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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 them is creating their own separate life in preparation for what appears to be divorce.

I got to know Jean late last year in casual conversation as I bounced around in the pool doing my 45 minutes of pool work that I get to less and less these days. Talking to someone else in a pool while you’re doing jumping jacks is a good way to make the (boring) time pass.

Jean impressed me early on with her intelligence. She is soft-spoken and listens intently to what another is saying. I’d watched her interact with some of the other old farts as they came and went from the senior pool and many seemed to really enjoy talking with her. What I noticed most about her from my watery viewing point is she spoke far less than she listened to the others.

Some would stand there for a good number of minutes and yak away at her and she’d politely pay attention to whatever it was they were sharing.

I knew some of them were tiresome to listen to as I had seen the reaction of others to them in the social setting that the geriatric warm pool is.

I mostly stay to myself in the pool, social skinflint that I am.

But talking to Jean was different.

She asked questions.

Few people do this, you know.

Flattered as I was to be asked about myself, I very soon recognized the glimmer of a phone sourcer in Jean. keep reading…

(…and start asking questions instead).

Why? Simply stated: Because people need to know they’ve been heard and understood. Today’s top sales performers know that it’s more important to understand than to persuade.

So what does this have to do with recruiting? Good question. Perhaps you can begin by answering these three questions yourself: keep reading…

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 her properly*. But, like everything there are exceptions. I’m going to go through a few of them with you. keep reading…

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.

On Thursday morning, I began sourcing sales reps for a paper manufacturing company in Canada. About two hours into my efforts I was talking to a receptionist in a company that was a supplier of industrial paper products to the Canadian marketplace.

There were a few names on LinkedIn at the company, but there were no sales reps listed. There was someone listed as “sales” but no other identifying information was contained on the person’s profile. keep reading…

Six leading high-tech companies have agreed to settle an antitrust claim arising from an arrangement among them not to poach each other’s employees.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the settlement in Washington a few hours ago and simultaneously filed a civil antitrust action. Brought against Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar, the lawsuit details the alleged hiring arrangements. Accompanying the civil complaint was a proposed settlement in which the firms agree not to engage in anti-competitive no solicitation agreements.

The DOJ says the settlement “prohibits the companies from entering, maintaining or enforcing any agreement that in any way prevents any person from soliciting, cold calling, recruiting, or otherwise competing for employees.   The companies will also implement compliance measures tailored to these practices.” keep reading…

Most sourcers would rather admit their mothers wear Army boots than admit they’re afraid of the phone. This reluctance to own up to the real matter at hand only makes things worse. Admitting we’re all human is the first step in getting the help so many of us need.

You may have surmised at this point that you’re not alone. Just about every sourcer I know (including me) has dealt with these issues.

So, the very first thing you have to do is get over it. So get over it.

Next be willing to admit that you’d like to fix this troubled aspect of your existence.

The final step is to do something about it, and we’re about to embark on that process. keep reading…

Family lore holds that my maternal grandfather was a “water witch.” A water witch is a person who can find water using a forked stick or rod to find water located underground.

A water witch may also be called a “diviner” or a “dowser.” Dowsing is a general term used to discover things that are hidden. Divining has been used for centuries to find water and other hidden objects.

Most employees in corporate America are hidden away from the prying fingers of Internet diviners. If America has 150 million-plus workers, rest assured the greater majority of them are not locatable on the Internet. (I welcome argument on this fact. When I say “not locatable” I mean they are not able to be identified/sourced for a specific reason — that reason being, in our industry, to fill a particular role.)

For the 62% of the jobs in America that require higher skill levels, that’s a lot of people. That’s approaching 100 million people in the United States hidden away behind closed doors and hard-mortared walls, sitting at their desks (or on airplanes or working at home or at a customer site) with the majority of them being “undowsable” by any form of Boolean.

Many of you reading this don’t want to hear it. The only way — the most assured way — to find these people is to do investigative work on the telephone. keep reading…

Many people think all phone sourcers do is phone source. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many phone sourcers of today started out life as Internet sourcers and some phone sourcers never really strayed from the original path.

In this article I’m going to discuss how Internet sourcing and phone sourcing can enhance each other. keep reading…

The truly passive candidate is a horse of a different color. Usually, they can’t be found anywhere on the Internet. They’re many times the result of someone calling into a specific company and asking who the person is holding a specific title or doing a specific function. The work is difficult and time-consuming and takes a special approach, one that few sourcers but many great recruiters possess.

I’m going to outline how and why approaching telephone-sourced names is very different from approaching names you’ve found on the Internet or persons behind the resumes sent to you each day. keep reading…

I saw a tweet this morning:

Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petrol.

It got me to thinking (as many Twitter remarks do). Both are types of fuel and both can be argued to be drugs. My mind raced across the words to pull some lesson about telephone sourcing from them and settled on the fact that “names” are a raw material that, like oil and coffee beans, can be transformed into a commodity that fuels a staffing process like no other activity I can think of. One of the acronyms attached to the word fuel is “combustion.” Raw names can combust your staffing results.

Many years ago, when I first started sourcing, I’d harp and harp at Bob (my husband) that what TechTrak really needed was a database. It would drive me crazy thinking about these “names” I was uncovering on a daily basis and the growing pile beckoned me, over and over, to think about them, almost unceasingly.

“Think about it, Bob! These are names of people in the world somewhere. These people possess valuable skills (raw material) that others can use. The knowledge in their heads is priceless. It’s a shame to let them just fall away without capturing them (and the information they possess) in some sort of database that can be used for other things…” It kept me awake nights.

“But databases are a lot of work…” he’d remonstrate, looking up from the book he was reading. “Who’s gonna put all that info into a database?” he’d demand, adjusting his easy chair. Then, in 2003, LinkedIn launched with the brilliant idea of putting the world to work and one of my reasons for living (to torment Bob telling him so) was born.

LinkedIn is so simple. It’s just a database that collects names using the voluntary efforts of others — the raw material that sits in the ground until it’s pumped out and transformed into a wildly popular commodity. To do this, however, you have to grasp the enormous potential that lies within the raw material and you have to have the skill to unlock it. Most people don’t have that skill: the ability to communicate.

As hard as it is to understand in this day and age of “communication” in one way we are more isolated than ever. keep reading…

People would rather focus on phone sourcing’s sister cousin, Internet sourcing, than telephone sourcing. Phone sourcing still seems scary to most; after all, a keyboard and computer screen don’t talk back to you and stymie you in your efforts at seeking information. This reluctance is becoming today a not-so-subtle avoidance issue and hiring managers are noticing and demanding more.

With that in mind, I’m in the process of finishing a Telephone Names Sourcing Rule Book. So far I have 46 rules. The following that are the 10 rules that, so far, I see as the “top.” Feel free to add yours! keep reading…

Do you see what I see?
A star, a star
Dancing in the night,
With a tail as big as a kite.

–Do You See What I See, song lyrics

I was watching a movie a while back and I heard a line in it that has stuck with me and I think of often. It’s one of those file-markers I put in my brain at the time to think more about and maybe write about. I’m doing that now.

The movie was “Beyond the Sea,” a biographical film that took its title from the Darin song of the same name and was based on the life of singer/actor Bobby Darin, played by Kevin Spacey. It depicts Darin’s rise to teen idol success in both the music and film industry during the 1950s and 60s, as well as his marriage to Sandra Dee, played by Kate Bosworth.

Near the end of the movie Darin/Spacey is talking to his wife Dee/Bosworth about his career frustrations and what audiences want. It was the late 60s and Darrin’s successful 50s crooning was being made obsolete overnight by changing musical trends. He was confused and lost in his career. His wife casually made the remark, “People hear what they see.” In response, Darin successfully changed his presentation to accommodate a more modern audience.

As phone sourcers we rely on the telephone to deliver our “message.” What is that Gatekeeper “seeing” when you call her? Have you ever considered that what she is “seeing” is impacting what she is hearing and how she is reacting to you? Her reaction to you is informed by her intuition and her experience. It may also be informed by some extensive cross-wiring in her brain regions that represent abstract concepts … and who would have thought, anyway?

True, you’re going to run up against Gatekeepers who are young with not much experience to guide their reactions, but just as often, and more so these days I suspect, your task is going to be challenged by more experienced gatekeepers who are beginning to understand how their intuition guides their own decisions.
I doubt, though, many of them have an inkling about what I’m about to write about. That’s an advantage for you when you’re phone sourcing. keep reading…

A valued customer asked me to ferret out 1,000 names and numbers from a satellite office of a large company (22,000 employees total). I’ve done this work for him before — I’m not sure but I suspect he uses the work for sales development, the theory being that these people all have well-paying jobs in one of the more healthy sectors of our economy.  He has ordered many of these custom-developed directories from me before, so whatever madness is behind his methodology it seems to work for him! This is how it’s done. keep reading…

The best recruiters I know execute the fundamentals of recruiting well and have developed good “habits” within each step of the recruitment process.

One simple, but powerful referral sourcing technique is closing each recruitment cold call with the question: “Can you do me a favor?”

As we all know, much has been much written about overcoming the objection “I am not interested…” or “I am happy; thanks, but no thanks…”

But in reality, you will not be able to turn a “no” into a “yes” in many (if not most) of these situations.

Yes, they might listen to your message (or pitch) but in the majority of cases, they won’t be interested or, they won’t be qualified.

Of course, when this happens, it is your job to network with this person to get referrals. Your ability to extract referrals and/or leads to help you with your search depends on many factors; including (among others):

keep reading…

Most thoughtful and intelligent recruiters will tell you that in order to be a good recruiter, you have to be good at sales, to be willing to take chances, and to have the ability to build networks through referrals. All of these are true.

However, one thing often overlooked in this day and age of the Web, virtual worlds, chat, IM, and email is relationships. There is an absence of one-on-one exchanges of information and true conversations.

keep reading…

This article was originally published January 22, 2007.

Would you like to increase your call-back percentage from “hard to hire” target candidates to 100%? It’s easier than you think as long as you shift who makes the initial contact with these highly desirable but hard-to-contact candidates.

keep reading…

I get this email newsletter put out by David DeAngelo that touts his “Double Your Dating” portfolio of tricks on how men can meet women more effectively. I admit that I usually read the whole thing. Why? The guy is a genius at understanding human nature and ways of putting that understanding to work.

There are numerous parallels between what he describes in his world and the world of recruiting. In fact, a recent subject was on how women test men. I made it my own as to how “testing” applies to sourcing. Here are my tips on winning over the Gatekeeper if you regularly get tested yourself.

keep reading…

We know we should go after targets to build a pipeline of candidates — but how do you do it? Let’s assume that you start with a list of 50 to 500 people who on paper have the titles that you want and are not off limits. Before you dial, assemble your tools:

1. Hone the pitch. Write down a five-second elevator pitch such as the following:

   keep reading…

The air has been thick on ERE and all over the recruiting space; thick with the din of ethics, legalese, and honesty and integrity discussions. What should you say to get around the gatekeeper without being deceitful? How much information should you reveal to the gatekeeper? How should you introduce yourself to the passive candidate when you call? What is ethical in sourcing and what isn’t? I am going to avoid all that and focus on two very important aspects of great recruiting: how to get around a gatekeeper without rusing (today’s article) and, once you get to the prospect or candidate, how you define the purpose of your call and then execute the art of recruiting (an article to come). This will be about tactics; a practical teaching session that any recruiter can execute immediately.

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.

keep reading…

Jim is the best recruiter at LNM, a division of a Fortune 500 company. Karen is a strong marketing manager who is not looking for a job. Jim found Karen’s name on ZoomInfo, and he is now cold calling her to explore the possibility of considering her for the position.

The Opening Jim: Hi Karen. My name is Jim Howard. I’m a recruiter with LMN and I’m leading a search for a senior-level marketing executive. Your name was brought to my attention as someone I should contact regarding this assignment. Since I have you on the line, let me just ask you very openly, would you personally be open to exploring a new career opportunity if it were clearly superior to what you’re doing today?

Opening Scenario One: No reluctance. Karen: Yes! Of course. (75% of candidates say this without qualifications.) Jim: Great. Before we get too serious on this, let me ask you a few short questions about your background. Then I’ll give you a quick overview of the position. Based on this, if it makes mutual sense to proceed, we’ll schedule a convenient time to talk later in more detail. (Here, Jim will start to conduct the work history review below. Very few candidates will object.)

Opening Scenario Two: Some reluctance. Karen: Yes, but tell me a little about the job first. Jim: Great. Telling you about the job could take some time, though. We have a very unusual selection process at LMN. As part of this, we conduct a formal job matching process to ensure every offer includes significant job stretch and job growth. This marketing position is a very important position for us, and job matching makes sure that both of us make the right decision. Why not give me just a two-minute overview of your background? I’ll then give you a two-minute overview of the current job, and if it makes mutual sense to talk further we can schedule another call later today or this evening. (Here, Jim will start to conduct the work history review below. Very few candidates will object.)

Conduct Work History Review After conducting a quick work history review (titles, companies, education, compensation, size of team), which usually takes about six to eight minutes, you’ll know whether the candidate is in the game or not.

Moving Forward And Getting Referrals If the person is not qualified, use the following technique to get referrals. Remember, at this point in the conversation you have not told the person much about the job. If the person is a good fit, you’ll want to arrange another call. See Scenario Two for how to do this.

Scenario One: Overqualified for the job. Get referrals. (If underqualified, just reverse this process.)

Jim: I’m very impressed with your background, but I think this job is not a big enough move for you. As part of our job matching process, we like to see at least a 10%-15% stretch for new hires. This makes it worthwhile for you to make the move. Regardless, I’d like to review your background with a few marketing executives and make sure that if something bigger develops, you and I can reconnect. However, someone who worked for you at a prior employer might actually be worth networking with. Let me give you a quick overview of the position. (Provide quick compelling elevator pitch about job and its importance. Then get two or referrals by asking the following.)

Jim: Is there someone you worked with in the past who you think would be qualified for something like this? I only want to target passive candidates who are not looking. We want to be able to offer 10-15% job stretch and growth, so we want to target people who need to be recruited. I’ll even talk with people who might know the right person, just to build up my network. Who are some of the best people you’ve worked with in the past? (Interact.) Who would you like to hire someday if you could? (Interact.) (The point of all this is that, in order to get names of top people, you need to first establish a professional relationship with the candidate. You do this by being vague about the job so the person doesn’t opt out, by conducting a work history review, and then by proactively asking for names of top people. If you restrict your phone calls to only top targeted people, you should be able to find three or four great candidates in a few days.)

Scenario Two: Qualified. Set up for next round. Jim: Karen, your background is very impressive. Let me tell you a little about the job and our unique job matching process. (Provide longer elevator pitch about the job, describing two or three areas of obvious stretch, like team size, budget, scope, scale, or complexity.) On the surface, does this seem like something worth evaluating in a little more depth? (Interact. If you conducted the work history and screening properly, 90% will say yes.) Jim: Let’s set up a phone call later today or tonight. What’s your cell phone or home number? (Get both!) I’d like to review your background in more detail during this call, and give you a thorough overview of the job. I also want to describe our job matching process. (Introduce candidate to job matching. You’ll use job matching to maximize the close rate of top candidates, minimize counteroffers, reneges, and no-shows.) Jim: I think we’re one of the few companies that formalizes the career selection process to make sure our candidates make the best long-term career move for them and that we select the best person for the job. Assuming everything goes smoothly, we both recognize that the only way you’ll accept an offer from us is if it’s a great career move. We’ve found ten factors top people use to decide whether they’ll accept a job or not. As I review each factor, could you tell me how you’d rank your current job? We’ll rank the new job the same way. If an offer is eventually made, this way you’ll clearly see if a move is worth making.

Job Matching: How to Compare Two Different Jobs

As Jim reviews the ten factors below with Karen, he asks her how she’d rank her current job on each of the following factors. You can do the same with your candidates. As the candidate learns more about the current opening during the interview and selection process, she’ll be able to determine if the new job is a strong career move. You can also use the idea of getting more information about the job as a way to keep the candidate interested in the job and coming back. At the end of the process, this will increase the likelihood of acceptance and minimize the chance of her taking a counteroffer or another offer.

1. Job matching and satisfaction. “Are you highly motivated to do the work, find it fulfilling and enjoyable?”

keep reading…