There’s no doubt that one of the most daunting and challenging tasks of a canvass manager or owner is in hiring prime candidates for a canvassing position. What I discuss in today’s article will require a mindset shift on your part. As you can tell from the title, my approach will be removed from the traditional hiring process; as is most everything I do and teach. The late great Earl Nightengale, one of the earliest business success coaches, taught that to truly be successful you need to look at what everyone else is doing and then you do the exact opposite from them.
That’s why you’re here, following me and what my private clients are doing and being highly successful with. I won’t say that any of what I teach is easy for the traditional canvassing world to accept and that’s OK; I’m not right for everyone, but I am exactly what the successful canvassers want, a system that works.
The Fit
One of the things I hear often from managers and owners is that they can’t find people who are the right ‘fit’ for them.
If you’ve struggled with this I can promise you there are people out there that are the right fit for you. To change the type of people you’re bringing on board you have to change your approach to hiring.
First, you’re in the driver seat. Unfortunately the demands of people higher up in the food chain tend to put pressure on you to find people and the frustration and pressure causes many to lower their expectations in an effort to hopefully, luckily hire a superstar.
I’ve said it before; you can only win a game when you’re on offense. Too often the hiring game puts you in a defense mindset. The very nature of hiring is somewhat defensive whereas auditioning puts recruits in the position to perform for you rather than you performing for them. Think about it, one of the hottest reality TV shows airing right now is American Idol. The talent is run through to perform before judges who decide who’s performing the best. They’re required to show you what they’re made of, what they can do and how they act. It’s not what people say, it’s what they do… the proof is in the pudding as they say.
The role of a canvasser is that of an actor. He or she has scripts they can follow, body language to emulate and voice inflection. The first step in your mindset change for finding people who ‘fit’ your business, your system and your culture is to audition them for a role rather than hiring them into a position.
The Natural Order
The next step toward a mindset change is to understand the universal 80/20 rule. If you look at the top 20% of your highest producing people you’ll see they are producing 80% of your leads and ultimately 80% of your revenue. That same 80/20 rule applies to recruiting. Only 20% of the people you audition for canvassers will be a close fit. The other 80% won’t be worth investing more time into.
These 20% will be the foundation upon which your department and company will grow. They’ll be your future field managers, team leaders, recruiters and canvass managers. These are the people you can confidently invest in.
Your Auditioning Funnel
The term funnel in marketing refers to the process or steps a lead follows to be nurtured into a customer or client. There are specifically defined steps, contacts or touches a lead will receive in an effort to convert them into a buying customer. I have a funnel set up and you passed through it when you first got connected to me. It works; it’s a natural progression or natural order to becoming a customer. You might say that my 5-step canvassing system is a lead funnel. There are very specific steps and scripts a homeowner is guided through to get them scheduled into an appointment.
With that said, recruiting and hiring is an extension of marketing. As advertising is a function of marketing, recruiting is a function of hiring; it’s the advertising you do to attract qualified candidates. The hiring component is relative to the selling component of your business.
Marketing |
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Managing |
Advertising |
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Recruiting
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Selling |
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Hiring
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If I compare the 2 more closely you’ll see there are similarities between selling and hiring.
The need to prove themselves to you; they have to prove their worth. The quicker you can flip your thinking to this model the faster you can attract the right people who’ll fit your company and your goals.
Qualification
Qualifying an ideal canvassing candidate starts with the advertising; the ad you place to announce the opportunity with your company. If you don’t have an ad that’s worked well for you then send me an email because I have time tested proven ads.
Prequalifying
Typically the people that respond to your recruiting ads want to know about the job, the money, the hours and all those details, but the truth is when you start answering questions you’re on the defense and they’re on the offense. You can’t score unless you’re on offense.
Before you get into the details of the job you have to get the respondent to start proving themselves. There’s information you must get from them before you start dishing out details. You need to prequalify the caller. You must know if they’re worth the time you’ll invest explaining the job. Because they call you this means you have the right to control the call. At this point they’re chasing you. Don’t get rushed by their enthusiasm to find out about what you’re offering.
If they don’t fit the minimum qualifications then you can thank them for calling. You can explain to them they don’t meet the minimum qualifications and they wouldn’t be a good fit for the position.
If they do pass your minimum qualifications and they appear to be a real candidate for the job you can move on to the second level and give them an overview of the job.
Once you give an overview and they indicate they’re comfortable with the parameters and demands of the position move to the 3rd step of the qualification.
Most recruiting systems start with trying to sell the job and position whereas my view is to flip the whole thing and make them jump through hoops to qualify. If they pass the inspection and do qualify, they then are given the privilege to have a formal application and interview process. It saves you time, money and a headache by letting the candidates self-qualify. The process itself identifies the 20% of candidates you really want to talk to.
If the candidate passes each step of the audition they’ve proven themselves to have the right mindset and attitude. They then qualify for you to spend a little more of your valuable time with them. Each step of the audition process increases the value of the position in the mind of the candidate. The people who find it too difficult and complicated will eliminate themselves and save you time and money. At the end of the process you’ll be left with only the people who’ve proven themselves worthy.
The next step is a formal interview and if you do hire a candidate they will then go into training. During the training and post training evaluation the candidate will still be auditioning for the position. I have benchmarks I use to evaluate a new hire during their grace period. I call them my 3 Pillars of Evaluation.
You can hear more detail on the language and process from the recording of the live Silver Level Coaching call from October 23, 2013.
If you’re a Silver member or higher then you automatically receive a CD of each coaching call. If you’re not a member you can receive access to the archived calls on my membership website. To find out more about Silver membership, click on the link to the right, or, you can receive my Ultimate Free Gift by providing your contact information. In addition to receiving valuable information that will impact your present canvassing efforts you’ll also gain 2-months free to my Telecoaching as a Silver member.
If you have the CD from the Silver call you especially want to listen to my description of Jack Welch’s “Warm Body” human resources policy. It’s something I recommend every company incorporate into their management system. It may seem a bit harsh, but it can triple your canvassing department’s performance.
I’ve offered you several techniques for improving your recruiting and hiring process. The best, fastest way to finding the best canvassers would be to implement all of them at the same time. At the very least, I suggest you work on implanting them one at a time and in short order you’ll be seeing results.
Should you have questions about this or earlier articles you can write me at www.askthecanvassingking.com.