I am wondering what is the best and most effective way to market an EVP level banker who has been in the business since 1981 and graduated college in 1974? Aside from my concerns as to his total years of employment, I am concerned at the level which is a notch above the usual for me, as well as that everyone in banking in my area would know and/or heard of him as well as me or have reported to him at one point in their careers. Also, he is sensitive to going to an organization that has many previous direct reports and positions of authority and he created anger and resentments with them by leapfrogging over them. Finally, he does not necessarily need or want to be at such a high level anymore. He can bring value to future employers in many different areas. Ernest from Chicago, IL
ANSWER: I am not going to get hung up at all that he is worried about when I am marketing him. I am going to market his background. You said there are many areas that he can add value. So, if I am going to talk to somebody that oversees all of lending, I am going to talk about his lending accomplishments. I am going to direct my marketing to someone in the organization, and focus on the accomplishments that are in that area of the bank. The one thing you don’t want to do when marketing someone is to try to be everything to everyone.
If you are marketing to a VP of sales for someone, I want to lead with, “This is an individual that was” – not over quota, because that is too generic – “that was 125% of quota, last year 127.8% of quota with 82% new business”. I am going to lead with accomplishments and benefits – not “this is a guy who can”. When you market a guy like this, I would do an assessment and get him to come up with specific accomplishments, time saved, money saved, money made, in all those areas and when he accomplished them.
So, again, you gave me several areas in banking where he is outstanding. I am not going to worry about if he has worked at the organization before. If you talk to your prospect they might say, “Oh, it’s Joe Blow, we have a policy, we don’t hire people who have worked here before,” or, “I already know that guy”. In the age of the internet and LinkedIn, everyone has access to everybody. That is irrelevant; they weren’t interviewing. You want to make sure with your candidate to double check with him by saying “So, that I avoid embarrassing you, tell me the places you have submitted your resume and whether it is through your own networking or a job posting. Simply because, if I present you there, and they see that the resume came in internally, the company is going to say ‘I don’t even want to get involved with this guy because we might have to pay a fee. We didn’t have to pay a fee.’”
‘Mr Candidate, If you think you are multiplying your chances to get into that organization, I’m telling you right now, you are actually limiting your chances of getting into that organization”. So, my challenge to you would be to say ‘Mr. Candidate, tell me where you have submitted your resume so I don’t have egg on my face on your behalf. And I don’t want to make you look foolish.’
Again, candidates don’t care about the recruiter, they care about their own self-interests, so you want to position it around that. So, that’s how you’re going to prevent, “Well, I already know this guy.” Of course you do! Everybody in Chicago knows this guy.
My marketing campaign would be one with titles in each of the areas he could report into. In each one of those silos, I would have a specific set of accomplishments and benefits and why they should talk to this guy or consider hiring him. And then, I would market him to those people in those different areas, with those different accomplishments. Meaning, you might market this guy to five different hiring managers in a company that have five different scopes of responsibility where he can add value
Remember, accomplishments and benefits is what will sell here versus “here are all the things he has done and can do”, because it is not going to jump out in an email or a voicemail and grab them by the throat and make them return your call or email.
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