What Do You Say To a Hiring Manager?

Okay, let's say you're a job seeker or a recruiter or a sourcer looking to get your foot in the door and you reach that eleusive and hard to find hiring manager who is more of a decision maker than uncooperative HR.
What do you say?
How do you engage them?
What do you offer?
How do you make all the hard work you put into finding them pay?
******
Need to know who the Hiring Managers are at specific companies? We can help! Call the phone sourcing experts at TechTrak 513 899 9628

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Nuroo on January 12, 2009 at 7:36am

As someone who gets lots of these calls at the moment..... can I suggest things not to say? My top 5

1/ Have you got any jobs?
2/ What does your company do again?
3/ We are different to everyone else... (well if you are, be ready to back it up, quickly and succinctly)
4/ Do you use agencies? How do I get on your PSA (even worse if haven't asked if they have one or not :) )
5/ I have 5 people right now perfect for your job (definitely a no-no if you haven't qualified yet!)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brent Potter on January 12, 2009 at 10:02am

As everyone says, establishing rapport is absolutely critical. You need to set yourself apart from the individuals that Dan referenced, so know who you're calling and why. Have a purpose for your call and speak to that. Tell them why you're worth talking to and how you can be of benefit to them. Speak to your expertise in the specific industry and it doesn't hurt to include some "shop talk" be it any recent mergers/acquisitions, etc, to show them that you are familiar with their space.

Second to that, your relationship isn't going to go anywhere if you can't back up your personality with quality product. It doesn't matter how nice you are, if you aren't going to bring something else to the table other than conversation, you aren't going to be making any money at the end of the day. Make it a point to put your best foot forward, as first impressions are everything and you don't know that this call isn't going to be your best client ever. Have a quality candidate ready to present. Even if they don't line up for an active req., good people are hard to find and I know as far as my clients go, they aren't going to turn down a "rockstar" in a tight and competitive marketplace.