I Keep Offering Candidates Great Jobs and They Keep Turning me Down! Why?

Dear Stephen,

I have a opening for a senior sales executive in my company.  A high level, desirable job managing others on a sales team.  We are a prestigious brand with all  of the trappings of a big company like private jets for customer visits, generous expense accounts and benefits, a great work environment and a respected  design heritage.  I am (I think) a well-connected industry insider because before this job I worked for a similar high profile manufacturer and held a senior management position. I start each search by contacting the collection of people that I worked with or managed in the last job, or I reach out to my high level A&D contacts and I reconnect with the dealers who of course have their favorites.  So the long and the short of it is that I try not to rely on headhunters like you or your competitors because I like to control the process myself and hire candidates I have a previous track record with and I know they will be loyal to me personally if I hire them.  Plus I have a great network and everyone knows this company.  For many years this has served me well.  It’s not about the fee to a recruiter, the company I work for has an ample budget for recruiters and lots of other managers here use them, and we have an army of HR people to help, it’s just that I like to control the process myself. 

Here is my question; I lost a great candidate after months of interviews that I was sure was going to accept the job – to sign that employment agreement. Why did she turn down the offer? And this has happened more than once now.  They are people I have a history with, or come highly recommended, and we start the dance. Six interviews later, and after HR vetting and approval, I cannot get anyone I want to say YES to the offer! So I have wasted 4 to 6 months in the interview process, the candidates are getting great offers from my blue chip company, and they have still been passing.  And I’m well aware, repeating something you have often written, that the longer I have a position open the more revenue and market share we lose.  What kills me, it’s not that they are getting some great counter offer to stay but mostly they are still taking a new different job, just somewhere else. Often I did not know I was competing with another company.  Who would have thought that in these times? But everyone seems to be hiring. There are so many more jobs open than I realized.  What’s worse, in many cases since I know the candidates they feel guilty about turning me down, and they tell me the job they are taking pays less so it was not the money and they tell me it was not me, just a matter of a career move.  What am I doing wrong?  How do I avoid this and get great candidates to say YES?

I Am Dying Here!

Dear Dead,

I am sure you are a smart manager.  Great at training your people, budget compliance, working with your dealers, HQ interface, and achieving your sales goal.  Leave the recruiting to the professionals!  Trying to hire someone on your own without a recruiter is like trying to sell your house without using a realtor. Certainly you could do it, but why would you? How much time are you spending shuffling through that pile of resumes on your desk or researching your list of contacts for the past 10 years instead of doing your real job, your most important job – helping your sales team sell something.

Then, consider that half of what you are paying the head-hunter for is not finding the candidate but getting them toYES.  Think about it.  There is only a finite group of candidates in each market with industry experience, which is what most companies tell us they want. Identifying candidates is not the hard part. You have now figure out how to get them to YES!  And you’re right, employers are hiring again. With the vaccine out and companies encouraging everyone to safely come back to work, there is a need for qualified salespeople and sales executives.  So assume you are always competing with a smart competitor who recognizes it is time to start hiring again.  Plus, companies tell us they are starting replace all their salespeople who are afraid to come to work. You know who they are because all they do it post pictures of the products they sell on LinkedIn.

So frankly you yourself may be the problem. Confident and successful executives like yourself may not know your own reputation in the marketplace.  Often hiring managers have blinders on about themselves, the job they have open or the brand they work for. You sound like a bit of a micro manager and maybe that is part of the problem.  So the candidate needs an “objective third party” to share their concerns with and then we as the party, share that with you.  They are not usually going to share a concern as strongly with the person who is also going to be their new boss.  It is just easier for them to pass on the job.  Let them spill their guts to the recruiter, and the recruiter will tell you what the issue is, and you can then decide if the problem is something you can fix. It could be that your company has crappy medical benefits, or maybe they want more vacation, or maybe you’re a Meany Manager and they like you as a friend but do not want to work for you. Some of the objections may be valid, some may be invented, but you may as well hear them so you can either address them or not.  Trust me, when someone tells you “it is not you”, it usually is.  We recruiters represent you and your brand one step removed, we listen to candidate’s concerns and career goals and they tend to tell us more than they’ll tell you.  Yup, that is what you are paying for. They also tend to share with us where else they are interviewing or maybe we are the one sending them there!  Did you ever think of that.  You’re a manager not an executive recruiter!  I can tell you real examples where I have personally seen someone change jobs based only on my recommendation. That alone is worth its weight in gold.  Or maybe there’s just one sticking point, one clause in the employment job description, that I help negotiate and settle that couldn’t have been done otherwise. What is that worth?

So lose the ego, “Think Again” about recruiting on your own, and invest in a good executive recruiting firm to help you get the candidates to a YES. 

Or, if you continue to have open positions, soon enough I can guarantee you, your boss will be calling a recruiter replace you!

Stephen

Stephen Viscusi is an Executive Recruiter that specializes in furniture, architectural products, tile & stone and flooring industry. Visit  www.viscusigroup.com

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