Articles - Business / Client Dev & Marketing

Whether you are making an initial marketing call or a cold recruiting call, you have approximately thirty seconds to do three things:

Gain the Individual's Attention
Eliminate (or at least not create) a Reflex Rejection
Change the Dynamics from a Monologue to a Dialogue .

The ultimate success of your call depends on your ability to accomplish all three of these objectives in a very brief period of time. If you fail to accomplish any or all of these objectives, the individual you are calling will immediately begin to execute an exit strategy from the call. Once this occurs, it is almost impossible to turn them around.

Within this thirty second window of opportunity, you must give the individual you are calling a valid reason for speaking with you. This reason should reflect your purpose for selecting them to call in the first place. The operative word here is "selecting", i.e. specifically "why" are you calling them?

After personally observing hundreds (perhaps thousands) of marketing reps, consultants and recruiters execute basic marketing and recruiting calls, it is obvious that many do not know how to effectively open these calls. They have not developed the skills necessary to create a willing and situationally trusting mind-set on the part of the person they are calling. All too often their opening commentary comes off as self-serving and/or manipulative.

An example is a call I recently received in my office from a marketing representative who did not know that our firm was also in the staffing business. Her opening comments (identity changed to maintain her confidentiality) went something like this:

"Mr. Petra, this is Suzy calling from ABC Staffing. We have some really good candidates in the Woodbury area and I was just wondering if I could interest you in hearing more about them?"

As well intentioned as Suzy may have been, her approach accomplished none of the three objectives for the first thirty seconds of a marketing call. Had I not been a consultant and trainer in the staffing industry, I would not have invested more than a minute of my time with her. However, I did ask her "why" she was calling my firm. She seemed bewildered by the question so I rephrased it and asked "why" did she select my firm to call. The only answer she could give was that our firm was located in Woodbury.

I then asked her what she knew about our firm. She was honest with her response and stated that she knew "virtually nothing" about us. Therefore, I explained the nature of our services and asked how long she had been in the staffing business. Her response goes to the heart of the problem. She stated:

"Although I have not been in the business very long, my manager has given me excellent training."

After that response, I was uncertain how to proceed without creating a problem between her and her manager. Therefore, I thanked her for the call and suggested she pull up our web site in order to learn more about my firm.

Coincidentally, within two days of my discussion with Suzy I received a recruiting call from a consultant who opened his call in the following manner (identity has been changed to maintain his confidentiality).

"Terry, my name is Charlie Brown and I recruit senior level managers for the staffing industry. Would you be interested in hearing about an exceptional opportunity that would allow you to leverage your career while dramatically increasing your income level?"

The first thought that crossed my mind was "why" is he calling me? When I asked him this question he stated:

"Because several of your peers told me that you have the exceptional skills and experience my client is seeking."

After several follow-up questions on my part, Charlie had to admit that he knew virtually nothing about me and that he was recruiting on a Branch Manager's position for a staffing firm that planned to open an office in the Twin Cities area. In fact he had not discussed me with my peers (whoever he thought they might be) and did not know that I was the owner of my business.

If Suzy and Charlie's calls were indicative of their usual approach, unless they receive proper skills development training, I suspect neither one of them will enjoy long term success in our business. Without my prompting, neither would have been able to engage me in a two way dialogue. Just as significant, neither of them were able to credibly answer the basic question, "why are you calling me?" Unfortunately, there are many practitioners, both rookie and experienced, who lack the same skill sets. Their words may be different, but their results are the same.

Remember:
The most critical skill set to develop is not getting people to listen to you. Rather, it is the skill of getting them to talk with you, to open up, to willingly share the specifics of their individual situations.

How well developed are your skills in this area? Upcoming articles will address the development of these skills. We will also provide examples of specific approaches, including how to answer the "why are you calling me?" question. Meanwhile, if you have questions or comments, just let me know. Your calls, faxes and e-mails are always welcome.

About the Author

Recipient of the “Harold B. Nelson Award”, Terry Petra is one of our industry’s leading trainers and consultants.  He has successfully conducted in-house programs for hundreds of search, placement, temporary staffing firms and industry groups across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, England, and South Africa.  To learn more about his training products and services, including “PETRA ON CALL”, and “BUSINESS VALUATION”, visit his web site at:  www.tpetra.com.  Terry can be reached at (651) 738-8561 or e-mail him at: Terry@tpetra.com