Hi everybody, welcome back to another recruiting conversation, it’s your host Richard Milligan and we’re going to talk about tactics today. How’s that? like you’re like no, no, no, Richard you’re a systems-based recruiter, right? and I am I’m a systems-based recruiter in a world where a lot of people simply want to know what are the best tactics, what’s the best phone script, what’s the best direct message I should be using on LinkedIn, like how to do I you know text message with people and get people to engage and respond, how do I cut through to people on the phone, it’s like we were most interested in tactics, and so we tend to lean into these ideas. In fact, what I would tell you is this, it’s I know how to get more people to listen to my podcast, I can talk about scripting. My one of my most listened-to podcast, is my phone scripting podcast, and I don’t mean just like kind of, it’s like you know up there with my top three which a lot of times are the 30 to 40% more listener rate than the others, and I think some of that’s because some of you may be repeating it, and trying to ingrain it because you get the repetition is the mother of all learning, and so I get that part of it. But, here’s the reason why I believe at a basic foundational level why we love tactics because we all want a shortcut to success, yes or yes? I mean I want a shortcut to success it’s the reason why I went through P90x, right? It’s like I want 90 days to the body I’ll up, I don’t wanna have to put in three years, right? I want to do this forever like this shortcut this thing, let’s get to a place where I’m you know way ahead of where I am today, in a short window of time, and we think tactics are gonna get us there, we think that script is going to engage the nine people, right? It’s going to set nine appointments is gonna be what we need, but it’s not, okay? And one of the things I know is this, that this audience that people listening to this audience. Look you wouldn’t be listening to this you wouldn’t be trying to grow your skillset unless you were serious about your craft. So, immediately I know this audience here how are the intangibles to be successful. So, the question is, why is the majority audience here not hitting the goals that they set, not accomplishing the things that they want to accomplish, and the reason why is that, was most intrigued by the tactics were less intrigued by the system. So, here’s what I know like I talk over and over again to people and when someone comes into initial interview with me on coaching, I in session, what I do is I really get to know them and I find out what they’re currently doing, right? Because it’s like you know working with a golfer that’s been playing for 15 years, you got a look at the swing so as you know where to make adjustments, and when I ask the question do you have any established goals, I always get that answered yes, and I always hear what those are. But, on the flip side of that when people discuss whether they’re accomplishing those goals when they’re going to achieve those goals it’s very rarely someone is. So, why would someone pay for coaching come into coaching, that I would look at and say has all the intangibles, why would that person not be able to accomplish their goals, well it’s because the goal is separate from the system, right? The goal is the intrinsic desire, it’s this burning, and you know this burning desire inside of us that’s motivating us towards becoming better motivating towards us, you know accomplishing something significant or alive, and we think that the goal is the driver for that and the goal is not the driver for that, your system is, okay? So, I put that out there in front of you today, they say look I’m going to answer question to you, that I got asked recently which is like what are the best recruiters doing today I’m gonna give you some tactics okay but don’t get confused the tactics fall into the system, okay? The tactics are not the system, so when I give you a tactic like you know we’ll talk about you know the need to understand the value equation day, and what’s your value equation, what are some of the things that you can do to actually create a value equation, those will be some tactical things that will be really easy for you to go, “oh I’ll do that I’ll move towards that” but in the end needs to fall within a system, a larger system, okay? Yeah, technology today, for a couple of hundred dollars you can go create a phenomenal system, okay? I use PipeDrive type, Drive is $29 a month, I built my original whiteboard next step system in pipe drive, in fact, today what I’m coaching individual recruiting leaders you know when I teach him to teach them, PipeDrive why because it’s easy to use it’s a whiteboard tool, I understand it my team understand it extremely well. So, there’s also that reason but its part of the first step towards moving towards a system, okay? So, with us said let’s jump off into answering this question, okay? Because I can get off into the systems thing, and go way deep into because it breaks my heart to see great people that are talented, that are driven not winning, but I want to make sure that you understand that your system is going to determine your success, okay?
So with that said what are the best recruiters doing today, look I’ve broken this down into three things, okay? Number one they’re using technology to the fullest, okay? So, if you listen to podcast 31 one of the things we’ve talked about is those tools some of those tools that people are using that we’re teaching and we’re coaching to, that actually allows you to maximize what you’re doing. Did you know yesterday, I think about this yesterday ice came into my office and in about two minutes went to LinkedIn sales navigator, create a search criteria for some people that I was seeking to get in front of was four hundred and fourteen people I think was the exact number, and in about thirty seconds I had those four hundred fourteen people that had a message from me, that was a message that included ever every single one of their first names that included a very specific message that I wanted them to get, my mother, and it this whole thing that I’m talking about here talking about two minutes to do, most people had spent all day getting in front of those four hundred fourteen people, I spent two minutes, why? Because I’m using technology to the fullest, okay? So, what I’m seeing is that exponentially the best recruiters are increasing their ability to connect with people so a laugh at times when I hear of a leader saying we’re gonna do a calling out, or power out, whatever you want to call it. I kind of laugh at that because it’s wrong, it’s the wrong mindset, it’s the right mindset, the wrong approach, that’s a better way to say it. It’s the right mindset wrong approach right like having someone who’s a recruiting leader now recruiting leader to me as someone that’s leading a team at some level while also being responsible for crew recruiting that a team that person this time is extremely valuable I mean we’re talking about on the low end hundreds of dollars per hour valuable and if you’re at the top into what you do you’re we’re worth thousands of dollars per hour and now I’m saying we’re going to actually put you on the phone have you smiling and dialing in order to get in front of people, it is a poor use of your time. It is not that the best use of the times yet available so it’s the right mindset that yes we need to increase the number of people who are connecting to, but from a tactical perspective, it’s an awful approach, right? Like the nine percent of people answer the phone today right if you’re just smiling and dialing and you’re not qualifying like you don’t know this person fits into whatever that model is that is your pre-qualifying model for who you’re going after, like look I want someone from the mortgage industry, it’s a million-dollar producer, that’s got an average ten-year three years or more where they are, immediately start with that and I eliminate a whole lot of people from who I’m gonna go recruit and that may not be who you are, you may say it’s somebody else and that’s okay but you’ve got to identify that first before you start smiling and dialing, right?
So using technology to the fullest what is it what does it do, what why does this pipeline where most recruiting leaders can only map out 50 to a hundred people is about max, okay? Look I can go get thousands of people I can go hit thousands of people every single week, and I can do it my sweet spot not spamming them, doing it as though my messaging is going directly to them to an audience of one, okay how am I gonna do that I’m gonna max out technology I’m gonna max out artificial intelligence? My ability to get my hands on data right and then I’m gonna find things like these Chrome browser plug-ins that are absolutely, you know, must-haves for what you’re doing, okay?
So, that’s the first thing that they’re doing they’re maxing out technology the second part they’re doing is this they have a defined system and a defined process that they’re following, okay? they have a defined system and a defined process that they’re following. Now, a lot of recruiting tends to end up in the one-offs, right? So, like everybody tends to be in a different place in the career, and lots of times you find that people are willing to move to different next steps, like you know incorporating the entire team and what happens next a lot of times that happens in one-offs, but you gotta have a defined system terms of the three major categories, how are you going to identify talent, how are you going to make initial contact, and how are you gonna follow up and then you’ve got to have a way of capturing all that in some form the CRM that gives you at least the minimal automation in terms of your workflow, okay?
So, one of the reasons why I lean into technologies that I can do all that very quickly in a couple of tools, I can have a defined system a defined process that I’m falling and I can incorporate technology, and very easily get in front of thousands of people every single week we’re most recruiting leaders who are leading team leading a team might get in front of 25 max, get in front 25, okay? the third component of this is you think these people were the best recruiters today understand social media, they understand social media well enough to teach it. There’s a difference, right? understanding something well enough I understand cooking well enough okay like if you ask my kids then probably you ask them what’s what it learns you know some of dad’s best meals, quick they probably say hot dogs and mac and cheese, right? or chicken nuggets in the oven or whatever that is right but if you only understand social media at that level like I understand cooking, well enough, okay? You’re not at a place where you’re gonna make it to being the best recruiter today. You have to understand that well enough to teach it there’s all kinds of resources you and I live in a day and age where we are surrounded by resources like you can figure anything out by simply googling it, the second largest search engine where there’s actually a video on everything is YouTube, right? So if you’re willing to invest twenty to forty hours into something guess what, you can learn it I don’t care what it is I don’t know how to weld but thanks to Google and YouTube I could figure out welding if I wanted to I’m probably 20 to 40 hours at least well enough, right? So, but you know you’ve got to understand social media, you got to understand it at the next level, which is well enough to be able to teach it, and if you’ll do that guess what, it will actually it’ll actually equate to having a strong social leadership brand, okay? Those are the three things, they understand, understand technology to the fullest, they have a defined system of the process they’re following, and then they understand social media will have to teach it which he equals them having a strong social leadership brand, okay? Those are the those are those at the very top those three things.
Now when they get off into some specifics like do you think there are some specific characteristics that matter in those three things, here’s what I know, the best recruiters, think like farmers, first, okay? Look, I’m an old business-to-business sales guy, it’s how I got into having a real career, my first real career was an outside salesperson as an account executive for a Fortune 500 company, we were pursuing businesses, okay? So, look I love to hunt, now that’s my figures I love to hunt, but also I’m also an outdoors I love, okay? But understanding that the best hunting comes from being willing to farm first, okay? you have to think like a farmer first what farmers think like the farmers are patient, okay? like farmers are willing to plant seeds okay and wait for the next season right because there’s two distinct to two distinct seasons sowing and reaping, right? and so in between, there’s a lot of waiting right doing the right things, right? That’s how former things, the farmer understands like if they plant a crop and lease pop up they gotta they’ve got to spray it with herbicides, if insects end up coming you know into their crop the guys spray it with pesticides, and so you know maybe I know a little too much, since I’m an old farm boy from Oklahoma, okay? You’ve got to think like a farmer first you got to be willing to invest in planting the seed, and then being patient and waiting for the harvest okay so what does that mean means you’ve got to be willing to give more than you receive as you’re building relationships, okay? You hear me from time to time inserting the word the terminology relationship building over recruiting, right? If you’re relationship building great relationship builders give more than they receive, okay? So, think like a farmer first the other thing that best recruiters are today is that they’re more like a dog than they are a cat. Now, like I love animals, okay? So, no I’m not picking sides here if you’re a cat person you know that’s fine right if you’re a dog person that’s fine, but here’s what I know because I’ve had both animals before, dogs if you accidentally shut their head in the door, you know as they’re coming in and out of the backyard, like they’re just immediately over it, right? Not a big deal master like you know I’m licking you, I’m happy right, yeah. I’m still hurting a little bit but it’s not a big deal match let’s get past this if you’d accidentally shut cat’s tail on the door like that cat loosely doesn’t forgive you for a week, and maybe I just had the wrong cats in my life, but one of the things I know about dogs is that like they’re just happier go-lucky, right? Then a cat is there they’re willing to move past these things very quickly you know great recruiters have very short term memory, that’s what a dog has, right? Like something bad happened to it I’m over it now. you know, a cat has a long-term memory remembers everything, right? and so it’ll be mad at you forever because of something you did like three-four or five weeks ago. So, when we get hung up on, we act like a dog, when someone treats us rudely, we act like a dog, when someone says that you’re you know you’re not welcome to send me any more text messages or DM me on linked anymore with these things that you’re trying to send to me, or I hate your company has a brand a bad brand on our market, or whatever it is, whatever, right? It’s like whatever dude like I’m moving on, I’m gonna act like a dog in this, I’m not going to actually sit around like a cat, the reason why is that those that are willing to actually respond with short-term memory loss, okay? And move on to the next one that’s mindset is what that is, right the best recruiters today have a strong mindset, right? So, there’s some humor in this like yeah dog over the cap at the end of the day this comes down to us as recruiting leaders and recruiters having a strong mindset, right? Like I’m over it I’m moving on as soon as it happens right? Okay, so the best recruiters today they act like a dog overacting like a cat.
Another thing is true about the best recruiters a day is this you I do believe this I think that 10 15 20 years ago you could have been a great recruiter and have been classified as a good checker player, right? But I think today the best recruiters are more like chess players what does that mean it means that they’re strategist, right? It’s like if you play checkers like I play checkers, I’ve got some younger kids, so, I’ve got six, nine, twelve and actually17-year-old, but if I’m playing checkers and my six-year-old like I can actually play checkers with her, right? and she’s not too shabby, yeah? Like if it’s like playing you know tic-tac-toe with her, if I take my eyes off of the sheet just for a second, I’ll lose, even if she’s six years old, right? So, it takes minimal strategy to play those games. 15-20 years ago I think that was very true about recruiting, here’s what I know today the best recruiters are strategist, they play chess, like a great chess player like when I was growing up we had a Filipino missionary they came to stay with us for you it was like several years, and he came to stay with us often and this guy was a phenomenal chess player, and I was probably 10-11 years old at the time, and so I begged him to teach me how to play, and he didn’t just play me actually taught me how to play, one of the things that I learned was, how do you start thinking ahead, right? And you get this place where you think three steps ahead, or five ahead, or nine ahead, and at some level, I could seriously map out 20 – 30 different moves ahead. I think great chess players can think 37 steps ahead, they are strategists, they understand things like time kills deal, every inch influence that they have at times to move someone the next steps, they’re willing to walk into a conference room with a whiteboard and somebody else and actually map-out all the next steps, okay? Look, I, I’m in lots of conversations I at times get hired to come in and have a singular conversation around a top candidate that a company is trying to get, and what do we do? We play chess, okay? We bring in all everything that we know about the individual, every conversation that’s been having with the individual, every resource that the company has dictum to actually map-out an actual chess game with this individual, the best recruiters today play chess. If you feel like as I’m having this conversation you’re a checkers player, you gonna stop playing checkers because you will not be the best recruiter in the industry, okay? You’ve got to start playing chess another thing that’s true about the best recruiters today is that they incorporate humor, right? So why is this important a lot of people like I get it, right? It’s you insert some humor, it you know takes the edge off, that lightens the mood like it helps you be more relationship relational it’s part of like Dale Carnegie’s, you know how to win friends and influence, people, right? Look there’s more to this right recruit when you insert yourself as a recruiting leader or recruiter you’re actually inserting tension, okay? For the most part, most people would say that they’re happy where they’re at, and so you show up they immediately feel tension, right? because you most of us are trying to recruit, we’re not trying to build relationships, we’re not taking the tension off of this situation we’re actually inserting tension with it, and so where we increase tension with someone, one of the best tools you have in your toolbox to actually relieve that tension is to incorporate humor, not take yourself too seriously, okay? So one of the things that this allows for, is for a safe space to go build a relationship is what it does. It increases this larger area that you can actually engage with someone without having them move away from you because the tension is what they’re moving away from and sometimes they self-insert, aren’t you inserting it, they begin though like you, to begin to like what they hear, right? In terms of who you are as a leader, they begin to like what you what they hear in terms of what you have to offer as an organization, or what your larger belief model is, or what your leadership brand is, or what the company’s leadership brand is, right? All those things can insert tension or they begin to feel tension a lot of times you’ll see people ghosting you, people moving away from you, and so incorporating humor is one of the secret tactics that the best recruiters incorporate and insert to relieve the tension, and to actually get back to a place where you’re building relationships, okay?
Another way that I’ve been able to identify the best recruiters is this their willingness to be creative and their approach to recruiting, okay? Now like when I say this, what I’m saying is that look there are all kinds of tools in your toolbox that you can be creating one of the things I use is I use a tool called Snagit, okay? and anybody can buy Snagit it’s just a simple tool that allows you to get snippet of someone’s face and add a thought bubble allows you to you know go take a snippet of a Google map and draw circles that where they’re located and arrows at where you’re located, or a circle around of Starbucks, and an arrow towards it with and write words on it saying would you be willing to meet me here Thursday at 9:00 a.m., I mean so those who are willing to be creative in their approach to recruiting, are what I did finds the best recruiters today. so what does this mean, you gotta build your creative muscle, how do you do this okay we in my early twenties one of the things I remember I learned from Brian Tracy, which god bless my heart, you know in my 20s I went to a Zig Ziglar Brian Tracy Simone I think I think they were there jointly together, might have been someone else like Les Brown man can I get a big of rousing applause for those three guys, like those were some key influencers with Jim Rome early in my life, early in my sales career, but I went to one of those events there’s probably three out of those four guys there and I seriously probably spent ten percent of my annual income on tape books, okay? so for those of you that are maybe younger than 32 maybe, I’m guessing down 46 right now, but if you’re younger in 32, you may be wondering why in the world as a taped book, okay? Ask someone who’s in their mid 40s, that’s into personal development, personal growth, I’ll have them explain that to you but I seriously I walked out of there with thousands and thousands of dollars of these paint books, and I would listen to them every single day, all day long when I was in the car, I can actually repeat them, one of the things I remember Brian Tracy coaching too, was where you have problems in your business taking ten minutes and actually writing that problem at the top of the piece of paper, and then for 10 minutes every idea that you have for creatively solving that problem writing it down, and you could actually time yourself 10 minutes, like you would have to do this every idea and you would sit there and once you get past a minute or two bands you are fresh out ideas, right? But what I was doing and doing that, was building my creative muscle, okay? And so if you’re lacking in the creative space one of the things I’ll encourage you to do is take a simple process like that, right? you want to be creative in your approach to recruiting, the question then is how can I be creative in my approach to recruiting, what idea is could I use and you set there, and forth for however long this takes you to go 21 days right, 21 days to incorporate a habit for 10 minutes every single day you spend this time generating these ideas, and what I know is this no idea when you’re doing this is a bad idea, every idea that comes to your brain your write it out, and you write it out, and you write it out, you don’t that you don’t verify invalidate the ideas you simply write them out now what I did by doing that was I actually built my creative muscle which allows me today to actually generate creative ideas relatively quickly and easily, okay? But the best recruiters are creative in their approach to recruiting, okay?
I’m gonna leave you with the last one, this may be the most important one I mentioned it just very briefly early on, but the best recruiters today understand the need to have a value equation, and what does that mean, okay? What is a value equation well a value equation is an equation that you insert when you’re recruiting to bring value to recruits that allows you to move them through your recruiting process, get most people in their recruiting approach, okay? are identifying the individual making the phone call and asking the question are you open to a larger opportunity, okay? That there’s no value equation there, right? And I’ve heard people say, well my company offering is better than their company offering, so, right? I’m bringing value to them, no you’re bringing value to yourself, right? Because most people survey out content, most people serve you out happy where they are right now. So, when you show up and you’re offering a better opportunity, they’re not interested in a better opportunity, okay? So what you have to do is you have to understand the need to have a value equation, okay? well what is that value equation well value equation is where you’re going to cover a longer window of time show up consistently and bring them something of value? So, let me give you an example of how we do this, and I found that bringing value typically falls into two camps, okay? But bringing value can be very simple, I come from the mortgage industry, get me to give you a couple of names or some key influencers in the mortgage industry, right? One of my original coaches was a guy by the name of Carl White with the mortgage marketing edge, okay? Carl White, there’s a lot of great content call whites been the industry for well over two decades now, okay so Carl White would be someone that’s an influencer that delivers regular content that I could go find on youtube, or on his podcast, or you know is on his blog, or on his LinkedIn profile wherever he’s delivering today, and I could snag that content, and I could begin sharing that with people, if it’s motivational, inspirational, if it’s value-oriented, okay? There’s another people, Todd Duncan, like I’ve been to multiple Todd Duncan events inside the mortgage industry, he puts on an annual a mortgage mastery event, another guy that lovers great content, has a podcast, you can find YouTube videos out there on that you could share, another guide that has that may have one of the strongest leadership brands in terms of in terms of content creation in the mortgage industry gather name of Dave Savage, Dave Savage has a YouTube channel called mortgage coach mortgage coach has over 1,400 ok? 1,400 videos we’re days interviewing top originators, top managers, top real estate agents, and he’s asking the questions that you would always love to ask them, right? So, there’s value there, I could go find those, and if it’s motivational inspirational, or value-oriented, brings value to their business, then I could share that, ok? Well in real estate, a guy comes to mind immediately, is the guy name Tom Ferry, okay? Tom might actually have maybe the largest influence or the strongest leadership brand that real estate community today. So, you go find these people you identify these people and you find the content at their content that brings value to the person that you would want to recruit, and you share that with them, okay? So that would fall into a camp of a content curator, a lot of people feel the pressure of gosh, if I’ve got if I’m gonna have this value equation, where I’m bringing things are helpful, things that are insightful, things that are value-oriented, that has to come from me, so it’s more of an I’m a creator, I’m a content creator, what I say to that is that most of you don’t have the time most of you don’t have the creativity, and that’s okay. You don’t have to be the creator you can be the curator last somebody else to put in the hard work, and what you can do is you can go find the content, more like a journalist than anything else, okay?
Now, here’s why you need a value equation, most the people you’re gonna run into are gonna say I’m not interested, I’m happy where I’m at, right? I’m gonna stay here for the next two or three years, or even if I’m unhappy I’m gonna seed this situation out, for the time being, right? What happens in between the time you initiate your initial contact, and whenever that trigger event happens that out that says that they’re going to move, you have to be in front of them, and you can’t be in front of them constantly saying are you willing to meet again, you can’t be in front of them constantly saying how are things going for you, you can’t be in front of them asking paint agitator type questions which is what do you like about your company, what do you not like about your company, what do you like about your leadership, what do you not like about your leadership where do the strengths of your company, what are the weaknesses of your company, right? Those are sales tactics we are in an oversold in environment today, where sells tactics are very diminished, the reason why, the moment you start asking me those questions guess what, I know what you’re doing right you’re trying to agitate any pain that I have, and so I’m gonna immediately pull back from building a relationship with you, I’m merely gonna hold my cards close to the vest, okay? Because I know what you’re doing, and so with a value equation, you’re not asking those a question, what you’re doing is you’re bringing people some things that value, and saying it came across this I want to share it with you I thought of you, Oh check out minute 16, because there’s a great script that I came across, I think you can use in your business, we’re talking about that, okay? I’m a content creator, and you could be that, right? What do I do well I do weekly walk-around videos and I put on Instagram, I do articles on LinkedIn, I just I invested maybe eight hours in an article that just went on LinkedIn last week, good go check that article out. I’m doing you know one-off meetings with people with no strings attached, or people asking for my input I do this weekly podcast, where I drop videos on YouTube and Vimeo all the time, I get questions that are being DM me on LinkedIn and Instagram, Facebook, and I’m responding those to my best insight, so I’m actually a content creator, okay? But you don’t have to be the content creator, you can be the content curator, right? and that’s just someone who’s actually finding content that’s of value and then passing it on, at a yet a basic level, look, if you follow someone like a Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vay wrote a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, right hook. What does that mean it means, bring value, bring value, bring value, and then you can have a task you can go all the way back like the mid to early 80s, in a guy by the name of Robert Cialdini wrote a book called influence, the psychology of persuasion, right? it’s the exact same contact context from the 1980s, that nothing’s changed. If you follow a guy like Brian Tracy, like if you follow any of Brian Tracy stuff from like the mid to early 80’s age, which you would know as Brian reasons I was talking about the law reciprocity, what’s the law of reciprocity well it means I’m going to give you something with no strings attached, but what I know is that over wind of time that I do this that you’re going to feel inclined to actually respond in kind, right? Because people do respond in kind if I give value if you feel inclined to give me value, and what I’m doing is I’m creating a value equation, okay? The value equation is this where you’re lacking leadership and I give value with no strings attached you will lead into my leadership, that’s what we’re trying to do here, and that is what the best recruiters do today, okay? Look there’s a way that God has created the universe to work, right? And it is in and so in this space here where I close with you again is a podcast, in this value equation, if you’re willing to invest your time, if you’re willing to invest your money, willing to invest your talent into people, people will then respond in kind. The article that I mentioned on LinkedIn last week, I’m best in my time money and talent into writing an article, right? The week following I had five people organically asked to get on my calendar for that single article, there’s a way that the universe works, and the top recruiters today understand that they lean into that they trust that, and they wrap their system around that. Hope I brought some value to you today I think I closed a lot on my podcast with that, that’s really my hope there are a lot of good people in this podcast that need a better system, take these tactics, lean towards them incorporating them into your system, right? Ask yourself the question how do I improve my system, and if you’re always looking to improve your system guess what you’re raising your ceiling for success it will give you more capacity to have more wins, and so we go back to that and close the podcast with that. Thanks for listening everybody, if you found value in this change with someone on your team choice with someone that’s a cohort that may be also recruiting leader another recruiter inside your organization, or outside your organization’s you might be friends with, I’d be honored if you did that. If you find value from time to time some of you are awesome enough to drop me a Facebook Messenger, you know message or a LinkedIn DM, or an email I appreciate that much love to my community, until I talk to you again on next recruiting conversations, be blessed have a great week everybody.
