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Marketing Leftover Candidates

by Veronica Blatt

marketing-leftover-candidatesIf you’re a recruiter, you’re likely familiar with the term “leftover candidates.” These are the candidates that didn’t receive an offer from your client – there could be two, three, or more from each project. What do you do with them? If you’re like many recruiters, they sit in your database stagnating until the next time you have a similar search. Maybe you send an occasional update email or newsletter, but not much else. In a candidate-short market, those leftover candidates may be a hot commodity and the source of some extra revenue for your firm.

One idea is to use those candidates in marketing efforts to current and potential clients. Recruiters from a “certain time” probably learned how to attract clients with a Most Placeable Candidate (MPC) call. The tactics may have changed a bit, but you can still find success with this approach. Remember, these are highly-qualified candidates, already vetted, and ready to make a career transition. It seems silly to file them away in your database for a future search, when you’ll have to reactivate and requalify them. Even if you can’t successfully place them with an MPC presentation, you may still gain a new search or a new client for your efforts.

A third option is to market those candidates to other recruiters on a split-fee basis. Talk to recruiters who work in the same space and see if they have similar job openings. It seems like recruiters everywhere are struggling to find talent, so if you’ve got qualified candidates who are ready to go, I’ll be there are other recruiters who would be happy to place them. If you work them on a split basis, you’ll earn half of the fee from your partner. You may think half of the fee isn’t enough, but how much money will you make if they sit in your database instead? I will always believe that 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. If you don’t belong to a formal split organization, make sure you have a good written agreement (especially since you’re relying on your partner to pay you). We have a free template here, which is a good starting point.

What’s your experience with leftover candidates? Do you try to market them directly to clients or split recruitment partners? Share your experience below!

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