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The 4 Objectives of Employer Prospecting
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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Years ago, I was being interviewed about the job market on a radio program by a very prominent broadcaster, who had been in media for decades.
Now, I'm always fascinated by people's individual career paths and so during one the commercial breaks, I asked him what was the most important lesson he learned which had the most impact on his career.
He thought about it for a moment and replied, "I never take a meeting without a clear understanding of what I hope to get out of the meeting."
Sure, a little self-serving but I've thought about that for many years. How often do we sit in other people's meetings and not only are we not thinking about how we might benefit from the meeting, we're just waiting, desperate for the meeting to end. In most meetings are you thinking about what you hope to get out of it?
I'm going to go out on a limb and encourage you to be a little more selfish, a little more self-serving. If you' re considering how every meeting; client and employer engagement; how every opportunity to meet someone new is going to benefit you, it's going to by extension, benefit your clients, your employer and your funder.
Your success is a measure of your organization's success. This is more so true of those in employer engagement, co-op education and job development than in nearly any other career development role.
Job development success is evidence that case management, training, resume prep, and other employment supports work.
This certainly applies to meeting and following up with employers, but it's front and centre in how we connect with employers for the first time.
I've often spoke about Jeb Blount's book 'Fanatical Prospecting' which explores how to effectively prospect customers in sales, but I believe there are also applications in job development.
Blount writes extensively about cold-calling and how people will try to tell you this is no longer effective, but it remains a cornerstone for nearly every successful salesperson.
In his book Blount argues that salespeople don't like to cold-call because they don't want to interrupt people, but he believes there is no way to sell anyone anything unless you're prepared to interrupt their traditional patterns.
The same could easily be said of any employer who faithfully turns to their favorite online job board to find candidates.
In his book, Blount outlines four objectives when cold-calling an employer. These include:
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Set an Appointment: The primary goal for most complex, high-ticket, or B2B sales. This involves getting a firm commitment from a qualified decision-maker for a specific meeting time or discovery call.
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Gather Information and Qualify: Figuring out if the prospect is actually worth your time. This means determining if they have a budget, if they are the decision-maker, and if they are in an active "buying window" (and filtering out unqualified leads if they aren't).
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Close a Sale: The main objective if you are selling transactional, low-risk, or low-cost products. If the price point is low enough, you ask for the commitment right then and there.
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Build Familiarity: Getting your name, company, and value proposition in front of the prospect. Building familiarity is vital because it often takes 20 to 50 touches to engage a completely cold prospect. Each call you make—even if they don't answer—creates a small deposit of brand recognition.
This list is not only intended to support salespeople, it uses sales terminology. Nevertheless, there are applications in career development.
Set an Appointment
We're tempted to try to market our clients and services in a lengthy script to an employer hoping to capture their interest but instead we're just giving them an opportunity develop a reason not to meet with us.
Instead, we want to get a face-to-face meeting or schedule a time to discuss our services over the phone or online.
When we catch people during their day, we are interrupting them and they don't have the time to focus. By scheduling a time, we've hopefully freed them up from their immediate concerns and we're able to get their undivided attention.
Blount encourages people to adopt an inquisitive approach where you introduce yourself in a sentence or two and say how you would like to know more about how they hire people. Perhaps you can support them, perhaps not, but you would like to know more.
He encourages people to suggest a time the employer must respond to. "Can we meet this Thursday at 2pm?"
If the employer says they can't make this time work, you can ask what time would work better. It's a pretty aggressive strategy but has a good track record of success.
Gather Information and Qualify
In job development, we want to learn which employers are likely to hire our clients when the time comes. You might ask questions around areas such as:
- Whether they've hired people through a similar program
- Participated in a wage-subsidy
- Have a DEI policy
- Support programs that support immigrants, those with disabilities, women, youth or Indigenous Canadians
These questions will help 'qualify' an employer as a likely prospect for future job development activities.
Close a Sale
This requires a little modification. You're not necessarily trying to 'close a sale' as much as get your clients or student hired.
In sales, you might be selling a very straightforward product and all you need to do is ask whether the customer is prepared to buy. For instance, 'spring-time lawn rehabilitation'. You explain the service and the customer makes the decision in the moment as to whether to purchase the service or not.
In job development, you see an employer who is hiring for a job your client is looking for and you call to see if you can set up an interview.
Perhaps you have a client who's looking for a job as a restaurant server and you just keep calling restaurants to see if you can get an employer who's willing to meet with your client.
Build Familiarity
While the objective of 'Close the Sale' is employment, this approach is really good for increasing the awareness of local employers about your services and supports.
By regularly calling up local employers and pitching clients you work with, they slowly come to better understand you and your role in the community.
We also build familiarity through one-on-one meetings and when we gather information about a prospective employer.
Buy regularly calling companies who might be suitable employers for your clients, you slowly build up that familiarity so one day when you are looking to schedule an appointment or gather more information, they'll be open to it.
Cold calling isn't the most preferred activity among many job developers, but adopting a clear sense of what you hope to achieve with each call provides you with an easily repeatable activity your practice again and again with employers.
While success in job development is best measured in the richness of the relationships we form with employers, it's the repeated practice of regular outreach that helps form and cultivate those relationships. A clear understanding of these four objectives can create a valuable framework for future success in job development.
We’ll be discussing the value of discovery in job development at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday June 1st at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday June 1st 'Click this Link' to join the session.
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Canadian Labour Market Reports
The Canadian Labour Market Reports provide a weekly round-up of the major labour market information that
most impacts those in career transition.
Click on the relevant labour market report below.
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BC Labour Market Report
www.labourmarketonline.com
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Alberta Labour Market Report
www.jobdevelopment.org/albertalmr
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Prairie Labour Market Report
www.jobdevelopment.org/prairielmr
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Ontario Labour Market Online
www.ontariolabourmarketonline.org
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Atlantic Labour Market Report
www.jobdevelopment.org/atlanticlmr
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To learn more, email Christian Saint Cyr, at: csaintcyr@labourmarketsolutions.ca
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