Welcome to another installment regarding scripts for recruiter business development.
Keep in mind: different selling situations will call for different scripts. As a recruiter, it is important to have as many options (clubs) in your recruiting bag as possible. Master them all, so you will be prepared for any selling situation and have the ability to pull them out when that shot is needed. Don’t forget, the goal is to achieve a large quantity of job orders in your recruiting software so you have the ability to continually “top grade” the work you have on your desk. Until you get a large number of “A” search assignments (job orders), keep marketing every day. That’s right: every day.
Below are two more recruiting scripts for business development:
#1—Job posting approach
Most recruiters are very familiar with searching and viewing the postings on the job aggregators (Indeed, Jobster, and SimplyHired), as well as the main job posting boards. These postings can be great sources for marketing opportunities if the appropriate approach is utilized. We don’t want to look like an ambulance-chasing attorney trying to make an extra buck. You have to be honest and upfront. It is most important to get the hiring manager’s name before the call. Calling into HR will do you little to no good. Get on LinkedIn or the company website and find out who the hiring manager is, then make the call as follows:
“Hi, Mr. Prospect, This is Jon Bartos with the Global Performance Group. We haven’t talked before, but I need your help. Do you have a second? Great! We work with many of your competitors and focus exclusively on [industry name]. Here’s where I need your help: I had an email sent to me about a position your organization posted for a [position name]. I recently concluded that same search for a competitor and have been working with a few A-players that may be exactly what you are looking for now. If anything, it could certainly save you a significant amount of time in filling the position. Whom would I speak with at your organization to help you fill these openings?”
If you get any resistance, you can try this:
“I was just trying to call to make your job easier. It’s proven that A-players can be as much as 10 times more effective than a B-player. As you can imagine, most of the A-players are invisible to your job ads due to fact they are not actively looking; they are happy and ‘knocking the cover off the ball’ with a competitor. The only real way to get hold of these impact players is through real relationships like I have with these individuals. Does it make sense to get a few of these A-players in the mix and explore the possibilities?”
#2—Flip reference check
Reference checks are an excellent way to get additional job orders and search assignments. By doing a very thorough and professional job conducting the reference check, you will have established enough rapport to ask for their help. Every reference check with a hiring manager should be flipped to see if there are opportunities to do business with their firm. At the end of the reference check, mention something like the following:
“Thank you for the time and the reference for [candidate’s name.] One quick question: since we work in the same industry as you do, who would I work with at your organization to help find great talent?”
You could also add in a few questions before this statement:
- “How difficult is it for your organization to find true A-players?”
- “How are you finding your talent today?”
- “How long does it take you to fill a position?”
- “Really, what’s that costing your organization?”
- “How are the current recruiting efforts working from your perspective?”
It is always good to find the pain in recruiting and maximize it, to open the door to the solutions you can provide. In my next blog post, I’ll wrap up this series about recruiting scripts for business development.
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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.