QUESTION: Mike, I’m working with a new client. They are not getting back to me. Initially, it was really hard to get a hold of them to set up interviews and get debriefs. They had a final interview over a week ago, and I have not heard back. How would you fix this?
Understanding Why Your Client Isn’t Responding
If you have not heard back, this one is like – for me – no news is bad news. One of two things. It was probably not set up right in the first place. I had a client call me a number of years ago in a similar situation. It was like a week and a half or two weeks from the final interview. He was like, I cannot believe how rude they are being. They are not getting back to me. BS, blah, blah, blah.
I go, “What was your agreement with him? What was your agreement with him when you took the search on what would occur at the offer stage?”
He goes, “We did not have one.”
I said, “So he’s not a jerk. He might be inconsiderate, but he is not breaching any process you negotiated with him.”
If you do not have a system for selling you’re subject to your buyer’s system for buying. I will say that again. If you do not have a system for selling you’re subject to your buyer’s system for buying. Why do they use recruiters? One of the reasons we have a multibillion-dollar industry is because companies mess up the hiring process all the time.
The Importance of Setting Clear Expectations with Your Client
If the client has not done anything wrong, I would fix it by calling him up and leaving this message. It gets like a 90-something percent return call rate. You can use this for various situations when a client goes dark. I would do this both by voicemail and email. I would call up and say:
“Hey Steve, it’s Mike Gionta. I’m just racking my brain here, and I’m wondering what I did to piss you off. I’m a big boy. I can take good constructive criticism. I don’t want to replicate it. I’m not sure if I have even burned a bridge with you, but I am racking my brain as to where I went off course with you not to hear from you for a week about Joe Blow at the offer stage.“
“If I have done anything from the standpoint of a lack of professionalism, please don’t let it affect you if you want Joe Blow on your team. I will have to let Joe know it’s a no-go if I do not hear back from you today. But again, I would love that constructive feedback.”
How to Rebuild the Relationship with a Client After They’ve Gone Dark
Here is the call you are going to get back 90% of the time.
“Oh my God, Mike, I’m so sorry. It’s not you. It’s me. No, don’t–.”
Here is why that call works. It does not put the prospect into a position where they have to face shame, guilt, or defensiveness because they just ignored you and got busy with other stuff. It allows them to call you back from a place where they will not get shredded by you. That is what I would do in the short term. Anytime you have a client or a candidate that goes dark on you, not like after a day, it has got to be like days, and it has got to be almost like a pattern of behavior, you use that. That is like your nuclear option because you can only use it once with each client.
That is also then the opportunity to reset the relationship. In the situation where my gut feeling is you did not have any boundaries with this prospect, again, you cannot call him out for not getting back to you if he did not agree to get back to you. Go look and take ownership.
Setting Boundaries and Managing Expectations with Clients
“Hey Steve, my bad. When we first started working on this assignment, I failed to express the importance of timely feedback because we are working in a marketplace where this candidate, Joe Blow, is looking at other jobs. He wants yours more than the other ones. But he is starting to interpret you not getting back to him as a complete lack of interest.”
That is where our psyche goes and where our ego goes. If they can’t get back to me, they must not want me. They are not that good of a company anyway. Mr. Client, they will find reasons not to join your company. I failed to express that. What has to be true for the two of us in the future is that when there is an interview, we talk either the same day, worst case, the next morning, so that if you want them, if you want that candidate, I keep the heat under them, I keep them warmed up.
I will give them good feedback on why you like them. If you don’t like them, I can professionally release them and relieve you of that burden. I have a way of doing it where they will not have a negative feeling about your company or would consider you in the future. Can I get that agreement from you, Mr. Hiring Manager?”
How to Communicate Effectively During the Recruiting Process
The right place to do that, the same conversation, is at the end of the search assignment. You go through the whole search assignment. You have identified that they have a need. You’ve identified that it is urgent. It is fillable, with good selling points. You have negotiated the fee. What I typically did at that stage of the process that is where I said:
“We have a protocol for your benefit on communicating to maximize the likelihood of attracting, keeping, and procuring the candidate you want. Can I run it by you?”
And 100% of the time, they will say, yeah.
Why Timely Communication Can Make or Break a Placement
“Here is what is going to happen. We are going to submit a candidate. Remember, when we submit a candidate, more than likely, 9 out of 10 were not actively looking when we found them. We got them to do something and uncovered an imperfection in their current career. We match it up with some of the selling points of your job. We’ve got their left eyebrow to go up and be intrigued. If we do not get back to that person quickly, they are going to go, yeah, the more I think about it, Mike, I don’t want to move forward.”
But if I can get them into your process quickly, I have learned that they are going to get excited about the new thing, and their minor imperfection or minor dread in their current job will begin to blow up and get bigger and bigger. It happens a lot if we do this the right way.
So, if I submit someone to you on a Monday when I email it or give you a little bit of their profile, can we talk either Monday afternoon or no later than Tuesday because I will tell the candidate I need 24 hours to get back to them. But I do not want to tell them 24 hours and then we do not talk for 72 hours because it makes us look bad. But if we can get them in the process quickly and get them talking to you again, it is going to pique their interest to another level. If you want them, we are going to move forward.”
Why Managing Feedback and Expectations Can Save Your Placements
The same thing happens after the interview occurs:
“We need to talk 24 hours after, not because I am a control freak, but because I want to know (1) if you do not want to pursue them, again, I can be the one to release them professionally on your behalf and (2) if you are interested in them, I will have already talked to the candidate and can tell you what they liked and what their concerns. I am going to ask you what you like about them. I will share their answers to give more feedback and see their excitement for the next interview.”
When we go days without contact, again, the candidate in their wounded ego interprets it as they are not good enough, and then they find reasons for you not to be good enough. Does that make sense, Mr. Hiring Manager? Can we agree to a 24-hour turnaround? Can you commit to that?”
“Yes.”
It seems like a lot, but how many placements have blown up because a hiring manager did not get back? You will save a couple of deals a year doing this. Is this worth it? Let’s say you take a job order a week, and that maybe took less than 5 minutes to go through that process, 5 minutes times 50. Let’s say 5 times 60. That is 6 or 7 hours a year to save a placement. Anybody would do that.
How to Set and Manage Expectations Throughout the Recruiting Process
I was largely learning for the first 5 years in the business, but the one gift I had, the one gift from God I had was the ability, even though I took a lot of things personally, to go, instead of saying that the client was a jerk, that candidate was a jerk, that candidate is a liar, that hiring manager is a liar, I mean I had my share of them, but what am I doing that is bringing me this result? Ask yourself all the time. What am I doing that is bringing me this result? It can be any result in your life, pro or con. I started asking myself that question a lot.
I started realizing that if I don’t ask these tough questions when I take the search, they are not out of alignment. They are not out of alignment following their whim. They never promised. And I never expressed the benefit to them for them to follow my way. For me to say that I need your feedback within 24 hours because I need to get back to the candidate; the hiring manager does not care.
But when I say this is about securing and procuring the candidate, increasing the likelihood of the hire, now it is in their interest to call you back. Think about each step you want to go through, all the way through the offer and resignation phases, of setting and managing expectations with the hiring manager. Setting and managing expectations for making a decision and making a commitment.
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