Hi Danny,

As you know we place technology sales guys just like you. Most of our clients want the exact same things. Someone that has sold the same or similar products to the same or similar customers with good stability and #'s to back them up.

So here's the question...How do we get our clients (VP's of Sales or RVP's that are Baby Boomers or Gen X types) who are hung up on stability to consider talking to these Millennials (since most want to hire young, hungry types) or candidates that have had what they consider too many jobs? The youngsters just don’t care about changes and a lot of good people were damaged from 2008 - 2012 by the down last recession which touched a lot of good people and was worse than most. I realize that a lot of these bouncers are damaged goods in our world but some of them are fee worthy. Many times if we can just get them in the hunt they can get the job. Can you help with some lingo to help us get the better ones considered when we submit them or...

Script:

Hey Danny,

How to make more deals without having to summon courage, go to a therapist, or half-heartedly use a script that scares the daylights out of you.

Look, you’re fully formed. It’s too late to rewire you. Some of the great billers Danny mentors are not CLOSERS, they are COWARDS who have learned to compensate. They use the client to close, sometimes the candidate, sometimes their manager. But they know under what circumstances to employ their coward’s playbook. They read the signs. We’ll show you how. A coward trying to use a traditional take it away close, only takes away money from his ATM. It doesn’t have to be that way.

In a LinkedIn world, we get objections we never got before, from candidates who are not serious. That’s why internal recruiters get turndowns.

In almost EVERY deal you lose, you were being sent signals, (sometimes muted, to be sure) and you chose to ignore them, or were too busy “overcoming the objection”.

The problem...

Hi Danny,

Here's the scenario:
Over a 10 year period or so I have made about 8-10 placements with Company A. Recent history is 1 in 2009 and 2 in 2008. The last one was in December 2010, and prior to that was January 2010. Nothing since then. I still keep in touch with my contact periodically who says no needs. I do believe that if they had a search to give out I would get it.

In your opinion, am I at a point where I'm clear to recruit from them?

Danny's response,

We could go all macro and mystical with this answer. We could talk about how technology has had a corrosive effect on the already scintilla short attention span of Americans. How we don’t so much forgive the transgressions of our politicians (Spitzer lecturing on ethics on TV) and celebrities (Limbaugh assailing anyone’s morals), Tiger Woods no longer being catcalled on the tee (it’s been 2 years after all), Charlie Sheen back on primetime, as much as we just flat out don’t remember. According to...

Hi Danny,
What is the ultimate key to success in this industry? I.E. what are the main bullet points to being successful and a top biller in this industry? Some guidelines to follow if you will. I have no problem doing the work. I have organization. I have motivation. I have the phone time. I have the send outs and the resumes. What will set me apart from the pack?

Danny’s response,
It seems to me the most pragmatic way of answering your question is also the most revealing…what traits do I look for when I hire recruiters? If you know what I’m trying to measure, you can extract what is required to be a big biller. (Let’s define a big biller as 500K or more in direct hire revenues each year. I have mentoring students doing 3-4 times that amount.)

Let’s start with what I actually test for. We use two tests, one to test intelligence, and one to test your natural level of salesmanship. So there you have it, you need to be not just smart but quick...

Hi Danny,
I very much appreciated your recent newsletter about the evolving methods of recruiting professionals through social media, email blasting, and more.

In the same line of thought I was hoping that you could talk about work/life balance. Our top biller in the office leaves at 4:25 in the afternoon (while the office stays until 5 or later). He also has between 30 and 40 calls during a day, and talk time around an hour per day. Yet the result is between 60 and 100K per month on the board in solo deals from him.

Similarly, the next couple of top billers in the company have similarly low call rates, and yet our President continues to drive the importance of doing all prep work and planning at home, and staying late, and being on the phone above all else as a means of guaranteeing effectiveness and revenue.

It has always been my contention that quality trumps quantity and that in order to live a healthy life-style there needs to be a break in the time that one works, to after...

Dear Danny:

Is it just me or is there an increasing trend of hiring execs only making themselves available for interviews at ridiculously inconvenient times – usually phone, but we just had one do this for an in person, final interview at the end of a two-month process.

In the last month, I’ve had several HA’s who have been impossible to nail down for a call with a candidate offer, “I’m only available Friday at 7 am or Sunday at 9 PM” for a call with the candidate. Another – (a COO at a $400 mm company who insists on interviewing both on the phone and in person every candidate they hire making around 90K or more) just flipped the final onsite interview from 3 pm to 7 am.

When I protest and tell the HA the time is too early, too late etc. and that the candidate may not be on their game as a result of getting up at 5 am and traveling to make a 7 am series of in person interviews, the client starts with the “Well, he must not be that...

Hi Danny,
There aren’t enough parking spaces for all of us here. The boss has a reserved spot – so he is not affected. Do I just suffer?

Danny’s response,
I thought briefly of recusing myself since I have a space right outside our office door and would beat anyone who tried to park there to a bloody pulp, but let’s assume for purposes of discussion I earned my spot and your boss didn’t. What is it you are angry about? The fact that there are not enough parking spots or that your boss is not affected?

If it is the former, GET TO WORK EARLIER than those who get the spaces that are available!

If it’s the latter, work your butt off, become the top producer, rise above the petty concerns like this, and before you know it… there’ll be a space that no one else can park in but you. And then, I promise you, the system will seem very fair.