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Convincing Passive Candidates-Useful Tips

Convincing passive candidates:

Points to Remember:

1) 1st call 3-5 Minutes
2) Approach & Philosophy
3) Candidates may want to qualify you
4) Agnostic approach
5) Have an exploratory approach
6) Support (Company) Branding
7) Voice mails are the foundation for warmer calls later


Call examples:

• You are right, we haven’t spoken before.
• I was given your name by another in a recruiting capacity
• Unfortunately, I can’t give the source name, as this is a candidate I am working with. I like to keep the confidentiality intact.
• I was calling to confidentially and informally see if you are willing to look at prospective opportunities.
• It sounds like you are pretty happy at your present co.(name it). I am not calling you to be disloyal to present co.(name it) but I was confidentially calling to see if you are willing to explore opportunities.
• What this does is that it gives you an opportunity of self-reflection, and on the benefits & challenges a new job can bring. It’s not daily that a Fortune 100 company calls.
• After his reply – ‘should I expect your resume by next weekend?’
• If he/she says no, ‘Do you know of anybody who may be interested in talking to us?’
• ‘We protect the people we talk to. We respect the confidentiality. ‘
  

Objection of Location Issue:

I won’t say that its common for my Company to have employees working remotely but we have several instances where that’s been the case.

If you don’t have to move, don’t you think that the opportunity will be worth exploring?

On the Fence

I am not interested in having you leave. I understand that as a recruiter I have had the opportunity to work with highly successful people. Some of the best and brightest people I have come across are those who keep their eye open.

If there was a better opportunity out there that’s more rewarding, with bigger and better challenges, better for your family and career, won’t you at least be interested in hearing about it? Won’t you want to know about it?

We are one of the most rapidly growing companies in the world.

Lets say it worked out, and lets say you have an offer. At that point you will have the option to consider and compare it with your current company. At that point, you will have enough & complete information about us to make an informed decision.
There is absolutely no way you can lose. For example, even if you want to stay with your current company, you will have the option to renegotiate your salary with them.

(They will get the point that)
Smart people manage their careers. They keep their eyes open.

Adapt to the call. 'If I send you an email right now, when shall I expect a call?'

Objection of Compensation issue:

I would love to help you, but….
As we go further in the process, you’ll have a better idea about it. We are in various countries, we have 100s of open positions. Will love to have referrals for the positions.

Restress the confidentiality part.

You must engage with the person for at least 10 minutes to establish your professionalism

When the person says that he would be open to explore a situation if it were clearly better, you must not tell him anything about the job. This is a critical moment. You must get him to tell you about his background first. You have leverage (candidate control) when the person says yes. Don't lose it by telling him about the job. If the job is uninteresting to him, you've lost the candidate and the chance to get referrals. Try this to get the candidate to talk first: "Great. Why not give me a two-minute overview of your background; then, I'll give you a quick two-minute overview of the opportunity. If it seems mutually interesting, we can schedule some time later to talk in-depth." It takes about six to eight minutes to conduct a quick work history review. During this time, you're determining if the person is worthy and a potential finalist. Equally important: You're developing rapport with the candidate and demonstrating your professionalism.

You must have rebuttals for every major concern.

It's even better if you anticipate these concerns and objections before they're brought up. While most people won't say "no" to the "Would you be willing to explore a situation if it was clearly better than what you're doing today?" question, you must have a response when the person does says "no." One of my favorite responses is, "That's exactly why we need to talk." This is an attention-getting mechanism. Follow up with a discussion of why spending a few minutes to talk about a potential long-term career move is worth it. Most people will agree to go forward as long as you persist and can provide some logical rationale to continue.

You must maintain applicant control. Don't give up your leverage if the person turns out to be a potential candidate. Top people will stay engaged and ultimately accept offers without a big compensation increase if the job offers great potential. That's why creating an opportunity gap during the first screening call is so important and why the candidate must talk first. Look for areas of possible job growth as you ask about the person's background. Then suggest that in the next round of interviews, the candidate will learn if there's enough job stretch to consider moving.

Labels: anita, anita recruiter, convincing passive, passive candidate, recruiter, recruiting

posted by HappinessFactors @ 2:31 PM