One Valuable Marketing Tip For Recruiters

As a professional interim and consultant, I spend more time engaging with recruiters than most permanent employees. And as, over the years, I deal with more and more recruiters one thing has become blindingly obvious to me. You’re really not working as smartly as you could do.

(There are exceptions. You – and my peers and I – know who you are…)

Here’s one example.

Most often, when an opportunity has caught my attention, and I’ve reached out to the recruiter for further information, I receive the standard boilerplate response that goes a little something like this:

Thank you for your email: your application has been received. While all applications will be carefully considered, due to the very large number of applications and emails we are receiving we are, unfortunately, not able to respond to every application individually. Therefore, if you have not had a response within seven days, please therefore assume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

While I understand the need behind this, unfortunately it always leaves me slightly irritated. Why? Because a) most often I have not applied for anything – I don’t know enough about the opportunity to know if I’d be interested in applying, but I am interested in finding out more. The reply is therefore presumptuous; b) you’ll only get back to me if my enquiry is of interest to you? What am I? A second-class citizen? And c) do you really think this standard response ticks the ‘courtesy’ box as I’m sure it’s intended to?

Needless to say, the customer experience is pretty poor. And that’s the point. While I’m not the client this time, next time (if you make me enjoy dealing with you) I will be.

Nowadays, with the plethora of digital tools available, there is really no excuse. It’s incredibly easy to segment inbound email traffic – or inbound calls by using dynamic numbers – by ‘value’ of role. Are you recruiting for someone who will be recruiting themselves in the near(ish) future? If so, make sure we enjoy dealing with you. And here’s a tip – as a senior level interim, you wouldn’t believe how many times in the course of a single year I get asked to recommend a good recruitment agent for interim and permanent hires. And I always recommend the same handful – you know who you are. You’ve earned it.

So, to make yourself stand out from the crowd, think about this:

• Send us a personal note thanking us for our interest (this can be automated, but not appear so). And leave it for 3 business hours to give the impression you have at least glanced at it.
• Ask us to schedule a time to discuss our credentials and what we’re looking for with you (using Calendly or similar). Not all of us will, but those that do will at least be a) at a time convenient for you, and b) left with the impression that you would like to speak to us. If the volume is still too high, this could also be segmented by a keyword trigger from our CV.
• If our credentials are not a good fit (it happens) send us a personal note explaining why (this can also be automated in your workflow with a little care and forethought).
• And please, if we do call you don’t get the receptionist to tell us that you don’t wish speak to us until after you’ve received our CV. That happened to me recently, and I now actively discourage clients from using that particular agency.

In these days when productivity hacking rules (consider the popularity of IFTTT and Zapier, for example) there is really no excuse. Use a little bit of (cheap) tech, a good dose of forethought and a degree of care – integrate them together – and you’ll soon find your stock as a rainmaker begins to rise. It’s easy when you know how.

Arrange a Conversation