Hey everybody, its Richard Milligan here with recruiting conversations I welcome you back it is the start of a week I’m recording this on a Monday and I had a couple of minutes here before I get into my week being really hot and heavy, like probably most of you. We are two weeks out from Thanksgiving gosh, it’s hard to believe 2019 is flown by if it’s been anything for you like it has been for me I’m not looking at the calendar going how in the world did we get here I’d say “well it has been a great year I hope it’s been a great year”, for many of you listen the podcast you know we gosh, we’ve in terms of like the vision that we cast for 2019 the goals that we establish, the things that we wanted to accomplish as an organization, we’ve really been blown away by what we’ve been able to do and I think the podcast has been an important component of that. So, I just want to say thank you for listening thank you for passing this on we now have several thousand people that listen to the podcast each week and that means a lot to me because it means that you all are sharing this and that means that we’re bringing some value to you at some level and so that’s what we’re really all about. If you check out our YouTube channel or a Vimeo channel, you know it you’ll notice that all week long we’re giving away value to you and I think that value will continue to grow and will continue to improve, you know we’re a relatively small organization here. I think, we have nine maybe ten people now on board and and because of that we’re limited in terms of how much effort energy we can put around the free resources but one of our big goals going into 2020 is to exponentially increase the free resources that we’re providing, and so some of the ways that will actually do that will be to actually begin doing having a larger Facebook component, where we’ll be going live inside a closed Facebook group. So, if you’re not there already please join us there you will find recruiting mastermind with Richard Milligan on Facebook you can join us there, and one of our goals for 2020 is going to be going live there several times per week with free content and really working to build a community. That’s one of the things that we want to do with this is, I think as a recruiting leader when I look at my time in the you know 25 years I spent in this role 15 of that in one industry it was actually a pretty lonely place to be, and you know this there’s a really large community here. A community of people that that are doing the same things that you’re doing ongoing basis whether they’re doing it in the same industry or doing it in other industry. The recruiting leader role is someone who actually managed as a team but that is also responsible for building that team, growing that team, and what I found is that there’s few organizations that put a lot of resources back behind help when you grow the team, and so you know what I found in my own career is that 9 out of 10 higher came directly through my own efforts, through my own energies. So, what I know is that if you’re in a very similar role is that the truth is that if you’re going to grow your team it’s going to be on you. So, that can feel like a lot of pressure especially when there’s very little training and very little information to a recruiting leader around how you can grow, and what’s important in things like phone scripting and face-to-face meetings and you know all of the next steps that follow that, in the three major components of recruiting which is identifying talent, making contact, and then follow-up that sounds very simplistic. When you say that but at the end of the day there’s literally hundreds of things that make a difference in whether you land a recruit or not and ultimately your job security as a recruiting leader comes through your ability to grow the team. So, our heart really is in this space where we want you to be successful, especially those of you you’re listening to podcast you’re probably watching some of my youtube videos following me on LinkedIn, you’re looking for information this space to grow. For that person that wants to grow there should be resources out there, and so that’s what we’re going to do is we will continue to provide resources at scale in 2020 in this space, including holding our first live event and so we’ll be passing some more information on around that to each of you here over the next couple of months.
Well let’s just talk it on topic here today and bring you some value. This last week I was in a conversation with someone who was having a lot of success on the phone and we got into a deeper conversation around the phones, my phone script and why does my phone script work, how can you really just set 30 to 40% appointment rates with a phone script that seems impossible for those of you that have been in recruiting long, and what I would say to you is that it’s not impossible, that I can’t in my coaching one of the things we kind of work through is a 101 version of phone scripting 201, 301, 401, version if you get to a 4-1 version of life in understanding the phone and my phone script you’re setting appointments I can tell whether you are comfortable and conversational on the phone based on the percentages of appointment that you’re setting based on the number of contacts that you make. So, I recently had someone come into my coaching and that individual from week to week was measuring their numbers very specifically in a one week they’re around they were around 18% setting next step, setting appointments with people, which most people consider huge wins I mean this this individual you know made 80 calls in a week and so when you start thinking about 17 to 18 percent appointment rate, you’re like that’s a huge win will immediately, I knew based on the fact that he had tracked and truly legitimately had made those 80 phone calls or those 80 contacts, these weren’t calls his work contacts people he spoke with and the fact that he had about an 18% appointment rate that something was off with the phone, and so we began to talk about that most people would say what are you talking about that’s a huge win, like don’t even think that that’s possible to get that kind of a win, and what I would say is that immediately I knew that something was off because I have the data in my coaching to say that you should be able to set on the low end around 30% and on the high end around 40% appointment rates if you’re using my phone script, you know it by heart you’re able to overcome objections and it sounds conversational, it sounds like it’s altruistic, and it’s coming from you trying to actually bring value versus you trying to win a recruit. And so we worked on it that way he came back the next week and was in the mid 30s in terms of just one week improvement from the prior week of setting appointments and that was because he had really focused on honing his phone script and getting conversational. One of the things I always say is that your phone script someone should be able to wake you up like that in the middle of the night and say what’s your phone script, and you should be able to respond to them immediately with what it is. Like it should be that ingrained on your brain. The phone is a primary tool for you and if you are not the consummate pro on the phone, you will limit the amount of success that you have. If you don’t know how to overcome every objection immediately well, if you don’t have a solid script going in and you’re just winging it basing it on a feeling, basing it on this idea that you know what you want to say, okay. You know what I would say is this is that the professional right takes their craft serious. I can’t imagine being an NBA player and a lot of things correlate to basketball these days because my I’ve got a couple of boys that just live and breathe the basketball, and so we’re in a basketball practice or a game four or five maybe six nights a week. So a lot of it a lot of it to me goes back to basketball but when I think of basketball I think of imagine trying to step on the NBA floor, right? We’re the best the best the elite actually have honed their craft for years and years and years and sacrificed so much to get there and to show up and just wing it I mean when you really follow like NBA players and how well they take care of their body in the offseason, and how much they put into training, and you know the ones that are the best the best how early they show up to practice, and all the things they put into the number of hours a week that they actually hone that skill set. If we were to take that on self-reflect back on us as recruiters or as recruiting leaders how much time and effort we put into honing that craft, it would be embarrassing right to have the two as urine side by side in front of someone, because ultimately we end up where we are having very average wins, very average success here because we haven’t honed our craft. Now, excuse me I’ve got a bit of a cold. Now, what I would say to that is that I honestly believe part of that has taken place because there’s not a ton of resources right there’s not a ton of training specific to your role as a recruiting leader. There’s a lot of specifics around your position that are just specific to you, like think about it like most of the people listen is podcast, if you’re recruiting leader you fish in a small pond. You don’t have the permission to have this unbelievable tenacity that maybe a national recruiter could have, where national recruiter can be extremely aggressive in calling someone over the phone, right. They can search for the 5% that are discontent, you on the other hand as a recruiting leader are sufficient in a small pond, that means that like you have to practically think with a lot of emotional intelligence. Like these are the people you’re gonna see at networking events, these are people that you have to build a relationship with before you ever recruit them, okay. Because you have a limited number of people that you can go after right so the national recruiter can have a different mindset, a different approach to this, and not everything I would say would apply to that position but for the recruiting leader as I put myself on your shoes because I’ve walked that mile for 15 years in one industry, what I know is that there’s a limited number of people in your market that you actually would want on your team in the first place that represent what you want to represent. So, the pond because of a geography standpoint and then a core value perspective it gets pretty small, that means that we have to lead with emotional intelligence that means that we don’t think as much recruiting as we do relationship building, okay.
So here’s a good phone script that’s extremely relational in terms of some framework. I’m going to give you three components here. and I find that the number three to number three or four is an important way to remember things for people in science they call it information chunking. Our brain will remember information in chunks of information most easily when it’s prevented in threes or fours so that’s what we’re going to do here is we’re gonna come we’re gonna push some of this into three components that will be easier for you to recreate any phone script they’ll be easy for you to measure your current phone script. And then you can really decide whether you’ve got one that measures up to something that should get you at 30 to 40% appointment rate.
So, the first thing is this affirmation is critical in a phone script, okay. We all are designed to want we’re all designed to need affirmation in fact you know when you look at human motivation as a whole affirmation is the second most motivating factor for a human being period. It just is like larger meaning plant playing a role in a larger story that’s the number one reason but affirmations right behind that. So, one I want to work for an affirming leader I call that a life-giving leader someone that actually you know affirmation is life. It just is like life can be difficult life can be discouraging when someone shows up and encourages me, I know that’s just a part of it comes alive, I recently had a conversation it was like a one-hour just it was a one-hour session with someone who’s not in my coaching but was just let me help you, for an hour and give you some my best input, and this individual was extremely affirming like, hey I listen to your podcast I love it, I love what you’re doing on LinkedIn this video really helped me, I love I’ve been trying what you said here and it’s working they were extremely affirming, intentionally affirming, a nice pause for a moment said your phenomenal recruiter and the reason why I know that you’re a phenomenal recruiter is because you’re overly affirming, are you and I’m just gonna make the assumption that you’re like this in your recruiting and her response was yes I’m like this is my recruiting, that affirmation is so key. You want someone to do something for you right really badly my kids are starting to get the hang of this, right. They come and they affirm dad right dad you’re awesome, dad I love you, you’re the greatest dad on planet earth. I know that at some point in the next few seconds I got an ass coming, right. Like they’re just they know it like kids are intrinsically designed to know this whether we design them like that through our behaviors right because they affirm us and then we give in or they’re naturally born with it. It doesn’t matter at any level we know that affirmation works from the time that we’re a kid growing up affirmations key in your phone scripting. So, here’s the deal when you call someone you got to do a bunch of research on them okay you are blast this is 2019, you are blessed to be in a time where information is accessible at your fingertips, to just go to the number one search you know engine in the world Google, and to go you know first name last name industry that they’re in and state you know for me, we’ve been Richard Mulligan mortgage Oklahoma and you would have gotten three pages of things about me, that would have allowed you to affirm me, coming in you’d have found out that I did a radio show for several years you could have gotten to my LinkedIn page, my Facebook page, you could have seen all kinds of information and guess what we’re not at a stage anymore where maybe we were five years ago where it was considered cyber stalking to look at someone’s Instagram page or Facebook page before you reached out to them. It is an expectation that you’ve done that today if you’re making the phone call. So, if someone doesn’t want you to see their information they’ll have their privacy settings set to where you can’t see them, otherwise if you can see them then that’s information that’s at your fingertips to affirm, okay. And so we’ve got to lead with affirmation, these are the things I saw about you I’m overly impressed with you, I noticed your consumer reviews, I saw you’ve been at this company for eight years, I noticed that you know you partner with this key person in your market, I saw that you were at this nonprofit event, I noticed your family is really important to you because I saw that on Facebook. I mean affirm, affirm, affirm and then what will do is will will actually say that’s the reason why I’m reaching out to you, is I saw these things about you know I saw similarities between things that you value and things that I value, okay.
So, affirmation is key second component is this you have to have a really large “why” for someone to meet with you a really large reason why someone should meet with you. When I asked people to give me their original phone script when I’m coaching people I hear a lot of phone scripts that go along the lines of “I’m reaching out to you to see if you’re open to a new opportunity” that’s not a very big why, and there’s no affirmation in that at all either, because I assume that you’re smiling and dialing. You’re just picking up the phone you’re calling one person and the next person that person or the next person and then I’m not that special, okay. When you come in affirming I feel special now what you have to have is a really big reason why exchanging industry ideas is not a big reason why I hear that use a lot that’s not a big reason why another big reason why is not because we’ve got a mutual relationship in the marketplace, that’s not a big reason why. So, you’ve got to come up with some really big reasons why someone should meet with you I do a lot of coaching in the mortgage industry so you know let me just give you some why’s around someone would actually have a meeting with you, okay.
Look at 2018 that’s just been a year ago there was a ton of consolidation that took place in the industry that’s a good reason why. Look 2020 is an election year and whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, one of the things that I know is that election years there’s a lot of change that takes place in election years and post-election year, right. So whether the Republicans win or the Democrats win whether there’s a reversal policy or a non-reversal policy, a lot of times there’s a big change I guess that takes place the coming years after an election. So, the election you’re coming up is another good reason why. I like change is on the horizon cost to produce alone continues to go up for the mortgage industry that’s a problem that hasn’t been solved yet. So, everyone knows there’s a that the problems looming and it has to be solved a lot of mortgage companies over nine thousand dollars to purchase just produce a loan, today. So, that’s a problem that’s to be solved okay again and again again these are some it’s start piling these reasons up as to why. Like the unknown of tomorrow is a really big reason why, okay. So, I just affirmed you I’m giving you some really big reasons why we should meet and then here’s the third component remove all tension, and when I say remove all tension when we recruit we insert tension, when we don’t recruit will remove all tension. So, I’m intentional on my phone scripting of saying if you’re willing to meet with me I’ll promise not to talk about my mortgage company my real estate company, my insurance company, whatever industry and I promise I won’t talk about my company in our meeting. So, now I know that I’ve removed all tension, okay. I’m gonna protect that first meeting and guess what I am going to honestly with integrity protect the first meeting there’s other things that are more important than your company value proposition. So, if this is your first podcast and you’re just now getting the getting to my content for the first time, then this may be a new concept for you but look people want to work and people want to align with great leaders. It’s the reason why I say there’s an inertia, there’s this intersection we’re recruiting and leading overlap great leaders are naturally great recruiters. So, if you’re struggling on the recruiting side one of the things I would say is work to start honing some of your leadership skills, because great leaders naturally could walk into a first meeting and have clarity around their vision, have cleared around their core convictions, their values, their beliefs, and those are the things that we lead with in that first meeting when we meet with a recruit not the company value proposition. So, I’ve done two things by establishing that agenda for that for that meeting if you’re willing to meet with me I’m not gonna talk about my company, okay. What does that mean well when we meet I’ve said enough establish an agenda, and that agenda says that now I got to have something else besides talking about my company available. So guess what, okay, we’re going to have something else available in that meeting where not only are we going to get to know this person well and figure out their why but we’re gonna share our vision, we’re going to share our core value system, and we’re going to be able to story tell those.
Now I’m not here to talk about those components but storytelling is some of the secret sauce in being successful in the face-to-face meeting with someone, okay. And you’ve got to be able to story tell, you’ve got to be able to convince me why those core values are legitimately your core values and what I’m going to do is I’m going to take a story, go back to a time and a place where that is true about me, that core value is true about me and I call those anchor stories and we would share those, but on the phone scripting you’re now going to represent you’re gonna have these three pieces of framework, affirmation really big reason why you should meet with me, and then I’m going to remove all tension by making this statement and then honoring a statement, that if you’re willing to meet with me I promise not to recruit you and I promise not to talk about my company in that meeting.
Now, you can take your current phone script you can measure it against those three components and say what do I need to change process wise. What do I need to change you may not be doing a lot of research and you need to do that in order to get to a place where you can affirm you may not have a really large why, you need to establish that, begin to ask questions from other leaders like what are some of the reasons that people should meet with you, and this cannot be because your company’s the best thing since sliced bread, that’s not a big why? Most people will automatically gravitate towards that and say my big why is that my company’s amazing, okay. That is not a big why, look data says this most people are content where they are okay so they made the decision to go to the company they’re at, probably choosing over knowing who your company was, okay. So, it’s not your company value proposition that can be the big why that’s what I call the opportunity improvement offer the opportunity improvement offer just says you’re a little bit better, okay. We’re just a little bit better, and that is that is the least reason why someone’s going to actually join your organization, okay. Look we say this all the time people leave companies for bad leadership people leave companies for bad managers and when I make that statement I get a lot of head nods you’re right people do then where’s the disconnect, if people leave companies for bad leaders for bad managers, then don’t people join organizations for great leaders or what they believe they’re buying into is great leadership. Now, the truth is that in a lot of industries we let people down. We oversell what we have to offer in terms of leadership and people get there, and there’s a lack there okay and that’s just a true statement, and that’s why there’s this intersection I say we’re recruiting a leading overlap, because great leaders when they sell their leadership, their vision, their values, their belief system, they deliver on those, and so not only are they able to recruit they’re actually able to retain, and the only way to win the long game of recruiting is by retaining your people. so really big reason why and then we’re going to remove all the tension as to why they’re willing to meet with us and if you’ll do that and you’ll incorporate that into what you’re doing in your phone scripting, then guess what, you’ve got a powerful phone script you’re going to have more people say yes to it, and not only that but it’s going to force you to have a better process because then in a face-to-face meeting you will not talk about the company, okay.
I’ve got a podcast on here, that you can go back and listen to if this one is if you’re just now tuning into to this podcast recruiting conversations go search the one that talks about the four stages of face-to-face meetings, and that will tell it will give you a framework for how a face-to-face meeting should go for you. If you are going to follow a process like what I’m laying out here for you it’s a better process it’s how you get into relationship building and look we go back again recruiting leaders have to have a different mindset, a different process we’re fishing in a small pond, right. We got a build relationship and we got to have that first meeting which a lot of times is only going to be the only meeting. Think about that a lot of times in our career it may be the only meeting we get if we don’t deliver well on that. It gets very difficult to get to any next meeting. So, if I throw up my company value proposition on you then you, will walk away either saying wow that’s the company I will join immediately will walk away saying I know everything I need to know about that organization, and I’m not interested. And if that has to happen to you then you really for the rest of your career even if your external recruiter. If you’re blessed to have one even if they called individual let’s say “oh yeah yeah I met with Richard a year ago and found out about your company I’m happy where I am at” and their minds they are thinking, I know everything that I need to know about your organization. People don’t move to organizations because of company toolboxes. They move to organizations because of great leaders. The leader is the culture that the organization ultimately presents in markets. The leader is everything in terms of the value that organization leaves in a local market. So, this is a component you got to lead with, your leadership value, and that’s why one of the things is that your leadership branding is so important your social brand is so important to you as a holistic approach to everything that we’re talking about here okay so I want to stay on track.
Those are the three components affirmation really big reason why they should meet with you and the third part is remove all tension let’s have that first meeting be a relationship building meeting only and if you do that you’ve got a powerful phone script, okay. So, thank you for tuning in apologize I muted out, most of my cough so there’s some pauses here is me muting those out looking forward to hosting another recruiting conversations later on this week. So, have a great start to your week everybody and invite someone in to listening to this podcast as a way of spreading the love of trying to improve recruiting inside your own organization have a great week everybody, we’ll talk to you soon.
