Do NOT take it for granted that once you and a candidate have set expectations, the hard work is done.
Life can change in a moment. Someone gets promoted. A recruiter contacts your top candidate offering a dream job. A wife finds out she’s pregnant, which is great news for the couple, but not for the recruiter.
To do our job as recruiters well, we must re-qualify the candidate every time we talk . . . because things change. And that’s why it’s crucial to continually set expectations with top candidates.
Re-qualifying an in-process candidate is not difficult to do. Questions like, “Last time we talked, you were at a 9 on a scale of 1-10 . . . are you still at a 9 or 10?” or “Can you see yourself working for this company in the next two weeks?” are questions you should pose.
I also find more general inquiries can be instructive: “Has anything changed since the last time we talked?” or “How is your spouse handling all this excitement? What does your spouse think about the new opportunity?”
If you sense hesitation, it’s your job to go further. Find out why the interest level is dropping: identify and address objections. Be ready to take the candidate out of the process if you feel it is going in the wrong direction.
A take-away close—letting a candidate know they have been taken out of an opportunity—is one of the strongest closes in the recruiting business. People generally want what they can’t have. When they see something slipping away, they often regain waning interest. That’s why this technique works well in recruiting, buying a new car, or in relationships.
If you or the hiring authority overinflates a candidate’s ego, you run the risk of relinquishing the power in the process. Reasonable offers are refused. The candidate is in control, and that can artificially raise commit numbers.
Good recruiters pre-close and pre-qualify. Great recruiters go another step in continually re-qualifying. The most important conversation you will ever have with a candidate is setting the initial expectations.
The second most important conversation is the one just prior to the final interview. This is your chance to get a spoken commitment from the candidate, that they will take the job “if all goes well” at the agreed-upon commit number.
This conversation should be thorough and leave nothing open to interpretation. Go over interview time/place, verify interest level, and the agreed-upon commit number (including permission to negotiate appropriate salary, bonus, vacation time, or benefits).
If at any time in this conversation you hear or feel the interest level has dropped, go in-depth. Probe to find out what the objection is and handle it immediately. Don’t be timid; if the candidate is wavering, consider the take-away close.
Fickle candidates are not top candidates. If you’ve addressed every objection and a candidate won’t commit, stop. There is a very real possibility an offer will be made, and it will be declined. Save everyone time, money, and frustration and get rid of the candidate.
Recruiters and hiring managers are, in some sense, their brothers’ keepers. They must be tough enough to eliminate even excellent candidates when there is a lack of commitment at any stage of the hiring process.
When we honor the commandment, “Thou shall never extend an offer unless certain it will be accepted,” we prove to our clients that we are worthy of their trust and their continued business. You lose candidates who would have wasted your time . . . and gain candidate control, client appreciation, and more and more placements.
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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.
Excellent article and extremely helpful!