Cold calling and hard-core business development were always crucial recruiter skills.

Cold-calling waned in the post-covid boom, as job-briefs became plentiful and candidate availability dried up.

Soon (or soonish), the market will soften, even go into recession,  in which case many recruiters will be found out as they will have no idea what to do or say.

Having BD skills is imperative, but mostly, telling recruiters to mindlessly ‘cold-call‘ is poor advice.

Indeed, it is true that all recruiters need to develop clients, identify prospects, and find ways to build sustainable relationships. And often, that means connecting with people you have never dealt with. So yes, we are business developers, and in a tight market, that becomes even more critical.

But, if possible, don’t cold call.

Random, untargeted, unprepared cold calls are most likely to fail and even do brand damage.

However, don’t misunderstand me on this one.

You do have to make those calls and initiate that contact.

The point is, you should do everything you can to ensure that the call is not stone… freezing… cold. That is the key.

Move your cold call to a warm call.

Instead of hundreds of random calls to people who don’t want to hear from you, and where your pitch is little more than “I am a good recruiter. Got any job orders I can fill?” do the research work to find a point of common ground that turns the call from ‘cold’ to ‘warm‘.

There are many ways to do this, but here are nine good ones.  (Below the Rookie Recruiter news)

Rookie Program Part Two is now live

There are many ways to do this, but here are nine good ones.

• Approach ex-candidates, even if you did not place them. Candidates who are now in roles where they may become clients (I hope you looked after them well!)

• Get a referral from another division or office in your company. For example, “Mr Prospect, I am calling because our Singapore office has done a lot of work with your colleague, Michael Chew, over there, and he suggested I give you a call”.

• Get a referral from a current client, “Ms Prospect, I work extensively with Michael Chew at Apex Industries. He mentioned you had worked with him there and suggested I call you to see how we might be able to assist”.

• Connect first in a neutral environment and follow up later. “Ms Prospect, it was a pleasure to chat with you at the Marketing Institute Conference last week, and I would enjoy a chance to talk more about your comments on SEO trends”.

• Follow up on previous placements, no matter how long ago. “Mr Prospect, you probably would not realise this, but I placed Roberta Clarke with your predecessor quite a while ago. I would love to come down and see how she is doing and introduce myself to you”.

• Engage on social media first. “Ms Prospect, I have enjoyed our banter on LinkedIn and thanks for the connection, by the way. I am in your part of town next Tuesday and would love to drop in, bring our new Salary Insights document for you,  and learn more about the new training system you were posting about” (A Rec to Rec did precisely this to me while I was in London once. I met her).

• Follow up on a talk given by a prospect, a blog written, or a piece of PR they have received. For example, “Mr Prospect, I loved your blog on the boom in mobile technology…”

• Do your research and call with a candidate with the skills this prospect may be interested in. The good old “Reverse Market’ is timeless in its efficacy.

• Call with insights. A salary survey. Information on hiring trends. Latest strategies around managing remote work. Whatever is likely to interest the prospect.

Be creative about this. Brainstorm it with your team. You don’t want to be manipulative or trite, but you do want to start your BD call from a warmish position, get some connection, and then move on from there.

Of course, the more you have built your online brand, the easier this becomes

Warm calling will increase your hit rate exponentially.

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