The “Question-Based Approach” to recruiting scripts is a method that uncovers realized and unrealized needs. One must first establish credibility and then ask questions to uncover the needs. It’s a fun approach and takes a detective-question-asking mentality to be successful at it. The process is to:
- Ask questions
- Uncover realized or unrealized needs
- Quantify the need in dollars and cents as well as other costs; ”Maximize the Pain”
- Provide an alternative solution
- Offer “proof” and plan to move forward
For example:
“Hi, Mr. Prospect, My name is Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. How are you today? Great. Mr. Prospect, we are one of the leading recruiting firms in the Mobility Computing space. We have helped these [name three organization]) in your industry build their teams with “A” players to help them achieve their goals. I don’t know if we can help your organization or not, but I would like to ask a couple of questions if you have a minute? Wonderful…”
Ask questions:
“Mr. Prospect… As you may know, Game Changers are individuals at organizations that can make a major positive difference in their organization to help them quickly attain their objectives. How do you find Game Changers at your organization? What methods are you using?”
Additional questions:
“How are your current methods working for you? How long does it take to locate the talent you are bringing to the table? How long does it take you to fill an open position in your area? How do you know for sure you have a Game Changer when you hire one? If you could change one thing about the process you are using, what would it be? What positions do you have now in which you could use a few Game Changers?”
Quantify the need:
“So it takes you about four months to fill a position? Who is doing the job in the meantime? Really? How much is that costing the organization? What happens if you don’t fill the position – what would that mean to the organization? That’s a lot of time and a lot of money.”
Alternate solution:
“What if I could show you a way to reduce the time to fill each position as well as to reduce that $400,000 profit number that you are losing due to inefficient sourcing and hiring methods. Would that be justification for us to do business? Good.
“Here is what we have done for some of your competitors…. (Explain value proposition – why use you opposed to all alternatives.)”
“I propose we work together this way, to solve your sourcing and hiring problems. (Explain the way to work together to solve their problems.)”
Offer proof:
“Don’t take my word for it, Mr. Prospect. We have worked with ABC organization for the last twelve months. We have brought their hiring time to fill from three months to just over six weeks – which saved the organization over $250,000 in hard costs, not including the soft costs. I would like to give you their number as a reference to call and to verify the results they have experienced.”
We are now well in to the second quarter of 2011 but there is still time to implement the three key principles (the Quantity/Quality/Starving Man Principle, the 7 Selling Situations Principle, and the Insight Principle) in to your marketing approach and to give these scripts a try based on what is applicable to your situation. Start now; you may be surprised at the positive results they yield.
But as most successful recruiters know, it’s really not about “how great your script is” or “how good you sound” on the phone. The key is making the calls!! Just pick an approach, pick up the phone and make the calls! Make 20 calls a day minimum—but make them every day.
Most people who are unsuccessful in this business fail simply because they do not make the calls. They are unable to obtain enough assignments to even apply the quantity/quality principle. Don’t let this happen to you. The reality is that “quantity” solves all your quality job order problems. As a matter of fact, it will most likely solve all of your money problems, too!
— — —
Jon Bartos, a guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog, is a premier writer, speaker, and consultant on all aspects of personal performance, human capital, and the analytics behind them. In 2010, Bartos founded Revenue Performance Management, LLC. The RPM Dashboard System is a business intelligence tool used worldwide for metrics management for individual and team performance improvement. In 2012, Bartos achieved national certification in Hypnotherapy, furthering his interest in learning the dynamics behind what motivates others to achieve higher levels of success. Click here to visit Bartos’s website.