artofrecruiting blog

Preparation Goes A Long Way When Executing Recruiting Cold Calls

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Several weeks ago I delivered a webinar presentation entitled, “Advanced Introductory Calls to Passive Candidate Prospects – Making Every Call A Great Call.”   With roughly 200 or so recruiters on the call, it seemed only logical to start out the presentation by ascertaining the audience’s overall comfort level with respect to making cold calls.   I provided four options that program participants could respond to, as follows:

1)      I am highly comfortable making recruiting cold calls (I live, breathe, and eat this stuff!);

2)      I am fairly comfortable making recruiting cold calls (I’m effective at making cold calls but interested in seeing if there’s a better approach);

3)      I am fairly uncomfortable making recruiting cold calls (Making cold calls gives me the “Willies” – I’d like to get more comfortable);

4)      I am highly uncomfortable making recruiting cold calls (These types of call make me break out into a cold sweat).

In candor, I really had no idea of how the audience would respond, but the results were as follows:

1)      11% Responded: I am highly comfortable making recruiting cold calls;

2)      40% Responded: I am fairly comfortable making recruiting cold calls;

3)      33% Responded: I am fairly uncomfortable making recruiting cold calls;

4)      8%  Responded:  I am highly uncomfortable making recruiting cold calls;

5)      8% Provided No Response

In simple terms, 51%, or roughly half of the participants felt that they were good at, or at least comfortable with making cold calls.  Interestingly, however, another 41% were far less comfortable with making cold calls.  Why?  Well, there are lots of reasons why people feel uncomfortable with respect to making cold calls, including: Fear of Rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of seeming unknowledgeable, and finally a fear of intrusion or imposition.   In my experience, the best way to conquer a fear is to recognize it, embrace it, and to devise a rational approach to overcoming it.  With respect to overcoming a fear of making recruiting cold calls, the most important antidote is proper preparation. 

From my vantage point, proper preparation is much more than having a written script to use when making calls (and frankly while I see great value in drafting call scripts, I certainly don’t advocate reading from a piece of paper, as there's nothing worse than sounding “canned”).

Proper preparation starts with being able to articulate your firm’s compelling story (or that of your client firm, if you are a 3^rd party recruiter).  It may seem terribly simplistic, but over the years I’ve been amazed by the number of recruiters, and hiring managers for that matter, who are not especially adept at crafting and utilizing recruiting selling messages that will resonate with prospective candidates.  After all, as recruiters we would ideally like to secure what I call the “WOW” response from candidates, as in “WOW!  Your company has a great story!”

The second aspect of proper preparation ties into the exact words, phraseology, and speaking pace that you use when making recruiting cold calls.  I’m a huge proponent of Unfocused Cold Calls, as opposed to Focused Cold Calls, because I’ve found that it’s far more effective to orient the call around discussing a prospect’s career first and our opportunity second. While there’s not enough space here to adequately address the many distinctions between these calling formats, trust me, Unfocused Cold Calls work.

The third component that ties into proper preparation is knowing exactly how to respond to the candidate prospect regardless of whether the individual is interested in hearing about a potential new situation or not.  This is the part of the call where you have to be able to think on your feet and come across as a genuine, engaging, and “no pressure” recruiter.  Too often, it seems that recruiters measure whether or not a cold call has been effective based entirely upon whether or not the call yields an immediate candidate for a given opportunity, when the real measure should be whether the call ultimately resulted in the creation of an actionable business relationship that can be appropriately leveraged over time.

While there is no magic elixir that will make everyone comfortable when executing cold calls, there’s also no substitute for solid preparation.  Knowing who you are calling, what you want to say, how you want to say it, and having a clear appreciation for the specifics associated with a particular position or opportunity that you may be interested in sharing with a prospective candidate collectively reflect on your expertise and ability as a recruiting professional.