In a sort of Darwinian way, weak recruiters remove themselves from the industry. Let’s face it: recruiting is tough. There are objections lurking around every corner.
This profession is not easy. However, those of us who won’t accept defeat make it happen. To do that, you need to follow certain rules.
You hear client objections all of the time. You must have a strategy in place to deal with them.
Below are two rules for overcoming objections in recruiting:
Objections rule #1: Talk to the owner of the problem.
Many times when we hear objections, we are not talking to the right people or the specific hiring manager who owns the problem. Our friends in HR are good at delivering the bad news. A great example: I got a call last month from one of an existing client’s HR managers. He’d heard that the major ERP organizations were only paying flat $10K fees. And he wanted the same deal. His reasoning: if Oracle and HP can get away with it, why can’t my small software provider?
It’s a classic mistake, and one I needed to correct. Right away, I arranged a conference call with HR. I then began discussions with the hiring manager who owned the problem. We talked about the difficulties he was having finding and acquiring top talent in his market. We defined the pain associated with sub-par talent, the risks posed by tolerating a player on a team that absolutely needed superstars. We never talked fee reduction. This was a conversation completely focused on one thing: identifying the ways in which we could find better talent, more quickly.
Talking to the owner of the problem or the actual hiring manager increases your chances of working through the issues on the table. It isn’t about fees. It’s about people. HR may not feel the pain when a team is struggling to find top talent, but I think they like inflicting it sometimes!
Objections rule #2: Understand the problem.
Sometimes I feel like I should tell people that I’m a full-time recruiter and a part-time psychologist. Because over the years, I’ve realized that my clients need a lot more from me than a cursory knowledge of their hiring needs. Recruiters need to really understand their clients. The more we know them and the deeper our understanding of what they are going through, the better we are positioned to help them.
Never forget: all problems in business are people-related. To identify what is really going on in an organization, get to the tertiary level of questioning.
For example, a client tells you that her firm is putting into place a hiring freeze. You then ask the first question: “Why would you do that?” Your client explains there has been a slowdown in revenues lately. At this point, most recruiters would put their tails between their legs and slink off to the next client hoping for better things.
But that is exactly the wrong thing to do! Here is a chance to earn your stripes. Ask the secondary level of questioning:
“Where are you seeing a shortfall in revenue? Is it a product, service, or location?”
The client tells you the shortfall in revenue is occurring mainly in the Southeast, which accounted for 33% of the company’s revenue last year. This is your chance to use your tertiary level of questioning.
Follow up with this: “Is there a problem with the product or service or with your sales team in prospecting for new business?”
It isn’t that the product has failed. It’s the people failing the company. When you’ve subtly led the client to that inescapable conclusion, you’ve won. She may pause for a few seconds, give an uneasy laugh, and say something like, “Our product is still the best in the industry.”
Bingo! The truth will set you free.
By achieving the tertiary level of questioning on business issues, you will uncover realized and unrealized client needs. Like a psychologist helping a patient navigate through complex problems, unrealized (or latent) needs are what recruiters need to uncover. We must really understand our clients’ problems.
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Jon Bartos 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.
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