A Friday Quickie

Attention Agency Recruiters: You are NOT in Human Resources. You are NOT in PR. You are not in
Employment Branding, Social Work, Social Media, Job Hunting Tips, or Candidate Experience
Consulting.

You. Are. In. Sales. Get it?

If you are not making presentations all day, every day, you are going to fail. You know what a presentation is, don’t you? It is talking to someone about your product. And I’m sure you know what I mean by product, right? Open positions or qualified candidates. That’s it. Period!

Maybe failure is an option for you. Heck – if you keep up with all the feel-good junk on Twitter you may very well think failure is a requirement to moving forward. Here’s some news for you though – it’s not. Failure is NOT good. It is not a stepping stone. It is not a feather in your cap.

The further you get sucked into following irrelevant links, reading about the latest Google news or discussing the latest Facebook trends – during the middle of your business day - the further away from making presentations you get.

Now – go call someone you don’t know and introduce yourself.

Comment by David Perry on September 17, 2010 at 12:40pm: Nicely put Jerry. And your right too many people get caught up in the non-productive and forget the tool dujour is still the phone.

Comment by Craig Silverman on September 17, 2010 at 12:45pm: Gotta love a guy who just tells it like it is. Thanks Jer! Time mgmt is key in this biz, do the right things at the right time. I like to keep score of key indicators and track trends. How many presents are you going to make today?

Comment by Chaser on September 17, 2010 at 12:46pm: I love you Jerry! Of course in a "Budweiser" kind of way! Great post!

Comment by Recruiting Animal on September 17, 2010 at 12:48pm: Gotta love Jerry, right. But can someone tell him to stop wasting his time on Facebook and Recruitingblogs as well.

He justifies his use of these sites by claiming that Twitter is crack while the others are just an occasional toke.

Comment by Ryan Leary on September 17, 2010 at 12:51pm: Jerry Jerry…. You so correct on this one. The title of the post says it all. In the end as a recruiter your job is to make a placement. Twitter, Facebook, LI and all the other crap that came about in the last few years are detractors. Many people say, but dude…you write recruitingtools.com. I say I know. But there is a purpose to that…

My day to day is to make placements. Sure I am on these sites, but I am there for a reason and I stick to that reason. I never got onto Twitter or Facebook to brand myself or anoint myself the King of Personal branding like someone else…

It’s important for people to recognize that this is a business. Those people that are online and visible and that you think are the leading experts in your field are typically not. Yes I said it.

They are not the experts and if you compare the $$$ they cash in on at the end of the day, it’s the quiet guy in the back of the office that is not on all of these social networks pretending to be the brand king that are the big billers. Yes, I said that too.

Recruiting is Recruiting and the process from 1975 is the same process as today.  No I was not recruiting than but you get what I am saying.

Well said Jerry. Now I’ve got to run so I can go tweet this out before I update my FB status.

Comment by Ryan Leary on September 17, 2010 at 12:51pm: Hey does anyone want to have a Twitter Chat today? ;-)

Comment by Todd Noebel on September 17, 2010 at 1:12pm: Spot freakin' on!

Comment by Wanda Deese on September 17, 2010 at 1:20pm: Well said Jerry!

Comment by Brian Pho on September 17, 2010 at 1:51pm: Jerry. Agree totally - but your first idea is contradictory. What if the president that you tried to get a hold of NEVER picks up his phone? You leave a great message about your top candidate and then what.. silence.... you try and call again... and no response.... then what?? The phone is great but let's say all of your clients dont pick up...

You talked about Employment branding and how we are suppose to get the message out. Well, LinkedIN and Twitter are good avenues of promoting yourself to people you haven't talked to for awhile.... and you can do a quick update on LinkedIN rather than calling 100 people.....

So yes, I agree phone is important but just a revision: Combination of phone, e-mail and social media is where the best success lies......

Comment by Todd Noebel on September 17, 2010 at 1:55pm: Brian - if they aren't responding to you by phone, they won't respond through social media either. At the risk of sounding snarky - stalking is not the same as sales.

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