Mastering persuasive communication in direct sourcing can make all the difference in the outcome.
Also, how you approach, message, and communicate with your sourced prospects can positively influence or hinder your employer’s reputation and brand.
Recently, a conversation with a client about their talent acquisition illuminated the parallels between direct sourcing and cold B2B sales. Both require a nuanced approach to engage and persuade prospects to the process.
I’m sure all talent acquisition professionals tailor their messages and communication accordingly depending on whether they contact and communicate with actual job applicants or initiate contact with a sourced prospect–equivalent to cold calling.
I wanted to share some of my ideas on enhancing your direct sourcing strategy by borrowing successful tactics from B2B sales and leveraging the power of modern employer branding.
The Five Winning Elements of Persuasive Communication in Direct Sourcing
1. Understanding the Scenario: Direct Sourcing = Cold B2B Sales
Direct sourcing talent is akin to cold B2B sales, where salespeople reach out to potential clients with the goal of securing a meeting.
In both scenarios, understanding your role as the one who needs something from them is vital to landing a meeting successfully.
When your prospect didn’t initiate the contact or maybe hasn’t even heard about your employer, your first contact is equivalent to spam. It wasn’t subscribed to, and they have no impending reason to respond.
Successful B2B salespeople customize their scripts and sales approach to match the prospect’s role, persona, and status because this increases the likelihood of securing a meeting.
This personalization is equally vital in direct sourcing.
Remember, direct sourcing is very much like cold B2B Sales, where you have to create the demand from the first contact onwards.
2. The Background Work and Customization
In B2B new sales and direct sourcing, the initial outreach must be tailored to the individual.
This involves researching the prospect’s background, understanding their potential challenges, and crafting a message that speaks directly to their needs and current market situation. They don’t know they need what you have to offer, so you have to create the demand from the start.
For recruiters, this means stepping into the prospect’s shoes and tailoring your messaging to reflect their aspirations and career goals and probe potential pain points or struggles in their current career situation.
Company news and insight may reveal potential areas of struggle or decreased levels of commitment and motivation. Look for signals such as current market conditions in their employer’s industry if yours are better. Has their employer’s company been acquired recently and is being merged with the buyer? M&As easily create chaos and unwanted changes to the acquired organization that may have dropped their motivation and commitment, at least temporarily.
Or, maybe you know about the culture and values of the company they work for, and they may no longer match with the status of their life. Becoming a parent and having a baby at home is a perfect example of a situation where people may become interested in a place to work with a better balance of work.
Your due diligence will likely increase your chances of engaging them in a meaningful conversation from the start but don’t get creepy. That does not increase your persuasiveness in direct sourcing!
3. The First Meeting: A Critical Touchpoint
Just as in sales, the first meeting with a sourced prospect should involve someone who knows the offer inside out. It should never be a regular interview process questioning their fit for the role and suitability to your company. Remember, they didn’t apply for your position. The first meeting is your opportunity to sell them the idea of entering your recruitment process and considering a career change.
You must treat it as a B2B sales meeting in which a quality conversation taps into their current pain points, aspirations, and desires, aiming to connect a career in your organization with their vision of a better life.
This first meeting is a pivotal moment where the prospect, like a potential client, must be convinced that continuing the conversation is worth their time. You must build their desire to continue the conversation and enter the validation process.
Make it a conversation with the hiring manager instead of the recruiter because this is a critical touchpoint to convince the prospect to stick with the process. The hiring manager can also better detect whether they would get along with each other and if this person would complement the team dynamics.
This conversation should not be an interrogation nor a recruitment interview, but a friendly dialogue about topics such as:
- What your business does
- Who your customers are, and what types of problems your company solves for them
- How you solve your customers’ problems
- What are their leadership principles, values and promises
- How does the team collaborate
- What tools and processes are used in their daily work
- What is the team like, and what types and levels of competencies do they have
- How would working in this team allow the prospect an opportunity to create impact through their work, and to whom
- You should also allow your prospect to ask lots of questions to figure out whether this opportunity would bring them something better than they currently have.
A first meeting like this builds trust and sets the stage for a successful follow-up conversation that can involve more of a recruitment interview or test the prospect’s skills, competencies and work personality.
4. Building The Vital Employer Brand Awareness and Affinity
An appealing and well-known employer brand can turn initial scepticism into interest.
One of our clients once envisioned how their ideal working scenario would look after they had successfully achieved the Magnetic Employer Brand.
They said, ”My dream is that when I contact a prospect and tell them which company I’m calling from, they immediately set aside whatever they are doing to discuss our career opportunities.”
Especially in talent markets where the demand of talent outweighs the supply, a strong and distinct employer brand is imperative in winning the war for talent.
Investing in growing your employer brand awareness and building your employer brand affinity is likely to significantly reduce the risk of prospects dismissing your outreach as irrelevant.
Our Magnetic Employer Branding Method™️ provides a systematic employer brand marketing approach and a framework to include a consistent delivery of inbound recruitment leads to your recruitment funnel.
Imagine the business value of shortening the time to hire, cutting down the costs of direct sourcing and reducing the alternative costs of not having enough talents in place to respond to the demand generated by sales.
5. Understanding The Prospect Holds the Power
In direct sourcing, it’s essential to recognize that the prospect holds the power.
Your role in talent acquisition is to persuade and engage them effectively step by step.
Persuasive communication includes understanding what drives the prospect so that you can craft your messages, scripts and meeting talking points to align with their openness to your opportunity.
It’s about creating a narrative that taps into their aspirations and desires, speaks to their ego, status, and career ambitions, and emphasizes how life as part of your company could create them a better life than what they have today.
Improve Your Persuasive Communication in Direct Sourcing with These Six Principles of Persuasion
Reciprocity—Social norms call us to return favours. If there is a way for you to help your target audience member(s) first, they are more willing to help you when you need it. This ’help’ could be offering you a recruitment lead, sharing your opportunity with their networks or their willingness to hear about your career opportunity.
Consistency. Being consistent with your promises, timely in candidate communication, and specific with the information you share with your audience increases the required goodwill and reputation among your target audience. If you always source from the same lot, know they share notes and compare experiences.
Social Proof – Peer-to-peer -testimonials, recommendations from mutual connections, even name dropping, and your company’s level of employer brand affinity are examples of social proof that decrease the risks associated with your proposals and offers. Very important to leverage in direct sourcing!
Likeability—Humans are funny in how we prefer to buy or accept an invitation from people like us, who we want to be like, or who we want to be associated with. As a direct sourcing professional, you must understand your target audience’s talent personas, not just their CVs, to identify similarities between you and them.
Authority—Being recognized as an authority in your field increases your persuasiveness. Our employer branding methodology builds your company’s authority as a business and employer. Through social recruiting and employee advocacy 2.0, you can extend that authority to your selected leaders and experts.
Suppose your company doesn’t hold a position of authority. In that case, you, as the talent acquisition professional, can also build your authority as the go-to, trusted professional your target audience can turn to. Imagine if you were known as a ’head hunter’ who your target audience prefers to turn to for advice and tips when they want to explore new career opportunities. Check out my podcast episode 124 on this this topic.
Scarcity – When what you offer isn’t available for everyone, it becomes a scarce opportunity and you’ll find people wanting it more. Low supply and high demand create a favorable scenario for talent acquisition, but you need to create the high demand before you start promoting the low supply of a one vacancy. Creating high demand means your company is committed to building your Magnetic Employer Brand.
Watch this YouTube video on these six principles of persuasion.
The Science of Persuasion in the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™️
At Emine, our Magnetic Employer Branding Method™️ is rooted in the sciences of persuasion and storytelling.
We apply scientifically proven methodologies to craft marketing messages that resonate with talent acquisition and retention needs. By leveraging these techniques, we help our clients match their ideal talent minds with their mission increasing recruitment success, employee loyalty and commitment.
Direct sourcing, much like cold B2B sales, requires a strategic, personalized approach to succeed. By understanding the candidate’s perspective, customizing your outreach, and leveraging your employer brand, you can create a compelling direct sourcing process that stands out and delivers results.
Embrace the power of persuasive communication and the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™️ to elevate your talent acquisition strategy.
Contact us to book a discovery meeting. Let’s discuss how our game-changing methodology may help elevate your business and employer brand to new heights!
