“The Phone Rings … “Tell Me More About The Ultimate Part-Time Job”
That’s likely what you’ll hear when someone responds from your recruiting fliers and ads, yet many recruiters mishandle these calls. Not because they don’t provide enough information, rather they generally provide too much information. Remember, we’re working to develop a powerful canvassing team. Those incoming calls are just another step in the process. As you’ve learned from previous newsletters, there’s purpose behind each step.
Handling your incoming recruiting calls is not rocket science. The first step is to answer the call and second have a well-prepared script to follow when you do. You’re selling that caller from the moment their call is answered. Yes, you’re ultimately going to be paying them, but you want them excited about the prospects of working for your company; and actively pursuing you rather than begging them to work. And how you handle the call sets the stage for that to happen.
There are only a few key points you need to learn to set up the call for the next step, but it’s important you follow the steps. When you do, you’ll find you’ll convert a larger number of qualified recruits. The process sets up what I call a “no pressure” interview environment. In fact, my system ultimately does two things,
- It disqualifies candidates that are not interested (freeing you of the burden of telling them they’re not qualified)
- Those that are interested will pursue the job, rather than you chasing them
How Do You Handle The Incoming Call?
I suggest you have a dedicated phone line for your recruiting calls. If you’re serious about canvassing then you’ll continually be recruiting and it’s a worthy investment because it can free up your time, your staff’s time and will help you standardize this phase of the process.
If you cannot have a dedicated line, and the calls will be handled by an operator, receptionist, or secretary then you must train that person on how to handle the calls… that means a script; but I’ll get into that more in a moment.
Having a dedicated phone line and the process I’m about to teach you will immediately, though subconsciously convey to your caller, their call is valuable to you. It communicates that you’re serious, and, it sets the caller up to be serious. If they’re not, they go away and that’s one less non-qualified recruit you have to squander time on.
I’ll address three paths through which you could receive your calls:
- Dedicated, but unattended line
- Direct to the recruiter
- Through a secretary
If your calls are going to be handled by a receptionist, he or she will provide very brief information, whereas the recruiter will take the opportunity to qualify the call a bit more. Here’s a break down of the two methods.
General Voice Message Information
Here’s the information you should include on a voice message or receptionist’s script
- Thank you for calling about the job opportunity
- Who you are as a company – build credibility
- Generalized info about the job
- Mass information meeting about the job
Recruiter Information
- Thank you for calling about the job opportunity
- Where did you get the flier/see the advertising (tracking)
- Who you are as a company
- Type of work or product you sell
- Build credibility – credentials/awards
- Detailed location of company (local/convenient/close by)
- Generalized info about the job
- Qualifiers (Gives you the opportunity to do a preliminary qualification and engage the candidate in conversation and assess how they speak and handle themselves)
- Do you have reliable transportation?
- Share hours setup for canvassing
- Can you work the hours we’ve established for canvassing?
- Qualifiers (Gives you the opportunity to do a preliminary qualification and engage the candidate in conversation and assess how they speak and handle themselves)
- Mass information meeting about the job
Before you conclude with your caller I suggest you get some information from them:
- Name
- Phone number
- From what advertisement are they responding? (Tracking)
The entire process is designed to allow you to spend your time with only those people who are initially qualified and demonstrate a strong interest in the job. Following this method allows you to avoid the ‘one-on-one’ interviews, unless you enjoy spending your time across the desk from candidates all day. Truthfully, I would rather shove a sharp ice pick under my toenail rather than do one-on-one interviews for the canvassing position all day, but that’s just me.
Many of the client’s I talk to try to accomplish too much during this phase of the recruiting process. Here’s an excerpt from one of my live seminars where I talk specifically about the qualifying phase of the initial interview.
(Best to view the videos using Internet Explorer. Video may not appear if you’re using FireFox)
With the abilities of today’s technology you can have the recruiting calls forwarded to your cell phone, or a cell phone dedicated to receive incoming recruiting calls. The bottom line is that you have an established method how the calls are to be handled and well thought out script to communicate the pertinent details to your recruits. Just as with direct sales, when you address their questions before they are asked, or before they even think about them, then you present yourself and the company as being a credible, established, successful organization to work for.
Receptionist Script
If you have someone answering the incoming calls, such as a secretary or receptionist, they can easily follow the same script as that for the recruiter. You should provide them a simple form to complete which will help them capture pertainate information from the canvassing candidate.
This is a strong and consistent method for qualifying your canvassing prospects and filling the mass interview with highly motivated qualified candidates. The key is to capitalize on every opportunity.
If you haven’t identified and analyzed how your incoming recruiting calls will be handled that should be the first thing you do. Identify, setup and train the people who will ‘touch’ those incoming calls. Next, write your script. The script for your secretary, for yourself and the qualifying phone interview and the information you want to capture to track your recruiting results.
Next month I’ll focus on the mass interview and how it weeds out the non-qualified candidates and saving you time and money. So until next month, get to work on developing or strengthening your process for handling those incoming canvasser recruiting calls.