We are in the recruiting profession. The recruiting profession is a sales profession!
Cold calling is part of any good sales professional’s responsibilities. Information available on the Internet and social networks has actually converted most cold calls into informed warm calls.
You may have an established client base, but if you’re not representing the clients your candidates want to work for, you will not have a record year in 2015!
You may have a database filled with candidates, but are they the top talent your clients want to hire? You need to continually upgrade the talent you represent and always look for qualified candidates to represent.
Top clients and top candidates don’t necessarily track you down! Often, if you’ve worked your referral process, you do get incoming calls that result in clients and candidates. But it’s critical that you cold call throughout your entire career.
Once you’ve mastered the basics of recruiting, you know how to call and you know who to call. You just have to schedule the time to make the calls. If you say you hate cold calling, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cold calls are a means to an end!
It’s worth learning how to effectively cold call if you want to continually improve your income and profits. Just think of what you would be producing if you were still making the number of cold calls you did when you first entered our profession. The results would me amazing!
When it comes to cold calling, what’s the worst thing that can happen?
- You get rejected.
- The person is rude or irritated.
- The person hangs up.
SO WHAT? NOW WHAT?
They don’t know you or what you could do for them. If they did, they would talk to you! You could change their lives for the better! Candidates—we are their FREE Jerry McGuire. Clients—we bring top talent to them that they could NOT attract on their own.
When you cold call, you must focus on the “WIIFM” of the person on the other end of the telephone. That’s their “What’s In It For Me.”
WWD (“What We Do”) cold calls don’t work unless the person understands how “what you do” can benefit them. They will not be receptive.
When a candidate or client rejects me, I feel sorry for them because they don’t realize what I could do for them. They also don’t realize the level of service and results I would have provided for them!
The beauty of what we do is that it’s primarily done over the phone! It’s not like someone is slamming a door in our face. They may hang up the phone . . . but who cares?
Your top client in 2015 could be someone you’ve never talked to! You don’t want to only service your current client base. Ask every single candidate where they want to work and make sure you’re representing the hot companies.
What are YOUR thoughts on this? What’s your approach to cold calling? What has worked best for you in the past?
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Barb Bruno, CPC/CTS is a guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog, and you can hire her for your next conference or event or for in-house training. Barb’s training techniques have guided thousands of recruiters to a higher level of sales and profits. She is best known for her methodical, easy-to-implement strategies that she shares with her audiences. Her enthusiasm is contagious! If you would like to hire Barb, please call 219.663.9609, email support@staffingandrecruiting.com, or visit Good as Gold Training online.