The class question from last week asked what things are at work that would cause Lisa our Gatekeeper to drop her defenses in the statement below. “Lisa?  Hi, this is Maureen Sharib. Can you transfer me to Sheila McKinney?  Before you do, though, can you tell me: is Sheila one of the pipeline engineers there?... [full article »]

I have a sense that a real yearning is emerging for information about how to communicate. I mean about how to communicate face to face or over the phone and not about “communicating” on someone’s “Wall” on Facebook or sending an InMail through LinkedIn. I’m talking about what you should say on the phone. [full article »]

First off, I’d like to hand out the “extra credit” to last week’s Sourcing Test. The extra credit goes to nobody because nobody answered the specific question: “Tell me why knowing Lisa’s name is listed as one of the six important pieces of information.” And this is one of the basic problems in sourcing —... [full article »]

So how do we find the other members in a person’s group when we know that group contains what we’re looking for? As you recall, that was the last question posed to me by my student sourcer on the second day of our MagicMethod training. For those of you just now tuning in, MagicMethod is... [full article »]

So here we are on the second day of the onsite MagicMethod phone sourcing training. We’re about to embark on the actual calling that is an integral part of the training. It’s 8:15 a.m and my MagicMethod student and I are all cozy sitting next to one another in his cubicle with his phone and... [full article »]

Remember, at the beginning of the last lesson, I asked the nervous sourcer sitting next to me if I could see his call sheet? He busily pulled up the Excel sheet that he normally works in. In the day-long phone sourcing class I had given him and his cohorts the day before I had instructed... [full article »]

“Can I see your call sheet?” I asked the nervous young recruiter as I pulled up and sidled another chair along his. I was there on the second day of the phone sourcing training I was doing for the company — the day where I visit each participant’s desk and sit with them, demonstrating and... [full article »]

“What’s thorough sourcing?” you ask. “We’re doing that!” you hope think. Are you? Thorough sourcing is when you are confident you have everyone inside a specific company (or companies) that you can contact for your open opportunity. It’s when you have a list of names along with their titles (and hopefully their direct dials!) that... [full article »]

We learn some of the damnedest things in our work. One of my telephone list builders works part time at the Y as a lifeguard. She’s a 50-year-old woman who has been married for 30 years. She and her husband have been living apart for the last couple years and it appears that each of... [full article »]

A holiday message … I’ve been thinking all year about something our accountant said when he visited us in February of this year to have us sign the final paperwork for our taxes. During our meeting Bob had been moaning about how our 2009 business was off so much over 2008 and things just seemed... [full article »]

Any small business can fail. A small business that has been in existence for more than five years has a sizable advantage over a business that you start yourself if you can afford to purchase it. Most people can’t. In lieu of that route there are ways to start your own business that don’t require... [full article »]

Owning a business is a part of the American Dream. It’s not for everyone, but it might be for you. [full article »]

“What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening …” Remember that? It’s from the 70’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar. It was a huge hit at the time. In the scene Jesus is alone with his glory-seeking disciples and they continually cry the repetitious refrain “What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening. What’s the buzz, tell me... [full article »]

We’re all part of a species of bipedal primates in the family Hominidae that are supposed to possess a highly developed brain, bipedal gait, and opposable thumbs. “Lucy” appeared in mankind’s historical timeline as long as 3.6 million years ago. Humans (that look like you and me) arrived on the scene much later — starting... [full article »]

“But that’s not my job.” There are 6.2 million long-term unemployed in the United States. Many get up each and every morning and go to their computers looking for work as if their computers will soon offer (will it be today?) a panacea to their worry. Guess what? If you’re not willing to do anything,... [full article »]

Normally the flags go up when phone sourcers ask me, especially when they’re new at it, “What do I do/say if/when she asks me why I need the information I ask her for?” The truthful answer to this is that if the Gatekeeper asks you this question, the high probability is that you didn’t approach... [full article »]

I’m always hearing recruiters say they want to be more helpful to candidates. I wonder. I wrote the following with the idea that it might help some express some of their challenges through a third-party voice. I’m a phone sourcer. That means I am paid to find people who hold specific titles or who are... [full article »]

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. — Galileo Galilei The hand came up about halfway down the rows of seated SourceCon attendees after the Sourcing Movie was shown. Here’s the beginning of the show. “At corporate we prefer to have someone in-between us and the... [full article »]

On Tuesday, September 28 at the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Shally Steckerl gave an interesting presentation at SourceCon, one that covered competitive intelligence. As an example of how competitive intelligence can be gathered over the telephone, let me tell you a simple story of a job I started upon my return from the conference.... [full article »]

Is there nothing new under the sun? Sun Tzu was an ancient Chinese general. His Art of War is the oldest military treatise in the world. He thought spies were an essential part of war — and where is Sourcecon being held in 2010? At the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. (on September 28... [full article »]