AWOL Candidates

Question:

I read everything you send out because although I am a senior recruiter, I still find myself learning. I have a question pertaining to candidate control and I am looking for a "Danny-ism". I am having an inordinate number of candidates simply vanish and it is happening at each phase of the process. Part of it I can blame on the geography, the rest of the responsibility is mine for not establishing the ground rules up front. I am certain, the candidate is passing on the opportunity, or they would be calling me. I need to control my candidates better to provide appropriate feedback to my clients. What soon-to-be-famous Danny-ism would you use to reduce the number of AWOL candidates?

Danny's response:

People do things for their own reasons. Candidates vanish because they feel:

1. You are going to pressure them.
2. Now that they have met the company you have no other value.

They see no reason to keep you in the loop.

So when they go out on the interview, rather than telling them they MUST call you back because YOU need to provide feedback to clients (feedback they feel the clients can give you), simply appeal to their competitive juices and their sense of vanity:

"When you get out of the interview, grab your cell and call me, if you want to pursue I want to position you correctly versus the other candidates I'm presenting. Clients always ask me to guide them as to who to bring back and who to release, and I can't represent your interests if we don't talk. Let's do this live."

Now you said you read everything but I'm wondering if you are using our most sacrosanct method of establishing the ground rules with candidates, the "I cover the job speech" drill down with them. It's on the site and in several webcasts, but essentially:

"Let me tell you how I work because it is very different than most recruiters, my clients expect a short list of elite candidates, no more than 5, and I always deliver. The bad news there is sometimes there will be a job I send you on and you will want it and yet I will be obliged to send in 4 others, the good news because of the way I work, and the fact that there is only one fee, I never have to convince, cajole or manipulate. Someone will want it. This liberates us to be honest. There's no need to be shy about withdrawing and no need to go dark on me. From a cold, detached business point of view, I don't care who gets the job. Does that make sense?"

Every recruiter I have ever trained or mentored uses this religiously and they have a minimum of closing issues.