Question:

Scenario- CEO candidate in final stages of interview process. He gets email from former Director of Board that client has reached out to him for a confidential reference check. It appears that said client is conducting a "blind reference" on our candidate without my or my candidate's knowledge.

I've tried to downplay the significance of this with my candidate but he feels like this is shady practice. I let him know that although I was unaware this group would conduct such references, I've seen it before and it’s just part of them doing their due diligence for such a key role. (I've worked with them on mid/upper level exec searches but never for a CEO role.)

He is very turned off by the concept of reaching out to former colleagues without at least a heads up that they would be conducting references on their own as a final step in the process.

I have reached out to established contacts myself from time to time to get an informal reference but there is...

Question:

We recruited a candidate who wants to interview at a "few places" before he/she makes a decision. We have only rolled out one job opportunity so far and have not submitted to client yet...any ideas how to handle this request?

Danny's response:

You need to determine whether your candidate's primary decision making is External or Internal. No one is entirely one or the other, but we all have a dominant mode. An external candidate makes decisions based on what he/she can measure, what do they gain, versus what do they lose. In the course of qualifying, you should be able to intuit this: an external person is always asking about compensation, the job location, the benefits... "If I make the move what do they give me that I don't have?"

If you determine your candidate is dominant External, you appeal to their logic and their fear of loss.

"Of course we can wait for other interviews. But you need to understand the risks. The company will continue to interview as well. If you...

Question:

So let’s talk about burning bridges. So in the last 8 years or so we have worked with a lot of companies. A lot of them we had at around 15-18% - so after the economy got better - we started cutting them off around 2011-2012. Now every time we get back to them - they say, ‘well you decided to terminate your relationship.’ I say now I am ok with doing it at 25%. They say no. I find we are burning too many bridges but at the same time I do not want to slave for pennies. IT managers love us because we bring them good people…but HR for some reason keeps on blacklisting us due to rates, previous relationship, etc…Are we becoming a black sheep? What’s up?

Danny's response:

Since you used the burning bridge analogy, let’s take it a step further. In order to keep sailors from being afraid to fight and potentially die on the battlefield, they used to land and then burn the ship. No way back. (Uh, thank God for conscientious objectors,...

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...

Hi Danny,

I hate salesmen. I don’t want to be a “salesman”. Yet I got into sales because when I believe in something, I can sell it easily. And for years people told me I would be a good salesman. I’m not bad. I can close. But I’m not great. I want to be great! Right now I’m 3 months into my new career in recruiting. I have closed 3 deals in 2.5 months. I have no recruiting experience prior to 3mo ago. I want to last. I’m working a niche in senior care recruiting medical executives.
My goal is to be billing at least 200k my 1st year. My question(s) to you is:

For someone who has never recruited but has the personality to headhunt, what are some daily habits that will bring me up to par with top billers?

Should I learn their medical jargon?
Should I learn every aspect I can of their industry (because I don’t know much)?
Should I be making more than 100 calls a day?
Have you had rookies, who have never recruited, bill more than 200k their...

Hi Danny,

It’s a phone business! I have heard that so many times in my first 2 years as a recruiter.

My boss is an old school recruiter. He isn't a dinosaur or anything. We email people, text them, use LinkedIn, cyber hack the internet to download resumes etc. However his advice to me always centers around getting on the phone.

I've got the job orders and plenty to work on. I feel increasing my volume of communication to potential candidates is the key to my desk taking off to the next level.

Don't get me wrong, I agree to a certain degree about the need to get on the phone. When I need candidates I call my bird dogs, call candidates I know and leverage my network. The thought of cold calling resumes or cold calling a company phone directory scares me. I have tried it and gotten little to no results. Does anyone return a cold voicemail anymore or pick up the phone when they don't recognize the caller ID?

2011 was my best year yet and after doing this for 2 years I am ready to...

Hi Danny,

I found the answer to "What does the position pay?" but what about after a candidate that has been through the interview process. He and I have spoken about compensation a few times (of course, he said $$ is not the motivator). He then decides to look on the internet and give me the average $$ for the "title" of the position. Example - he said - I just looked on salary.com and it says the median for this position is ........ thanks!

Danny's response:

You need to get used to this mantra: The difference between online salary surveys and the salaries companies pay is same as difference between Blogs and Journalism.

Within a few moments, I can set up a blog, and I am a blogger equal to all other bloggers. If I decide to start a rumor or want to air an opinion that is wholly based on fantasy or supposition I am free to do so. There are no standards, no checks and balances, no "proofreaders". Journalists must have multiple sources and credible evidence. Their editors will ask...

Hi Danny,

We are one of your clients and your material is the best I've ever seen. I have been in the IT recruiting business for 6 years and last year I generated 1MM in GM. Usually I am the one who answers the "rookie" questions in my office, but this time I'm stumped. I want to know what to do when a client (one of the IT managers who hires software developers from us) tells me that he wants to leave and he wants me to help him find a new job. This particular manager works for one of my biggest clients...we have several dozen managers at this client that hire people from us, so I don't want to ruin my relationship with my client, but at the same time, this manager is going to leave anyway. Also, I don't want to tell the manager that I can't help him, especially since he hates his job and I have another client that is 5 minutes from this guy's house who would probably love to hire him!

I'm stumped - what would you do?

Danny's response:

Man, is this ever delicate? I've been in the...

Hi Danny,

We are having issues across the board with clients not wanting to pay our candidates the going rate. Our clients haven't felt the shift in the market like we have. They still feel like they can pay pennies on the dollar!
How are you having your recruiters educate your clients on the shifting market?

Danny's response:

This is best done in the taking of the job order. Late in the job order. Give the client the sense this call is over, the heavy lifting done, all the relevant info has been shared, the requisite parrying over the fee and bonding between your personalities complete, “Okay, thanks for your time, I know you’re busy, I’ll let you go…”

“Uh, just one more thing.” Pause. Then, just to set the mood. “And if we can’t agree on this and you want to use another firm, I will totally understand, but I just can’t chance this after all the recent nightmares.”

Then shut up. Let them ask you what the...

Hi Danny, 

I am trying to break into a large fortune 500 company. Whenever I contact them, I receive the “we are all set, but if we have a need we will call you.” You know the phone has not rung. Today I tried the MPC approach based on a current opening. Here is the response I received. “We appreciate you reaching out however, we do not accept blind submittals from third parties. If we need additional support filling the role, we will be sure to reach out to you at that time.” Just in case the phone doesn't ring tomorrow what would you recommend? 

Danny's response:

Rest assured the phone won’t be ringing today. Or any day soon…

What do I recommend? Take a breather from chasing this Trojan Horse and reflect with me. According to the SBA, small business is “the heart of the American Economy.” (small defined as employees from 0-500 and sales from 2.5 to 20 million ish) They account for 64% of all the new jobs. They create 46%...