Find out the 3 things to look for when evaluating if the person you're calling is a suspect vs a prospect, the most important 4-letter "F" word, and how to differentiate yourself from other recruiting options when entering "biz dev" (business development) mode.

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Hi, this is Stephanie Maas partner with ThinkingAhead, and welcome to The Talent Trade.

. Today, I want to talk about marketing or biz dev two types of words that I will use interchangeably.

And I want to talk about two different things as it relates to business development and marketing.

Number one is when we go into a biz dev mode.

What is it that we're really looking for?

So first and foremost, we're going to address, Hey, what is it that I'm really looking for?

Then secondly, we're going to talk about how to make yourself look, sound, feel different than every other recruiter out there.

So first of all, let's talk about what are we actually looking for when we get into a biz dev mode and it's time to do business development and get clients or potential clients on the phone.

What exactly are we looking to do?

By the way, at this point, many of you are thinking, um, Hey, Stephanie, duh, we're looking for business.

But if you've been in this business for more than a minute, while there can be those one hit calls, meaning we call somebody and they go, Oh my gosh.

Thank God you called me today.

I was just telling somebody we have a need.

We need to pay a fee and Stephanie Moss is the one I was getting ready to call.

Has that ever happened?

It will happen.

However, most of the time that is not what happens.

Instead, what we do is show up an effective marketing plan.

Um, we show up on a regular, consistent basis.

Add value to decision makers to ultimately win an opportunity to have a discussion about a search when it makes sense for our clients or potential clients.

So the mindset we actually want to get in.

And again, I love the lottery.

I love the idea that I may hit pay dirt on any call at any time, but that's really not my mindset going into doing business development calls.

Instead, the mindset is, Hey, what am I looking for?

How can I add value?

And how can I set it up?

So the next time I call them, they want to take my call, even if they don't have a search to give me, by the way, this is also kind of the first step and how we differentiate ourselves from our competitors.

Hiring managers get calls all the time from recruiters that sound like, Hey man, how's it going?

A little bit of rapport, a little bit of fake conversation.

So, Hey, any talent you need me to go find.

Hey, I've got some goals.

I don't know if you know about them, but I needed to place three people next quarter.

So I'm hoping you have a search for me.

That might not be the exact language that we use, but from a hiring manager's perspective, that's a lot of what we sound like.

So first and foremost, let's talk about what mindset should we be in.

And how does that right out of the gates make us appear different from our competitors?

Three things.

When we go into a biz dev mode, three things that we need to find out to qualify is who I'm calling on a suspect or a prospect.

By the way, we hear it thinking ahead.

Nobody.

is a client until they are actively paying us fees.

There are some nuances around that, but at the end of the day, until there has been that exchange of money for work, everybody is a prospect.

And before they're ever a prospect, they're a suspect.

So when you go into a biz dev mode, your thought is, Hey, I'm going to make 10, 15, 20, depending on your niche suspect calls today.

And here's what we're trying to find out to move them from suspect to prospect.

Number one, do they even have a need?

Super simple, right?

What most recruiters start off with is, do you have a search?

Do you need talent?

And they, they get right into it and they want that instant.

Yes.

This is a highly sophisticated, complex sales cycle.

The questions we ask around a need sound more like, Hey, tell me what's happening in your world from a talent perspective right now.

They oftentimes will hear that question and they'll understand it as we have a need, or do you have a need?

So you may have to go, well, we don't really have any needs right now.

Yeah, I get that.

Um, maybe I wasn't clear in my question.

Um, and Hey, I apologize.

Just tell me what's happening in your talent world right now.

I know you don't have a need.

How does your team look?

How are they performing?

Are there any gaps?

Are there any holes?

Do you see any retirements coming up?

Is there anything on the horizon over the course of, let's just say the next 90 days that could have you thinking differently about the talent on your team?

And then zip it and listen, let them.

One of the biggest differentiators is we are really trying hard to make our calls, not about our agenda.

We know they know what our agenda is.

It's to try and find talent and get paid.

But let's do our best to back burner that, because if we do our job in the right way, which is a big thing here at Thinking Ahead, that will come with time.

We don't need to push our agenda.

Instead, let's listen to their agenda.

And it starts with, do they even, could they even have a need?

Second thing is, let's say they say, you know, we've got a retirement coming up.

We are going to have to replace that person.

Okay, great.

What's the timing of that?

And then you can start to recognize that you need to go to the second thing, which is they do have a need.

The second question is, do you need me?

Do you need us?

Do you need an outside search company to fulfill that need?

I tell potential clients all the time, just because you have a need, doesn't mean you need me.

I'm a costly, laser focused solution to a problem or challenge where the budget makes sense.

To solve the challenge with a laser focus solution, that's what we're here for.

So just because you have a need doesn't mean you need me.

And what I'm trying to do here is to put them at ease.

I want them to be able to talk about potential talent needs that they may have without the fear of me bombarding them two days later with 10 resumes that they didn't ask for.

I just want to start talking to them.

I want to be a partner, not a vendor.

By the way, there are plenty of folks that make a ton of money as resume brokers.

And their vendors.

And that is perfectly fine.

Perfectly.

It's more than fine.

If that's how you want to do business, you can be tremendously successful for us.

That's just not the way we do business.

We take a much more boutique approach.

So again, do you have a need?

Number two, do you even need us then?

If we continue down this road and we discover that yes, in fact, they do believe they are going to need a search firm.

Then before I go into a pitching mode or even ask for the opportunity to share with them why we might be able to help, I want to know how do they feel or letter F word about partnering with a search firm.

This is critical for how I'm going to approach the rest of our conversations.

Oftentimes, when you're working with somebody and they have the space to admit that they know they're going to need to go to a search partner, but they really don't want to, or they're frustrated about having to do that, or it's going to break their budget, but they know they still have to.

I want to know that right up front.

I want to know that, Hey, they've got some angst.

They know they have to do it, but they've got some angst.

Sometimes you'll hear folks say, Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

We're super excited about working with a search firm.

Takes it off my plate.

Okay, great.

I want to know that too.

The idea is in this biz dev mode, we are really, again, trying to set up a lot of very healthy dialogue that shows us as a trusted partner, a trusted advisor, as it relates to talent.

Once we have all that information, then we can transition and start talking and asking questions to find out, Hey, are we the appropriate solution for their problem or challenge right now?

Now, let's say we're getting lots of green lights and we're with a decision maker and we're on a conversation where we might actually try to win some business.

How fun is that?

Right?

Again, by the way, most of the time this does not happen in the first call.

This may be two or three calls down the road, but how do you express, how do you walk through and talk about how you are different?

Here's a couple of points we hear at thinking ahead, make that we've learned over the years from feedback from our prospects and our clients that they really appreciate about working with us.

If you don't know what your clients or prospects appreciate about working with you, ask them.

That's an incredibly powerful phone call to make to say, Hey, hiring manager or potential hiring manager, I'm not actually calling today to talk about earning your business.

Or if you have a need or if you need us, what I really want to talk about and I hope you'll be open and candid with me is what do you appreciate about working with me and where are my areas of improvement?

How could I make your job easier when you and I work together on a search?

That's a powerful conversation.

We here at thinking ahead have had lots of those and this is what we've heard in terms of feedback about how we're different and what our prospects and clients appreciate about us.

Number one, we put in a direct calling effort for the majority of our searches.

We will make somewhere between 90 and 110 direct calls into the market, trying to find the talent that our prospects or our clients need.

This carries value because folks have become so reliant on technology.

They're happy to send email blasts.

They're happy to send LinkedIn messages.

But at the end of the day, the majority of our success comes from proactive recruiting.

That is getting on the phone with folks, potential candidates, learning about their situation, and then getting into a live conversation where we can present the opportunity that we are representing.

That's a huge differentiator.

One of my favorite stories and examples of this is about 10 years ago, I was invited to participate on a search.

And as I was out in the market making calls, I kept getting referred to a potential candidate.

And instead of sending an email, a LinkedIn message, because it's the thinking I had way, I picked up the phone and I called this potential candidate.

And when I called him, he said, yep, I've already heard about this search and I'm not interested.

Now this was by no genius of me or sophistication.

I was so dumbfounded that he wasn't interested because I had heard from several folks in the market that he'd be a perfect fit.

I literally said, why not?

Like you got to help me understand what I've heard.

That you're perfect for this.

So tell me what you think this is and why you're not a fit.

I also think he was a little dumbfounded because I think he thought I was going to say, okay, thanks.

Bye.

Like most recruiters do.

Or who do you know?

Bye.

And instead we got into a conversation about the job and what he thought it was and what in fact it actually was.

I remember this so much because he actually got the job and in a couple of weeks he will celebrate his 10 year anniversary of being there.

Super exciting.

But again, that is something that never would have happened if it had not been through a direct calling effort.

So that's one way that we're different.

Number two is our process, and we find, especially if you're newer in the business, this can give you and prospects tremendous confidence that you can be trusted with their search.

We have our process here at Thinking Ahead buttoned up.

We're always evaluating it to make sure it's the most effective, but for us, our process is clearly outlined.

We have numbers to back it up.

And we can clearly and concisely communicate this both verbally and in writing to our prospects and our clients.

And what this process shows is exactly what we're going to be doing when we're going to be doing it.

We give weekly or bi monthly updates, both in writing and verbally that show we're doing exactly what we said we were going to do.

It's called a plug and play.

It's Hey, even if I'm new, I have my six to eight steps that I'm going to follow to make sure that you get the most effective chance at bringing in the best possible talent at the market bears right now.

Again, if you're new, this is tremendous.

You don't have to trust me.

I may be a terrible recruiter, but my process works.

So as long Is I work the process and I have stats to back this up.

And by the way, when you say I have stats, you better share those stats.

Don't wait for them to ask.

And that's something we hear at Thinking Ahead do on a regular basis.

This is our search assignment to placement ratio.

This is how many calls we're going to make.

How many attempts we're going to make to get people on the phone.

How many submittals per search we're going to make.

What our submittal to send out ratio is.

What our send out to follow up ratio is.

What our offers accepted to ratio is.

These are all numbers that we are gonna volunteer to our prospects and clients.

So it's not just, Hey, just trust me, I got this, but it's, this is our process and this is how we know it's effective and this is what we can offer you.

So again, how we're different?

Number one, direct calling effort.

Number two, we share our process and the numbers that prove that it's effective.

And then number three, and again, if this isn't what makes you different, or stand out, find the things that do.

Number three is we are the first point of contact for our candidates and our clients.

Meaning if you were talking to me, Stephanie Maas here at Thinking Ahead about doing a search for you, unless I tell you otherwise, and there aren't always situations where it might be me and a team of folks, but for most of my searches, it's me doing all the work.

So the advantage prospect and or client.

Is that there is one clear, consistent message out in the marketplace about who you are, what you're looking for, and why, and what the experience could be working with this organization.

Again, in my world, clients and prospects really appreciate that.

Again, if those aren't the three things.

That differentiate you from your competitors, perfectly fine, but find the ones that do and be ready to articulate those clearly and concisely in a way that shows how you're different.