Fix Your Broken Recruiting Process in 15 Minutes

I hate recruiting, and I’ll bet you do too. It’s a huge time suck, too many unqualified people apply, you can’t learn enough about the candidate before you invest in them, interviews are excruciating-;you get the picture.

Here’s my I Used to Hate Recruiting and Don’t Now five-step recruiting process. Use it when recruiting roles up to Director level… above that you’ll need a recruiter.

Here we go:

1. Write a detailed job description. Be sure to include: Situation, Tasks, Actions, Results + who will and won’t fit in the role (no whiners, yes self-starters) + compensation + what you want the candidate to do next (send their resume with a cover letter stating why they’re the best person for the job).

2. Circulate to friends and colleagues. (Hopefully you’ll find the new hire here and save tons of time.)

3. If you can’t get a personal referral, set up two free email accounts (such as GreatJob@gmail.com and GreatJobFinalist@gmail.com), and reference the first email address in your ad (which is the job description). Post the ad on your favorite job site.

4. The candidates will go through a rigorous self-screening process-;I’ll cover this in a minute.

5. Then you’ll go through your preferred process (TopGrading, etc.)-;which I’ll cover in a minute.

Here’s the self-screening process for candidates:

1. Set up an auto reply on email address #1 (example: GreatJob@gmail.com). It should say something like: “Thanks so much for your interest in our (open position name) position. Please answer the following pre-interview questions and send your answers to GreatJobFinalist@gmail.com.” Then list your questions. If your auto reply can’t accommodate much text, send candidates to a web page to download the questions/fill in a form.

2. Set up an auto reply on email address #2 (example: GreatJobFinalist@gmail.com). It should say something like: “Thanks so much for completing the pre-interview questions for our (open position name) position. We will be in touch with you (if you meet our qualifications/within 3 business days, etc.).”

3. In the posted ad (aka job description) you’ll have the applicant send their resume with a letter stating what value they bring to the company and why you should hire them. They will send this to email address #1 (GreatJob@gmail.com). Anyone who doesn’t follow the directions is eliminated, which is often greater than 50 percent of applicants-;who are resume spammers anyway. This just saved you hours of your precious time.

4. Next, the applicant will receive the auto reply message from email address #1, which will provide them with the pre-interview questions. They’ll then send their answers to email address #2. This screens out about another 50 percent because only a committed applicant will bother to answer the questions. This just saved you hours more.

5. The only email address you need to check is email address #2. Only applicants who went through the self-screening process are considered. This will reduce a 40-plus hour process down to 5 hours or so, making your HR team jubilant, and you guessed it, saving you even more precious time.

6. Those who answer the questions thoroughly and in a compelling way will get a phone call with you where you’ll step through the Topgrading (or your preferred) screening process.

7. Those who make it through the call will get a physical interview, where you’ll complete the Topgrading (or your preferred) process.

8. If that goes well, check references (see our sample reference checking questions).

9. If that goes well, hire them or put them on a 30-, 60- or 90-day trial with an initial compensation package.

10. Once the trial period ends you’ll know where their strengths truly lie and adjust their role, get them more training, possibly adjust their comp.

Here’s what you need and where to get it: click here to get to my Resources page. See the Ultimate Recruiting Kit near the top? Click to download it.

As soon as your ecstatic HR team stops dancing on their desks they can get started.

3 Proven Steps to Double Your Sales

Why do so many businesses have a tough time business building and ramping up sales? It’s because they’re pitching, not educating and adding value. Seems obvious, right?

Let’s say you sell telephone systems, like Company X does. Company X practiced sales by cold calling prospective companies to ask if they were interested in talking about a new telephone system (yuck--this is a standard product pitch). They had four salespeople making hundreds of calls per day. The result? A whopping three appointments per week. Ack!

First of all, every company that has a phone system more than five years old could benefit from a new phone system. Heck, more than 15 of the major providers of phone systems from just 10 years ago are now out of the phone system business. But inertia is a powerful force--and the enemy of business building and good choices. If the phone system isn’t broke, why fix it?

Ready to double sales? Take the following steps:

1. The first thing Company X did after discovering the education-based marketing concept was target bigger companies. The bigger the company, the bigger the phone system. The bigger the phone system, the bigger the sales potential.

2. The salespeople called the 2,000 largest companies in their market with two simple questions: “Hi, we’re doing our annual telephone system survey. I just need to know two things: What is the model of your phone system, and how old is it?” In two days, the salespeople had a list of 508 companies with old and often obsolete phone systems.

3. Now for the best part: education-based marketing. The sales reps called on these larger companies with one offer: “We have a new educational program entitled 'The Nine Ways You’re Wasting Money on Your Voice and Data Spending.'” They continued, saying: “We’ve been in the telephone business for 10 years now, and we’ve found that every company wastes money on voice and data spending in at least nine areas. We’ve put together a white paper to teach companies how to stop wasting--and start saving--money. If you ever need any help at all with your voice, data, or telephone system needs, we want you to know about us. So we’re sending you our white paper.”

This approach increased their appointments tenfold, from three per week to 30 per week. This company’s revenue was $3 million the year prior to using the education-based marketing approach. After six months, Company X’s sales pipeline was $9 million strong. I’ve used these techniques for companies much larger--in the tens and hundreds of millions in revenue. They’re solid.

To drive my point home about the power of education-based marketing, let’s review a few ineffective education-based marketing approaches, alongside more effective ones:

Business: Financial Planner

Ineffective offer: “I want to come and talk to you about how I can help you plan for a better financial future.”

Effective offer: “Even if you never do anything with me, I want to make sure you know that there are five critical mistakes everyone makes in trying to accumulate wealth.”

Business: Technology Services Firm

Ineffective offer: “Let me tell you how great we are at helping with your IT services.”

Effective offer: “As part of our effort to build better relationships in the business community, we offer a free white paper entitled ‘Six Ways to Dramatically Increase Productivity Using Your Current Technology.’”

Education-based marketing net-net

Sales is about building rapport, not breaking it. When you sell, or pitch, you’re often breaking rapport because the prospect may be skeptical; no one wants to be sold. When you educate, you build rapport. Launch all your meetings by teaching your prospect something, or by offering data that establishes that you’ve done your homework.

If you embrace education-based marketing, you’ll outmarket your competitors every time. Education-based marketing attracts buyers before they think about buying. It casts a wider net, attracts more buyers, and closes a higher percentage of prospects if the lessons you offer are truly valuable. This is the least expensive, most effective marketing concept you’ll ever use.

What kind of free education could you offer that would make your prospects want to meet with you, respond to your ad, or take an interest in your direct mail approach?