This is the fifth post in a seven-part series entitled "Outbound Recruiting 101." It focuses on best practices when reaching out to passive candidates during recruiting. Reaching out to passive candidates is something that almost every fast-growth company does as part of their recruiting efforts. That being said, it can be done respectfully or disrespectfully. We strongly encourage the former. :) Please keep in mind throughout this series of posts that your company's brand is at stake when you are contacting candidates and treat the person you're contacting as you would like to be treated (we call this the Outbound Golden Rule!).
Tip #5: Use the “magic question." Lou Adler, author of the classic book Hire with Your Head, has a question that he's used with great success. It goes like this:
“Would you be open to exploring an opportunity if it were clearly superior to what you’re doing today?”
This pre-supposes something of critical importance: you have an opportunity to offer which is “clearly superior” to the candidate's current work. Of course, if you’re schlepping an inferior role to a candidate who's currently at a hot company, you shouldn't use this. In fact, you shouldn’t be doing this regardless of how you message it!
But this question does put the onus on the candidate to think about what "superior” might mean. More responsibility? Better compensation? A more exciting tech stack to build on top of? Plant the seed in the candidate's mind, inception-style, that you may have something better to offer, and give a glimpse of what that might look like.
Even more than sparking the candidate's interest, this question can instigate an incredibly meaningful conversation. You'll get the candidate to start thinking through what a better opportunity might look like from her perspective, which will give you a better sense of whether or not you do truly have a better opportunity for her. This puts you in the role of someone trying to help the candidate instead of one who’s interrupting. At worst, you help an individual articulate her career goals and make a connection that you can add to your talent network for later. At best, you and the candidate find a mutual fit.
Of course, these exploratory conversations take time, and you're slammed. It's therefore certainly important to assess fit as much as possible before initially reaching out. Too many of us (we’ve been there too!) don’t spend the 30-60 seconds upfront thinking about fit because we’re blindly trying to hit our numbers. But without that initial assessment, we'll get a lot of poorly qualified candidates who end up wasting everyone’s time. You should think of your first few interactions with a candidate not as “How can I get this person to work at our company?” but rather “Is this person the right fit for our company?” Not only is this less intimidating, as it shifts the focus from selling to learning, but it’s also going to result in better hires over the long haul.
The takeaway: ask very directly if a candidate is open to exploring the better position you have to offer, and use the question to start a dialogue around how the candidate defines a better opportunity.