Confessions of a Sales Executive
Today, I did the unthinkable.
As a technical recruiter, I was always wary of candidates hanging up on me or telling me that they don’t have time for this or that. As a sales executive, I’ve gotten a couple of nasty rejections, but for the most part (99%) people are very civil when I cold call them out of the blue and ask them if they use “technology consulting services”.
But no matter how vicious the hang up or how curt the response, I never forget that this is my client. Whether on the recruiting side or on the sales side, my ability to form a good impression on my prospective client is paramount to all other considerations.
So today, a green behind the ears recruiter from a certain Boston recruiting agency called me to ask if I would come up to their Andover office( a 3 hours diversion from my call time). He wanted me to fill out some esoteric paperwork before he could tell me about the opportunities he had for me as well as meet some of his illustrious colleagues. Not only was he pushier then a used car salesman, he was also overbearing. I could hear it in his voice.
I suggested that if he wanted to place me, he would have to take me out to lunch on his expense account and tell me what “exciting” opportunities he had for me. He responded that he was too new for that. Then I asked him how much money he was going to make off me and told him how much I was used to making from every consultant. To my surprise he said that this was irrelevant. When did a candidate’s salary become irrelevant??
So I suggested that when he was ready to take me out, he give me a call and then I hung up.
I hung up on a recruiter! A recruiter and a sales guy hung up on a fellow recruiter! Travesty.
But not really. My Golden Rule of recruiting is never waste peoples time. This recruiter wanted to take 3 hours of my call time and burn it. Forget about it.
I hold that meeting with recruiters before they get you a first interview is a total, complete, and irreversible waste of your time. It’s called pay it forward. Why should a candidate take 3 hours of his day to come and meet with a bunch of fresher’s straight out of college to fill out some BS paperwork that may or may not ever go anywhere? You need to create value. Remember? The Value proposition? Simply calling me with an opportunity does not do it.
Moral of the story: If you want to make money by placing people, respect their time as if it were your own. Never be a Jerk to a recruiter who can find out who your client is and call the hiring manager directly.
