Love the “No.”

As recruiters we are trained to love hearing yes.  “Yes, please help me with this position.”  “Yes we are going to make your candidate an offer.”  And best of all, “yes I will accept that offer and here are seven of my highly qualified friends that need work.”  I may have exaggerated with the last one.  But you get my point. 

The word “No” is something we are trained to hate and in fact overcome!  But for the experienced and younger recruiter alike, “no” contains valuable information that is essential.

Scenario 1: You are so excited someone finally gives you a YES and the search commences.  However as you contact candidates you notice that all of them say “no.”  Instead of just focusing on the “no” the key is why.  Salary too low?  Job not attractive?  Company not attractive?  Whatever it is, that is valuable information to take back to the client.  We should be experts in our market/field and by capturing real time market place information this can be shared with your client.  As you engage and build deeper relationships this information becomes invaluable to hiring managers that can sometimes be insulated from the current market.

Scenario 2: You get another yes.  You have qualified people and you submit only to hear, “No, not enough experience.” Send someone more experienced, “No too experienced.” Send someone in between, they get an interview and then you get “No, not the right fit.” Before long you have sent a slew of qualified people, only to hear “No” every time.  As discouraging as that is, this is valuable!  Maybe this is a company you do not want to work with, maybe it’s a company that has a habit of opening up requirements and filling them internally.  Either way the steady drum of “no’s” can serve as guidepost. 

Time is the most precious commodity we have and if you learn this company is someone who never hires isn’t that valuable information?

I could go on, and of course there are alternative scenarios to what I described.  My base point is that a “no” can often contain the most valuable information you need.  Learn to love it!