…If you respond to your prospect.

Last week I received a LinkedIn message from a niche job board salesperson. I got it several times actually – he sent it to everyone on our recruiting team and they all forwarded it to me. This particular job board focuses on marketing, and the timing couldn’t have been better – our marketing and ecommerce teams are exploding.  

The message referenced a specific job posting (even though I already had a finalist and was ready to make an offer) and suggested I post it on their site. It also informed me that they were voted a top career site by a major publication. I was told to visit their website and use a promo code to get $100 off my posting. He also encouraged me to reach out if I have any questions or difficulty posting.

I had never heard of this board before the message. Still, with the growth in marketing I thought – why not? I at least wanted to learn more, so I sent the following email, subject line “LinkedIn Message” –

Hi (Name),

You certainly covered your bases, my coworkers forwarded me your message too! :)

Our marketing recruiting is going to be expanding very soon, have not heard of your job board before but would be interested in learning more. Let me know when we can chat. Thanks.

Amy

Amy Ala

Senior Recruiter | Zones, Inc.
253-205-3000 | amy.ala@zones.com | www.zones.com

It’s been a week. I’ve heard NOTHING. I realize my response maybe wasn’t that specific – but it includes my name, company name, contact information… I also told him I was responding to his LinkedIn message that he sent to multiple people at my company. Maybe he interpreted that line as a little snarky, but hey his message was clearly stock (I'm not mad at him for that). It should not have been that hard for him to know who I was and figure out what he had said to me in the first place. Bottom line – I’m a potential customer who just got ignored. That’s right – I wanted to see if I should SEND HIM MONEY – and all I get is crickets.

Maybe he’s got better prospects. Maybe the measly few thousand dollars a year we might spend on his board isn’t worth his response. I don’t know… but if you ask me to recommend a niche marketing job board, guess who I WON’T be suggesting?

What does this have to do with recruiting, you ask? I’ll admit it made me stop and think – how many candidate prospects have I inmailed or emailed, only to ignore when they get back to me? Let’s say I send 40 inmails to Web Developers. Maybe five respond positively, and two might be good for my job. Do I just ignore the other three? I shouldn’t. If I initiate contact and someone responds, I at least owe them the courtesy of a closing response, even if it’s a one liner.

This job board guy could have simply said “all the info you need is on our website, feel free to contact customer service” or something! Zip, zero, nada response is frustrating for us. Imagine how a candidate feels.