients having to deal with too many Recruiters calling them:

1. PSL (preferred supply list)* or PSA (preferred supply agreement)** supply arrangements designed to limit the number of agencies, became more prevalent. See glossary at the end of the article for more detail on these terms.
2. Agency Recruiters went to work in-house to directly source candidates for roles or to manage third party agencies engaged in that part of the process.??

On the other hand, for candidates, again the sheer volume of Recruiters trying to contact them through various methods started to become overwhelming. This is before we even begin to talk about lazy and poor quality approaches with cut-and-paste jobs specs that didn't invite engagement.???

As a Recruiter, the time I spend on the phone now isn't the same as it was in 2005 when I started out. The business has changed, but for me, the phone is still vital as a tool to follow up and develop real relationships.??

At the risk of some national stereotyping I've always felt as Brits we're uniquely opposed to 'selling' or the idea of being 'sold to' and as such, sales has always had a degree of stigma. I don't believe this is the case (or at least not to the same degree) in, say, the US.?

Nevertheless, I make cold-calls to prospective clients and candidates today and I still feel there's a place for it, if (and it's a massive IF) it's done well.?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I don't believe that people have a problem speaking to Recruiters about their business' vacancies or about their career. After all there's a wealth of information a hiring manager or job-seeker can get from an even semi-competent Recruiter.?

The real issue is this:

PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO SPEAK TO CRAP RECRUITERS WHO DON'T KNOW THEIR INDUSTRY AND CAN'T ADD ANYTHING TO A HIRING PROCESS OR A JOB SEARCH.

So, in summary, cold calling can be used effectively but only when it's done well. Next week, I'll be sharing my thoughts and practical advice on the DOs and DON'Ts of cold calling and how this seemingly outmoded approach can be retooled for the 2020s.

Glossary

*PSL - means preferred supply list - a list of agencies a company has set up to do their recruitment.?Leads to 'I can't work with you as you're not on our PSL'

**PSA - preferred supply agreement - sometimes used interchangeably with the above but is the actual agreement you might sign to get on the list.?