During my 12 or so years of recruiting and recruiting leadership I have learned a variety of tactics from some of the best-known names in the recruiting industry. Names like Sullivan, Radin, Leffkowitz, Adler, etc., read like a who’s who of recruiting consultants and teachers who have shaped my execution, teaching, and leading in the recruiting industry. The tactics and techniques I teach to my teams and that I will relay here come from my experience with what gets results and what the aforementioned recruiting industry thought leaders have taught me and many others. This article won’t discuss phone-call name generation or sourcing techniques, but that will likely come in a later article. Much of what I executed successfully as a recruiter, and now teach as a leader, was learned from Peter Leffkowitz in my TPR days. Those of you who have attended any of his seminars or training will recognize much in this article.

A Hypothetical Situation

You are conducting a search for a director of marketing or VP of marketing. If you’re a really great recruiter, you have competitive intelligence on a few candidates who you know are high performers. One of those high performers is a senior-level marketing professional at one of your competitors named Barbara Smith. You are now ready to make the call. Given the senior-level scope of your search, there’s a high degree of likelihood you’ll encounter your targeted prospects’ executive secretary or administrative support; the dreaded gatekeeper. Damn the man!

Want To Know How To Get Around a Gatekeeper? Hang Out With One

The first thing you need to do is get to know someone who has been a gatekeeper. Just about every organization has at least one gatekeeper or someone working in the company who did it in a prior life. Ask them how they did it. Understand how they were trained and what scripts they use. Listen to them apply their craft. Incidentally, hiring former gatekeepers to be recruiters is a very sound recruiting strategy. In order to get around the gatekeeper, it is critical to know the script almost all gatekeepers employ. Gatekeepers are taught to answer the phone in a very specific way, and the script pattern they use is designed to get as much information from the caller in order to make a decision about who to let through and who to block. Great gatekeepers are trained to block everyone unless they make a compelling argument for why they should be let through or the person they support has specifically indicated a caller should be let through.

Before we talk about how to design the call and get by the gatekeeper, we need to look at a typical recruiting call and the common script pattern a gatekeeper will likely use during their interaction with you the recruiter. As part of the call examination we need to look at how most recruiters, especially those in the corporate recruiting world, script their end of the call. Most TPRs are usually much better at this, though you wouldn’t know it by the voicemails and calls I have received from some of them recently. The background now set, let’s “listen in” on our hypothetical call:

Gatekeeper: Good morning; Barbara Smith’s office.

Recruiter: Good morning; Barbara please.

Gatekeeper: May I tell her who is calling?

Recruiter: Of course. This is Michael Homula calling.

Gatekeeper: What company are you with Mr. Homula?

Recruiter: Company X.

Gatekeeper: And the nature of your call?

Recruiter: Choke, gasp, uhhh, mmmm, aaahhh…

Read that exchange three more times. It is important to imprint this gatekeeper-recruiter give-and-take into your brain. It’s a dance, and you have to know the movements of the dance in order to effectively dance with your partner (the gatekeeper) and get around them. The gatekeeper script pattern outlined in this example is how the vast majority of them are trained to execute their craft of blocking you. It’s effective and often works very well. In order to know how to execute this call the right way, we have to first look at how it is done wrong. So, don’t read ahead. Stop right now and go back and read the exchange three more times, paying careful attention to the word patterns, the order and the rhythm of the call.

In the example above, our recruiter (played by me) did a few things right but a lot wrong. One thing the recruiter did do right was disarm the gatekeeper and build rapport by using her first name. Assuming you could actually “hear” this call, you would also know the recruiter mirrored their vocal pattern after the gatekeepers. In this example, I sounded like I belonged on the call. The call has to be delivered with confidence. As the “intruder” in this situation, you have to sound like you belong on the call. Too many recruiters feel some sort of guilt about making this call and therefore they sound guilty in their tone of voice. Using the proper tone and inflection, and using first names, sends a message to the gatekeeper — you should know me and I should be connected to Barbara. Some gatekeepers, especially in larger companies, may assume you work for their company (that you are an internal employee) or you are an approved vendor, and will pass you right along. Just think about how many employees or vendors there can be in some organizations. Executing this simple yet effective tactic may get you everything you need. Even though there were a few good points during this call, there was still a lot wrong. Namely, the gatekeeper got the recruiter off script and stuck them with a tough question: “What is the nature of your call?” This is a tough question for recruiters to answer and is often where the call ends or goes sideways. Many recruiters immediately begin to lie or employ some deceitful tactic to get put through. But that is not necessary. Try this exchange and technique on for size:

Gatekeeper: Good morning; Barbara Smith’s office.

Recruiter: Good morning; who am I speaking to?

Gatekeeper: This is Jim.

Recruiter: Jim, good morning. This is Michael Homula calling for Barbara.

Did you see that? Did you see what I just did? What I did was employ a technique that Peter Leffkowitz calls pattern or script interrupt. Telling him my name before he asked for it changes who is in control of the conversation. Most gatekeepers have a script pattern they work from; there is a rhythm and flow to it, just like a recruiter’s script. Most of these script patterns include a component of asking for the identity of the caller, the company they represent, and the nature of the call.

These key questions happen early in the call “dance” and help the gatekeeper to fulfill their purpose. That purpose is to gain control of the conversation, determine the call’s level of importance, how valid the call is, gather information about the caller, and then block the caller if they are undesirable. By interrupting this script pattern, the recruiter now owns the flow of the conversation; the gatekeeper is pushed sideways and out of rhythm and becomes distracted from his script and its subsequent purpose. The result is that the recruiter improves the odds of getting through to the prospect/candidate. In other words, what I did as a recruiter in this example is change the pattern of how my information goes into the gatekeeper, which in turn knocks her off of her routine or script pattern. I have changed the texture of the call, as well as who controls it. In a very real sense, we have humanized the call and humanized the gatekeeper. Instead of dealing with Jim’s script, I am now dealing with Jim the person. Now that I have wrestled away control of how the information goes in and the texture of the call, it is now just two people who see each other as humans and not scripts. The playing field is now leveled.

About Those Tested, Experienced, and Grizzled Veterans of Gatekeeping

Even if you use the script interrupt technique outlined above, sometimes getting through can be very difficult, especially when dealing with a great gatekeeper (who, by the way, you should recruit). The conversation with this person often goes more like what follows, though please note that I am using a number of interactions I have had over the years with gatekeepers to create a general response here. Most keepers will use nicer terminology than this, but the substance of the message is legitimately the same.

Gatekeeper: Good morning; Barbara Smith’s office.

Recruiter: Good morning; who am I speaking to?

Gatekeeper: This is Jim.

Recruiter: Jim, good morning, this is Michael Homula calling for Barbara.

Gatekeeper: Mr. Homula, unless I know the purpose of your call, I won’t transfer you to Ms. Smith. Is that clear?

Recruiter: Ugh, ummm, choke, cough…

The key here is to not get confrontational with this gatekeeper. Lying, rusing or deceit is not really the best choice either, and can be illegal. This is what works best, based on what I’ve have learned from years of experience and training by the leaders mentioned above:

Recruiter: Jim, I appreciate why you’re asking that question. You see, my call involves a high degree of sensitivity and confidentiality. I believe that needs to start with Barbara. Once I speak with her, if she feels the sensitive information I have can include you then all of us can be involved in the communication. I just think we need to let her make that decision. Until Barbara makes that decision, the sensitive nature of my call means I should speak with her first.

The gatekeeper, knowing that their director of marketing probably deals with a lot of sensitive information, is likely going to transfer me to Barbara Smith or to her voicemail. There isn’t a gatekeeper in the world that wants be responsible for a sensitive and confidential situation not getting through. If Jim the gatekeeper puts me on hold to announce my call to Barbara, he will inform her that the nature of the call is sensitive and confidential, which will create a degree of wonder and urgency for Barbara.

Recruiting Is Sensitive and Confidential

The recruiting ethics police out there may want to argue that by declaring my call to be “sensitive” and “confidential” rather than revealing my identity as a recruiter calling to offer Barbara a better opportunity is scandalous, unethical, or even illegal. To that I query back in advance, what can be more sensitive or confidential than a recruiting call? Barbara — someone I know to be a high-performing director of marketing — is entitled to learn about other opportunities that may be better than her current situation. Barbara also has a right for any conversation she has with me, or any other recruiter for that matter, to be handled with a high degree of sensitivity and confidentiality.

Once I speak with Barbara, she can decide whether or not to continue speaking with me. Barbara is also the only one who gets to decide if she would like to share the nature of our conversations with anyone else, including her current employer. Her company does not have the right to make that decision for her and certainly neither does her gatekeeper. The days of indentured servitude ended long ago in this country and only the talent I am trying to reach gets to make decisions about their future. Stay tuned for a future article which deals specifically with the actual recruiting call. Too many recruiters make the recruiting call ill prepared.

I do not challenge the notion that technology may make important recruiting initiatives less cumbersome. Activities like name generation and sourcing are made a bit easier thanks to the Internet and other technological advancements. But really great recruiting results can only happen because of the hard work and effort of skilled and artful recruiters who can make the right calls, develop centers of influence, build relationships, interact with prospects and candidates, understand the opportunity gap in a candidate’s current situation, determine the decision-making criteria a candidate will use to make a change, work with a candidate to help them land a better opportunity, and navigate the delicate offer, negotiation, counteroffer, and notice-giving minefield. All that’s just a highlight the things great recruiters do well.

Many articles, discussion groups, and blogs all around the recruiting landscape extol the advantages of hiring sales and marketing types as recruiters. I couldn’t agree more. While it is true that recruiting is fundamentally a sales and marketing role, simply stating this obvious fact really misses the deeper behaviors and skills that must exist in a recruiter in order to generate better results and higher performance. Hiring a candidate with proven and verifiable results from a sales and marketing background does not necessarily mean you have hired the next great recruiter. So what should you look for in a recruiter? What critical behaviors and skills should you identify and then hire for? How will you know the talent can be coached and developed? How can you more accurately predict how well they will perform in the future? In my years of experience working as a recruiter (both third party and corporate) on teams with some very high-performing recruiting talent and having to hire and lead recruiting teams myself (including the very talented award-winning team I currently lead at FirstMerit) I have discovered eight key skill and behavioral competencies that exist in great recruiters. Not so creatively I call them “The Great Eight.”

These eight key recruiting skills and behaviors must be part of your identification, selection, and hiring strategy if you want to hire great recruiters. If you aren’t in a position to lead and hire recruiters, these eight key factors should be areas where you strive to develop and improve in your daily recruiting behavior. (Or they may send a message that you are in the wrong profession.) Though I have performed some analysis on these behaviors in my recruiting teams and tied them to performance outcomes, The Great Eight are derived from my experience in working with great recruiters as well as hiring and leading high performing recruiting teams. I do not claim these eight items are the end-all be-all for hiring great recruiters. I do, however,believe the following Great Eight skills and behaviors apply to both third-party and corporate recruiters.

1. Interaction: The ideal recruiter is able to communicate with others in a warm and helpful manner while building credibility and rapport. I have raged on an on about the importance of relationships in recruiting. Talent relationship management (TRM) is another critical function of a great recruiter. In order to truly be successful, a recruiter must possess this interaction skill or behavior. I have yet to meet a great recruiter who wasn’t exceptional at building rapport quickly during a sourcing or direct call situation. When contacting a talent prospect or candidate for the first time, you have a few limited moments during which you must establish credibility and, at the very least, a surface-level rapport. Once the talent prospect or candidate gets engaged with you, it becomes your responsibility as the recruiter to further strengthen your credibility and deepen the relationship. Great recruiters get this. They work hard at carefully scripting their calls to very deliberately gain instant credibility and lay the groundwork for a firm relationship. This is primarily done by focusing more on the talent prospect or candidate than talking about actual opportunities.

2. Spoken communication: The ideal recruiter is able to present information clearly through the spoken word. He or she listens well and influences others through oral presentation in either positive or negative circumstances. Listening well. It is a dying art in the recruiting world. As we will see in a minute in a discussion on insight and needs analysis, too many recruiters spend way too much time talking and not listening. With all the focus on scripting, overcoming objections, or getting a client or candidate’s attention, many recruiters neglect this critical skill. Tone of voice, verbal cues, and word choice all provide valuable insight into what a candidate’s values are and what pain they might be experiencing in their current position. Prospects and candidates give up so much information about these important variables through these kinds of cues, but few recruiters are savvy enough to pick up on them. Though this skill and behavior is called spoken communication, the importance of decision influencing should go without saying. The focal point for me is listening.

3. Commitment to task: The ideal recruiter is able to start and persist with specific courses of action while exhibiting a high degree of self motivation and a sense of urgency. They are willing to commit to long hours of work and make personal sacrifice in order to reach goals. Great recruiters are motivated and driven to succeed by a fire that burns inside them rather than a fire that is lit under them. The drive and push that comes from being passionate about recruiting and finding great talent cannot be taught. You either have it or you don’t. Recruiters that have it require very few “pep talks” or motivation by any external factor. As the labor pool shrinks and the war for talent becomes more intense, the recruiters who possess this sense of commitment and the selfless drive to sacrifice in order to reach a goal will win and be deemed great. Great recruiters also see their most important positions as urgent. In many CEO and executive-level surveys, the chief complaint against HR as it relates to recruiting is the apparent lack of urgency when it comes to acquiring talent. Great recruiters know how to prioritize their work based on corporate business goals and strategies and then create a sense of urgency in the recruitment process in order to be more efficient and effective.

4. Insight and needs analysis: The ideal recruiter is able to 1) interpret verbal and non-verbal behavior, 2) develop accurate perception and understanding of the needs and values of others while using a systematic approach to gathering information, and 3) attempt to meet those needs through analysis and evaluation of alternative solutions. Maybe these could be two separate skills, but I couldn’t find a good word to rhyme with nine so I put them together for the sake of poetry (just kidding). Perhaps no where in the recruiting profession is this skill or behavior more important than in the profiling of talent. All too often, recruiters are too busy pitching a job rather than understanding the needs of the prospect. For example, I get this kind of call all the time: “Hey Michael, my name is Joey Recruitemall with ABC Executive Search (or ABC Company). I am currently working with a Fortune 100 company to identify a high-performing, results-oriented leader to take their global talent acquisition team to the next level. I understand you are a smart guy who leads a successful recruiting practice, and I think you would be a great fit for this opportunity. Would you be interested or do you know anyone who would be?” Don’t laugh, I actually got that call recently. I just changed the names to protect the innocent.

The used car salesman flattery garbage aside, this is an absolutely awful call from a desperate recruiter who is just trying to fill a job. High-performing passive talent will not leave their current situation unless they get a better opportunity and trust that you, the recruiter, have their best interests at the front of your agenda. Even active candidates are offended by recruiters who put filling a job ahead of the candidate’s needs. This means taking the time to be more interested in the talent than you are in filling a job. The only way to accomplish this is to make the effort to fully understand the talented prospects and candidates you talk to. If you’ve done your homework and gained a proper amount of competitive intelligence about the talent you are calling, you should know the person is talented, meaning you have some evidence that they are a high performer and that they posses special, often creative, mental or artistic gifts. Once that information has been gained, great recruiters use their intuition and engage in needs analysis — i.e., profiling — to find out who the talent is, what decision making criteria they will use to make a change, how they will decide if the opportunity is better, when they might be open to moving, who influences their decision, etc. Great recruiters get this information before even talking about a specific job or opportunity with a prospect or candidate. As a result, they fill more jobs with better talent for their company or bill more placements than their peers in third party. It’s all about properly profiling the talent.

5. Creativity: The ideal recruiter is able to develop unique and novel solutions to obstacles or challenges. He or she uses intuition and a new way of thinking to give birth to new ideas and presents information in a way that gets attention and holds others interest. Whether it is name generation, networking, or relationship management, great recruiters are quick to get out of normal thought patterns and traditional recruiting tactics. They are risk takers. They have the courage to keep trying new things. Using their previous experiences and intuition, they give birth to new ideas in the recruiting space and aren’t afraid to execute them. Great recruiters also know how to articulate their creativity and outside-the-box thinking in clear and exciting ways. When talking to a prospect or candidate, they know how to inspire candidates and hold their interest throughout the recruiting lifecycle.

6. Tolerance of ambiguity: The ideal recruiter is able to withhold actions or speech when important information is absent or lacking. He or she can deal with unresolved situations as well as frequent changes, delays, or unexpected events. Let’s face it, things change very rapidly in the field of recruiting. Client hiring managers change their mind, candidates change their mind, expectations change, job requirements change and even candidates decision-making criteria can sometimes changes. But great recruiters are flexible and capable of changing with the business, the economy, the labor market, or any other changes that might occur. Often, recruiters get limited information and have to resist the urge to react and make a decision in absence of this information. Great recruiters don’t get lured into presenting candidates to client hiring managers before they have the right information for a send out. They don’t present the position to a talented passive prospect until the expectations are clearly defined and the success profile is complete.

7. Reading the system: The ideal recruiter is able to recognize and use information about an organization’s culture and its key players to accomplish legitimate organizational goals. He or she possesses a healthy awareness of the importance of timing, politics, and organizational process in managing change. Every company is different. The systems and politics that exist within each require a knowledgeable and savvy recruiter to navigate what can be a treacherous labyrinth of confusion. Candidates can be sucked into an organization’s little nuances, quirks, and structure and never be heard from or seen again. Great recruiters know these difficulties exist and know how to navigate through them with great skill and effectiveness. They know when to put their foot down, when to back off, how to push something through, and when to grease the skids to make it seem seamless. Keeping the corporate goals and business objectives in mind throughout the recruiting process, great recruiters mesh all of these things for the benefit of the talent and the company.

8. Tenacity: The ideal recruiter is dedicated to customers, client hiring managers, prospects. and candidates. He or she is willing to maintain long-term relationships, to take commitments seriously, and to follow through on promises. A commitment to the people that matter most and a desire to do everything it takes to meet the needs of those people separates the great recruiters from the merely good. Great recruiters act more like a career coach or consultant to the candidate and as a subject matter expert with the client hiring manager. They extend themselves past the boundary where average recruiters stop. They meet passive candidates on their terms and under conditions that are optimal for the candidate rather than what is convenient for them. This sometimes means doing the things that are less than glamorous, but these kinds of actions can be the difference maker in these critical relationships. I have talked much about relationships and the ability to maintain them for long periods of time. The best in the recruiting profession do that and more. They know that every interaction could lead to a talent referral, a new networking source, or center of influence. Great recruiters exhibit a dogged pursuit of excellence with candidates and clients that is reflected in their recruiting results.

My Great Eight sets the bar high for excellence in recruiting. Using these key skills and behaviors to identify and select your next recruiter will give you an advantage over many in the recruiting industry. Trying to model these behaviors in your own daily recruiting activity will separate you from your peers. But failing to do either will only make you less valuable to your corporation or clients, and ultimately lead you into recruiting mediocrity — if not recruiting obscurity.

Dear Mr. Bossman, Please accept this letter as my resignation and two-week notice. I am grateful for the success we have been able to achieve together at Acme Rockets, but I have now made a commitment to another organization. Please know that I intend to work with you to complete as much work during my two-week notice to make my resignation as smooth as possible. I am eager to leave on a positive note and I am open to your suggestions on how to accomplish this smooth transition. Sincerely,

Ms. Passive Candidate

The wording here is not accidental. The letter resonates with positivity, cooperation, and a genuine touch of sincerity. This is important to the passive candidate. Because of the relationship they likely have with their current boss, they want to leave on a good note. Using this letter and these words helps them feel better about resigning. It also leaves a better taste in the mouth of the candidate’s boss and company. It is critical that the resignation letter and resignation meeting make no reference to where the candidate is going, what they will be doing in their next job, or how much they will be making. Providing this information to the manager and company gives them valuable intelligence that can be used in developing a counteroffer. They can’t counteroffer what they don’t know. Again, they might try, but without a baseline to operate from and a limited window of opportunity, their counteroffer will likely resemble a blindfolded six-year-old swinging a stick at a pinata. It is the recruiter’s responsibility to make sure the candidate understands that they must avoid sharing this important intelligence. In an effort to soften the blow to their current boss and company, they start sharing information and niceties that can be turned against them in a counteroffer. Taking the time to coach them through this important reduces, if not eliminates, the likelihood of a counteroffer. Scripting the Resignation Meeting: Transition Rather Than Decision Finally, I coach my talent through the dreaded resignation conversation they will inevitably have to have with their boss. I coach them to enter their bosses office with the resignation letter in hand and to begin the conversation like this:

Mr. Bossman, I have committed myself to joining another organization and I will begin working with them in two weeks. Please accept this, my letter of resignation. Please take a moment to read my letter so we can discuss how we can work together to make a smooth transition.

I also like to encourage my candidates to role play this meeting with me. It may feel a bit odd at first, but it helps to establish their comfort level with what to say and how to say it. It is important to coach the candidate that the best tactic here is the direct and to the point approach. Don’t beat around the bush and engage in idle small talk. Delaying the inevitable will only lead to more anxiety and possible cold feet on the part of my talent. Using this script makes it clear to my passive candidate’s boss that they are not planning on talking about their decision to leave or entertain a counteroffer. The focus is clearly on the transition rather than the decision. Now that they have made the commitment to leave, the conversation requires a focus on the transition. Go Time and The Art of Deflection I always schedule a conversation with my candidate just before they give notice. My main purpose at this point is to reinforce that their conversation with Mr. Bossman shouldn’t be about where they are going and what they will be doing. I remind them to keep the focus on actually giving notice and on working together to ensure a smooth transition ó not about the decision to leave. Again, sometimes I will even role play this with them. Finally, I teach them the art of deflection. Deflection is the art of avoiding unnecessary questions from their boss. It is natural for the boss to ask the what, where, and how questions. The key is to avoid answering the bosses questions with any response other than the fact that the decision is made, the commitment will be followed through on and the smooth transition. Nothing else really matters and should be avoided at all costs. The script might look like this:

It is natural to be curious about where I am going and why, but it is my intention to follow through on the commitment I have made to another organization. I am going to suggest that we talk in a month or so about where and why, so that today we can work together to make a smooth transition.

To make my candidate feel better about this technique I discuss a few significant, and possibly obvious, points. I ask them why it is that on the day they give notice suddenly their opinions are so important to their boss. I ask why the boss and company have only become concerned about their future or why they are happy or unhappy or about compensation when they are face to face with losing high performing talent? I also go back to my notes in my TRMS on why they were interested in making a change in the first place and remind them that the new opportunity matches those criteria. Taking this approach only reinforces the singular purpose of the resignation letter and giving notice meeting. I then ask them to call me immediately after the meeting so I can head off any possible issues or challenges before they have a chance to set into their mind. Once my talent go through this nurturing, coaching, and scripting with me, they no longer feel the need to talk about anything else but resigning with their boss. They get it. Since most really don’t know what to say when giving notice, they are more than happy to have a friend and coach who provides them industry experience and advice on how to do it. If you have a consultative relationship with your passive talent, which you must have in order to succeed as a recruiter, the coaching on how to give notice is a natural extension of that relationship. So stop celebrating your success of an accepted offer and get to work ensuring your candidates start when they say they will by educating them on how to give notice.

• Is there anyone you know in your industry space who might be a high performing prospect or referral source for this position?
• Have you met anyone at an industry conference, seminar, networking event, etc. who might be able to help me find the right talent for this search? Do you have the attendee list from any recent conference or seminar you attended? Can I look through your contact list or rolodex? (By the way if they are still using a rolodex, you should buy them contact management software for the next company gift exchange.)
• Can you tell me where the people on your staff worked prior to coming to work for you? (Take their answer and generate a report from your ATS of the best talent that has been hired from your competition or from like industries. Creating a competitive intelligence report from your ATS puts you in the drivers seat.)

Just as important, ask the client/hiring manager for the prospects that they know who are not high performers. This becomes your “hands off” list. At FirstMerit, we enter them into our ATS and code them as “No Interest.” This saves us time and eliminates the risk of an embarrassing situation by presenting undesirable candidates. It also keeps other talent acquisition consultants from mistakenly engaging an unwanted candidate. Most local newspapers and business publications routinely list corporate promotions. Not always, but usually, someone gets promoted because they are doing great work. This is a ready-made call list of high performing talent. Even if the promoted talent isn’t in your industry space there is the possibility they know someone who is. Simply calling to congratulate them on their promotion and build a relationship with high performing talent will point you in the right direction and you can take it from there. Presentation Is Everything I was asked at my recent speaking engagement about how we actually get referrals from prospects who aren’t actually candidates yet or how we get candidates who are seriously considering FirstMerit to give us referrals because they might feel threatened by creating their own competition. Here are some things we try to do at FirstMerit:

• Build credibility. Nothing is more important than this. You have to be viewed as a consultant, not a recruiter. Do your homework and demonstrate that you understand the job market and the talent prospect’s everyday work. If you’re new to recruiting or new to a specific industry space, you can establish credibility by asking questions about the industry. Most people love to talk about themselves and what they do. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.
• Consult, don’t recruit. Be as helpful as you can to everyone you talk to. As an expert in your industry space and market, you have a lot of knowledge to share in terms of career management, salary guidelines, and industry trends. Understand that the talent you are speaking with will likely talk about you. What do you want them to say? Let them know you will look for opportunity for them at other companies if they don’t fit into your culture.
• Energy and passion is a weapon. I have a Recruiter Voicemail Hall of Shame. These are saved messages from recruiters who left messages for me in a very poor attempt to get me to change careers. Most recruiters are so scripted and robotic in their approach that they even turn off low-performing active candidates. You must get the talent prospect’s interest quickly. Most call scripts I hear or that are left on my voicemail sound something like this: “Hi. We are a Fortune 500 company looking for a degreed sales manager with three years’ experience in banking, knowledge in credit, loan review, blah blah blah, yada yada yada…” Leaving this on a voicemail is guaranteed to put you in my Recruiter Voicemail Hall of Shame.
• Sizzle. In contrast, have some passion and energy when you make your call or leave a voicemail. Kaye Sterling, one of my highest performing talent acquisition consultants, calls it “sizzle.” She couldn’t be more right. Sizzle won’t close the deal, but it will get the passive talent prospect talking. Gaining the candidate’s interest is critical to setting the stage for meaningful dialogue and opening up the talent to providing more information and competitive intelligence.

There are no “keys to the recruiting kingdom” and there is no “magic recruiting formula.” Get off the computer. Stop lurking in the ash heap of recruiting history known as the job board resume database. Quit processing things to death and start doing some real recruiting. Get on the phone, get in front of your client hiring managers, ask the right questions and build the right relationships. Relationally link to the best talent and create some sizzle. Fully utilize the best weapon you have in the modern day war for talent: you, the recruiter. Otherwise, be prepared to fall into recruiting obscurity.