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Hot Tip #13 - How to Use the Phone to Get Referrals

By Lou Adler, May 22, 2007

I'll take Kevin Bacon's Six Degrees of Separation to a minor extreme, I suspect that with just the names on ZoomInfo, LinkedIn, or a simple Google search you are only one person removed from everyone in the country. (P.S. You can connect with me on LinkedIn using my email, lou@adlerconcepts.com. Everyone who buys my book can also connect with me and share advanced recruiting ideas like these on my Ning Recruiting Tactics site.)

Read more articles by this author.

Related Topics:

Recruiter Hot Tips, Sourcing

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Here's a rule you must now follow if you're into passive candidate recruiting - no one will give you a name of a top person unless you talk with the person on the phone first. I must get 10 to15 requests for referrals every week via some email program. I ignore them all. When the idea of email-based referrals first came out it worked for awhile, but diminishing returns quickly set in. For example, at last week's Kennedy's Recruiting Expo, the #1 Jobster user in 2005 told me he now finds it useless and counter-productive. So, don't expect to get many passive candidate referrals unless you work the phone.

Here's another rule you should follow if you want to get into the business of passive candidate recruiting via the phone - you'll get five times as many phone calls returned if you mention the name of the person who referred you. Saying you're a recruiter from ABC company with an exciting opportunity to discuss isn't going to work anymore. Everyone has access to ZoomInfo, LinkedIn and Google. Generating great names is no big deal anymore. Try this Google string for proof "-your University Michigan Alumni List -jobs resume system". Calling these people up and getting more names is hard work. If you can call anyone on a list of cold names and say, "Kathy Jones wanted me to call you right away. She told me you were the best person she knew for a senior level marketing spot we have open. She also said you probably wouldn't be interested right now, but that I needed to have you on my networking list," you'll probably get a call back. Without a name to mention you probably won't. So make sure when you call someone you mention a name of someone the person knows if you want your call returned.

To work a cold list, start by eliminating the idea that you're going to call everyone on the list. Instead use the cold list to get referrals and then spend the majority of your time calling only the referrals. We show how to do this in Recruiter Boot Camp Online and I'll provide more tips in future articles and on my Ning Recruiting Tactics site (remember only book purchasers are invited), but here's what I'd say if I were to call anyone on a cold list with the goal they call me back:

Your name was mentioned to me on a very confidential basis as someone I should contact for a senior level marketing position in my company. I'd like to chat with you about this spot on an exploratory basis. I'm involved in handling a number of senior level and executive positions and as a minimum I would like to add you to my networking list.

When you get the person on the phone, under no circumstances tell the person the actual title of the job, and you must get the person to describe her background to you before you tell her anything about the job. This is the only way you'll get any referrals. But, for now just worry about getting the person to call you back. We'll leave what you say next and how you get more names for a future discussion.