How do you respond? Damned if I do Damned if I don't

Hi All,

I do a lot of outreach via email and linkedin to potential candidates.

As recruiters we all know the struggle we have with revealing a company name and I make it clear in my outreach that I am happy to share the company name live.

It makes me cringe when I get the following responses

Please share the company name and Ill let you know if I'm interested.

Can you share the company name?

My response is either one of the following

Sure. Here is the company but please do not reach out to them directly. I'd love to share more details with you live. Just going to the site doesn't give the full picture of the great things they are doing. Do you have a few minutes to connect?

While I cannot share the company name here, I'd be happy to share the opportunity with you live. Do you have a few minutes to connect this week?

Both responses never get me anywhere. Any suggestions?

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Permalink Reply by Jim Fell on November 22, 2016 at 7:19am

Keep the ball rolling. The consultant probably has in mind one more companies that they do not want to work at. Perhaps try to find out what's motivating their question, and then it will become clear if you can address their concerns without revealing the name of the client. In my opinion, once a phone screening with a client is scheduled, it's only fair to reveal the client's name to the consultant, so that s/he can adequately prepare for the interview.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Ferrante on November 22, 2016 at 3:35pm

I answered this on a different post, but I'd like to make a comment about your responses above. "Do you have a few minutes to connect?' makes it sound....no sense of urgency. I would prefer to hear, "Do you have a few minutes to talk this week? How about Tuesday afternoon?" or something like that.

I am very clear in my outreach to say, 'Please call me directly at XXXX or email me at XXXXX if you're interested in discussing'. It's in their court then. I can't play this game back and forth if they aren't going to take this seriously.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey (Hecht) Byrne on November 23, 2016 at 9:09am

Thank you Jim.

I can't respond back "whats your motivation" I already know that answer - The candidate isn't actively looking for something new and busy and doesn't want to waste time speaking with me if they aren't interested in the company so they ask for the company name before setting up a call. I don't know what the best course of action is to respond here. Sharing the name doesn't do my client justice and 99% of the time I dont hear back from the candidate and if I say I can share the name with them live - 99% of the time they don't respond back. Any other thoughts. I very much appreciate your suggestion!

Jim Fell said:

Keep the ball rolling. The consultant probably has in mind one more companies that they do not want to work at. Perhaps try to find out what's motivating their question, and then it will become clear if you can address their concerns without revealing the name of the client. In my opinion, once a phone screening with a client is scheduled, it's only fair to reveal the client's name to the consultant, so that s/he can adequately prepare for the interview.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey (Hecht) Byrne on November 23, 2016 at 9:10am

Hi Linda,

Thank you for responding. Im new to this forum and don't know how to find my other post. Can you let me know your original answer here? I appreciate your suggestion on making a time frame!
Linda Ferrante said:

I answered this on a different post, but I'd like to make a comment about your responses above. "Do you have a few minutes to connect?' makes it sound....no sense of urgency. I would prefer to hear, "Do you have a few minutes to talk this week? How about Tuesday afternoon?" or something like that.

I am very clear in my outreach to say, 'Please call me directly at XXXX or email me at XXXXX if you're interested in discussing'. It's in their court then. I can't play this game back and forth if they aren't going to take this seriously.