Speculative approaches – being relevant, personal and anticipated

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 | By Alex Brock

How can interviewing thoroughly help you to sell on a more consultative basis?

To start let me ask this: what’s the best way to generate business from a standing start, assuming you have no clients or track record with a particular company, but you do have access to candidates? If you approach this scenario by cold calling companies asking ‘Do you have any vacancies’, you will generally struggle to generate dialogue with those businesses.

Call the same companies, advising them about a great candidate, of relevance, who could be of benefit to that business and you give them a reason to listen. It may not be the right time for that business to recruit and the outcome of this call may be the same as the less sophisticated cold call approach. However, consider how the recipient of the speculative approach will view you and your agency compared to how they would view you with the former approach? Whilst both are sales calls, the differences are night and day.  Internal recruiters/line managers will generally remember those consultants who call about a particular candidate and demonstrate that they understand their business and look to add value.

The above approach does come with a warning though. You should only work speculatively on a candidate if you know that candidate thoroughly, and you approach a business, for which that candidate would have some relevance. If you approach a company with a candidate who has no relevance to them or you aren’t able to answer questions about the candidate when someone enters into dialogue with you, then it can potentially reflect detrimentally on you. It shows that you have not thought about the business you are approaching; you don’t know your candidate well enough and therefore aren’t acting in anyone’s best interests. This is where thorough interviewing is important  – by conducting a thorough interview as covered in my last article, you should get the information you need to then allow you to approach the right businesses and be knowledgeable enough to then ‘sell’ your candidate in a consultative manner.

Does this mean you should approach all companies on a speculative basis with candidates who are relevant? The key thing is that you find the appropriate balance of when and when not to speculatively approach companies. You do not want to devalue what you do by contacting the same company about every candidate you represent – they can’t all be as good/better or as relevant as the previous candidate. Companies should want to hear from you and value your call – will they get this if they constantly hear from you about another ‘great candidate’?

So, how do you create an opportunity for a more speculative and consultative approach. For me the key thing is that your approach needs to be:

·     Relevant – this is you representing a candidate who will be of interest and benefit to the business/individual you approach.

·     Personal – the call is relevant to the person you are contacting.

·     Anticipated – the person you are calling welcomes your call because they have previously indicated that they want to hear from you.

All of the above points cannot be achieved in an initial call and there is no getting away from the fact that at some point consultants do have to approach people/companies with whom they have had no contact.

This initial contact can however be relevant and personal by contacting them about a specific candidate who is relevant to that company and you believe benefits that company and person. If you show that you have thought about these elements then over time you will gain the anticipation element, because it is worthwhile for that company/person listening to you in the future.

My final point: whenever you speak to a potential client (current clients as well) ask them which position they find the most difficult to fill and why. If they give you an answer to this, then ask their permission that next time you find a candidate who meets such a requirement, that you can contact them. Ask this question to all people you deal with and make a note of these requirements. Having this information will then allow you to be anticipated as well as relevant and personal.

Alex Brock is an interim resourcing consultant. His blog about recruitment is at www.alexonrecruitment.co.uk