60 Seconds to Win Candidates!
One of the biggest activities a Recruiter does is to speak with Candidates. Be it to assess their skills, check their interest, understand their attitude, see if are culturally fit or even to confirm and re-confirm their availability for an interview.
In spite of extensive efforts by the Recruiters to woo their candidates, many don’t achieve the intended result. Many times the candidate shows initial interest but later fades away and is not reachable. Candidates confirm their availability for an interview and do a no show at the last minute.
Research shows that more the Candidate trusts and believes in a Recruiter the less likely they are to ditch the Recruiter. The chances of honoring commitments become higher when the Recruiter gains high credibility in the eyes of the Candidate.
How can Recruiters establish such credibility quickly, assuming the Candidate is getting calls from numerous Recruiters in a day, especially if the Candidate is good and is actively looking for a job?
Here are 6 quick tips you can practice to build a stronger bond with the Candidate in the 60 seconds of your talk:
1. About yourself first: you need to talk about your background in terms of your professional career and how you have successfully managed to give great careers to many Candidates. Talk as if you are doing the ‘tell me something about yourself’ with them.
2. Address by their first name: make sure almost every sentence starts and ends with the Candidate’s first name. The more the Candidate hears their name, the more they sub-consciously start getting connected to you.
3. Admire their key experience: make Candidates comfortable by talking about their best experience first. This way the Candidate gets confident and talks freely. You are already building a sense of friendliness with the Candidate, which is key.
4. Ask leading questions: this means that build questions based on what they are saying instead of your own assessment driven questions. It shows you are listening and are curious about them rather than judging them. Nobody likes to be judged.
5. Tell them why they fit the role: contrary to asking Candidates to justify why they fit the role on offer, you need to tell them how the given role leverages their experience well and opens opportunity to deepen that experience with your company.
6. Let Go: towards the end of your call, check with them if they like what they hear and if not, it’s ok and that you can consider them for another opportunity in the future. Or simply why don’t you connect with me on LinkedIn and a lot of my other Recruiter friends may find your experience suitable for their needs. You have already become the ‘Recruiter’ they want to be connected to!
From experience, we can surely say that with such a level of bonding, you will have a Candidate who feels comfortable confiding with you his/her interest or disinterest on your opportunity. And importantly, you would have made a strong enough a connect for him/her to refer other people with their network to refer to you.
