CHICAGO, IL - Recently I undertook a contingency-based executive search for a Chicago-based ecommerce company. Without being long winded here, the client's standards were really high. But mine were higher.
Throughout the process, the client asked me to "increase the flow" of candidates -- but I refused to exceed my limit of four A-players at a time. Like Mt. Rushmore ...
It's not that I couldn't submit dozens of average candidates. It's that I simply didn't want to, and on a contingency-based search, clients are going to get what I want them to have. Contingency clients use multiple recruiters for their projects, and if I'm one of, say, three recruiters chasing a search -- then I know that the client can get average candidates from my competitors. And it's not my job to build the hiring company's database. After all, until I close a search and they pay my invoice, I'm working for free.
I realize this makes me sound difficult.
But it's just good business. I can't build a stellar reputation by submitting candidates who are marginally better than what the hiring company could get through Monster or from an unspecialized recruiter. I need to win each search in a total BLOWOUT, and I can only do that by working with highly specialized rock stars and then learning to tell their story in a way that engages the client.
"Some days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you."
Most companies don't want to pay their contingency recruiter anything. Seriously, most don't. Especially in a nervous economy. Twenty percent is a lot of money, so my candidates have to be soooo much better than my competitors' that hiring my candidates is a complete no brainer. My candidates are an extension of my value proposition, and my fee must be lost in the rounding of the value that they will create for the client. Otherwise, I'm wasting everyone's time.
All or Nothing
So, it's my job to source and submit the best and brightest candidates and then prepare them for anything in the interview process. Which is why I will bury my candidates in market research, company briefs, industry forecasts, and the latest ebooks on SEO, SEM, email marketing, affiliate marketing, online merchandising, usability, web development, database marketing, CRM, web analytics, TV 2.0, and more.
And it's not uncommon for me to set up phone calls between my candidates and executives or consultants who have either worked for the hiring company or have an inside knowledge about the company and its competitors. The exchange of market intelligence can get pretty spooky -- and it almost always amazes the hiring manager.
I want need my candidates to have an unfair advantage. Because that's how you win in my business. More importantly, that how my client's can win in theirs.
UPDATE: The HR Capitalist, Kris Dunn, has an interesting take on my post. Check it out here (along with my comments).
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