Recruiting Setbacks? Here’s How to Turn Them Into Wins

So the big question is this, how do recruiting leaders like us who have 12 to 15 other job responsibilities win at this game of recruiting? How do we build a system that allows us to recruit effectively in a minimal amount of time while motivating recruits towards meaningful change? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Richard Mulligan and welcome to Recruiting Conversations. Hey everybody, welcome back. It's your host, Richard Milligan.

We're here with another recruiting conversations. I'm coming out of a fresh conversation with a consulting client. And I want to share a piece of that with you because it's relevant to any of you that are recruiting leaders and to set the conversation up, the conversation went a little like this, which will sound very familiar.

I'm in the conversation with the recruit and the recruit has said they've made the decision to go with someone else and they actually have given a start date for when they're accepting the new offer and they're starting at the new company. What should I do? And if you recruit much at all, you're going to come into this scenario again and again. And one of the things that's going to be really important for you as a recruiting leader is to start by asking yourself on a scale of 0 to 10.

How much is this recruit aligned with you and what you're looking to build? And this recruiting leader said an 8, a 9, a 10. And to that I said have you established the belief that you want them on your team. aNd let me pause there for, to unpack that statement. Belief, a lot of times we think is there's this line in the sand where you either believe something or you don't believe something.

It's it's a yes or a no. And what I've found is that there's this continuum of belief yeah, the line is in the sand, and on one side there's a no, and on one side

there's a yes, but it's a continuum. How much do you believe something? And if you can't convince someone that you are a level 9 or 10 in the belief framework, that they belong on your team, That you want them on your team, that you can bring value to them on your team, then you need to have that conversation with this recruit. So this individual answered the question an eight or a nine.

At eight or nine, I want this person on the team, and I believe I can bring value at a level 10 if they were to come to my team. And so my challenge for them was to go have an immediate conversation. And the immediate conversation is in this gap. And if you're watching me on YouTube, you can see my hands. If you're not, my hands are up. There's a gap. The recruits over on one side and you're on the other. And what is in between there is a gap.

And what has to exist to get the recruit from where they are to where you are. Is an aha moment. It's an epiphany bridge this moment where someone goes, Oh, I hadn't thought about it like that. I hadn't seen the world through the lens of that. So my question with this recruiting leader was this, can you help them grow their business?

Can you help this person if they come to your team, grow their business as an experienced salesperson in an industry that's been in this industry for 25 years has only worked for, I think you said four different employers over that window of time. So in this moment, if we lose this recruit, what will be true is that it's likely five to six years before we actually have another

opportunity at this recruit. So I'm going to maximize this moment, even though I have heard that this person's accepting the position with another company and has accepted the offer and has a start date. In this moment, here is what I want to challenge you with. What would be the thing of value that you would present to someone in this moment? The question I asked the coaching client was this, can you help them grow their business? And unequivocally, the answer was yes.

The second question I asked is this, does this individual that you're recruiting want to grow their business? aNd the answer to that question came back with a very strong, Yes. So now we understand there's a premise here. They want to grow their business. You can help them grow their business. And somewhere in here, we haven't convinced them that us above any other leader can actually help them accomplish that.

And you have to create a moment here where this individual says, oh that aha moment of you're the leader that can help me accomplish this. So if this salesperson wants to double their business, they've been in this industry for 25 years. Has there ever been a window of time where you've doubled your business in a 12 month window? No, there hasn't been. I asked the recruiting leader, can you help them double their business?

And there's a lot of things that I won't disclose in the podcast that I know about them that I know to be true, which is that they actually can help them double their business. We know this gap exists and now it's your job as a recruiting leader in these

situations To be able to close that gap. And so the conversation that they're having over the next 24 to 48 hours is this do you want to grow your business? The answer that is yes. Are you confident that the decision you're making to go to this other company a hundred percent? Confident more than a hundred percent confident that they'll help you grow your business and we know the answer to this Because it's never happened at any point in their career.

Is there a clear road map to grow your business over the next 12 months? And have they presented you with that road map? And it's highly unlikely that has taken place. Unless someone's working with me as a coaching client. It's highly unlikely that moment has actually taken place. The challenge I gave to the recruiting leader is this. Make sure you can clearly articulate the exact road map for the next 12 months of how you're actually going to help them grow their business.

What this means is that as a leader, you're really clear on your value stack. What is the value stack? It's a stack of value that you as a leader bring to this person. And the challenge for a lot of us, and I'll put myself in this bucket, because from time to time in my career I found myself in a moment where I'm not at a place where I can actually help someone.

I couldn't help you grow your business and double it over the course of a year in seasons of my leadership and what I had to do is go on this journey of becoming more valuable when you understand very clearly what your stack of value is. As a leader, there are times where you actually look in the mirror and say, I've got to become more valuable before I can actually create that aha moment for someone. Okay, so why this matters. is multi faceted.

Here's why you're going to as a recruiting leader, come across these moments where you're going to be competing for talent for the best of the best. On the continuum of belief, do you believe that this individual is a better fit on your team than they are in someone else's team? Your ability to convince them of that matters, the level of success you're going to have recruiting. Here's the other thing. The data supports this in most industries.

When an experienced person leaves one company and goes to another company, somewhere between 25 and 35 percent, depending on the industry, leave that new position. Within the first 90 days, let that sink in for a moment.

If this individual makes this transition to this next company and the onboarding process is clunky, and this is an experienced salesperson that actually has a business that they're bringing to this organization. If it, if that transition hurts their business. Their personal brand, their personal business in the transition. It's likely that they'll be forced to make another move.

So somewhere around a third of experienced salespeople that make transitions, make another transition again within 90 days. That means like if I told you, I'm going to give you a list of a hundred leads and out of these 100 leads, somewhere between 25 and 35 of those leads are going to be in play in the next 90 days. I know what you would do if you're listening to this podcast, you would focus on that lead list and you would make sure you're relevant with that lead list.

Too many times you're creating leaders put a check mark in the box if I lost the opportunity They move on to find the next opportunity when they should be saying to themselves What's the playbook for staying relevant with this person? So here's what I want you to think about. If every 15 days, right? Think about that. Twice a month, every 30 days, 15, right? Plus 15 is 30. Some easy math here.

When you look at three months or a 90 day window, okay, there is six moments that I want to challenge you to think about being relevant in the conversation with this person that you just lost as the opportunity.

Why? Because they're most likely going to have some questions as to whether they made the right move or not. Transitions are difficult. Yes or yes. If you've ever gone through one, transitions can be difficult. Okay. Think about this. What is that person going to experience about 15 days in? Look at your own process. What do people experience about 15 days in? What will that individual experience around 30 days in? What will they experience at 45 days in, 60 days in?

You look at that map of 90 days. And if you have a recruiting play sheet in your larger playbook for every time you lose someone, you're relevant in that 90 day window, you are going to win talent that you lose. So what's the play sheet in your playbook? And I want you to think about those six touch points. The moment you lose someone, take those six touch points and place them over your calendar. Okay. Day one, let me give you an idea here.

If on day one, someone did not take your opportunity and took someone else's opportunity. What would you do right now? Not having heard this podcast. What would you be doing right now? Because I have consulted about 12, 000 hours now over the last six and a half, seven years, I know what you would do. I don't know you specifically, but I can tell you what most, if not all do. They lick their wounds. They lost the opportunity. They move on to the next. Here's what I want to encourage you to do.

Day one at the new opportunity. For this individual is where they go to their socials and

they announce the transition. If they go to LinkedIn, they're going to change their banner to the newly branded banner. They're going to change their experience, the new experience they just accepted. There's a series of things that have to take place as it relates to their personal brand. They may add to their About Me on LinkedIn. They may add something as an announcement on their Facebook page. Maybe they do something on their Instagram. Maybe they do some sort of press release. I don't know.

Think about this, though. What if you, as a recruiting leader, had a one sheet that you sent to every single person that you lost? And oh, by the way, anybody that you won needs this one sheet, which is the list of things that they should be doing on a day one as it relates to announcing they're at a new company. I just gave you a list of some of those things. What if you went a step further in terms of bringing value, and even gave them a script that they could read?

on their iPhone to create a video to actually announce it and post it to their social channels. Would that be a value to that individual? The answer is yes or yes. It is a value to that individual. Now, what we know in this moment on a day one is that they, it's a, it's highly unlikely the current leader, the current company has done anything like this for them. And now you're showcasing the amount of value that you would have brought them if they were at your team on day one.

Now, what would you do on day 15? What would you do on day 30? What would you do on day 45?

See the six steps every 15 days through and create a roadmap, a play sheet in your recruiting playbook that you'll lay over the top of your calendar and that you'll follow knowing that there's a likelihood that you're going to capture some of this talent. 90 days in that you might have lost. Now, let me plant one more seat of thought. The data says this, the average experienced salesperson in the industry, if you go out a year, falls within a range on the low end 60, on the high end maybe 75%.

Okay, I saw some recent data that said 68 percent was the number in an industry. That they're not even sure a year later that they made the right decision in the transition. That data point should tell you that when you lose someone on day one, starting with another company, that it's literally not game over. It's game on. That's how I want you to think about this as you move forward. yOur takeaways, right?

You've got some homework pieces here if you're listening to this podcast that you're going to go do. What are the six touch points that you're going to actually make? What are the things of value that you're going to bring to people in that window of time, where you'll actually showcase who you are as a leader? Knowing that there's going to be a question mark and at some point, did I make the right move? Did I make the right decision? In front of that, here's what I want to challenge you with.

When you find out that you're not the company of choice, do you have the ability to sit in that moment and have a conversation with someone and say, I was up after 3 a.

m. last night thinking about All of the conversations that we've had and wanted to come into a conversation with you today, knowing that you've already made the decision to go to another company, not my company. And I wanted to challenge that decision because I'm confident. that I can bring you value. And here's where I can bring you value. Be willing to sit in that space and create that tension in this moment.

And when you do you will find that some people will move forward with you and the ones that don't, when you lay out your nine a day process. So most people you will capture simply because you've handled that process correctly. Hope this brought value to you today. If you're losing someone, don't lose heart, stay motivated, stay in front of them, right? And there's always the next opportunity. Thanks for being part of my tribe. Until I talk to you again on another recruiting conversations.

Have a great week, everybody. Want more recruiting conversations? You can register for my weekly email at 4crecruiting. com. If you need help creating your own unique recruiting system, you can book a time with me at bookrichardnow. com.