THE KEY TO COLD CALLS
I've always wondered how the best recruiters talk when they make a cold call. I wanted to know the exact words they used to get someone to listen to them and share information. And I've kind of come to a conclusion.
Basically, a recruiting cold call just says "Hi I'm a recruiter. I'm working on a position that might interest you. Can we talk?". And then you offer a thumbnail sketch of the position.
Lots of recruiters will tell you that they don't understand the jobs they are recruiting for. They have never been practitioners and can't do the job themselves. So the key is simply that you have to be comfortable talking to strangers. If you sound unsure of yourself, people wont think that you know what you're doing.
I have always believed that it makes a huge difference if you were a practitioner before you became a recruiter and a recruiter who was an accountant told me that his success was built upon his hands-on experience.
He understood everything about the positions his clients gave him and he could ask his candidates all the right questions and assess their answers. But I've also seen recruiters say that the they've hired practitioners who failed because they didn't have any selling skills which I have to assume means that they didn't feel comfortable cold calling strangers.
And there's one more thing worth noting. Lots of marketers say that people respond more to emotion than reason. But I don't think that's true. Although, the personality of the recruiter might make a difference and that might be classified as an emotional issue.
Recruiter and HR Associate BluPrint Oncology, Powered by Petauri?| Medical Communications | (813) 453-2394
2 年The old gang… I think it might depend on the job that you are recruiting for. The jobs I was recruiting for, did not require very technical skills or abilities. The jobs were not difficult for me to understand. And the skills that were required for someone to be successful were easily vetted over the phone to a large degree. My main job was to know what my client was looking for and find out if the candidate was in alignment. I don’t have to have done the job to be able to do that.
Indeed Whisperer | Recruitment Marketing | Talent Acquisition
2 年"Lots of marketers say that people respond more to emotion than reason. I don't think that's true." Some marketers to as far as to say that no human can act on reason. I'd say that justification is a list of reasons, but it's not reasoning, and all decisions about hiring come down to justification on both sides. This is because we cannot judge the qualify of a role.
I teach agency recruiters how to make more placements. Training, coaching, mentoring, advisory.
2 年Good post! I have been placing Oracle ERP experts for 18 years. I had never seen the software before I started recruiting. I saw it for the first time 6 or 7 years after I started recruiting these profiles. It was never a problem. The real secret is about being emphatic, asking candidates open questions and asking them to explain to you what they do. Most of my candidates thought I knew exactly what they worked on.