As a recruiter, are you putting your best foot forward by marketing and sharing your Most Placeable Candidate(s)?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Most placeable candidate (MPC) is a term used by the recruiting industry to describe a candidate that the recruiter is willing to represent into a market because the recruiter believes they can place the candidate with a company.
So, are you sharing your MPC’s? Or are you sharing candidates you just happen across in your daily searching?
When you recruit a MPC (Most Placeable Candidate) who has great skills, presents well, and just hits all those check-marks, it can be frustrating when they are not the candidate given the job offer. So what do you do with them then?
You can market a MPC to your current or prospective clients, as companies don’t want to lose out on difference-makers who can make an immediate, positive impact on their team. And they especially don’t want their competitors to get that top talent.
- When you present the candidate, don’t tell them who it is. For example, you can use the line “we’re working with an individual who is currently a sales director within one of your direct competitors” — that line alone will get their attention.
- Then give them a few bullet points about the candidate, utilizing the FAB (Features, Achievement, Benefit) approach to let them know how this candidate would help their team.
- If you catch their attention and them interested, talk through with the senior executive what challenges they have in the business now, and where have they struggled to find skills and people.
- Follow-up with an email with a bit more information about the MPC if there was interest… that way, they have your contact info.
If you are part of a recruiting network, you can share the candidate with your trading partners or post the candidate to your network’s internal database for other recruiters to find and possibly place – after all, half a fee is better than no fee at all.
- You want to make sure they have jobs in the niche that aligns with your candidate, you don’t want to spam your partners with unsolicited candidates that are completely off-target to the types of jobs they are looking to fill.
Most importantly, marketing a MPC isn’t for any old candidate that you stumble across… this is for a candidate with a “Wow” factor. The MPC typically:
- Has a highly desired skill set and a track record of proven success
- May address diversity issues in companies
- Is marketable – realistic about their wants, open to looking and relocating, etc.
- Is ready to interview and reference-checked
- Is currently employed and not already passing their CV around to other recruiters/companies
Also, make sure you build a relationship with the candidate and gain their trust to introduce them to clients/trading partners and keep their search discreet. You need to understand what the candidate is looking for and desires in a company (for example, if they only want to work for start-ups, you don’t want to be marketing them to Google).
Lastly, even if you don’t place that specific candidate with the company or your trading partner doesn’t have a current job req order for them, your partners and clients are sure to be impressed with the caliber of candidate you work with, thus increasing your credibility, which may help you secure a search assignment in the future.