Our Headhunting masterclass

Our Headhunting Masterclass

What if we told you that headhunting isn’t dead, and you’re just being (a little bit) lazy?

Don’t shout at us; we’re only being truthful.

If you read the first sentence of this newsletter and felt personally attacked, this edition is for you!

Some may think that headhunting is ‘old school’ and has no place in the modern recruitment world. 

However, it’s also important to remember that old-school methods (in every industry, not just recruitment) formed the building blocks of success way before the cooler older sister (Technology) came along!

Believe it or not, recruiters used to earn hundreds of thousands without having LinkedIn Recruiter!

We will give you a short (and very sweet) headhunting masterclass. 

We hope to motivate you and get you to a place where you’ll enjoy headhunting.

Grab a coffee and use this as inspiration for your next BD session.

Step 1: Get rid of the preconceived misconceptions in your head

There are three key things you need to remember about headhunting:

1. You are not selling

This is where people get things very wrong. 

We are not selling PPI, and we are not asking someone whether they had an accident at work that wasn’t their fault. 

Headhunting isn’t about going straight in with all of the details—it’s simply introducing yourself and discussing the building blocks of a relationship with someone.

It would be bold to jump on an initial call and expect someone to buy the first time, you have to find out if they’re interested first.

“The purpose of a cold call is to find out if someone has a problem that you solve, and more than that, are they motivated to solve that problem? When there’s genuine motivation, that’s when you can start to book meetings and get the wheels in motion.”

2. It’s a marathon, not a sprint

You won’t have success straight away, and it’s going to take a long time to get good at this.

Yes, people are going to hang up on you. Just like people don’t reply to LinkedIn messages. 

Time to get over that fear of rejection and remember that you are still being rejected when messages aren’t replied to, so what’s the difference about it being on the phone? 

Marathons take time and practice, the same methodology can be applied to headhunting.

3. Understand pains and problems

The initial cold call you make isn’t about you. 

It’s about your client/candidate and understanding their pains and problems - pretty much pre-empting them - so you demonstrate your knowledge and get them locked in to the next call.

Step 2: PLAN

If you want to get the most out of your calling, it takes planning - you can't go into headhunting whilst also trying to figure out who you're going to call.

Before any session, make sure you have a list of people you're going to call, and WHY you're calling them.

If you have both of these things ahead of your calling session, you will always get more out of it!

Step 3: Develop your opening script and perfect it

• Your name 

• Where you’re calling from

• What you do 

• Next steps/next call (closing)

It can look a little like this…

It’s as simple as that! Aim for 25-30 seconds maximum.

Get in, get their number, get out!

This exert was taken from a recent podcast episode with Dom Taujanskas, you can check out the full clip here.

Step 4: Be confident and curious

This goes without saying, but headhunting requires personality and getting someone to like you quickly. 

Smile whilst you’re on the phone, sound upbeat, and have confidence in your voice. Being curious enables you to bring good energy to each call. It shows you aren’t a know-it-all and you still want to learn about the person on the end of the phone.

Some of us get in our heads so much when it comes to headhunting, especially when you’re headhunting a senior candidate. 

However, it’s important to remember that it’s just another human on the other end of the phone. 

How they react to you calling them is a reflection on them as opposed to a reflection on you. 

All you can do is your best, and being curious and confident will make your pitch shine. We promise!

Finally, people love when humans are just humans - and what we mean by this is that perfection can sometimes be your enemy. 

Let’s say you call someone and mess up mid-pitch, instead of getting embarrassed, make light of it! You’d be surprised how much of an ice breaker it is.

Step 5: Be consistent

Remember when the thought of leaving a voicemail would leave you quaking in your boots at the beginning of your career? Now you’ve had plenty of ‘exposure therapy’ - you can do them in your sleep, right?

The exact same applies to headhunting and headhunting. 

The more consistent you are, the better you’ll get, and the more it’ll become second nature to you. 

Even if you dedicate yourself to doing 20 minutes of headhunting every day, and slowly build your way up - it’s an excellent starting point.

Step 6: Get yourself out of your comfort zone

Set yourself challenges - how many people can you speak to in a week? 

How many meetings do you want to book off the back of a cold call? 

How many placements do you want to make from a cold call? 

Giving yourself metrics to keep yourself accountable will enable you to step outside of your comfort zone and start to deliver great results for yourself. 

Gamify your headhunting! Can you run competitions with your colleagues and challenge your peers?

Get competitive and creative, and make it fun.

TOP TIPS FOR HEADHUNTING

Switchboard

To assume that every gatekeeper on a switchboard will shoot you down, is a very bold statement (and one that we’ve heard a lot). 

There are some switchboards where people can be incredibly helpful, and will put you through to who you want to talk to. Use that as your first port of call before trying harder methods.

Microsoft Teams

Did you know if you put someone’s e-mail into teams, you can call them directly and have a video call? If you don’t know the e-mail - guess it! 

First name, last name, company name - the worst they can do is not answer… 

Personal assistants

Some may say they’re the greatest gatekeepers, others see PA’s as an easier way to build a direct relationship. 

If you know the person you’re reaching out to has an assistant, focus on building their trust first and winning them over! They have control of the person's diary, after all..

Have we inspired you yet? Time to pick up the phone and start dialling… 

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

#1: Do you listen to my podcast? I release a weekly episode with either a top-performing recruiter or recruitment entrepreneur to find out how they achieved their success so you can learn directly from their journey Check out my latest episode and subscribe to the show.

#2: Promote your brand to over 4,277 recruitment professionals by sponsoring this newsletter (bookings available from May 2024).

#3: Want to learn how you can leverage our all-in-one training platform to take on the heavy lifting of upskilling your team whilst you spend more time working on the business? >>>> Book A Meeting With Me Here