I live in suburban Seattle. The location we selected is referred to as ?The Plateau.?  Basically, it?s a large, volcanic rock that 40,000 people call home.  I would estimate that there are about 15,000 homes on the Plateau.  The vast majority are built in a woodsy Northwest style and painted a drab grey or beige.  (I find it odd that a place that is known for somber, gray skies so much of the year, would decorate its dwellings in such a drab manner.)  As I commute home, most homes just blend into the scenery.  Nothing exceptional.

But there is one house in my neighborhood that demands attention.  As I come up the Plateau at night, my eyes dart to the right to make sure it?s still there.  Out of all the 15,000⁺ homes on the Plateau, what makes this house so unique?  Sitting in a cul de sac, built in very, traditional Northwest Style and painted the usual boring beige, it screams for my attention because? today, March 6th, this house still has a Christmas tree glittering in the front window.

March in the Northwest is mild enough for flowers to start to emerge.  Daffodils and hyacinths appear.  The trees are flowering.  And unbelievably, there still is a Christmas tree still on display in this very ordinary house in my neighborhood.  Make no mistake about it.  It is a Christmas tree for sure.  Not a house plant decorated with white lights.  It is conical in shape and sits square in the front window with shiny balls and colored lights blinking on and off.  It?s not displayed all year.  It goes up in December and remains until Easter.  And it?s not just this year.  It started about five years ago and reoccurs every year. I don?t know why.  I stop just short of knocking on the door and rudely asking, ?So why do you leave your Christmas Tree up through Easter?? even though I?m dying to know.  Every night when I come up the hill, my gaze turns to the right to make sure it?s still there.  I stop searching for it when the tree goes down.  The watch starts the following January when it remains as the sole seasonal decoration to remain standing after the holidays.  They make me look!  They have even trained me when to look!  January through March!  Right up to Easter.

As a recruiter, what can you take from this???  Your candidates have a myriad of employment options thanks to the internet and job boards, if they chose to look.  If you are a third party recruiter ? or a corporate recruiter with a company brand that is not clearly recognized, you need to grab candidates? attention in order to convey your message.  How do you grab their attention and ?make them look? at you?  How do you make them look ? even if they?re not looking?  (Those desirable passive candidates.)

      

1.    Specifically target your candidate and carefully craft your message. 

2.    Make sure that your message has meaning and is individualized, if possible, to fit the candidate. 

3.    Ask yourself why the candidate would be interested in your message ? how it benefits him or her?  Focus on the candidate instead of what?s in it for you. (You come later.)

       Be consistent and patient ?

1.     Create a recruiting plan to contact on an appropriately consistent basis.  The consistency will make you exceptional.

2.     You will need 5-8 connects (could be phone, e-mail or snail mail) on the average, before you have trained your target to respond positively.   (Face it.  If you are in a relationship, you didn?t agree to ?go steady? on the first phone call, did you?)

Studies have even proven that if you start a pattern, stop it and then restart it again, it is even more powerful in training behavior.  (So, in other words, if the Christmas tree was up all year round, I would get used to seeing it there. Though unique, I would eventually just know that it was there, and lose interest.)  In a recruiting campaign, you could call once a week for a month and then stop for a month before calling again.  You might find that your target candidate is actually relieved that you have reconnected.

With all the recruiters fighting for the best talent, with all the ways that candidates could find opportunities on their own, what distinguishes you, your company or your opportunity? Why is that important to the candidate?

 What have you done to make your candidates look at you?