Can Cold-Calling Be
Taught?
Reprinted with the permission of Bill
Radin
Imagine a
world with no files, no computers and no job boards -- just a desk,
a phone and a book of yellow pages. Think "Survivor" for
recruiters.
What would you do in such an environment? How
would you get by? Would you be willing to hunt for candidates and
fight off your competitors without the comforts of modern-day
technology?
If the answer is yes, you're not alone. In a
world of unprecedented information, many recruiters are trending in
a totally different direction. They've chosen to work -- and prosper
-- in the recruiter's version of the Stone Age.
They've found that the candidates they get from job boards,
databases, and subscription services are unsuitable. Here are a few
reasons why:
1. Insufficient supply. Many candidates with
specialized, esoteric or hybridized skill sets stay off the beaten
path, and don't tend to register with job boards or put their
resumes in global circulation.
2. Overexposure. Highly active
candidates often have lots of options when it comes to job
opportunities. The more you're in competition with your candidates
(and other recruiters who are calling), the less chance you have in
terms of realizing a return on your investment in time.
3.
Candidate quality. Rightly or wrongly, "active" candidates are often
perceived by hiring managers as less desirable than passive
candidates who are minding their own business, buried in
excellence. The rap on job-board candidates is that they tend to be
unemployed, disgruntled or more interested in playing the field than
in performing outstanding work at their current
jobs.
Frequently, managers who are frustrated with their
recruiters' dependency on job boards ask me if I can train their
recruiters to go "retro." Their objective is to develop their
recruiters' research, networking and cold-calling skills in order to
find fresh passive candidates.
Active vs. Passive
Recruiters
Have you ever noticed how passive recruiters tend
to affiliate with active candidates and active recruiters are always
on the lookout for passive candidates? Then it shouldn't surprise
you that switching to a totally different recruiting model
involves a fundamental change in the recruiter profile. Any
time you try to change a mindset, a methodology and a core
constituency all at once, you've got your hands full.
That's
not to say it can't be done. But before you make the investment in
time and effort, consider the differences between active, low-tech
recruiting and passive, job-board recruiting:
Commitment.
Low-tech recruiters can't rely solely on their current resume
inventory or a job board subscription to fill a position. Once you
take on a search, you can't cut and run just because you ran
out of names.
Resourcefulness. There's more to good detective
work than simply entering keywords. Sometimes, it takes
unconventional methods such as cold calling, back-door entry or
creative cross-referencing to find prospective
candidates.
Courage. We're paid the big bucks to do things
others can't stomach. If cold calling, being rejected or dealing
with disappointment were fun and easy, we'd be out of a
job.
I often wish that cold calling was as simple as looking
up a phone number and reading from a script. If this were the case,
it could easily be taught. The problem is that cold-call recruiting
is only one piece of a larger puzzle that involves finding where to
look, who to talk to and who to avoid as you navigate your way
through various obstacles.
Even more importantly, the
ability to recruit the old-fashioned way almost always requires a
change of attitude, culture and expectations. Recruiters with an
abundance of intestinal fortitude and a healthy dose of street
smarts are likely to thrive. In contrast, those looking for
low-hanging fruit are likely to
end up like the penguins Morgan Freeman describes in his narration
of Antarctic survival: sadly, not all of them will make
it.
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