Improving Recruiting Skills and Reflexes!

Training Like a Professional Have you ever participated seriously in a competitive sport? Do you know the manner in which people train for one? If you look deeply, you will see a strong resemblance in principal to that sport and our business. Because the reality is, if we put aside planning and strategizing and focus on the actual mechanics of what we do, after a period of time we get by on our reflexes. Throughout our working day we continually encounter a multitude of seemingly minor circumstances and objections which require us to respond, perhaps by additional probing questions, perhaps with rebuttals. If those situations are handled properly, we gain additional information or we overcome the objection and proceed to our next step. Does this always happen? No. But to the degree we do respond with maximum effectiveness, we improve our production. Consider it. A prospective client says he only pays a 20% fee. A candidate says she's happy where she is. Clients say they'll hire immediately if you find the right person. Candidates after interviews claim "everything went great". A hundred times a day we encounter situations where we might respond a bit better. But do we? We never see the hard results we might have had, so we think we are doing well. Perhaps we are. But if, as has been said, baseball is a game of inches, maximizing recruiting results is a game of improving your odds by enhanced skill at responses. A new person, of course, needs a solid foundation to do well. But once past that point - say, after a couple of years - you need better reflexes. HOW TO IMPROVE Sharpening up your reflexes is a two-step process, though that process can continue forever as you see more areas where you might improve. The first, of course, is identifying the areas where sharper reflexes will result in incremental additional billings. This does not have to only include such obvious areas as overcoming objections. Do you speak too rapidly? Have you fallen into repetitive speech patterns? Do you respond too quickly after the client or candidate stops talking without a brief moment of time to indicate you are listening? Do you ask questions to elicit more specific information rather than making statements? These too are reflexes. WHERE TO FOCUS Your first step is obviously to narrow your focus. Don't think you can just say "I need to do better" and leave it at that. You must train like a professional athlete. What does this mean? There is a major difference between how an amateur and a professional train. An amateur just does more of his sport - he plays more golf or tennis, he spars (in karate or boxing) more. By doing so, he may improve (slowly), but will never progress past his amateur level. A professional determines which specific area he needs to improve, and then spends time focusing on it alone. To do so, you must find your weak spots. Here are the ways to do so. Yourself Initially, try simply asking yourself where you could improve. Over the years, chances are you've noticed or been told about them, and have said to yourself "I need to work on that". Have you? Probably. Is the problem corrected? Perhaps not. Manager/Others If you have a manager, it's a mistake to think that he can't help you. If you haven't indicated a willingness to improve, he may just be concentrating on new people or those who ask for his help. Tell him you're ready to learn more and ask. If you are the manager, ask your most senior recruiter for some suggestions. He won't think you're "showing weakness"; he'll respect you for wanting to improve...as he should. Tape and Critique Your Calls Professional athletes record and evaluate their performances all the time to improve. You should, too. Our equivalent is a tape recorder hooked up to your phone. Visit Radio Shack or a similar electronics store. Fifteen minutes a day, three days a week, listening to your own calls after hours at home will get any experienced recruiter realizing where he can be improved. Notes and Numbers Have an unusually-colored sheet of paper on your desk (so it doesn't get lost in the clutter). Whenever something happens that you feel you didn't handle particularly well, write it down. Keep doing it. Over the course of a few weeks, a pattern is quite likely to emerge. Throughout these procedures, don't concentrate only on the words that you say. The manner of your presentation is not to be overlooked. And it too can be changed to the great benefit of your production. HOW TO IMPROVE Notes on Your Phone Take a look at your phone right now. Is there a note on it relating to improved performance? If not, you're missing an easy way to improve. Reflexes are habits; habits, to change, require ongoing reminders. Put a new sign on your phone every week. While brief pieces of "script" are certainly possible, it is more likely that these will reflect your manner of presentation and broad principles. Some examples might be "slow your pace", "ask questions" or "reinforce positives". Role-Playing No matter how good an athlete is, he practices. No matter how good a musician is, he practices - every day. Do you? Role-playing is our equivalent of practicing, and it will benefit you, the experienced recruiter, just as much as a novice. Conduct a Sales Meeting Aristotle once said that "the truest knowledge of an art is the ability to teach it". You don't need to teach everything about this business; you just need to do it. But teaching a weak spot of yours will force you to organize your thoughts, consider the problem and solution in depth, and formalize your knowledge. Immersion Serious professional-level athletes do not always "eat, sleep and breathe" their sport. But they do spend a lot of time thinking about it when in a non-competitive or non-training environment. So should you! Do you commute to work? You should be listening to industry-specific CDs. If you don't commute, you should listen while showering or (if you eat alone) while having breakfast. Andrew Carnegie wrote that a career is made or marred in the hours after formal work is done. That's true of you as well: commit to your improvement! And partial non-office-hours immersion in your career is the way to do it. Finally No matter how good or how experienced you are, significant improvement is possible. Accomplishing it will not only give you the sense of the forward movement which is the hallmark of a successful person in any field; it will make you a lot more money! The above suggestions will go far towards achieving that goal.