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Everything wrong with recruiting - and sales - boils down to the transactional mindset. And how hard it is to overcome.
Part of it is habit. Or how you’re trained. But there are other (bigger?) parts: how you’re graded. The tools you use. Not challenging yourself to think.
Recruiters make placements. Salespeople sell stuff. When that’s done, they do it all over again.
Probably in the same, repeatable manner. If it ain’t broke…
The technology reinforces this. Mail merge sequences and LinkedIn blast is so EASY. Keep slamming the button.
And if you hit your quota, there’s no reason why you’d question it. How could you be going about it the wrong way?
👉The problem is: the transactional approach conflicts with how job seekers and buyers want to talked to.
Buyers are smart. They can do their own research. Everything is (or should be) self-service nowadays.
Job seekers want to know the salary range. Buyers want to know the price. Because everything else they hear in your pitch looks like every other damn thing.
Even if you’re not slinging a commodity. If that’s how it comes across, that’s what they think.
What they can’t do is understand the value of something new. Or something they’re unfamiliar with.
👉Value is hard to measure. It’s a qualitative and human concept.
How do you measure listening skills?
Or the long term value of a positive first impression?
Or the ability to solve a buyer’s unique problems, beyond the initial (minimal) detail you’re given?
You can’t. Not this month anyway. But if you’ve flipped the switch yourself, you know the payoff is there.
Better relationships. Happy customers. A big referral pipeline.
Those are the metrics that really matter. And you don’t hit them by doing what everyone else does.
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