The beginning of a new year for many businesses marks a fresh start. And for some that means staffing up for the coming canvassing and show & event seasons. In this article I’m going to focus on the interviewing part of the staffing subject. Before I get there it’s important to understand the 3 aspects to the hiring process:
- Recruiting
- Qualifying and scheduling
- Interviewing
The recruiting function is placing ads to find those potential candidates for your marketing efforts.
Qualifying and scheduling is the handling of the inbound calls from your recruiting efforts. Often times this is handled by phone from an administrator or manager to take in and qualify those calls; then schedule and confirm them for interview appointments.
Finally, the interview process itself.
In all reality the entire process shouldn’t be approached as a recruiting and hiring process at all. It’s a marketing and sales campaign. When you canvass you’re looking for people qualified to buy your products and services. When recruiting you’re looking for people qualified to go out and market your products and services. The objective is the same, to ‘find’ people and to ‘convert’ those people. When interviewing, the ‘product’ you’re selling is the job opportunity you’re looking to fill.
I’ve written about the recruiting efforts extensively in earlier articles and it’s important you understand the details of that because recruiting is to interviewing, what canvassing is to selling. In canvassing your objective is finding prospects and in recruiting the objective is qualified job candidates. This article will focus on the interviewing, or the ‘sales’ conversation you have with potential canvassing or show & event people.
I’ll start with the struggles most have with the interviewing process. The biggest might be getting people who respond to an ad to actually show up for the interview. Of those that do show up, are they the right fit for the job? Do they have the right personality, mindset and work ethic to perform at a high level on the job every day? It can be a futile exercise of churn and burn marketing. You can find yourself just going through the effort, saying the words and hoping for a different outcome but knowing nothing will change. I know! As one who does this for clients I’d rather jab an ice pick under my toe nails than interview canvassers or show & event people… that is before I figured out how to do it successfully; and that’s what I’ll discuss here.
I’m going to show you how to streamline the process, get a higher level of candidate showing up for the interview and how to get them ‘on fire’ about representing your product, service and company to the prospects. This is about taking a typical passive interview process and turning it into a motivating recruitment. An athlete pursued by a college program gets fired up, especially when they’re pursued by ‘THE’ team, the one everyone wants to play for, the successful ones. That’s what I’m going to share with you here, how to position your team as the one everyone wants to play for.
What I’ll share is directly from my ‘Ultimate Jump Start Canvassing Success Program’ I do with private clients. In that program I go over all 3 steps of the hiring process, including sharing my successful recruiting ads and scripts for handling the inbound calls from candidates, all the foundational stuff that needs put in place to have an effective recruiting process. Here you’re going to get a glimpse at the interviewing side of the process. I say glimpse because there’s no way I could cover all of it in the space and time we have available here. The Ultimate Jump Start Success Program http://canvassking.com/JumpStartProgram.html, takes several weeks to complete with a client to establish all the elements.
The Interviewing Process
It’s about time you stop wasting your time, money and mental energy. Money can be replaced, but your time and mental energy can’t. At the end of the year your focus is on the start of the new year and preparing for a fresh start and the last thing you need is the ‘grind’ of finding people to staff your canvassing and show & event departments to get you out of the gate in 2016.
I’m making the assumption that you’ve done the recruiting right, qualified for the right candidates, scheduled them for an interview and confirmed they will show up. If you don’t have a system for this, or haven’t reviewed previous articles and discussions I’ve had on the subject then refer back to the archive recordings from my Silver Level Telecoaching calls or contact me to set up a Jump Start program.
There are 2 ways you can conduct interviews, either one on one or in a group setting. I prefer the group setting, however one of the biggest complaints and challenges that people tell me they have is getting people to show up for the interview. It takes time to get better at it, but there will always be a percentage of people who won’t show up. When you do a one on one interview and you’ve dedicated time in your schedule for the interview, that candidate not showing up can be a time waste. When you do a group setting you’re going to have candidates show up.
The second reason a group interview setting is better is because they’re going to have the chance to interview you, your company and the job first. It’s positioned in the recruiting process and they’re informed they’re going to have the chance to get their questions answered first to see if this is a good fit for them, before they’re interviewed, for the opportunity. This changes the dynamics of the interaction. It takes the pressure and intimidation off the candidate. It’s positioned as an open house rather than a formal interview. If the job is a good fit for them then they’ll be given an application and start the interview process. If only one or two candidates show up for the initial group interview you still want to keep the same job overview with them. Instead of standing up and presenting like you would for a larger group, you can sit down and cover the information with them. It makes it more comfortable for everyone, but still accomplishes the objective.
The group interview process is your sales presentation on the company and job opportunity. Typical group interviews run anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. It’s not about selling every candidate that shows up, but rather further qualifying the people who do show up in order to weed out the wrong candidates. Remember, this is an entry-level position, but you need the right type of person in the job because despite being entry level it is a very important position. Plus, they’re going to be shown a path of advancement through the company. Only the right personality with the right motivations, work ethic and mindset will self-identify themselves for the position. Those are the people you want. You want the people who after your presentation raise their hand and say, ‘yes, this is for me.’ You don’t want everybody. You’ve done the process where you’ll accept any warm body for the position that will show up for the interview and frustrated yourself to the point of nausea.
You don’t want the passive people, you want the person who will say, ‘yes this is right for me’ or, ‘no this isn’t right for me.’ Some will stay and some will go and that’s a good thing for you.
People will show up for the initial group interview because they won’t feel the pressure of the typical job interview. They’ll come in more relaxed. There’s safety in numbers. They know they’ll be in a room with a bunch of other people just like them, in the same position and no one will be interviewed, or made to feel pressured, unless they choose to move forward with an interview. I also encourage candidates to bring a friend or family member to offer them feedback and a different perspective on the opportunity.
The group interview process starts the ‘earn the job’ process. Those that identify the opportunity is right for them then have to prove they’re a right fit to the company. You put yourself in a very powerful position when you’re able to get people to respond to a recruiting ad (the right recruiting message) and call to reserve a position in the group interview, put on their best clothes and prepare for an interview, get in their car, drive across town and put their butt in a seat; and they then decide this is the right job for them. You’re putting them in a position now to fight for the job. They see the other competition in the room and who might take the position from them. This is the person you want and in the position you want. Remember, you want those Type-A personalities who love competition and are willing to go to battle because that’s what the job requires. You don’t want passive, timid people… you want aggressive fighters. My group interview process identifies these people.
The type of person you want as a canvasser or show and event person, most other job opportunities and interviews lack challenge enough to satisfy their ego, goals and motivations.
Get past the hurdle of desperately hunting for candidates and position yourself differently and put yourself in the driver’s seat. Those that trust in and follow the system find that everything works itself out.
The Main Points of my Group Interview
Members at a Silver level or higher received the remaining section of this article. It’s also included on the recording of my live Silver Telecoaching call from December 16, 2015. If you’d like to receive the rest of this article, the recording from the live call or you want to ‘fast-track’ your hiring in 2016 call my office at (216) 588-1337 or email me at cthompson@canvassking.com. Just as I teach my clients in recruiting canvasser and show and event people they have to identify the people most committed to themselves, willing to invest their time, energy and money into improving, the same is true with Canvass King membership.
In this update, I provide as much information as I can, but there is so much more that requires deeper training and coaching on the use and implementation of this material. If you’re ready to take your canvassing to the next level, then you’ll want to consider my foundational program, ‘The Ultimate Jump Start Success Program. http://canvassking.com/JumpStartProgram.html. I also have several levels of membership that’s right for you and your company. The entry level is the Silver Level Telecoaching, then Gold and Platinum. Each level has an advanced degree of direct coaching with me. If you’re not sure which may be right based on where you are in canvassing and show & event marketing, then you’ll want to have a brief consulting call with me to determine where you are and if we’re a good fit for each other. You can schedule a call with me at (216) 588-1337 or emailing me at cthompson@canvassking.com. Or you can continue to receive Canvassing Update each month until you’re ready to get off the sidelines and into the game.
I wish you the best of luck in 2016. I’m committed to your face-to-face marketing.
Chris Thompson, The Canvass King.