March 25, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode, I challenge the traditional recruiting mindset and explain why cold leads are actually your greatest opportunity for long-term success. Too many recruiters focus solely on warm or hot leads—people actively looking for a job—when the real wins come from building relationships with cold leads before they’re ready to move. I’ll share why this approach works, how to develop a system for engaging cold leads, and the mindset shift needed to dominate recruiting.
Episode Breakdown
- [00:00] Introduction – Why cold leads are an overlooked advantage in recruiting.
- [01:30] The Problem with Only Chasing Warm Leads – Data shows that 85–95% of professionals say they’re satisfied with their jobs, leaving a very small percentage actively looking.
- [02:30] Evergreen Recruiting Strategies – Why the principle of “people do business with those they know and trust” makes cold leads valuable.
- [04:00] The Power of Relationship-Building – How investing in cold leads early ensures you’re the first call when they experience a career shift.
- [05:30] Why a System Is Essential – Without a process beyond initial outreach, you’re constantly restarting your recruiting efforts.
- [06:30] The Limited Talent Pool in Leadership Recruiting – Why recruiting leaders have to focus on a smaller, more targeted group and play the long game.
- [07:30] Blue Ocean Recruiting: Where the Competition Isn’t – How engaging cold leads puts you in an uncontested space where competitors aren’t fighting for the same talent.
- [08:30] The Attractive Leader Strategy – Why leading with vision, values, and a clear “why” positions you as the recruiter of choice when a recruit is ready to move.
- [10:00] How to Successfully Engage Cold Leads – Three key strategies to develop meaningful connections:
- Affirmation-Based Outreach – Starting with genuine praise to open doors.
- Creating a Compelling Reason to Meet – Using industry insights and trends to add value.
- Removing Tension from the First Meeting – Focusing on relationship-building, not recruiting.
- [12:30] The Value Equation: Giving Without Expecting Immediate Returns – Why sending resources, books, articles, or curated content builds trust over time.
- [14:30] How LinkedIn Has Changed the Game – Why daily content on LinkedIn is now a critical piece of any cold lead strategy.
- [16:00] The Surrogate Leadership Principle – How positioning yourself as a trusted advisor before recruiting a candidate increases the likelihood of success.
- [18:30] Final Thoughts & Action Steps – How to structure your recruiting strategy to focus on long-term, relationship-driven success.
Key Takeaways
- Cold Leads Are Your Biggest Opportunity – Most professionals aren’t actively looking, but they will move when the right opportunity presents itself.
- Warm Leads Are Highly Competitive – If you only chase people ready to move now, you’re competing in a crowded space.
- Trust Comes Before Recruiting – People follow leaders they know, like, and trust—this requires lo
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
So the big question is this, how dorecruiting leaders like us who have
12 to 15 other job responsibilities,when at this game of recruiting, how
do we build a system that allows usto recruit effectively in a minimal
amount of time while motivatingrecruits towards meaningful change?
That is the question.
And this podcast willgive you the answers.
My name is Richard Milligan and welcome.
(00:30):
Welcome back.
It's another Recruiting Conversationswith your host, Richard Milligan.
And today we're going to actually discussa question I had recently after an event.
Which actually tickled my funnybone, but that's not that hard to do.
I'm a bit immature inthat particular area.
Maybe it's like the fact that Ihad kids later in life or that
I got married later in life.
(00:51):
I am still growing up today.
And so I love to have fun.
I love to have a good laugh.
That's part of my personality.
So let's talk about this.
I was recently speaking at an event andat the end of the event, someone came
up to me and asked me this and I'll tryand capture the exact framework where
they said, what's the deal with you beingso fixated on developing cold leads?
(01:13):
I've never been askedthat question before.
I thought we would just address it hereon the podcast and to talk about that.
I am a huge studier of data.
I think that data predictsthings before we as human beings
actually realize what's going on.
And so where we look attrends in terms of numbers.
Those can become early predictorsfor what's actually going to follow.
(01:37):
In a lot of industries what I know, I'veseen a larger trend in all industries
where I saw a survey for here in 2019that said that 85 percent of Americans
say they're satisfied with their jobs.
Now in some industries that's true, thattrend is as high as 94 to 95 percent.
If we're only looking for a warm leador a hot lead, someone that's already in
(02:00):
the job market or someone that's alreadymade a commitment to make a move, we're
really limiting the amount of wins that wecan actually have because then it starts
to come down to a couple of components.
It starts to come down to the factthat we've, where our timing has to
be spot on, that even the environmentthat we're presenting our opportunity
in is perfect because how you present,where you present, The mood that the
(02:25):
person's in that you're presentingto, all those are critical factors in
how someone receives the opportunitythat you're even presenting to them.
And when we start looking at all theperipheral factors around this, one
of the reasons why I'm so fixatedon developing cold leads is this.
Some things just don't change.
Okay, there's certain things thatare what I call evergreen strategies.
(02:48):
Okay, there's non evergreen strategies,things that are always going to change.
But from an evergreen perspective, oneof the things that I know about us as
human beings is that we do businesswith people that we know and trust.
And that has not changed going backthousands and thousands of years ago.
So with that being truth, if we cancome to an agreement on that, then one
(03:09):
of the things that we should, I think,elevates this idea of why we should
be fixated on developing cold leads isthat you got to build Trust with someone
they've got to know you they've got tolike you Before you ever get to a place
before they're ever willing to aligntheir talents with you So if we can
come to some consensus on that then whatI would say is Why aren't we focused
(03:35):
primarily on developing our cold leads?
Because if at some point everyone'sgoing to have a trigger event, average
timeline for employment is somewherebetween two and three and a half
years, depending on the industry.
So if someone's going to have that triggerevent, then don't I want to actually be
positioned as someone they know and trust?
So that they'd be willing to pickup the phone and say, Hey, we have a
(03:56):
relationship, things have changed overhere, and I would like to talk to you.
This is one of the reasons why I'mso fixated on developing cold leads.
Now, what this means is that weactually have to have a system in place.
If we don't have a system in place, thenwe simply are just creating activities
(04:17):
that have short runways on them.
Right?
So I think a lot of salespeople think interms of let's just go muddy the water.
So we act like we're a bull in a Chinashop just trying to make something
happen, just trying to create energy.
And if you don't have a system beyonddoing say initial research and making
that in our research we're identifyingthis person as someone of interest
(04:40):
to us and then beyond that actuallystepping into this and having initial
contact we're actually We can do thosetwo things all day long, but if we
don't have a follow up system in place,then we are constantly losing energy
because we're only going after that 5to 15 percent that would say they're
unsatisfied where they are right now.
(05:02):
So here's what I would say.
Why are cold leads important?
One, this is going to be whowe're mostly going to speak with.
And so, once we've spoken with someone,we've invested time to qualify them.
And we're talking about just to connectwith them, we're having to qualify them.
In most places, we're lookingat their previous work tenure.
We're looking at, if you're hiring,like, in the space of being a recruiting
(05:24):
leader, like what I coach to, you'retypically looking for Someone that's
already got experience in the industry.
So we're looking at production.
We're looking at the intrinsic valuethat they would bring in terms of
reputation and brand to the organization.
Why in the world after doing investingall that time to qualify and just
connect with them, we flush all ofthat time, energy, and effort away.
(05:46):
It only makes sense to captureon that by having a system.
So because this is going to be who we'remostly going to speak with, this is one
of the reasons why I'm going to be sofixated on developing these cold leads.
The second part of this is most ofyou, um, are fishing in smaller ponds.
Right.
This podcast is being producedfor recruiting leaders.
(06:07):
So the recruiting leader is someonethat manages a team and then is also
responsible for recruiting to that team.
It means a lot of you are primarilyfocused on a single market or
maybe a state you may have.
We may have some regionals listeningto this that might be focused on a
larger geography, but once you startfishing in that smaller pond, What
(06:28):
you find is that this is actuallya pretty small group of people that
you're actually going to pursue.
If you're typically looking for aproducer who already has experience
and has production history, that meansthat you have a limited number of
people that you would actually recruit.
So that's the second reason whycold leads are important to us.
Okay.
The third reason is this there isn'tmuch competition for them Like most
(06:53):
people are looking for the person who'salready experienced some sort of trigger
event that's now ready to make a moveSo if there isn't much competition
for them And if it's more difficultand you've got to have a specific
process to just even get in front ofthem Which is one of the things that I
teach And you're able to get in frontof them while they're cold, guess what?
(07:14):
You're the one that's on speed dialwhen that trigger even happens.
And so, the third reason why I'mso fixated on these cold leads is
that I want to be in blue ocean.
I don't want to be in the bloody water.
I don't want to be over here whereeveryone's fighting for this person
that's talking to five to seven companies.
And when someone's had a triggerevent take place, a lot of times
(07:35):
they start engaging in multipleconversations when they don't have
trust already built with someone.
So if I work to build relationshipprior to that, and I'm in front
of this trigger event, I thinkthat's what great recruiters do.
So when that trigger eventhappens, I am the only person
that individual makes contact withbecause they know and trust me.
(07:59):
The fourth part of this is, this isthe We know that if we handle this
correctly, okay, and when we handle thiscorrectly, we're presenting ourselves
as what I call the attractive leader.
That means that we're leading with ourvision, we're leading with our value
system, our core convictions, ourbeliefs, and we've got a strong process
(08:19):
or system that we follow, then guess what?
I truly believe this, that thecold candidates are in play.
I, it takes anybody togo find warm, hot talent.
Okay, I can find anyone that doesn'teven have recruiting experience
that can go find warm hot talentand move them to an organization.
But it takes someone who has aprocess, a system, and the right
(08:44):
mindset to get in front of a co lead.
But if they do that, here's what I think.
I think that we are intrinsicallydesigned as human beings.
To be motivated towardscore value alignment.
To be motivated to move towards someonewho's got clarity in where they're going.
That means they have a vision.
Someone that's got clarityand can communicate clearly
(09:07):
why they do what they do.
This person's operatingin their passion zone.
And I think that when we arrive on thescene with someone that's operating
in the passion zone that can clearlycommunicate those three components,
core values, vision, and why they'redoing what they're doing, that we all
want to draw swords and fight with them.
Okay, now that's a Braveheart ism.
(09:29):
If you haven't ever seen Braveheart,you might have to watch that movie
and figure out who William Wallace is.
But one of the things I know, there'sa moment in that movie, Where brave,
where, where William Wallace arriveson the scene of a battlefield.
And if I just relive that,that movie scene for a moment.
He rides up and for the first timehe's really being recognized in
(09:51):
front of a large group of men.
And up to this moment he'sreally been a, a mystery.
People have heard of him.
Him and his small group of, hissmall band of brothers he's been
fighting with behind the scenes.
But there's been thisnoise that he's been.
That he's been defeating the enemyon a small level and suddenly one day
(10:11):
in front of where there are these twolords that are about to ride out to what
is, it looks like it's a battle scene,but it's not really a battle scene.
These two lords are going to ride outand what they're actually going to do
is get awarded more land, more honor,more wealth for not actually fighting.
And suddenly you've gotthese, this group of men.
That are these Scottish peasantsthat are leaving this battle scene
(10:33):
saying, I didn't come here for this.
I didn't come here so they couldget more land, get more title.
I'm not here to fight for them.
And they begin to leave this scene.
Of the battle and william wallace ridesup on the scene with his small band of
brothers And he calls this group of menwho are now leaving the battle scene
into something that's much bigger withclarity of vision clarity of why and
(10:56):
clarity of core values and these menTurn to fight this battle in this moment
because there was clarity around thosethree components William wallace was
operating in that passion zone and Ithink at a deep level You We as human
beings want to be called into that andthat this word satisfied to me Actually,
(11:19):
content, there's this, there's, you canalmost draw a straight line from satisfied
to being content to status quo, right?
And I love the definition of statusquo in Latin where it says that the
definition of status quo is mess we're in.
I would dare say that when we look atpeople who say we're, I put in quotation,
satisfied where we're at, that at theend of the day, there's a large lack
(11:43):
of leadership, that there's not a lotof direction, they're not being called
into what I call that BAM zone, thatBelonging, Affirmation, and Meaning
zone, where at the highest level, wewant to have a larger meaning in what we
do in the day to day, I think that whenleaders approach cold leads correctly,
they call people into this BAM zone andpeople are willing to make change when
(12:07):
they thought that they were satisfied.
This is a big reason for me whyI think we should become fixated
on developing these cold leads.
So let's talk about a couple majorcomponents that are key factors
in having success with them, okay?
Here's three things you focus on.
(12:28):
Number one, Affirmation,affirmation, affirmation.
I've talked about thisin a recent podcast.
I'm going to bring it up again.
There's three things here.
Affirmation will get you in front of them.
As an example, I checked out a fewplaces to get some information on
you before I reached out to youand I was impressed with what I saw
and then I will mention what I saw.
(12:49):
Okay?
That's the first thing.
The second part is you've gotto give them a big reason on
why they should meet with you.
If you think there's significantmarket change coming over the next 24
months, you've got Talk about that.
If you see a lot of consolidation goingon in the upcoming year and you believe
there's more to come, talk about that.
But you have to figure out some bigreasons why they should meet with you.
(13:10):
And the, here's the third component.
Remove all tension.
Okay, this is relationship building only.
This is not recruiting.
Okay, so if someone's willing tomeet with me and they're willing
to continue this conversation, thenit's not a recruiting meeting It's
a relationship building meeting.
So remove all tension Okay, and thenwhat that means is that when we get
(13:33):
in front of them We've got to beprepared to actually have a relationship
building meeting only with them Okay, soyou've got to have an agenda for this.
Here's what I would tell you Asa side note, never use negative
information about their situation,their company, or anything that's
self servicing, self serving to you.
(13:53):
The reason why I say that is that it willimmediately diminish your opportunity
to build relationship with them.
Anything that's self serving, okay,removes the fact that they could see
you as an authentic, real person.
individual that's not tryingto actually recruit them.
This is relationship building first.
This is how you get in front of yourcold leads and that you've got to build
(14:15):
relationship for them before you canever move them to a place where you might
have the opportunity to recruit them.
Okay, so we'll never usenegative information about their
company, even if we know it.
About their leader, even if we know it.
Anything that may be self serving,if we use that, diminishes our
opportunity to build relationship.
And so you've got to be aware of that.
(14:36):
Okay?
All right.
Here's the last part of this.
What can you do to improve your abilityto turn cold leads into something more?
Let's address that.
What can you do to improve your abilityto turn cold leads into something more?
You have to have a system or aprocess that you follow that is a
(14:57):
relationship building process or system.
Okay.
Let me give you an exampleof what that could look like.
Most of us have a recruitingprocess or a system we follow.
As an example of that, when we getsomeone on the phone, we use a phone
script like, would you be interestedin talking about a new opportunity?
Would you be interested in talking about aleadership position, something like that.
(15:18):
Something that gives you more influence,something that gives you more money,
something that gives you anythingthat might be what I would classify
as the opportunity improvement offer.
Okay?
This has to be arelationship building model.
Okay?
This is what it could look like.
You need to have what Icall a value equation.
(15:39):
Okay, what can you give that's ofvalue to people that you can give
away without any strings attached?
Let me, without any strings attached.
Let me give you an example of some of thethings that I, over the years, that I've
used to really build relationship whereI'm giving things, giving in essence these
value bombs, these gifts to them away.
(16:01):
And these don't have to cost money.
This does not have to be predicatedon you spending money to do this.
Some of the things I've givenaway over the years are books.
If someone had, I had a good phoneconversation with someone, then I
would say at the end, if even ifthey weren't willing to meet with
me, I would say, I would love tosend you one of my favorite books.
What's a good addressthat I can ship that to?
(16:23):
Okay.
That worked extremely well for me.
I could tell you story after story ofpeople that had that book one time,
sat on their desk for six months, andsomeone in their office picked it up and
actually asked if they could read it.
And then that individual came back to meand said, this individual read this book.
And brought it back and said it broughtvalue to them and it just Reminded me
(16:46):
I need to reach out to you and connectwith you again And that turned into the
relationship building beginning of therelationship building I've had lots of
people that I sent books to That wouldactually take the book read it and then
converse back and forth with me via textAnd over a season would then move to my
teams because it allowed me to move Intowhat I call the surrogate leader role
(17:08):
and that word surrogate actually meansin place of Okay, so let's, let's just
talk about that for a quick moment here.
The word surrogate means in place of,and so what that means if someone's
lacking leadership and I show upand creatively figure out how I
bring leadership to someone, thenthey'll lean into my leadership.
(17:30):
And where that happens, then there's thisvalue equation where I'm actually bringing
more value to someone than they'regetting from their current leadership.
And now I have the ability to step inand move them into a partnership with
me, move them into being part of my team.
So books are a great way to do that.
Another great way to do that isto do this through your podcast.
(17:53):
There's, I listen to a lot of podcasts.
Okay, find great podcasts thatyou can share inside your industry
where there's things that arevalue you can give away to them.
Find good influencers that are bringingvalue, that you can share articles,
you can share videos, you can shareany content that they're delivering.
Okay, you need to become a content hub ofsorts where you can actually then just In
(18:18):
turn become a not a content creator Buta content curator books of value videos
of value podcast of value influencersthat are delivering these things of
value Articles look if you know someoneyou're trying to recruit leaders inside
this space of recruiting leadership Mypodcast could be one of those things
(18:38):
that are of value that you give away.
Okay.
Cool websites.
For example, if you're in the real estatecommunity or you're in the mortgage world,
you know, there's a win by noon planner.
And so win by noon.
com is a planner.
that someone that's inside the mortgageindustry, a successful leader inside
the mortgage industry, develop a planneridea of how you actually win by noon.
(19:01):
That would be a great place that Icould actually direct people to just
ask, Hey, did you know this existed?
Have you seen this planner?
I might actually buy a planner, quarterlyplanner form and send it to them.
And direct them to that.
That's something of value that I cangive away without any strings attached.
Okay?
This is a great way to have arelationship building process or
(19:21):
systems by having a value equation.
One of the things I'm ahuge fan of is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn over the last couple yearshas gone from being a recruiting
platform to actually being arelationship building platform.
It's now a place that youhave to see as a content hub.
I believe every recruiting leader shouldbe delivering daily content on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn.
(19:42):
The reason why is that it is the sweetspot right now for being a content hub
and it is a place that you can actuallygive value away that can become part of
your value equation just like it is mine.
If you go look at LinkedIn, I'mdelivering value there every single day.
So that's part of our value equation.
That is how I would go about this.
(20:04):
How do I improve?
My ability to turn codeleads into something more.
I have a value equationwith no strings attached.
Okay.
You might tell I can get a littlefired up about this, I'm so fixated
on developing cold leads is becausethis, if you're going to win at
scale, you got to figure this out.
The people that figure this out aregoing to be the ones that grow . And so
(20:25):
you have to have a system around this.
And so there's lots of value in this.
You can go back throughthis, listen to it again.
If you want to dissect some ofthese things, put this into a to
do list, that'd be great way tostart looking at how you're going
to approach a cold leads this year.
So I appreciate you listening today.
I'm going to jump off of here nowbecause I'm a couple of minutes late
(20:45):
for a meeting, but I wanted to getthis to you on the podcast today.
So thanks for listening.
Have a great week, everybody.
And I look forward to talkingto you again here on the next
Recruiting Conversation Podcast.
Want more Recruiting Conversations?
You can register for myweekly email at 4crecruiting.
com.
If you need help creating your ownunique recruiting system, you can
(21:07):
book a time with me at bookrichardnow.
com.
So the big question is this, how dorecruiting leaders like us who have
12 to 15 other job responsibilities,when at this game of recruiting, how
do we build a system that allows usto recruit effectively in a minimal
amount of time while motivatingrecruits towards meaningful change?
That is the question.
And this podcast willgive you the answers.
My name is Richard Milligan and welcome.
(00:30):
Welcome back.
It's another Recruiting Conversationswith your host, Richard Milligan.
And today we're going to actually discussa question I had recently after an event.
Which actually tickled my funnybone, but that's not that hard to do.
I'm a bit immature inthat particular area.
Maybe it's like the fact that Ihad kids later in life or that
I got married later in life.
(00:51):
I am still growing up today.
And so I love to have fun.
I love to have a good laugh.
That's part of my personality.
So let's talk about this.
I was recently speaking at an event andat the end of the event, someone came
up to me and asked me this and I'll tryand capture the exact framework where
they said, what's the deal with you beingso fixated on developing cold leads?
(01:13):
I've never been askedthat question before.
I thought we would just address it hereon the podcast and to talk about that.
I am a huge studier of data.
I think that data predictsthings before we as human beings
actually realize what's going on.
And so where we look attrends in terms of numbers.
Those can become early predictorsfor what's actually going to follow.
(01:37):
In a lot of industries what I know, I'veseen a larger trend in all industries
where I saw a survey for here in 2019that said that 85 percent of Americans
say they're satisfied with their jobs.
Now in some industries that's true, thattrend is as high as 94 to 95 percent.
If we're only looking for a warm leador a hot lead, someone that's already in
(02:00):
the job market or someone that's alreadymade a commitment to make a move, we're
really limiting the amount of wins that wecan actually have because then it starts
to come down to a couple of components.
It starts to come down to the factthat we've, where our timing has to
be spot on, that even the environmentthat we're presenting our opportunity
in is perfect because how you present,where you present, The mood that the
(02:25):
person's in that you're presentingto, all those are critical factors in
how someone receives the opportunitythat you're even presenting to them.
And when we start looking at all theperipheral factors around this, one
of the reasons why I'm so fixatedon developing cold leads is this.
Some things just don't change.
Okay, there's certain things thatare what I call evergreen strategies.
(02:48):
Okay, there's non evergreen strategies,things that are always going to change.
But from an evergreen perspective, oneof the things that I know about us as
human beings is that we do businesswith people that we know and trust.
And that has not changed going backthousands and thousands of years ago.
So with that being truth, if we cancome to an agreement on that, then one
(03:09):
of the things that we should, I think,elevates this idea of why we should
be fixated on developing cold leads isthat you got to build Trust with someone
they've got to know you they've got tolike you Before you ever get to a place
before they're ever willing to aligntheir talents with you So if we can
come to some consensus on that then whatI would say is Why aren't we focused
(03:35):
primarily on developing our cold leads?
Because if at some point everyone'sgoing to have a trigger event, average
timeline for employment is somewherebetween two and three and a half
years, depending on the industry.
So if someone's going to have that triggerevent, then don't I want to actually be
positioned as someone they know and trust?
So that they'd be willing to pickup the phone and say, Hey, we have a
(03:56):
relationship, things have changed overhere, and I would like to talk to you.
This is one of the reasons why I'mso fixated on developing cold leads.
Now, what this means is that weactually have to have a system in place.
If we don't have a system in place, thenwe simply are just creating activities
(04:17):
that have short runways on them.
Right?
So I think a lot of salespeople think interms of let's just go muddy the water.
So we act like we're a bull in a Chinashop just trying to make something
happen, just trying to create energy.
And if you don't have a system beyonddoing say initial research and making
that in our research we're identifyingthis person as someone of interest
(04:40):
to us and then beyond that actuallystepping into this and having initial
contact we're actually We can do thosetwo things all day long, but if we
don't have a follow up system in place,then we are constantly losing energy
because we're only going after that 5to 15 percent that would say they're
unsatisfied where they are right now.
(05:02):
So here's what I would say.
Why are cold leads important?
One, this is going to be whowe're mostly going to speak with.
And so, once we've spoken with someone,we've invested time to qualify them.
And we're talking about just to connectwith them, we're having to qualify them.
In most places, we're lookingat their previous work tenure.
We're looking at, if you're hiring,like, in the space of being a recruiting
(05:24):
leader, like what I coach to, you'retypically looking for Someone that's
already got experience in the industry.
So we're looking at production.
We're looking at the intrinsic valuethat they would bring in terms of
reputation and brand to the organization.
Why in the world after doing investingall that time to qualify and just
connect with them, we flush all ofthat time, energy, and effort away.
(05:46):
It only makes sense to captureon that by having a system.
So because this is going to be who we'remostly going to speak with, this is one
of the reasons why I'm going to be sofixated on developing these cold leads.
The second part of this is most ofyou, um, are fishing in smaller ponds.
Right.
This podcast is being producedfor recruiting leaders.
(06:07):
So the recruiting leader is someonethat manages a team and then is also
responsible for recruiting to that team.
It means a lot of you are primarilyfocused on a single market or
maybe a state you may have.
We may have some regionals listeningto this that might be focused on a
larger geography, but once you startfishing in that smaller pond, What
(06:28):
you find is that this is actuallya pretty small group of people that
you're actually going to pursue.
If you're typically looking for aproducer who already has experience
and has production history, that meansthat you have a limited number of
people that you would actually recruit.
So that's the second reason whycold leads are important to us.
Okay.
The third reason is this there isn'tmuch competition for them Like most
(06:53):
people are looking for the person who'salready experienced some sort of trigger
event that's now ready to make a moveSo if there isn't much competition
for them And if it's more difficultand you've got to have a specific
process to just even get in front ofthem Which is one of the things that I
teach And you're able to get in frontof them while they're cold, guess what?
(07:14):
You're the one that's on speed dialwhen that trigger even happens.
And so, the third reason why I'mso fixated on these cold leads is
that I want to be in blue ocean.
I don't want to be in the bloody water.
I don't want to be over here whereeveryone's fighting for this person
that's talking to five to seven companies.
And when someone's had a triggerevent take place, a lot of times
(07:35):
they start engaging in multipleconversations when they don't have
trust already built with someone.
So if I work to build relationshipprior to that, and I'm in front
of this trigger event, I thinkthat's what great recruiters do.
So when that trigger eventhappens, I am the only person
that individual makes contact withbecause they know and trust me.
(07:59):
The fourth part of this is, this isthe We know that if we handle this
correctly, okay, and when we handle thiscorrectly, we're presenting ourselves
as what I call the attractive leader.
That means that we're leading with ourvision, we're leading with our value
system, our core convictions, ourbeliefs, and we've got a strong process
(08:19):
or system that we follow, then guess what?
I truly believe this, that thecold candidates are in play.
I, it takes anybody togo find warm, hot talent.
Okay, I can find anyone that doesn'teven have recruiting experience
that can go find warm hot talentand move them to an organization.
But it takes someone who has aprocess, a system, and the right
(08:44):
mindset to get in front of a co lead.
But if they do that, here's what I think.
I think that we are intrinsicallydesigned as human beings.
To be motivated towardscore value alignment.
To be motivated to move towards someonewho's got clarity in where they're going.
That means they have a vision.
Someone that's got clarityand can communicate clearly
(09:07):
why they do what they do.
This person's operatingin their passion zone.
And I think that when we arrive on thescene with someone that's operating
in the passion zone that can clearlycommunicate those three components,
core values, vision, and why they'redoing what they're doing, that we all
want to draw swords and fight with them.
Okay, now that's a Braveheart ism.
(09:29):
If you haven't ever seen Braveheart,you might have to watch that movie
and figure out who William Wallace is.
But one of the things I know, there'sa moment in that movie, Where brave,
where, where William Wallace arriveson the scene of a battlefield.
And if I just relive that,that movie scene for a moment.
He rides up and for the first timehe's really being recognized in
(09:51):
front of a large group of men.
And up to this moment he'sreally been a, a mystery.
People have heard of him.
Him and his small group of, hissmall band of brothers he's been
fighting with behind the scenes.
But there's been thisnoise that he's been.
That he's been defeating the enemyon a small level and suddenly one day
(10:11):
in front of where there are these twolords that are about to ride out to what
is, it looks like it's a battle scene,but it's not really a battle scene.
These two lords are going to ride outand what they're actually going to do
is get awarded more land, more honor,more wealth for not actually fighting.
And suddenly you've gotthese, this group of men.
That are these Scottish peasantsthat are leaving this battle scene
(10:33):
saying, I didn't come here for this.
I didn't come here so they couldget more land, get more title.
I'm not here to fight for them.
And they begin to leave this scene.
Of the battle and william wallace ridesup on the scene with his small band of
brothers And he calls this group of menwho are now leaving the battle scene
into something that's much bigger withclarity of vision clarity of why and
(10:56):
clarity of core values and these menTurn to fight this battle in this moment
because there was clarity around thosethree components William wallace was
operating in that passion zone and Ithink at a deep level You We as human
beings want to be called into that andthat this word satisfied to me Actually,
(11:19):
content, there's this, there's, you canalmost draw a straight line from satisfied
to being content to status quo, right?
And I love the definition of statusquo in Latin where it says that the
definition of status quo is mess we're in.
I would dare say that when we look atpeople who say we're, I put in quotation,
satisfied where we're at, that at theend of the day, there's a large lack
(11:43):
of leadership, that there's not a lotof direction, they're not being called
into what I call that BAM zone, thatBelonging, Affirmation, and Meaning
zone, where at the highest level, wewant to have a larger meaning in what we
do in the day to day, I think that whenleaders approach cold leads correctly,
they call people into this BAM zone andpeople are willing to make change when
(12:07):
they thought that they were satisfied.
This is a big reason for me whyI think we should become fixated
on developing these cold leads.
So let's talk about a couple majorcomponents that are key factors
in having success with them, okay?
Here's three things you focus on.
(12:28):
Number one, Affirmation,affirmation, affirmation.
I've talked about thisin a recent podcast.
I'm going to bring it up again.
There's three things here.
Affirmation will get you in front of them.
As an example, I checked out a fewplaces to get some information on
you before I reached out to youand I was impressed with what I saw
and then I will mention what I saw.
(12:49):
Okay?
That's the first thing.
The second part is you've gotto give them a big reason on
why they should meet with you.
If you think there's significantmarket change coming over the next 24
months, you've got Talk about that.
If you see a lot of consolidation goingon in the upcoming year and you believe
there's more to come, talk about that.
But you have to figure out some bigreasons why they should meet with you.
(13:10):
And the, here's the third component.
Remove all tension.
Okay, this is relationship building only.
This is not recruiting.
Okay, so if someone's willing tomeet with me and they're willing
to continue this conversation, thenit's not a recruiting meeting It's
a relationship building meeting.
So remove all tension Okay, and thenwhat that means is that when we get
(13:33):
in front of them We've got to beprepared to actually have a relationship
building meeting only with them Okay, soyou've got to have an agenda for this.
Here's what I would tell you Asa side note, never use negative
information about their situation,their company, or anything that's
self servicing, self serving to you.
(13:53):
The reason why I say that is that it willimmediately diminish your opportunity
to build relationship with them.
Anything that's self serving, okay,removes the fact that they could see
you as an authentic, real person.
individual that's not tryingto actually recruit them.
This is relationship building first.
This is how you get in front of yourcold leads and that you've got to build
(14:15):
relationship for them before you canever move them to a place where you might
have the opportunity to recruit them.
Okay, so we'll never usenegative information about their
company, even if we know it.
About their leader, even if we know it.
Anything that may be self serving,if we use that, diminishes our
opportunity to build relationship.
And so you've got to be aware of that.
(14:36):
Okay?
All right.
Here's the last part of this.
What can you do to improve your abilityto turn cold leads into something more?
Let's address that.
What can you do to improve your abilityto turn cold leads into something more?
You have to have a system or aprocess that you follow that is a
(14:57):
relationship building process or system.
Okay.
Let me give you an exampleof what that could look like.
Most of us have a recruitingprocess or a system we follow.
As an example of that, when we getsomeone on the phone, we use a phone
script like, would you be interestedin talking about a new opportunity?
Would you be interested in talking about aleadership position, something like that.
(15:18):
Something that gives you more influence,something that gives you more money,
something that gives you anythingthat might be what I would classify
as the opportunity improvement offer.
Okay?
This has to be arelationship building model.
Okay?
This is what it could look like.
You need to have what Icall a value equation.
(15:39):
Okay, what can you give that's ofvalue to people that you can give
away without any strings attached?
Let me, without any strings attached.
Let me give you an example of some of thethings that I, over the years, that I've
used to really build relationship whereI'm giving things, giving in essence these
value bombs, these gifts to them away.
(16:01):
And these don't have to cost money.
This does not have to be predicatedon you spending money to do this.
Some of the things I've givenaway over the years are books.
If someone had, I had a good phoneconversation with someone, then I
would say at the end, if even ifthey weren't willing to meet with
me, I would say, I would love tosend you one of my favorite books.
What's a good addressthat I can ship that to?
(16:23):
Okay.
That worked extremely well for me.
I could tell you story after story ofpeople that had that book one time,
sat on their desk for six months, andsomeone in their office picked it up and
actually asked if they could read it.
And then that individual came back to meand said, this individual read this book.
And brought it back and said it broughtvalue to them and it just Reminded me
(16:46):
I need to reach out to you and connectwith you again And that turned into the
relationship building beginning of therelationship building I've had lots of
people that I sent books to That wouldactually take the book read it and then
converse back and forth with me via textAnd over a season would then move to my
teams because it allowed me to move Intowhat I call the surrogate leader role
(17:08):
and that word surrogate actually meansin place of Okay, so let's, let's just
talk about that for a quick moment here.
The word surrogate means in place of,and so what that means if someone's
lacking leadership and I show upand creatively figure out how I
bring leadership to someone, thenthey'll lean into my leadership.
(17:30):
And where that happens, then there's thisvalue equation where I'm actually bringing
more value to someone than they'regetting from their current leadership.
And now I have the ability to step inand move them into a partnership with
me, move them into being part of my team.
So books are a great way to do that.
Another great way to do that isto do this through your podcast.
(17:53):
There's, I listen to a lot of podcasts.
Okay, find great podcasts thatyou can share inside your industry
where there's things that arevalue you can give away to them.
Find good influencers that are bringingvalue, that you can share articles,
you can share videos, you can shareany content that they're delivering.
Okay, you need to become a content hub ofsorts where you can actually then just In
(18:18):
turn become a not a content creator Buta content curator books of value videos
of value podcast of value influencersthat are delivering these things of
value Articles look if you know someoneyou're trying to recruit leaders inside
this space of recruiting leadership Mypodcast could be one of those things
(18:38):
that are of value that you give away.
Okay.
Cool websites.
For example, if you're in the real estatecommunity or you're in the mortgage world,
you know, there's a win by noon planner.
And so win by noon.
com is a planner.
that someone that's inside the mortgageindustry, a successful leader inside
the mortgage industry, develop a planneridea of how you actually win by noon.
(19:01):
That would be a great place that Icould actually direct people to just
ask, Hey, did you know this existed?
Have you seen this planner?
I might actually buy a planner, quarterlyplanner form and send it to them.
And direct them to that.
That's something of value that I cangive away without any strings attached.
Okay?
This is a great way to have arelationship building process or
(19:21):
systems by having a value equation.
One of the things I'm ahuge fan of is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn over the last couple yearshas gone from being a recruiting
platform to actually being arelationship building platform.
It's now a place that youhave to see as a content hub.
I believe every recruiting leader shouldbe delivering daily content on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn.
(19:42):
The reason why is that it is the sweetspot right now for being a content hub
and it is a place that you can actuallygive value away that can become part of
your value equation just like it is mine.
If you go look at LinkedIn, I'mdelivering value there every single day.
So that's part of our value equation.
That is how I would go about this.
(20:04):
How do I improve?
My ability to turn codeleads into something more.
I have a value equationwith no strings attached.
Okay.
You might tell I can get a littlefired up about this, I'm so fixated
on developing cold leads is becausethis, if you're going to win at
scale, you got to figure this out.
The people that figure this out aregoing to be the ones that grow . And so
(20:25):
you have to have a system around this.
And so there's lots of value in this.
You can go back throughthis, listen to it again.
If you want to dissect some ofthese things, put this into a to
do list, that'd be great way tostart looking at how you're going
to approach a cold leads this year.
So I appreciate you listening today.
I'm going to jump off of here nowbecause I'm a couple of minutes late
(20:45):
for a meeting, but I wanted to getthis to you on the podcast today.
So thanks for listening.
Have a great week, everybody.
And I look forward to talkingto you again here on the next
Recruiting Conversation Podcast.
Want more Recruiting Conversations?
You can register for myweekly email at 4crecruiting.
com.
If you need help creating your ownunique recruiting system, you can
(21:07):
book a time with me at bookrichardnow.
com.
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