Today’s guest blogger is Maureen Sharib, owner of phone sourcing company TechTrak, Inc. See the end of this post for more information about Maureen, including contact details.
A recent tweet at a spring sourcing conference bleated alarmingly during one of the earliest presentations; it just so happened to be during the phone sourcing presentation.
It sounded defensive:
“What professions are likely to pick up the phone versus respond to other ways?”
I looked at the tweeter’s profile and saw that she was tasked with sourcing and contacting developers.
I get the defensiveness; it’s hard getting developers to answer their phones.
There are, however some professions that do pick up their phones when you call, more readily than others.
Before I go into those let me say that developers weren’t always so gun-shy. Used to be they’d answer their phones – before they were bullet-riddled by the side effects of social media and were way more amenable than they are today to having a conversation.
But then – ten, fifteen twenty years ago many were of a different generation too and they communicated in a different way. They were accustomed to telephones ringing and they grew up in environments that saw their parents answering telephones and conducting business on the phone.
That isn’t so much the norm today – especially in high tech.
For this discussion we’re going to veer away (mostly) from high tech and talk about many of the other professions where people still communicate “on the phone.”
When I talk about “answering the phone” I’m speaking of someone answering their phones within a space of you calling them approximately three times. Many of you would be happy to reach a potential candidate within three calls – wouldn’t you?
For those of you who are surprised it’s necessary to call someone three times – don’t be.
Most of you wouldn’t not email someone three times (if required/pushed to) though I’d bet the majority of you don’t do this either. Did you know you have to email someone (a stranger) five times before some of them will respond? And that’s just some of them? Many find that number hard to believe but it’s true.
Recruiting (and sourcing) isn’t a piker’s game; it requires not just skill and know—how but also perspicacity, audacity and tenacity!
So who answers their phones?
Finance professionals answer their phones. Answers regarding finance tend to require immediacy and this may have something to do with the better average than the normal 8 out of 10 answer ratio encountered in some departments.
Health care professionals tend to answer their phones if they’re in the office – the trick is in knowing when they’re in the office. Some work three or four very long days a week or on weekends or nights so you have to be prepared to adapt to their schedules if you want to reach them.
Workers in manufacturing answer their phones (if they have one) and again – be prepared to adapt to their schedules. Some manufacturing environments run two and three shifts so you may find yourself calling a third shift Sanitation Manager at three a.m. in the morning!
For a list of 12,000 jobs and job descriptions go here and read through them: http://www.careerplanner.com/Job-Descriptions-DOT/A.cfm
Not only will many of them give you ideas on different professions that are likely to pick up their phones but in the descriptions you’ll also find the reasons why they do this.
For instance, in this one – the Hydraulic Engineer, the job description states that this person:
- Designs and directs construction of power and other hydraulic engineering projects for control and use of water: Computes and estimates rates of waterflow.
- Specifies type and size of equipment, such as conduits, pumps, turbines, pressure valves, and surge tanks, used in transporting water and converting water power into electricity.
- Directs, through subordinate supervisors, activities of workers engaged in dredging, digging cutoffs, placing jetties, and constructing levees to stabilize streams or open waterways.
- Designs and coordinates construction of artificial canals, conduits, and mains to transport and distribute water; and plans reservoirs, pressure valves, and booster stations to obtain proper water pressure at all levels.
- Frequently builds laboratory models to study construction and flow problems.
There’s a lot of “design” and “estimating” and “computing” and “direction” and “build” and “specifying” and “planning” and “directing/coordinating” going on in that resume, many activities which are generally done in two places: 1) at a desk and 2) in a field.
By thinking like your prey – becoming like your quarry you can imagine what is done when (generally) and plan your hunting activities accordingly. Call in the morning with the anticipation that this person will be at their desk. Call in the afternoon and anticipate this person maybe being in the field – taking an assumptive attitude with a Gatekeeper may be just what it takes to get through to this person on the first call:
Is Bob Martin in?
Oh? He’s not? Is he out in the field already?
Can you give me his cell? I don’t have it.
She won’t always give it to you but she will sometimes and if you’re calling twenty Bob Martins and she gives you ten of them there’s a very good chance eight of them are going to answer your call to their cell phones.
When she doesn’t give it to you it sounds like this:
Is Bob Martin in?
Oh? He’s not? Is he out in the field already?
Can you give me his cell? I don’t have it.
Oh? You can’t? Can you transfer me to him?
Some of them will transfer your call and again, there’s a very good chance some of those Bob Martins will answer that call being transferred to their cell from the office.
Take your time and peruse that Jobs Directory and read through some of those job titles and job descriptions. You have 12,000 to choose from – sure, not all of them will be the kind of positions you may want to recruit or source in but I’m quite sure there are enough in there to light a fire in your imagination about some that will be more than happy – more than willing to answer their phones and take a call from a recruiter- or a sourcer – like you!
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I really appreciate that you took the time to read my post. I regularly write about phone sourcing and business development issues and trends. If you’d like to read more about the mysterious world of phone sourcing (it’s really not that mysterious!), Google my name and the word gatekeeper – lots of articles will come up for you that I’ve written over the years. It’ll be a good introduction for you to the subject!
Follow me on Twitter at @MaureenSharib and/or join my sourcing group on Facebook – Sourcers Unleashed.
Yes, I do (grudgingly) have a LinkedIn profile – send me an invite at maureen at techtrak.com – I’ll accept. I do post articles over there as well.
I own the phone sourcing/competitive sniffing firm TechTrak.com, Inc. that helps companies find and telephone contact candidates for their hard-to-place positions at fractional traditional recruiting costs.
You can always contact me at 513 646 7306.
