The most important thing for any recruiter is to keep the pipeline full of qualified candidates and not allow distractions to take you away from your goals of placing quality candidates.

Here are a few ways to keep to your schedule and less distractions.  Remember, you must fit in several types of activities each day: cold calls, follow up calls, closing calls and administrative items.

1.      Inbox

a.     Don’t have it visible all day – only during administration times.

b.     Don’t have the notification sound or pop up at the bottom of your screen!  It’s hard to ignore distractions after seeing what just came in.  (IT can tell you how to turn if off)

c.     Set up special rules for emails you receive from special people (your boss); to notify you even when the window is down.

d.     Respond during your administrative time – (See getting organized in previous blog)

e.     Organize your inbox into folders that allow you to stay on top of where those important emails are.

f.      Keep you inbox clean. Only the new items for the last day should be in your INBOX.  This is not a catch all box that has 1000 emails in it.  That is why there are folders and a delete button and recycle bin.

2.     Desk

a.     Keep folders for the offices/locations that you are recruiting for.

b.     Hard copies of candidates in a folder named “candidates” or place the profiles of the candidates in a folder for the specific office or location.

c.     Clean your desk every night before going home.

d.     Keep a colored pad on your desk for your to-do list.  On the pad, label the things by your types of time of the day. (Follow up, administrative etc.)  This makes it easy to see things that need to get done.

3.     Co-workers – People love to chat about everything except work.  You know those people that come to your desk when you are in the middle of the closing a candidate and just stand there until you are done.  Are you kidding me!  Develop a way to eliminate the need to tell them what your schedule looks like for the day.

a.     Send an email that says you are busy during certain hours.

b.     Put up a sign on the back of your chair – “Money calls being made!”

c.     Close your door! (If you have one and if not…put the trash can in the way!)

d.     Do whatever it takes to let people know that you are in the middle of making money and the March Madness brackets will wait!

4.     Calls

a.     Call people that can make you money.  Don’t just get on the phone to pump up the phone time.  If you need to close a candidate or coach a manager on how to finish the deal, then call all those involved.

b.     Put a note on the bottom of your computer that says, “What do I want to accomplish at the next meeting?”  This might lead you to think about a plan before you get on the call with the candidate/manager.

c.     Wasted time

i.     Calling or taking easy calls from the candidates that you like but will NEVER move.

ii.     Calling or taking calls from the managers and having a conversation about the same candidates (strategy calls) four out of five days in a week.  One call works.  Get to the next manager or candidate.

iii.     Don’t call the same person multiple times in a day and not leave a voicemail. Don’t just rack up “dials” with the same person.

5.     CRM

a.     Put copious notes in the CRM.  This will save you from hunting for information that you need later.  Describe the contents of the notes in the subject line of the note. (i.e. payout grid or reasons for leaving, etc.)

b.     Use the CRM – follow up reminders, cold calls etc. Be proficient at it.  Remember to use your planning time for the next day.  Leave the day knowing that your calls for the next day are organized by the categories – cold calls, follow up calls and closing calls.

6.     Big time wasters - I don’t care what anyone says, no one can truly multi-task.  If you are the exception, great!  But everyone else should severely limit these time wasters:

a.     Instant Messages

b.     Facebook

c.     Google – research during a research time

d.     MySpace- ok… I dated myself there.

e.     Looking up each candidate’s U-4 on FINRA before calling!

 Not having a plan for each day is the worst thing that you can do. Look back at your week and ask yourself what you have accomplished.  You control your office life.  You can be the socialite or you can be known as the driven and organized one who people ask how you get more dials, more phone time, more connects and more closes. The person that you see always finding other things to do besides getting on the phone has “call reluctance” and should not be part of the team.  Don’t let others kill your dreams of being successful and attaining your goals!

Getting organized puts more money in your pocket and less stress in your life! I believe you can cut down on the surprises by planning for them to happen.

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”  Tom Landry

Planning –The last part of your day should be used for planning for tomorrow. Here are a few thoughts to help organize your day to make the most of it.

Segment your day

• Cold Calls
• Follow up Calls
• Closing Calls
• Administrative
• Meetings

Spend your day

• Each hour of your day should be planned for – develop a system to your day that includes all of the segments that are needed for that day.
• You might work better in the morning than the afternoon or vice versa so it may be better to cold call first and then follow ups or other. You be the judge!

Start each day

• The first 30 minutes should be spent reading industry news. I guarantee that most reps are learning what is going on in their own firm and others at the coffee machine in the first 30 minutes of the day. You need to be armed with industry knowledge about the competition. Set up Google alerts to be delivered once a day to your inbox. These typically come in during the night when you’re gone. In my case, I have them sent to a Gmail account that is only set up for this purpose. This allows me to not be consumed during the day by emails flooding my inbox.

“A plan is a list of actions arranged in whatever sequence is thought likely to achieve an objective.”
John Argenti

 

• An example of spending your day would look like this.
  • 8:00-8:30 – Read the latest industry news. Not the sports page!
  • 8:30-9:30 – Follow up with managers and candidates
  • 9:30-9:45 – Opening bell – Administrative
  • 9:45 – 11:00 – Closing Calls
  • 11:00-11:15 – Administrative
  • 11:15- 12:00 – Cold calls
  • 12:00-1:00 – Lunch
  • 1:00 – 1:30 – Administrative
  • 1:30 – 3:00 – Cold Calls
  • 3:00 – 3:15 – Administrative
  • 3:15 – 5:00 – Follow ups
  • 5:00- 5:30 – Planning/ Administrative

Remember you know how you work so plug in your own schedules. Depending on your pipeline, territory (east coast/west coast), etc. will decide on your daily schedule.

“Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.”
Mark Caine

Great recruiters are on the phone for at least three or four hours a day and know what they need to do to take care of today’s pipe and fill tomorrows as well. They expect unexpected things to happen and plan for them. The key is that you may never follow your daily schedule to the letter but you think about the calls you need to make and the people you need to reach. Remember, we as humans tend to procrastinate and gravitate to the path of least resistance. Get it out of the way first if this is a problem. Remember the person you are cheating is yourself. Your placements and paycheck will show it!

“A good system shortens the road to the goal.”
Orison Swett
1850-1924 American Author Founder of Success Magazine

Now stop reading because it’s almost time to start Cold Calling!

Many times managers are pulled many different directions during the day. They are the ops manager, compliance head and of course the recruiting guru! Often times managers (I believe they should be called “sales” managers if they aren’t already) during the recruiting process will outsell themselves. Frequently, they are caught up in the day to day and believe that because they have 5 solid candidates in the pipeline, they are good to go. But are they?

Here are some questions to evaluate whether a candidate is strong or not:

1. How long did it take for the candidate to return the “pre-hires”? Everyone is busy but a month is too long!

2. Who does most of the talking during your meetings? Are you selling them or are they engaging and asking questions?

3. Have they shared what their spouses think of the move?

4. Have they told anyone at the office that they are looking? Ask them if there is anyone that they would want to have come with them.

5. Have you asked what the top ten percent of the clients would say about the move? Have they spoken to them?

Yes, I know they are not supposed to talk to the clients. You are not necessarily looking for the answer on what the clients think as much as you are looking to see if they are being proactive in their thinking of asking them!

6. Have you asked them the scale of 1-10 question on their thoughts of moving? This is the best way to get a straight answer. It’s amazing how they will give you the 6 or 7 answer, which says they are not completely comfortable with the idea. Find out what will make it a 10 and go to work. This number will change depending on what phase of the discussion they are in. Follow this answer up with, “If you get the information you need then would you be a 10?” This will give you the rest of the answer.

7. Have you thought about asking if they are looking at any other firm? In my experience, when an FA starts the search process with you and they receive a call from another headhunter or manager, they are listening and comparing. It’s better to find out now and get a game plan together before receiving the divorce call that says they have met someone else!

8. Ask them how their book is doing. All FA’s that are looking, take their mind off their book during the process and the book drops. Inevitably they will come in with lower numbers than when you started talks, so be prepared. Have you ever looked for another job? It consumes you!

9. Do you feel that it is taking an extremely long time for them to make a decision on coming on with you? Consider this: have they moved before? Through your conversations, do you feel like they are unclear on what they want? Are they indecisive?

They may never make the “final” decision and move. Oh by the way, talking to them for two years is not building a relationship…. It probably is wasting your time with a person that can’t make a decision and likes the free lunches.

10. The best way to see where the candidate is at in the process is to propose a date. It goes something like this: “We have been speaking now for six months and Labor Day is coming up in one month. Have you thought of a date to move? How about the Friday before Labor Day to take advantage of the long weekend? Listen to their answer. You will be amazed at the answers. Make sure you follow up their stammering with a “if not now, when?”

Don’t get caught being out sold by a salesman (yourself) by not really observing the actions of the candidate. Be confident in your ability and know your value proposition. Expect them to be professional in their interactions with you and look for the buy signs and the process to be moving forward. If you are selling all of the time, you won’t really hear what they are saying. Recruiting is selling, strategizing and observing. Don’t get caught believing that “this one is done” until the butt is in the seat.