When the market is driven by those interviewing, find a new approach to hiring.
August 04, 2021
By Rachel Smith
It’s a job candidate’s market right now. The market is so skewed toward those looking for jobs that Domino’s pizza-delivery drivers are being offered a $1,000 signing bonus, Dunkin’ Donuts is providing paid time off, and Chipotle will help you pay for college for working just 15 hours a week.
What does this mean for technology startups and SaaS providers? For many it will mean finding a new approach to hiring. I’m not talking about increasing salaries and offering larger signing bonuses (although that might help). I’m talking about looking at potential hires in a completely new way—as potential sales prospects.
When you are looking for the highest-quality sales professionals to join your team, you are essentially selling your company and mission to them. Many of the same techniques you use to engage potential clients can be used to attract potential hires just as effectively.
You would never pitch to a prospect and then wait a few weeks to see if they call you. You keep up a cadence of communication—check in, uncover and address objections, answer any questions. Potential hires also need continued communication in order to remain engaged.
You might still be conducting interviews, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach out to those who have already interviewed and update them as to where you are in the process. They will appreciate your effort and being kept in the loop.
Just as you would with a client, find out how your potential hires prefer to communicate. In fact, a recent study found that nearly 90 percent of job seekers agree that it would be beneficial to receive text messages during the job application process.
You know that as a sales professional it’s better for your potential client to do more of the talking while you are attentively listening. Use the same rule of thumb for hiring interviews. This is your chance to learn as much as possible about potential hires, and it’s broadcasting to them that you care about what they have to say.
Use the information you learn from actively listening to personalize the applicant’s experience as much as possible. Just as personalization is key to customer experience, it makes an impact on prospective employees as well.
Do you use open-ended questions? Don’t answer that! It was a trick binary question that I threw in to see if you’d catch it. You could only say yes or no.
What kinds of questions do you ask during interviews? That’s a much better question. Now you have to do more talking, and I can learn more about you. If you’ve read any of our blogs or done any training with us, you know how much we love open-ended questions. Why? Because they give you so much more information.
Asking open-ended questions (and then allowing for some silence while you wait for an answer) is the best way to mitigate the risk of not having enough information. Just as it’s dangerous not to have enough information about your potential client, not having enough information about your potential hire can also leave you in a precarious situation.
Asking questions like, “What are some of your must-haves in your next role?” can help you uncover objections early on. Sound familiar? When interviewing for an open position, it’s important to figure out potential blockers early. For example, are they expecting to be able to work from home while you’re looking for someone who can come into the office? Knowing details like this up front ensures that a wrench won’t be thrown into the works later.
We’ve written before about how powerful storytelling can be as part of your sales process. It is equally beneficial when hiring. People remember stories better than statistics. You might want to tout your company’s growth, but wrap these details into a narrative and your prospective hire is more likely to remember it.
Stories captivate more of our brains than simple facts. They activate our emotions. Don’t just say that your company is a great place to work—tell a story about it. This prompts others to put themselves into the story. It essentially lets your prospective hire “try on” the job. It’s much more impactful than simply sharing facts.
Storytelling isn’t just useful for when you’re interviewing candidates. It can also be effectively used to draw more applicants when used in your job description. Don’t just share a list of qualifications that you’re looking for. Share a narrative about what this person will be doing. Even more important, outline potential career paths so that applicants can imagine their growth within your company.
Just as you might share relevant content with a customer, sharing content can also be an opportunity for gifting potential hires. Are there blog articles on your website that they would find useful? Send them the link along with a message about why you thought it would interest them.
Sharing content with potential hires can keep you top-of-mind. It also positions you as an expert in your field. Perhaps an applicant isn’t the right fit for the position you are currently hiring for, but they are impressive and might be a great fit for future positions. Sharing relevant content is a great way to reach out and stay in touch.
Do we believe it when a company tells us how great their product is? No. Instead we turn to friends and complete strangers who have used the product. We trust what they have to say much more than we trust a business. It’s why we use Yelp and comb through Amazon reviews.
If the product you are selling is a job at your company, then who are your previous customers that have already made that purchase? Your employees. Of course the founder of a startup is going to say it’s a great place to work, but what about the last few people she hired?
Let your potential hires hear straight from your employees. This can be in the form of testimonials on your website’s open positions page, or simply access to other people that work for you. Letting applicants speak directly to employees also provides a level or transparency that can help build trust.
What if…you presented your pitch to a potential client. You did a good job and they were interested in learning more. You scheduled another meeting with other key people on your staff, only for those people to show up and deliver the exact same pitch.
That’s a ridiculous scenario. It wouldn’t happen because your team has a process, communicates, and is much too organized to let something like that take place. And yet this is often what happens to potential hires. Thy go through an interview, but when they move on to the second or third interview with other people, they get asked the same questions.
Your hiring process needs to be as defined and organized as your sales process. Neither clients nor applicants want to feel like you are wasting their time, or worse, don’t value their time.
Interview questions should be purposeful. Each should be uncovering new information. A sloppy or repetitive interview process does not instill faith in an applicant that your organization is well-run.
Economies shift. Pandemics happen. The stock market rises and falls. We will not be in a market that so strongly favors job applicants forever. But that doesn’t really matter. If you truly want to attract the best and the brightest to your organization, you need to be selling your organization effectively.
This applies to any business, but particularly startups. If you don’t have the name recognition or pocket depth as a Google or an Amazon, you need to be sure you stand out in another way. You build relationships, earn trust, and solve problems with clients. You need to do the same with your job prospects.
Want to learn more about open-ended questions? Ready to hone your sales hiring process? Schedule a workshop with Maestro at mastery@maestrogroup.co.
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