Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


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Hiring Speed: A Crucial Component of the Recruiting Process



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Clients who drag out the process of hiring and making an offer to candidates are doing a tremendous disservice to themselves, the potential hire — and you!

I recently had a company take eleven business days to make an offer after a final interview. During the eleven days, the candidate had one on-site interview and two phone interviews with three other companies. This candidate I recruited for my customer didn’t have options when I first contacted him; then suddenly he had several. In the end, he had two offers on the table to consider and was beginning to wonder if he was my customer’s second choice.

Recruiting and hiring is a delicate emotional dance; if your date has to wait too long to be asked to the prom, they will simply go with someone else. In this case, if the company had been quicker with an offer he would have not interviewed with the other companies.

Closing

“The Phone Rang…” Closing and the Classic Closes, Part 3



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In the third and final installment of the “Closing and the Classic Closes,” we will cover the final five of the fifteen closes. They are:  Tie Downs; What If…?; If I…Will You?; Reduce to the Ridiculous; and the Take Away. We hope you have enjoyed learning — or re-learning — these classic sales closes. Now employ them to increase your production. 

Closing

“The Phone Rang…” Closing and the Classic Closes, Part 2



alwaysbeclosing

In this, the second installment of the “Closing and the Classics Closes,” we will discuss five more Closes and how you can use them on your desk.  They are:  The Call Back Close; The Similar Situation Close; The Lost Sale Close; The Secondary Question Close; and The Sharp Angle, or ‘Porcupine’ Close. Enjoy…

CLASSIC CLOSES: 6-10

6. Call Back

The odds are not in your favor when you get this request, but there is a way to handle the call when you do call back. For those of you who know of the principle of “White Heat,” keep in mind that we are going to attempt to raise the interest level above the “Buy Line.” This is such a prevalent topic in recruiting that we even have an expression for it. We say, “Time kills all of our deals.” That’s why calling back after a period of time is not a good thing. So, when you do call back you never ask if they have thought about the situation in the intervening time span. If you do, you are going to get the famous “Yes-No” response—“Yes I have thought about it; No I am not interested.” Instead you:

  1. Introduce a new piece of information;
  2. Present a condensed representation;
  3. Follow with a new Close.

Only when you do those three things, do you have a chance, remote though it might be, to raise the interest level above the “Buy Line” and close the deal in your favor.

Closing

“The Phone Rang…” Closing and the Classic Closes, Part 1



alwaysbeclosing

The phone rang. When I answered, the caller was anxious. He was very close to putting a deal together, but was stuck in the hiring process. I suggested he go into a “Negative Yes” closing sequence. He didn’t know what that was. I said, “OK, then let’s try a ‘Ben Franklin Balance Sheet’ instead.” He didn’t know that one either. And finally I said that was OK as well, just to remember the “Reduce to the Ridiculous” if the salary objection came up again. He didn’t know that one either. And so, I ended the call by scheduling a time when I could teach him the traditional SALES CLOSES.

Closing, Fees, How-To

“The Phone Rang…” Lessons From Robocruiter, Part 4



Robocruiter logo

Editor’s note: Last week, we gave you part 3 of “The Phone Rang…” Robocruiter series. This week we continue this short series from Bob Marshall with part 4.

To recap, in Parts 1-3 we covered the definition of The Total Account Executive, the analogy between the A/E and the doctor, the ten manifestations of failure due to the lack of commitment, the six reasons why we market and how to market with a Feature-Accomplishment-Benefit format, and the “I have arranged…” technique.  So, here we go with Part 4…

Recruitable JOs

When we market we will uncover three distinct types of JOs:  Search Assignment (SA), Matching and Can’t Help JOs.  This is a ‘given;’ it is indisputable; and we must recognize that fact.  If a superstar writes 15 JOs, 0-1 will be of SA quality and recruitable; 4-5 will be matching and semi-recruitable; and 10, or 2/3rds will be of the Can’t Help variety.  So, the $64,000 question is:  How do you determine which JOs are which?  And which are recruitable?

Ask Barb, Closing

Ask Barb: Pre-Closing



Ask Barb

Dear Barb:

I was in your audience at a conference in Orlando, FL. You had suggested we should often pre-close during our interviews vs. just asking questions and obtaining answers. Could you provide a simple example?

Mary T., Austin, TX 

Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – Q&A and Final Thoughts



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Our previous three articles have focused on “how” to develop exclusive client relationships. In this article I will provide a summary of the questions from the near record number of calls and emails I have received in response to those articles.

Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – The Written Agreement



exclusive contract

The agreement to work on an exclusive basis with your client can be confirmed either verbally or in writing. However, as a wise man once noted:

“Verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

The exclusive relationship is established verbally but should be confirmed in writing and signed off by both parties. If you are dealing with a reputable client who is sincere about utilizing your services on an exclusive basis, there should be no valid reason why they would not sign a document that confirms that to which they have already agreed. Therefore, we will concentrate on written agreements.

Closing

Recruiter Chronicles: Five Years, Five Mistakes – Part 3



money calculator by Images of Money

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of my career in recruiting which recently passed, I am sharing with you over the coming weeks the five biggest learning lessons I’ve experienced thus far during my time at the Aureus Group. Last week, I shared the story of an email that got me ‘fired’ from a client. This week, I bring you…

#3: Story of the Botched Salary Negotiation

Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – The Presentation



exclusive contract

In our previous article we stated that “… exclusive relationships generally produce better results, in less time, while requiring the investment of fewer client resources than traditional methodologies.” However, this is a fact that may not be widely accepted by your prospect/clients. Therefore, in order to sell the concept of exclusivity, whether retainer or contingency, you must understand the justification for establishing such a relationship.