The bulk email for recruiting is working far better than I could have expected but on the marketing side I am not getting the same type of response. Is there a follow-up call program I should be following up with on marketing emails? Lance from New Jersey

Answer: I am assuming, Lance, you mean marketing of a most placeable candidate (MPC). This is one of the most effective ways to market without having to beat people up on the phone. We have studied this over the last few years. The return call rates on marketing calls have come down significantly. They are coming down a little bit on the candidate side, but less significantly than we have noticed in measuring the metrics on the marketing side.

The old technique of calling hiring managers and leaving a voicemail about a very strong candidate still works, but, it is becoming harder to get return calls. The old way and the way we were taught, which was really effective in email and still works is:

Hey, Mr. or Ms. Hiring Manager on a recent engaged search, we uncovered an individual who was 129% of quota last year, 127% of quota the year before, with 86% new business development. This is an individual who can come into your company with very little, if any, training and hit the ground running, developing new business for you within the first 60-90 days. When, looking at your calendar, what’s a good time for you to discuss this person in greater detail?”

Sincerely, 

Mike Gionta

Notice the closing line. Not, “If you are interested in talking about this person give me a call,” not “Are you interested in – yes/no?” “Looking at your calendar, what is a good time for us to talk?” It’s open-ended, it invites a response.

Do not lead with “I have run across an exceptional “A,B,C guy”, you know, an exceptional auditor, an exceptional controller who’s really top notch”. Notice my opening line. “I ran across an individual who’s 129% of quota last year.” One of the biggest things sales managers want to hear about the individual is “What can the individual do for me?” and specific, proven results such as a CFO or controller, who through reengineering some processes, cut the XYZ budget 28%, yielding $1.83 million in savings.

Specific numbers have pop. They allude to more credibility and you’re at 100% integrity because they said they saved at least one fifth and you are saying $1,598,000. So, when a sales person says to me he is at least 130% of quota and he is positive he’s probably between 130-140, I’ll use 129%.

This is a phenomenal technique. Just this five minute technique alone will get you more recruitment job orders for the next week. When they reply, they are going to ask, “Where is this guy based? What does he make? Does he or she have this in their background?” Do not answer the question because you are going to get into an email dialogue and then they will screen the person out.

Reply, “That is a great question. Again, looking at your calendar what is a good time I can address that question and others that you have?” That is really the simple one I can share with you when you want to covert an email where they express some interest by asking a question into a phone call, not an email exchange. We do not build relationships in email.

If you send an email as described above on Monday and you don’t get a response I had an admin send a follow-up email. I would take the emails that I did not get replies to and I would forward- the individual email two days later saying “Dear Lance, haven’t heard from you on below. Thoughts? Mike.” So, if you are getting anywhere from 25-35% response you will get another 30-35% response to the second email.

If I send that out on Wednesday, I might build that person–if I have not heard from them–into my call plan for Friday or Monday and I would say, “Hey, Lance, I sent you a couple of emails.  Just as quick reminder, in a recent engaged search, I uncovered…” and I am leaving the same message over and over and over again and then I might go back to one more email.

I have generally made four attempts on a marketing thing over two weeks, which was my follow up system. And, you know, Lance, you actually might improve that but that is what my clients that are doing that are getting responses. They are getting percentage responses to each one because some people are very auditory, which is why the third attempt I make is on the phone and it reflects back to the email that they got to remind them a little bit.