Editor’s note: Paul DeBettignies’ article was the 2nd most popular article on The Fordyce Letter in 2011. It originally ran in March.

I know, I know… smile and dial.

More phone calls equal more job orders, candidates and send outs. More send outs equal more placements.

I get it – I really do. But after thirteen years as a sole practitioner, I have learned that I need to get out from behind the desk every now and then, or I fear that the headset will become permanently fixed to my head.

My company recruits information technology professionals. Minneapolis is a very “community” oriented city and we have an abundance of IT user groups and professional associations, so I can get out and be social, learn something new, and do some candidate and client generation while curing my “cabin fever.”

And when I say abundance, it is no joke. In addition to the IT groups I participate in (there are more than 25), there are several professional recruiting associations in which I am involved, including the Minnesota Recruiters group, which I coordinate.

At this point, some of you many be thinking, “How do you manage all of that, and does it distract you from making placements?”

Does it distract me? No. How do I manage all of this? Here’s how:

1. I focus on the groups and events where I know my “targets” are going to be in attendance. Most of the groups in town use Eventbrite, and usually the attendee list is posted, so I will copy and paste the names I do not recognize into LinkedIn and/or Google to see who they are.
2. While I attend a lot of events, I make sure not to hang out with just my friends. I also find the people who look like they do not know anyone and introduce myself. I look to see who has “groupies” hanging around them – as I assume they have to be one of the “cool kids” – and introduce myself. Additionally, I focus on looking for the name tags of those I searched for online. (I write them down on a 3×5 card that I bring with me so as not to forget)
3. If I am attending an event and know no one, I will email the host ahead of time and ask if they will be willing to make some introductions for me. Over a period of time of course I get to know who is who and it makes networking much easier.

Besides being an attendee at events, I am also frequently asked to speak at them. For recruiter and HR groups, topics I am requested to cover range from closing candidates to social media, building talent pools, and so forth. The IT user groups and professional associations typically look for topics on job search, using LinkedIn, find the next consulting gig, and how to find/use recruiters.

So how does this help my business?

For starters, I am not one of those creepy “insurance salesman” networking types who quickly work a room, hand out their business card, and then head for the door. I have a reputation of being “the guy” to go to with a question, and I make it a point to invest time in those with whom I speak – whether they can help me or not. I think a lot of us have forgotten that we are in the people business, and not everyone is an instant means to an end.

Do these activities pay off? Last summer I attended a tech event at Best Buy headquarters and in a small group session of 50 Java developers, the presenter recognized me and said, “Hey, are you the recruiter guy with the blog? Come up here and answer some questions we have about how to ready ourselves for a job search.”

What a great way to be of help to others and allow them to get to know me. The number of emails, calls, and resumes I received over the next week was overwhelming – in a very good way. As a direct result of this opportunity, I was referred to a manager who I later placed. Even now, I am still seeing benefits from this event as several of the technology professionals I met are pursuing contract opportunities with us. Networking events can provide both ‘hunting’ and ‘farming’ opportunities if approached in the right manner.

Right before the holidays, I was invited by a friend to attend an HR event with her. She was surprised to learn that I knew more of those attending than she did. Not only did I know them – they were friends, too. Very rarely do I have to make a true “cold call” on the client generation side of the business.

It is good to remember that there are human beings on the other end of the phone and the other side of the computer screen. Getting out from behind your desk and mixing it up with your target audience helps them to put a face to your name and voice as much as it does the same for you of them. “Smile and dial” is a whole lot easier when the person answering the phone (or email) already knows your name – and what value you have to offer.

This article is from the February 2011 print Fordyce Letter. To subscribe and receive a monthly print issue, please go to our Subscription Services page.

This week we are counting down some of the most popular articles from FordyceLetter.com in 2011. We hope you enjoy revisiting these articles as we look ahead to 2012!

Community as an aspect of our daily lives – not the television show – has become another buzzword. Many of us crave community, be it a gated community or online community. But what is a community? When you experience community you know you have it and many times it isn’t even labeled a community.

Why are we part of communities? There are many intrinsic values that are associated with being part of a community. While we sometimes think we are best alone, it is when we are part of a community that we truly shine. A community allows us to share common concerns and challenges, shouldering similar burdens. Communities rally around causes or threats; you just have to look at any of the recent disasters to see people pulling together. I live in the Washington, D.C. area – and recently we’ve been no strangers to natural disasters. After we lost power due to ______________ (fill in the blank: earthquake; flood, hurricane – we’ve had it all recently!) our community was enriched as everyone was talking face-to-face since they weren’t sitting in front of some form of an electronic box for a change.

A key component of the community experience is time. I know I am part of a community when I go to my farmers market and can say hello to many community members. My purpose in going to the farmers market is to buy my weekly groceries, but more importantly to feel part of something. My returned value is the great food and the camaraderie I experience being with like-minded individuals. The community for me was built over 10 years of my participation in it.

Community is an experience, and contrary to the stock valuation of companies who feel that “community” has monetary value, the community “experience” is the true value of the community.

What, you may ask, is the value of community in our line of work? After all, aren’t a lot of us competing against one another for similar (or sometimes the same) clients? Let’s take a look, shall we…

Defining Community

All communities have some similar key components:

• Purpose: Simple or magnanimous – saving life on earth or coffee talk for recruiters.
• Resources: Having resources or tools that the community participants can use together or individually is important. A challenge with some community platforms, such as Facebook, is that the tools and resources change frequently. Is this serving the platform or the community?
• Support: Key personnel (paid or volunteer). Leaders, influencers, evangelists, and worker bees. Some folks can have multiple roles. You need a variety of voices in the community; after all, it is a community and not a monarchy.
• Communication: Communities need to communicate but there is no one “silver bullet” communication channel. If you are a community organizer, you will need all forms as everyone communicates very differently – tweets, posts, email, cell phone, text, chat, and face-to-face.

What are some ways in which recruiting communities deliver these components to members?

Serving Needs of Members

Communities serve particular needs – the early settlers had communities because there was protection in numbers and different services were needed to keep the community going; exchanging of values, goods, and services to keep the community alive, vibrant, and growing.

Communities are created to serve one or a small number of purposes and structured to support the community and its members. Many communities were started by meeting simple needs. LinkedIn was started as an exchange of start-up contacts in Silicon Valley. Facebook was started for Harvard kids to connect about campus life. Professional communities span the gamut from purely social to purely business with many hovering in the middle.

It has been great watching the rise of recruiter communities as recruiting professionals realize they can make an impact on their profession and their professional development in a communal environment – both online and offline. Many professional groups have laid the groundwork for recruiter and HR community building but the synergy of social media tools combined with passionate individuals has created many new strong communities.

Case Study: recruitDC

As an example, recruitDC was started by a passionate group of recruiting professionals who wanted to address the lack of networking and professional development in the D.C.-area recruiting community.

The driving force behind the success of recruitDC is the enormous need coupled with the opportunity for each member of the community to participate — online and/or offline. This community showcases the understanding that there are other recruiters battling the same challenges, no matter the industry, and that support or skill acquisition is easily attainable through the community. This benefits the individual recruiter who many times will think they are alone or individually challenged with a particular problem, environment, or technology. You can see the relief on many recruiters’ faces attending one of the recruitDC events when they have an “A-ha!” moment brought about from sharing a sticky problem or getting over that particular hurdle that has been holding them back. The community benefits as it becomes a more cohesive unit to share best practices to improve overall recruiting.

The recruitDC community support comes from all forms of social media as well as meeting face-to-face. Leveraging the online network has created new opportunities either through new gigs or sharing best practices, while offline events provide best practice skills training from national leaders as well as the recruiter next door. recruitDC community management is handled through leveraging resources of committee members and making sure that the community needs are being met before any other needs are considered.

Community Killers

Finding “community” is an interesting balance and that many strive for it, but few succeed. Dead giveaway community killers are not supporting the community with resources, not being in the community for the long haul, and allowing others to take advantage rather than add value to the community. For example — the spamming that is often prevalent in LinkedIn groups.

Todd Wilms, SVP Social Media Marketing at SAP gave a great example at the Online Marketing Summit of what many think building a community is. He likened it to starting a family.

You meet someone and you tell them, “I want a big family with lots of kids.” You continue to date and continue to talk about how you want this great big family with lots of kids. You finally get married and start having kids. And you keep talking about how you want more kids, and you have more kids until you become grandparents. You have a family reunion and talk about how great it is to have a large family with lots of kids. You get together to have the family reunion picture, everyone is all lined up with their best clothes out and you step out of the picture. You get in your car, drive away, splash mud on everyone and give a profane gesture as you drive into the sunset saying, “All I wanted was the picture.”

Taking Things Offline…Sort Of

One component that some tend to disagree on is the need for offline interaction. When the dot com era came about, the demise of brick-and-mortar was predicted. Yet in an interesting reversal, new and old brick-and-mortar establishments have popped up; banks now have more retail operations in small, drive-thru locations, coffee/bar cafes abound, and everywhere you go wi-fi is available so you can be both online and offline in the same place.

While we tend to say we don’t want to be together, we actually do. Even if it is to just sit together in the same coffee shop and ignore each other or pass each other in the mob at the shopping mall, offline face-to-face interactions are key to sustain any community. Just look at the surge of Tweetup, Meetups, and Mashups. While some conferences may be on the decline there are a variety of reasons for this, including travel costs, changing attitudes, job changes, or the right content not being offered – yet we still want to be together offline, especially if we have established an online connection first.

Community Sustainability

People believe that a community can be built on the fly, go viral, and become profitable. It is too much in our culture to monetize relationships where we say “Okay, I have built this, they have come, now how can I sit back, and become rich.” All communities will hit a sustainability rough patch where they will need to make adjustments and persevere with the community feedback. This is where the rubber meets the road – how to keep the community alive, vibrant and sustainable.

Building a community for a talent pipeline is an interesting notion. The thought process is that you build a talent community and you won’t have to “recruit.” People will just come to you and you will save big bucks by not needing to purchase job board access, advertising and/or management systems. However, communities require resources and time to become sustainable — and whose role is this in a talent community? It may be the recruiter’s and the company but many times communities self select their leaders. Social media has made it very easy to launch an uprising and job seekers may launch a coup d’état if you are not providing the right resources or value exchange for your talent community.

As Todd shared in his presentation, communities cost resources to build and maintain. Putting up a Facebook page or building a LinkedIn group is not necessarily building a community. It is ad space or a place for news sharing. Follow the good rules of community building that many folks have done and be in it for the long haul. And remember to always add value – your ROI will be much greater when you give first!

What are some of the recruiting communities to which you belong, and why? Share in the comments below.

With my fortieth birthday fast approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about getting old or, to be more precise, how to avoid getting old. It’s a natural response to a milestone birthday. Well-intentioned friends console me with comments like, “Don’t worry about getting old. It sure beats the alternative,” or “Any day above ground is a good day.” I know they mean well, but that’s sort of a low bar and frankly I’m not convinced. Using the “above ground equals good day” logic, I should be ecstatic when I’m flying. I mean that’s 30,000 times better than just being above ground, right?!

The best advice I received was from a friend who is closing in on seventy. Instead of reassuring me that “40’s not old”, he offered these words of wisdom: “Getting old is a choice. If you stay curious, stay connected and find ways to celebrate, you’ll never be old.”

So, chairing the Fordyce Forum isn’t simply attending a conference for me. It’s an important part of my longevity program. 

Choose To Stay Curious. I am certain that some people are coming to Vegas for the party and there will be plenty of time for play, but this year’s Fordyce Forum attendees have no idea what’s about to hit them when it comes to rich, relevant content. I have had the opportunity to connect with most of the presenters and I have left each of those conversations absolutely electrified with energy and ideas. The topics range from how to get more from your technology tools to how to turn your business into the ultimate recreational vehicle. We’ll watch Mike Ramer do live desk demonstrations of client development calls and Bob Marshall will dissect one million-dollar producer’s tactics and strategies and provide a menu of ideas from which attendees can feast. Barb Bruno is going to jump beyond best practices and reveal “next practices” and give us a glimpse into where recruiting is headed and how to not just react to change but profit from game changing ideas. Jeremy Sismore has a thing or two or ten to say about finding new profit centers in your recruiting business and Jennifer Knippenberg, who has worked with offices of all shapes, sizes, and structures on developing customized social media strategies, will share her thoughts on turning this medium from a distraction into talent attraction. And Jeff Skrentny has a confession to make and a naked slide show to boot. Or something like that. That alone could be worth the trip! And that’s only half of the lineup. You’ll have to come to Vegas to learn more.

Choose To Stay Connected. Did you know that people with a larger circle of friends live longer? Multiple research studies on the topic have found that our connections are important to our health and longevity. The same is true for the health and longevity of your recruiting practice. Recruiters were ‘social networking’ long before Facebook and Twitter. We’ve always known that you can never have too many friends. That’s one of the best parts of attending a great conference. It’s not just the new information you gain, but the new connections you make. It’s the guy sitting next to you who off-handedly shares an idea that could revolutionize your business. It’s the woman you visit with at lunch who lays out a life-changing word of wisdom or encouragement. When I reflect on pivotal moments or key lessons in my career it’s sometimes a trainer or speaker that inspired me, but just as often it’s another conference attendee who played a role in changing the trajectory of my life’s story. Literally, as I wrote this someone I met at Fordyce last year just sent me a text: “Wait until I tell u about this deal I closed today…can’t wait to c u in Vegas!”

Choose To Keep Celebrating. This year’s Fordyce Forum is going to be the party this industry has been waiting for. Our clients are experiencing unprecedented amounts of turnover at the same time that they’re ready to reinvest in their businesses and add staff. The pent up demand for talent is massive and candidates are coming out of hibernation after a long economic winter and ready to move. These are the best of times! We are living through the “Gold Rush” for talent! This Fordyce Forum is going to be a celebration of big ideas, big billings and big impact. It’s a time to come together with hearts full of gratitude for what we’ve overcome, what lies ahead and to celebrate our great fortune that we happen to work in the greatest profession on the planet!

This year the Fordyce Letter turns 40. So do I, and there’s no place that I’d rather celebrate than in a city filled with bright lights, big dreams, and some of my favorite people on the planet.

I have learned not to mention my ‘age angst’ to the 78% of my staff who are younger than me after one twenty-something consoled me with, “Seriously, I can’t believe you’re turning forty. I hope I look as good as you when I’m your age.” It was subtle, but she visibly shuddered when she said, “when I’m your age” because she actually can’t imagine EVER being that age. It’s okay. It’s coming sooner than she thinks. We’re all getting older. That’s inevitable. But staying young? That’s a choice. Choose well.

See you in Vegas!

More phone calls equal more job orders, candidates and send outs. More send outs equal more placements.

I get it  - I really do. But after thirteen years as a sole practitioner, I have learned that I need to get out from behind the desk every now and then, or I fear that the headset will become permanently fixed to my head.

My company recruits information technology professionals. Minneapolis is a very “community” oriented city and we have an abundance of IT user groups and professional associations, so I can get out and be social, learn something new, and do some candidate and client generation while curing my “cabin fever.”

And when I say abundance, it is no joke. In addition to the IT groups I participate in (there are more than 25), there are several professional recruiting associations in which I am involved, including the Minnesota Recruiters group, which I coordinate.

At this point, some of you many be thinking, “How do you manage all of that, and does it distract you from making placements?”

Does it distract me? No. How do I manage all of this? Here’s how:

1. I focus on the groups and events where I know my “targets” are going to be in attendance. Most of the groups in town use Eventbrite, and usually the attendee list is posted, so I will copy and paste the names I do not recognize into LinkedIn and/or Google to see who they are.
2. While I attend a lot of events, I make sure not to hang out with just my friends. I also find the people who look like they do not know anyone and introduce myself. I look to see who has “groupies” hanging around them – as I assume they have to be one of the “cool kids” – and introduce myself. Additionally, I focus on looking for the name tags of those I searched for online. (I write them down on a 3×5 card that I bring with me so as not to forget)
3. If I am attending an event and know no one, I will email the host ahead of time and ask if they will be willing to make some introductions for me. Over a period of time of course I get to know who is who and it makes networking much easier.

Besides being an attendee at events, I am also frequently asked to speak at them. For recruiter and HR groups, topics I am requested to cover range from closing candidates to social media, building talent pools, and so forth. The IT user groups and professional associations typically look for topics on job search, using LinkedIn, find the next consulting gig, and how to find/use recruiters.

So how does this help my business?

For starters, I am not one of those creepy “insurance salesman” networking types who quickly work a room, hand out their business card, and then head for the door. I have a reputation of being “the guy” to go to with a question, and I make it a point to invest time in those with whom I speak – whether they can help me or not. I think a lot of us have forgotten that we are in the people business, and not everyone is an instant means to an end.

Do these activities pay off? Last summer I attended a tech event at Best Buy headquarters and in a small group session of 50 Java developers, the presenter recognized me and said, “Hey, are you the recruiter guy with the blog? Come up here and answer some questions we have about how to ready ourselves for a job search.”

What a great way to be of help to others and allow them to get to know me. The number of emails, calls, and resumes I received over the next week was overwhelming – in a very good way. As a direct result of this opportunity, I was referred to a manager who I later placed. Even now, I am still seeing benefits from this event as several of the technology professionals I met are pursuing contract opportunities with us. Networking events can provide both ‘hunting’ and ‘farming’ opportunities if approached in the right manner.

Right before the holidays, I was invited by a friend to attend an HR event with her. She was surprised to learn that I knew more of those attending than she did. Not only did I know them – they were friends, too. Very rarely do I have to make a true “cold call” on the client generation side of the business.

It is good to remember that there are human beings on the other end of the phone and the other side of the computer screen. Getting out from behind your desk and mixing it up with your target audience helps them to put a face to your name and voice as much as it does the same for you of them. “Smile and dial” is a whole lot easier when the person answering the phone (or email) already knows your name – and what value you have to offer.

We have two areas of placement, including Human Resources professionals through Arlington Resources, Inc., and Accounting and Finance  professionals through Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Over six years ago, we started with our human resources group holding bimonthly meetings specifically to provide networking opportunities for those in transition. We meet so many great people in our profession, and we wanted to help as many people as we can and give back to the human resources community.

The meetings are held at our office in the mornings with coffee and coffee cake provided. We have a facilitator, and each person shares a little bit about their background, what their ideal next position is, what’s in their pipeline, and any other information that might be helpful for the group including other networking events in the area. We focus on being positive and keeping the meetings beneficial to those who attend. Arlington Resources is well known in the HR community and we have received many accolades for providing this networking opportunity for those in transition.

About three years ago, we decided to add another group for our accounting and finance professionals from the people we get to know through Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. The format is the same, and additionally, we do have presentations on various job search skills including resume writing and strategies for getting the interview. Candidates appreciate the genuine interest and honest communications from our office staff. Also, they like to hear what the experiences are from other accounting and finance peers who are also in transition.

As the economy tumbled  two years ago, we decided to take the networking out into the general community. After talking with our local church community, I was able to start the SHARE Job & Networking Ministry to help the general public in their job search. Three other parishes soon joined the efforts.  We hold bimonthly meetings at a local church and host various speakers for the meetings to share information on various job search strategies including writing resumes, how to handle a phone interview, developing your personal brand, using social media to land a position, networking strategies, and so forth. Our speakers share the job search tools, and afterward we have about an hour of networking.  We have volunteers from the community help in coordinating and running the meetings.

I receive numerous messages from those who attend on how helpful it is to have a place to go to learn about conducting a job search. People have shared that realizing others are in the same position they are is beneficial, as is meeting new friends and potential colleagues through the meetings. However, the most rewarding feedback is when attendees share “How They Landed Their New Position!”

We feel very lucky to be able to help others this way!

This industry is characterized by a glut of new recruiters when times are good, and dramatic reductions when times get tough. It’s an easy business to get into, but it’s a tough business to stay in during economic downturns. I often tell people… “This is a business that, when times are good, there’s almost nothing better. There’s a lot of relatively easy money to be made. However, when times are bad, there’s almost nothing worse. The ‘gravy train’ dries up very quickly and companies recruiting budgets disappear.”

There are a number of factors that go into making someone successful in this industry over the long run. However, I believe one differentiator is being willing to add value for people whether you’re likely to make an immediate buck or not. Especially in a down economy, when many good prospective candidates, and perhaps some former (and potentially future) clients are out of work, finding ways to be of help to them pays great long-term dividends. Do you invest significant time and energy into people that can’t be of immediate value to you? Do you view people as people, or simply evaluate them by whether they are worth money to you or not? Are you willing to find ways to assist people that don’t even seem to be of potential value to you down the road?

Many recruiters do, and many, many recruiters don’t.

I see so many recruiters that are so unwilling to share information with others that they create the impression that they are only in it for a buck. Whether it’s a lack of trust, lack of caring, or lack of long-term vision, they sacrifice valuable long-term relationships (and revenue) for a quick hit.

I’ve been recruiting for the past 24 years. Just as any other recruiter, I am only able to place a tiny percentage of all the people I talk to. However, I have tried to find some way to be a valuable resource to virtually every new person I connect with. I may not be able to place them directly, however, I generally offer to help them in a variety of ways:

• Coach them on improvements to their resume, or approach, or interview skills
• Help them prepare for interviews with “inside information” even though it’s not my placement
• Give them suggestions of good networking groups or resources in their area of focus
• Connect them with other people that may be a source of leads
• Refer other good recruiters that may be able to help when I can’t
• …and even provide them contact names at companies they are targeting to pursue on their own!

As recruiters, we have a unique perspective on what makes a good candidate or what job search practices work best. After an interview, we get to debrief with our candidates as well as with the hiring manager. We get to hear what resonated, and what didn’t. We see how people get jobs. We hear why a hiring manager selected one candidate over another. We see these things so often and, for us, it becomes “common sense” to do certain things and not others. To many job seekers though, who aren’t exposed to the job search process as we are year in and year out, that “common sense” can be quite uncommon!

When they find a recruiter who sincerely wants to help, they are very often very willing to reciprocate that help now, or down the road. People I’ve helped have often become future hiring managers somewhere, and many even become clients. They often become great ongoing resources for referrals. They often become great resources of job leads and hiring manager names. They often become a viable candidate years later after they’ve gained more experience and/or become more professional in their presentation. And some of the most valuable long-term relationships originally were people I thought would never be of help to me at all.

Some of my best relationships are people I’ve placed multiple times in their careers. They were initially early or mid-level in their career, became hiring managers and clients, candidates again, and clients again somewhere else. I have many people I’ve never placed, but talk to often throughout the year because they are great connectors for me with referrals, information, and leads.

Have I ever gotten burned because I gave a contact name to someone who somehow used it to hurt a potential placement for me? Yes, a couple of times. Have I gotten more business because of my willingness to share valuable information when they need it for their own benefit and not mine? Yes, many times. Do I get calls back more quickly from clients and candidates when I’m seeking referrals because I’ve helped them in the past? Absolutely! Has my job gotten easier because I have people calling me proactively with information, job orders, and leads, because they know I will help them again in the future? Yes!

Keeping everything you know close to the vest may benefit you in the short-run. However, sharing information freely and helping people whether they can help you in return or not will enable you to build a successful practice over the long haul! Try it! You may not see the results this month, or this year, but results will come and make your life much more rewarding in the process!

With the benefit of hindsight, the formula for successful networking with hiring managers is rather simple. You start by concentrating your attention on the best people in your industry. You get to know them professionally and, quite often, personally. You learn what they do and don’t do that makes them rising stars. You try to get opinions from people who know them about what makes them special and then discuss it with them.  In this way, you are developing relationships with both current and future hiring managers.

If you can create a connection when these people are happily employed and are not looking to change jobs, you build a relationship that could weather a storm for many years. Sooner or later, when they decide to look for new opportunities, you are there to help and advise. You build your rapport over a long period of time – someone with less than 10-15 years of experience in the industry is seldom senior enough to have influence in the hiring process.

So where do you begin?  Whom do you connect with? Be very careful in selecting members of your network. Concentrate on rising stars with whom you “click”. There has to be a connection at the personal level. Look for similarities such as attending the same high school or college, coming from similar small towns, an interest in sports and the like.   Then, over the years, you keep in touch by emailing them once a quarter or so, and make an attempt to meet them in person a couple of times per year (if possible). If you show genuine interest in what they do, the conversations tend to be rather easy and pleasant. The catch – it’s difficult to have a meaningful conversation with a rising star in any complex field if you are not an expert. So make yourself an expert. If not in the nitty-gritty technical details, then in learning who are the stars in your fields, where they work, what they do and what makes them special.

Information is key. Read all the industry publications you can get your hands on and every time you see an interesting story or article, share it with the people you are cultivating.  By being an expert in the people and companies in your field, you will be able to add valuable information to the exchanges you have with your rising stars. Very few professionals have the time or interest in doing the work it takes to really master this subject. As a rule, if you have an in-depth conversation with ten or more people working for a given mid-sized firm and you get them to tell you anything about the people around them, you will become an expert on that firm. This further encourages their belief that you are the only one capable of helping them.

There are challenges in maintaining these activities productively. You must work very hard at distinguishing the difference between Data and Metadata.

Data is resumes with their collections of education, firm names, project descriptions, technical skills, other keywords, visible progression of responsibilities and the like. Data is when a candidate describes to you their projects – what they did and what the results were. Data is when you collect lots of resumes or LinkedIn profiles and determine which candidates are open to the opportunities you have. Data is facts.

Metadata is the collection of opinions about all of these. You need to be as well informed about these as possible, and that gives you an edge and allows you to enhance your relationships with your rising star hiring managers. Metadata is knowledge of what are the best schools in your field at the Bachelor level and at Master level?  They may not be the same. What firms are the hardest hires? Who do they tend to select? Who can share with you internal opinions about various potential candidates? To what degree can you rely on those opinions? What do you do when you have multiple opinions that disagree? What are the hottest technical skills? To what degree do different firms have proficiency in deploying the latest technology that calls for these skills? What kinds of questions do you ask to ascertain if the candidates have these skills, and to what degree?

As your mid-level hiring stars progress in the field, you will be called upon to help them build their careers, teams, and eventually, their companies. By this point you should have a good idea of who the key firms are in your field, who are winning in the market place and who are losing. As your contacts’ levels of seniority rise they will become more and more interested in discussing their industry and where the various firms are in the competitive market place. Here again your research will pay off.

As you get more involved with your hiring clients you should become more aware of the organizational issues they are dealing with. What are the conflicts the organization is dealing with today? What problems had the organization dealt with in the past and how did they deal with these? What worked and what did not? In other words, to the degree possible, become an expert on your hiring manager’s companies.

How will this benefit you in the long run? In today’s ultra competitive recruiting environment, unless you have a sustainable edge you will be out of business soon enough. Lowering your fees is NOT a competitive edge – your competition from low labor cost countries has you beat on that one. Having a strong relationship with hiring managers where your integrity, your expertise in a competitive labor marketplace, knowledge of technological competitiveness, in-depth knowledge of what makes your clients’ firms and your clients individually tick – all of these constitute a high barrier the competition will have a hard time overcoming.

A. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that I am now getting more and more questions about the candidate side of the biz!

Sure, job orders still aren’t the easiest to come by, but the good recruiters know that the Yin to the recession Yang is that there are now great super candidates around who would have been virtually impossible to connect with a few years ago. The GOOD ONES know that this is the time to seize those relationships that will yield plenty of fruit in the future!

It makes me cringe when people tell me that they aren’t recruiting as much because they “don’t have to.”

“Job orders are what we need,” they tell me. The candidate flow drops and the focus on recruiting dwindles. They say they have plenty of people to fill any jobs they get. BUT THEY MISS the point, don’t they! So, I hope you are a good one and that you get that this is the time to CARPE DIEM! Work your tail off to meet and network with as many candidates as possible. You know how that works. Just like LinkedIn, they tell someone about you who tells someone and voila. The more you meet, the more leads you get (that’s a whole different topic), the better the quality of your sendouts (or temp fills), the less likely a falloff will be (or shortened assignment), the more likely you will get unsolicited candidate referrals from them, the more likely some will turn into clients in the future, yada yada yada.

So, start recruiting and sourcing! Now, remember this very simple tip. First, NEVER ask someone “who do you know who is looking.” UGGGGH!!! We never care about that. We just want to know good people. In fact, we just ask them to point us in the direction of any good people, “regardless of whether they are looking or not, in fact, I am sure they are not.”

That said, this still doesn”t work well, and you know it. That is why most recruiters stop asking it all of the time! Lets face it: when you ask someone that, even if you ask it the right way, they will likely tell you the famous “nobody comes to mind.” Well, that is the normal reaction. So, what you have to do is make them “come to mind.” And you simply do that via the power of visualization. It is quite simple, but to get someone to come to mind you need to direct the mind and put them in the mind.

ALWAYS ask very specific visual questions when sourcing. For example, instead of “who do you know who is really good,” you can ask a better question: “who do you know who is really good in your current department.” Even better: ask them to “picture their office right now and think of all of the players there in your discipline. Then ask them to think of the person or people who everyone seems to respect or who the go-to people are. Get it? If you recruit BIG 4 CPAs, for example, ask them to go back to last year when they sat in the bullpen waiting for an assignment and ask them who those people were and who were the good ones who were always requested. In other words, just ask very specific questions so that they can place their mind in the right place. Then, it’s just about impossible for most people to say that “nobody comes to mind.” Happy sourcing!

Ask Neil any question that is vexing you! Have trouble closing deals or selling? Neil can help! To ask your question and possibly have it published online, email Neil at Neil.Lebovits@TheDynamicSale.com and put the words Nudge Neil in the subject.

Neil Lebovits, CPA, CPC, CTS, before taking the industry by storm as a trainer, was a global president for Adecco, where he sat on the global executive team. Previously, he was the president and COO of Ajilon Professional staffing for North America, where he oversaw over 100 offices. He has done it all in the industry: Permanent & Temporary Placement, Sales, Branch Management, Regional Management, COO, & President. He founded his industry training & development company, http://www.TheDynamicSale.Com, in 2009. He shares the secrets and systems that he has developed and harnessed while working himself up over his 20+ years in the industry. A renowned leader, motivator, trainer, and speaker, he has appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNN, ABC news, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Smart Money. Learn more about Neil and sign up for his free online training course at www.TheDynamicSale.Com.

I’m a fan of U.S. sci-fi of the 50s and 60s. I love the fact that it is both a tour of the imagination and a window into American attitudes and society at the time. In particular, Philip K. Dick and Robert Silverberg.

Both wrote about the effect of technology on people, which is always more interesting that Death Robots from Mars intent on incinerating virginal heroines, which is how most sci-fi of that time is remembered.

In particular, I remember a book that had a world where people only ever met via 3D imaging – many people had never actually been in the room as another living person since birth.

When I go online, I find that we’re halfway there — “best friends” have never actually met!

Conversely, I’ve been meeting and greeting a bit lately. I was present at a ‘Tweet-Up’ (a Twitter group meet-up) where 15 people met for the first time.

They discussed social media. Eleven of them were online, sharing the discussions with others. The discussion was streamed live to ustream.com in case you couldn’t be there!

That night, I ran an in-the-flesh event for a LinkedIn networking group I manage, with 25 people actually talking face-to-face. Wow!

Coat-Tie-and-Boardshorts and Webcams, Oh My!

But surely, such events are going against the trend. Aren’t we on the verge of becoming a coat-tie-and-boardshorts culture, staring into a webcam from behind a desk?

Isn’t everybody a website? I know I am!

Therefore, trade shows – massive events which require money, logistics, and people on the ground – would have to be a bit yesterday, surely? All those people in the same place at the same time selling the same stuff?

Turns out, they’re not. Attendances and exhibitors have been pretty steady over the last 10 years.

If you check out the last downturn – I’m suggesting the IT crash of about 2001 – the net effect on trade shows was negligible. The percentage of people who bought anything at a trade show dropped, but the number of attendees and exhibitors didn’t. The only other indicator that dropped was the “exhibit attraction” scales, which indicated that booths were a little less fancy.

As a head-hunter, I run riot at trade shows! Why? Because companies often send their up-and-coming stars, along with a few senior managers.

I had a briefcase burst at Sydney Airport after a conference last year. I’d whipped through the other two events on at the same venue as the conference on the same day and collected so many business cards and brochures that the poor thing just gave up.

What’s Cardbrowser.com?

Given my love of tradeshows and a crop of business cards, I’m a little enamored with CardBrowser.com, a searchable card database collected from trade shows.

To explain, they go to trade shows, collect all the cards, stick ‘em online, and sell you access to the searchable database of images of the actual cards.

It’s an amazingly simple concept. And it works.

Let’s suppose I have been asked to find someone to sell restaurant POS systems in New York.

My favorite place to start is LinkedIn, so I dug out the postcode for NYNY and did a search with the likely parameters. As I have 16m+ in my network, there’s gotta be someone who fits the bill!

In fact, six people turned up, and after discounting one who is a “waitress wanting to be an actress,” that left five quite good prospects. Certainly worth a call, if only I had their phone numbers. Looks like more detective work.

I ran a similar search on Cardbrowser, which was quicker and easier. It returned 17 business cards – all of them useful.

So, on the one hand, I have five people to whom I can send a message who might reply or might not. On the other, 17 business cards, many with mobile phone numbers, certainly with emails and landline numbers.

Given that Cardbrowser seems to be effective, it’s worth a quick description.

It has a serious interface. No hype, nothing hysterical. It looks like the marketing department went to lunch and the SQL team did the layout.

And it’s so simple. There’s more than 175,000 cards in there, and judging by the rate of acquisition – their calendar lists 25 trade shows that they are attending just this week as I write this – it will expand rapidly.

So you stick in an industry and/or a location and/or a job category. Press a button. Get a list.

They offer a few add-on services – both small but useful, such as using an address-grabber to move the individual data to your own contacts and mass-scale, such as spreadsheet export – for a fee. Such services tend to be offered to you just at the point you might like to use them.

And here’s a sobering thought – when you look at their news releases about their big customers, they aren’t search firms. They’re major corporates, looking to rob hardworking head-hunters of our right to charge enormous fees in return for the results of our cleverness.

Being a head-hunter has two parts. Being able to find candidates that no one else can find, or find as quickly as you can. And being persuasive and charming on the phone or via email, in order to get interest from the target candidate pool.

Cardbrowser is a very effective way of addressing the first requirement.

Five years ago I was pretty sure I could walk into any room full of people in my hometown and be better at the first part than anyone. Now damn near anyone can get a reasonable list together.

These days, to be a successful head-hunter you need to be exceptional at both parts, and increasingly, the second part.

Sure, when something like Cardbrowser comes across your radar, then you should aim to be better at it than anybody else.

The point is, while you’re honing your Boolean arguments and search strings, gathering Shally Steckerl’s cheat sheets and building your online networks, don’t forget to develop your language, vocabulary, manners, persuasiveness, diligence, and charm. It’s what separates you from those who can make a list – which these days, is anyone with a credit card and few hours to spare online.

The good news is I’ve now got a few more hours to spare to work on my charm– I don’t need to go to trade shows anymore.

Recruiters who talk easily and listen effectively tend to find contacts and speed down the fast-track sooner and more quickly. We’ve all been tongue-tied, at one time or another, but with planning and practice we can make every networking opportunity successful.

Here are some tips on how to sharpen your conversation skills and network like a pro:

• Meet as many people as possible at business or holiday functions.
• Introduce yourself. Walk over to the person you want to meet, extend your hand, and tell them your name.
• Draw out this person by asking open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a yes or no. Listen to what the other person is saying. Show them that you care.
• Keep a lot of small talk questions handy (i.e., work, the weather, sports, “Do you follow __team, player, etc.?”) Don’t ever discuss politics or religion. Remember “schmoozing” is designed to advance your contact list, not your causes.
• Skip doing business while networking. Make a date to meet for a drink or lunch to create and maintain a common bond.
• Have the tools to network with you at all times.
• Write notes on the back of the business cards you collect. Record anything you think may be useful in remembering the person more clearly.
• Manage your time efficiently. Don’t linger with friends or acquaintances.
• Follow up! Call them up. Make friends even when you don’t need them. If you don’t, you’ve wasted your time.

To the accomplished “schmoozer,” the next big networking opportunity is just a meeting away. Good luck!