What You Are To A Recruiter

Always remember this.

The recruitment company needs to make money so it hires Recruiters and Sales professionals to maintain and grow it’s business.

We’re essentially door to door salesmen, put in place to preach the word of our talent and sell as many of them as possible.

Our routine looks something like this.

*Ring**Ring*

Audrey: “Hello?”

Recruiter: “Hello is this Audrey in HR?

Audrey:  “Uh, yeah. Who’s this.”

Recruiter: It’s Mike from XYZ Recruiting.”
Audrey: “Never heard of you.”
Recruiter: “Was wondering if I could interest you in some of our best Front End Development talent?”
Audrey: “I look after Training and Development, you’ll need to talk to someone in Strategic Sourcing. Bye.”
*Click*

Okay, it’s not always that bad. Let me walk you through two scenarios.

Scenario 1

I show up at your front door selling vacuums. You open up, like my smile, my handshake, the cut of my suit, the twinkle of my eye and the charm of my greeting. You invite me in for tea.

I’m in luck. After a bit of friendly banter you let me know that your vacuum just sucked it’s last breath yesterday and you were about to head out to buy a new one. Bingo. I can taste the dollar signs.

I say “What luck! I’ve come with this year’s model; so new that it probably hasn’t even cooled yet. It’s suction is twice that of last year’s model, it’s filter trapping 98% of all dust particles and it’s bags made from a new material that kills 99% of germs that go into it. Not only will it make your house look nicer, it’ll make you happier and healthier just from using it. If you went to a store to get this you’d be paying $200. Too bad you can’t get them in stores until next month. That’s why I’m here to let you start using this baby and all it’s accessories today for a one-time offer of $89.95.You’ll be the talk of the neighborhood.”

You almost fall off your seat with joy when I pull this out:

Shall we go into the kitchen to fill out some paperwork and I’ll be on my merry way?

Scenario 2

Scenario 2 is exactly the same as Scenario 1, however this time, just when I’ve gotten you in the troughs of ecstasy, I pull this out:

The life is sucked out of the room as you take a beat, smile awkwardly and say “I’d rather see what Canadian Tire has to offer before agreeing to anything. Thanks for stopping by though.”

In Scenario 1 I had a product that I talked up and that lived up to your expectations when you saw it first hand. The sale was closed. In Scenario 2 I talked up the product exactly the same, but it did not meet the expectations that my pitch had built when it was finally shown. In spite of the good deal, I lost the sale.

To the Recruiter, you are the product. No matter how good my sale, I can’t change you. You are what you are. This is paramount to everything that I will write on this blog going forward.

Let it sink in again.

YOU ARE THE PRODUCT

Yes. You.

Not enough people know this. They think that Recruiters are there to help them find work. They are wrong. Recruiters are there to find good product and either sell it to their client or pass it off to an Account Manager who will.

If they can’t place you, they can’t make money. If they can’t make money, they get fired. If they get fired, who’s going to pick up their accounts and help get your resume read by a VP at one of the banks? And so it goes on and on.

Take that away and think about it for a day. You are the product. You shape the perception of yourself. You are in control of yourself. You are the key to making this work.

Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you’re a good product. That you’re worth your price tag. That there’s no reason someone wouldn’t want to buy what you have to offer. That you’re better than your competition. Let it sink in.

We’ll pick up tomorrow on what to look for in a Recruiter and how to differentiate the professionals from the con men.