Recruiters! “Get on the phone!” That’s what was said in the early 2000s, and continues to be said in every recruitment office across the globe.
But with so many systems (Bullhorn, Adapt, LinkedIn, Job Boards – and a plethora of other systems designed to help you source, scrape, spy), where on earth should a recruiter start? How are you supposed to get on the phone when you are surrounded by tech? Here are some tips recruiters love from my Inbound Sales Training Workshop.
How to Get a Recruiter on the Phone – HIIT Them!
Recruitment Leaders want their teams on the phone more. Recruiters often want to be on the phone, but need a purpose for the call, and they’re being distracted by systems and software. They need some inbound sales to kick start the sales process.
I’ve been talking about HIIT (high intensity interval training) for a while. I am a Joe Wicks devotee, a gym fanatic with a PT who has made me sweat in places I didn’t know I had places. I’m addicted to logging my workouts – my Garmin is one of my most useful bits of tech. As a multi-tasker HIIT is a gift.
We use HIIT in our recruitment training to help recruiters get value from their time – we’ve found that this new approach to recruitment training is a massive improvement. You just don’t want to be away from your desk for 4-6 hours. The forgetting curve is a recruiter’s enemy. You need a high intensity, passionate training session to get the blood pumping and the sales coming – and to make your training stick!
I have created a 9-minute HIIT for Recruiters to help you get on the phone. It’s nine, 1-minute hacks to drive more purposeful calls. Get in for 08:30, get a strong coffee, warm up, set your watch, and get started!
3-2-1 Recruiters! Go!
1. Check your LinkedIn SSI (social selling index) – it’s free, and has tips to help you improve your approach. This takes less than a minute. Quickly check – don’t get distracted. Make a note of where you need to improve, then, move to exercise 2.
2. Now you need to spend 1 minute attracting attention from the people you want to sell to (and get the CV of). You claim you are a niche recruiter – now’s the time to prove it. Spend 1 minute sharing some content that they are likely to look at, that once they have looked are likely to look at your profile. (And you’ll see them do it and can add to your call list.)
3. Repost your top jobs in 1 minute. No-one is staring at your profile all day, so you’re unlikely to wind anyone up by sharing jobs every day. Get cracking – you need job applications and you won’t get them by posting them once and walking away for 30 days!
4. Whilst you’re posting content and jobs think about my hack for getting the damn things read and actioned! Spending 1 minute whispering will get you nowhere. Be smart and get noticed – try my LinkedIn posting hacks:
“The doctors in my medical community with love this post about the best apps for medical professionals – I especially love # 5”.
Trust me, recruiters! This will attract doctors, market your brand and get them wanting to know what # 5 is. Click bait!
“This a great job for IT Managers who want to work in a business with the best hardware and a bought-in board of Directors who really get what IT can do for a business”.
Recruiters – mention the pain points of your community and they’ll read your job adverts. (More job advert hacks here)
5. There’s plenty of things a recruiter can do one-handed ;-)! And sourcing is one of them. You do not need lengthy boolean strings to pickle your brain and test your patience. There are at least 13 places in LinkedIn where you can source with one hand (and two eyes). Try areas like your home page, the pages of your ideal candidates – look for “people like” etc… and who has liked the content of your competitors / clients. These are warm gifts, not cold calls! damn! Get on the phone and source one-handed at the same time… it’s possible!
6. Right – I know you think know how to connect, but I have a hack for you to get you super-effective. When you send your ideal connection an invite, add some content which gets your contact hooked. If it’s from your website, rock n’ roll! Ask your marketer to set up something like Leadfeeder – this tells you who has been to your website. You should have a target list of people you want to convert. Send them your content, see if they bite. Add them to your call list if they do. Rinse and repeat if they don’t!
Try this TURBO in your HIIT, recruiters! I have worked with a few recruiters using Calendly… a really cute (free) bit of kit that shows your prospects areas of your diary that you want them to book for a call. Send them a link with some call date options. Let them know (think) that that they are in charge. Without lifting a finger, fill your diary with your target’s interview appointments! This is one of my favourite Recruiter Hacks.
“Hi Uzma, I’m sending you this link as I have a role that I know you’ll be great at and it has such a great benefits package and training and development opportunities. Feel free to book a call with me at a time to suit you.”
7. Spend 1 minute getting under the skin of your prospects. Use Crystal Knows to study the profiles of your prospects, and use the tips it gives you for how to convert them. It’s a scarily accurate profiler!
8. We all know that video is the biggest thing to hit the web, and its going to the biggest thing to help you convert. Try Loom to record a 30 second “hi” video that you can send to your prospects.
Get an ideal client’s job advert on your screen and talk to them about the candidates you have for them.
“Hi Luke, I see that you’re looking for a Project Manager. I work in your field and understand how crucial this role must be fore you. I have currently got 5 candidates that I know would be a great asset to your business.”
Get your prospect candidate on your screen and record
“Hi, Emily. I can see that you are a ###, and that you get a kick out of ###. I’d love to talk to you about ###…”
Sending someone a video about themselves, with your face in the bottom left, and you’re talking to them – they’ll be hooked!
9. Spend 1 minute checking your LinkedIn notifications (bell, top right!) Look for birthdays, promotions, who’s viewed your profile, who’s liked your content. All of the stuff you’ve done above will be reaping rewards. Grab these leads. Add this to your call list.
Recruiters! It’s not even 09:00 and you’re ready to rock!
Get on the Phone and Sell, Recruiters
We deliver these recruiter hacks as part of our Inbound Sales Training Workshops. Contact me if you want to not only get your recruiters on the phone, but also generating some genuine and convertible leads.
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Tired of Unsubscribes? 5 Email Tips Every Recruiter Should Know
Recruiters, marketers, automators... If you’re running regular email campaigns to candidates or clients, with tech like Bullhorn Automation, unsubscribes are either a fact of life or something you dread, and may even be the reason you are not ambitious enough with your outreach.Through the free consultation calls I have with recruiter / leaders / automators who have Bullhorn, I’ve been finding myself talking a lot about managing recruitment campaign outputs, and dreaded unsubscribes.Unsubscribes can feel like a blow to your efforts, but there are ways to prevent them which I'll explore below.💡Be sure to also read my other blog: How Recruiters Can Turn Bounces and Unsubscribes into $£€- so that when you get an unsubscribe or hard bounce, you could actually create more recruitment opportunities.5 Ways to Reduce Your Candidates and Clients from UnsubscribingI've got lots of tips to share, that we coach in our Automation Buddy programs, but here's 5 to get you started today.1️⃣Clean up / segment your data I guarantee you have data which you no longer need (old sectors / job titles you no longer recruit for).Perhaps the data you need isn't coded well enough for you to segment it, hence you risk hitting parts of your community with the wrong content.But, don't procrastinate over this - you don't need a 100% clean database to start a campaign, or to make an approach. Clean up some data, and hit it. Then move on to the next layer to attack.2️⃣Subject lines need to punch above their weightKeep them short and sweet, but personalised (about them, not you (or recruitment) and relevant to your community.Think "mobile first" and ensure that your subject line can actually be read on a mobile device. For example, the Mail app on iPhones displays up to 78 characters in the subject line area.Emojis can help you stand out in a big list of emails, too.3️⃣Content, creating contentment (not consternation)I'm still seeing way too much recruitment content online, and not enough sector-specific content form recruiters.I yawn at interview tips / what to wear to interviews etc... It works less well than content aimed at your sector and job titles.At a stretch "Interview tips for Accountants" is better than a more generic topic, but even so, if that's the best content you can create, you need to try harder.What tech does your community use? Find out and talk about it.How is AI / world events affecting them? Find out and talk about it.It's never been easier to find out more about what makes your community tick - ask them, ask Google, ask AI!4️⃣Formatting to attract attention (but be WCAG-aware)I recently spotted a recruitment campaign where the email content was centred throughout and black and white - very uninspiring, and actually quite difficult to engage with.In the very least breath your brand colours into your content and check WCAG guidelines to ensure that you're not inadvertently muting your content.If your community uses Instagram / Facebook etc... be sure that they expect your content to have a life beyond black and white copy. Colour, emojis, personality - shine!5️⃣"Pitch" the unsubscribeWhat does the unsubscribe footer in your mailers look like?Is it simply an invite to unsubscribe? Or have you pitched that if they do, they'll miss out on future helpful content, and life-changing jobs?I see way too many campaigns that look like the goal is to generate unsubscribes! Ironically the footer is often more engaging than the mailer itself."We're fixated on helping our teaching community stay up to speed with the best tips, tricks, and jobs. You can unsubscribe, but then you may miss your next best teaching hack, or career move"...is better than..."Unsubscribe".📍Final Thought: Create Recruitment Campaigns to Keep Your Community SubscribedYour data, message, design are crucial to keeping your community from opting out.By keeping your content relevant, valuable, and human—you’ll build a database that’s active, engaged, and ready to work with you.Want help building an automation and outreach strategy to keep your community of candidates and clients opted in? Let’s talk.I offer free consultations to help leaders / recruiters / automators unlock the power of their Bullhorn database and create opportunities .BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
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How Recruiters Can Turn Bounces and Unsubscribes into $£€
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