They Said Yes But Never Started: How to Turn Post-Offer Silence Into Engagement

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. Welcome back.

It's another recruiting conversations with your host Richard Mulligan and I am coming fresh out of a conversation with a coaching client. I want to share with you this is relevant as a leader. You are in the process of having conversations with people that you're deciphering, whether you want them on your team. And if you want them on your team, you're progressing them through a series of sequences to get them to the hiring line.

And so if you're listening to this, you're in some phase of that right now. And so conversation I'm coming out of an awesome question that I think most leaders have at some point, you get to the place where you're making offers to people. You will have a percentage of those people that will never cross the finish line now in my data I've done a lot of recruiting consulting I have coached now a little over 14, 000 hours coached and consulted over 14, 000 hours and what I have found

as I have audited and consulted with organizations That somewhere typically between 25 percent and 35 percent of all recruits that actually get offers made to them never have a start date. That's a lot of effort to put into Pursuing someone to get to a place where you think they're going to join because they've made an offer or signed an offer, but they're never going to join. So question I got this week was, what do I do?

Like this person that I've made this offer to is now saying I want to go back to my current leader and have a conversation and give them an opportunity to retain me. What do I do with that? So how I think of this is I always want to focus on what I control. I don't control if the company makes some sort of retention offer or some sort of retention bonus, adds a claw back to it to try and retain them for two or three years. I don't control any of that.

But there's two areas that you really control that you should

be focusing on, if that's you. And at some point it will be you. And one is in your control right now. If you don't have anyone at this spot, right now what's in your control is like over this journey, of pursuing someone, how much value you bring them up to the moment that you make them the offer really matters. In some way, you've got to reveal to your recruit that quote unquote more is available.

And if you can showcase that more is available all the way up to the time that you make an offer, then you have planted a seed of desire with someone. I always think like there's this invisible scale that exists. Current leader sits on one side and they're at an advantage because they're working alongside them in the day to day. And then we, the recruiting leader, are on the other side and it's our objective to tip these scales out of balance in our favor. by just bringing more value.

Can I help you solve a problem in your business? Can I help you share, can I share an idea that will help you grow your business? Do I have some insights around this market that positions you better as you move forward? There's all kinds of ways to bring value to someone. Sometimes it's as simple as sharing a great book. I'm reading a book that's an incredible book that I think every recruiting leader should read called Super Communicators.

And if I'm actually growing myself, filling myself up, then I always have something of value to share with people. Even if it's not like really specific to their business or their problems or something that's going to connect with them at like this moment level, I have things that I can overflow onto people at all time. And that's the journey. of becoming the leader who's more valuable than their current leader. So that's the first thing, you've got to do this. Now here's the second thing.

A lot of leaders, once they make the offer, they celebrate somehow, some way, mentally, legitimately celebrate.

Like, I mean, I get excited. I mean, I hope you do too. Like this idea of like pursuing people that are like minded, that you want on your team and getting them to say yes is exciting. Yes or yes. The challenge is that like for a lot of people, once they get the yes, the start date is out here somewhere in the near future, two weeks, 30 days. Sometimes they can be much longer than that. Sometimes it can be two or three months before they have a start date. And that's where they stop pursuing.

They don't, they stay in contact. We're communicating things like when you're going to get your equipment, and what's it going to be like on day one when you start, and we get the information that we need for HR, and maybe we send a wow packet to their home with some gear and some things that have our company logos on them. But we stop really truly pursuing them in a way where we're still showcasing the amount of value that we can bring to them.

And this is a critical window where you can't lose sight of this.

Showcasing the amount of value that you can bring to them is more important now than it's ever been. You have unlimited access to this person now because they've said yes. Prior to this, you had limited access to them. It was on their terms. Now they're coming to your team. You have a limited access. Some of the things that you could be doing are simply creating a welcome to the team video. This could be something super creative. You have a handful of people on the team that cut a short video.

They're like, Hey, Richard, welcome to the team. I can't wait to meet you here. And you have someone on your marketing team, mash it together, put some high energy music to it, drop it on a platform and, and, and text it to him. Okay. But the conversations I had, the individuals that I was, that I was in coaching with this person is not only leading and growing teams, but they're also. a big producer in the industry that they're in. So they're like in the trench.

They're able to actually be more of like a coaching leader, a coaching, a player coach type leader with someone. So my question to him was, what are you doing right now? That's exciting in your own business. And he said, well, I've done this amazing thing on the sales side. I've created this event. I've got lots of people attending it and these people are turning into referral partners for me.

And already this month I have, think about this, I think it was 29 leads from new partners in my business that were not partners with me last month. And I'm like, holy smokes, dude, do you have a playbook for that? And he's like, I do. It's right here. He showed it to me in the zoom room. I was like, okay, here's what I want you to do. Do you all have these leads somewhere where you actually have aggregated it, where you can take like a snippet of it? He's like, I do. Okay, great.

Here's what I want you to do. Pull out your iPhone, right? Bring some great energy to this. You guys feel me? I'm bringing more energy right now. I'm bringing this energy on purpose. Is that, like, recruiting is a transference of energy. It's a transference of passion. I'm like, I want to be breathless in this moment with this recruit. Oh my goodness, Richard. I'm so excited. One of the things I'm teaching my team. One of the things I'm actually learning myself.

It's like over the last 30 days I've engaged with 82 new people that are now referring business to me.

And out of those 82 people that I just met for the first time that have been in some sort of event with me, I've got 29 new leads from them. And this is the playbook right here. And this is the playbook that we're going to be working you through when you get here. I can't wait to see you here. You have to continue this journey of transferring energy, transferring passion to people.

And in this, and I wrote a few of these down coming into this, I've got these, you can't see these here in sticky notes unless you're seeing me on video. But there's some things that I have integrated into my language that are now natural to me that, that aren't natural to other people. So when I'm cutting this video or when I'm sharing this information, like you want to be using what would be called trial closes.

As part of like your natural language, like when I'm taking on the persona of the recruiting leader and that there is a persona, like if you look at actors in a movie, there's a persona there. It's not the real person. It's the persona of someone, right? I'm not saying be unauthentic, but if you can't get excited about what you're doing in your business, you will not recruit the best people in your market. Get excited. Figure out what to get excited about.

Like, I wrote down a handful, I call them trial closes, but they're little frameworks like, Isn't that awesome? Are you getting this? Does this make sense? Isn't that cool? Like, can you see how this would help you grow your business? Just imagine how this is going to change your life. These are some of the things that I've integrated into my language. And if I was cutting this example video, I would integrate them into the language that I was using.

I would increase the pace that I was sharing it at. I would elevate my voice. All of these things are things that transfer energy. And you could say, well, that's not me. I just feel like that's unauthentic. Okay, then you do you, Boo. But you will not transfer energy to close the gap on somewhere between 35 percent of the people that you get to the finish line to get them to your team. And if that's you, then you do you.

What I can tell you is that if I'm cutting this video, all of these things are in play for me. Okay? I'm like, Oh my goodness, Richard. I'm so excited about this. I had to show this to you. I'm cutting you a quick video. Like, this is so cool. Like, check this out. This is amazing. Like, there's 29 new leads here I've gotten this month. I got them from, I've got 82 new referral partners in a room. I've got this amazing event that I'm hosting now. I'm going to teach you how to do it.

Isn't this cool? Like, you're going to love it here. I would be using all of that.

I'd be cutting this video. I would be figuring out creatively how I continue to showcase the amount of value that I can bring to someone. And you want to be thoughtful of this as the second piece. You can bring all this amazing, crazy value. Get someone to the finish line. And you have this little window right here. And what happens is that when someone walks in to resign, they are walking away from a community. It may be horrible. Maybe an awful place to work. Right?

They may be suffering in some way, shape, or form. May not be making the full income potential that they could be making. But when you think about behavioral psychology and what motivates people most, we call it the BAM zone. There's a lens that people are motivated through. It's belonging, it's affirmation, and it's greater purpose and greater meaning. And what we have found is that some of these things are very subtle.

When we talk to people who have just joined an organization, we ask them, Why did you come to this organization? A lot of times what they say is, this story, this person that was involved in the recruiting process, they shared this story, and that resonated with me, and it connected with this part of me, and that's why I'm here. Um, you know, that's, there's things that are a part of recruiting that are hardwired into us. Belonging to a community is essential.

The reason why I would cut this video, welcome to the team, is that they're getting a better sense of belonging to the new team. Okay? It's also incredibly affirming. That's the A in BAM. Affirmation. It's incredibly affirming that people would put, take the time to put this together. The fact that you would go out of your way as a leader and cut this video and say, this is what's awesome and that's what's going on, I can't wait to get you here, is affirming.

Right, but the story sharing of people inside your team is where most people define what we'd call their meaning zone. This person shared this story. It connected to my value system. This person said this was how they were experiencing this company and that connected with me in some way.

And so One of the key things is in this window, not only is like bringing value all the way up to this moment, not only is it now bringing additional value as you close the gap to when they get to your team, but some of these ideas are

just connected to, generally speaking, how humans are hardwired and motivated. This will close that gap for you, and this will get more people across the finish line. So, actionably, take one or two things from this, get a little bit better. What can you apply, right now, where you are, that will improve this? I've given you tactics, turn the tactics into systems. What would be a system?

If you're really truly recruiting, you have a pipeline of people, and you've got them spread out in different places, right? Take 15 minutes every two weeks, map it to your calendar, and ask yourself the question, in that 15 minute window, how can I showcase bringing more value to people who we've made the offer to? May not have signed the offer, but we've made the offer to once I make the offer, how do I showcase more is available?

And if you did it for 15 minutes, every two weeks, 26 times a year, over the course of the year, what you would find is that people, more people will close that gap and we'll come across that finish line in 2025. So apply something to your business until I talk to you again on the next 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.