RecruitingDaily Simple Tip: Love Your Phone

Maybe this is just a reminder, a wake up, or a simple tip.  I am not entirely sure.  But what I do know is the enemy of successful recruiting is Call Reluctance.  I learned this simple term the hard way from an early manager.  Every recruiting difficulty I discussed with him in the early days would end up with the question:  Did you ask them and what did they say?  What I suffered from was thinking about the situations I faced so much that I started to “think” for my clients and candidates.  Luckily I did not do this too long.  And luckily I had a manger that told me to “pick up the phone and ask the questions”.  And so I did, and it worked.

Call Reluctance is the make or break of all new recruiters.  New recruiters come from all backgrounds.  None of started out saying when we grew up we wanted to be recruiters, but we find our way there.  And when I am involved in hiring and training new recruiters I always try to see if the phone call is one of the first choices the make in figuring out a question regarding a potential placement.  Early on I had the pleasure of working with a woman named Joan.  She was someone that I looked up to instantly.  On her computer she had a Post It note that had two things written on it:  TCB and ABC or Take Care of Business and Always Be Closing.  Those were the first things I learned from her about the sales side of recruiting.  But one day she said to me:  “Noel, don’t think about making the call, make the call, talk to them, they are people and you and your personality are the reason they are working with you.  What is the worst thing that can happen?”  That rang out in my head and gave me an idea for my own Post It note:  “Just Do It!”  OK, I took that one from Nike, but it was so very true for me.  Whether I was going to make some cold calls, debrief an interview, or market a candidate, I had to pick up the phone in order to utilize my most important technology, me.  I would get my important points ready and then Just Do It.  Every time.  No holding back.  And I never looked back.

Today we have a multitude of ways to contact our target audience.  We email, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, direct mail, print advertise, and online advertise.  We use our iPads, laptops, desktops, smartphones, blackberry’s, iPhones, and Androids.  And, we use our voice.  It is our voice that gets the real work done.  Successful recruiters know this and yes I know it is so obvoius. The tools of the recruiting trade are excellent improvements on productivity.  Heck, we review them here on RecruitingDaily.com all the time.  I carry two smartphones and use all the technologies all the time.  I love them and they help me be productive, stay organized, and succeed.  And my simple tip is this: the one tool that must be used, all the time, is you, and your voice.  Don’t get too far away from it.