Cold calling in Recruitment: What Has Changed in 2022? 

“Cold calling in recruitment is not effective anymore, those days are long gone”. You might have heard this quite a lot in recent times, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

In most recruiting agency environments, cold calling is an untapped opportunity to get new leads and win recruiting projects. Though the approach of cold calling has changed over the years with more focus on using automation and personalization, at the core of it, continues to be on building strong relationships with potential clients. 

But cold calling in recruitment can be tough. Especially if you’re new to the industry, it can be a daunting task to find target clients and close deals. And if you’re an experienced recruiter whose idea of a classic “cold call” is simply leveraging your network, it’s time to try a different approach to prospecting. 

A LinkedIn report reveals that 57% of respondents are making more phone calls and 44% of them said customers’ sales cycle has increased. And recruiters are rising to meet the challenge of the remote world in a range of ways. 

For one thing, a majority of recruiters are using recruiting software for agencies to take greater control of how their team does the cold calling. Plus, recruiters are putting together data to work before the sale. With automated tools like recruitment CRM that help recruiters scale their cold calling efforts, agencies are embracing modern recruiting software, such as Recruiterflow to do the heavy lifting for them, while they focus on nurturing strong relationships with clients.  

Successful recruiters are not only leveraging recruitment technology for winning deals, but also taking a more holistic approach that addresses the client’s pain points, highlights the value proposition, and puts their recruitment agency as a differentiator in the market. 

Before we talk about recruitment cold calling tips, let’s dig into the common mistakes recruiters make while cold calling potential clients and how to avoid them. 

Recruitment Cold Calling: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them 

Not Preparing Before the Call 

“Practice makes you perfect!“ While that’s true in most cases, when it comes to cold calling in recruitment, you need to constantly level up your game to stay ahead of your competitors. Regardless of your experience in cold calling or recruitment, it’s always a good idea to prepare before making a call. Lack of research and preparation will always reflect during a call and it can set off the client from the get-go. 

How to avoid these mistakes?

Always do thorough research on the company and the buying committee i.e the members of an organization that you would be communicating with to close the deal. In most cases, this might be the C-level executives or senior talent acquisition leaders. 

Good preparation for your cold calls can be as simple as figuring out common interests, previous hiring records, layoffs, industry trends, competitor research, and a rock-solid recruitment workflow in place in case the client wants to get a sneak peek into a potential roadmap. 

Calling Without a Script

When it comes to cold calling, spontaneity is good, but preparation is better. More than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process, followed by closing (36%) and qualifying (22%). Whether you’re new to recruiting, or have years of cold calling experience, you’re not alone if you find prospecting to be the toughest aspect of your job. And not calling without a script can cost you big opportunities! 

How to avoid these mistakes?

Put together a script for cold calling and make a list of things you want to say during the call, including facts about the potential client. A script acts as a savior during the times when the conversation pauses, and at that time you can easily refer to your script and continue with the conversation. 

This minimizes awkward silences and engages your potential client in a seamless conversation which indeed helps build better rapport. 

Selling Numbers, Instead of Your Value Proposition 

Numbers are essential, but in the long term, it is about maintaining a balance between selling the numbers and creating value for a prolonging relationship. If most of these clients leave your agency after a few months because they were dissatisfied with the service, it might cost you referrals and your recruitment agency’s reputation as well. 

How to avoid these mistakes?

When you’re cold calling, you need to understand your buyer’s journey right from the beginning. This will help you identify touchpoints, identify their challenges, assess exactly what they’re looking for and deliver your value proposition successfully. 

Focus on the benefits and outcomes that you can offer to a potential client to immediately grab their attention, along with details of your recruitment agency. Highlight key pain points and explain how your services fit into the picture – share social proof, testimonials, and previous results for clients in similar industries. 

Not Addressing Your Client’s Concerns and Doing a Hard-Sell

Focusing on your goal is good i.e., onboarding more clients, but in the process, you might forget that while your goal is to sell more, it is also to sell better, which essentially means to build relationships and value while trying to make a sale. You want to set the right expectations with the client and change the route of the conversation as per the client’s concerns. 

How to avoid these mistakes?

If you build relationships, even if you don’t close the sale immediately, recruitment cold calls are still successful as they might give referrals to their network. Spend time learning about your prospects’ challenges by asking them open-ended questions and giving them ample opportunity to share. It’s also worth sending a follow-up email after a call to ask for feedback and share more information that you couldn’t cover during the call. (ready-to-use recruiting email templates)

Not only does this help you prepare for the next call or meeting better, but it also acts as a reminder about the conversations you had with potential clients so you can always stay on top of things!  

10 Best Recruitment Cold Calling Tips For Attracting Quality Clients 

1. Nail Your Target Client Persona 

Cold calling clients in itself is a long and tedious process, and it becomes arduous when you are not sure about your clientele. It is essential to understand your target client persona before you can nail it. Data reveals that at least 50% of your prospects are not a good fit for what you sell. Creating a client persona that aligns with your company’s expertise will help you prioritize closing these specific clients, leading to higher chances of conversion and better quality deals. 

2. Follow a Consultative Sales Approach

You need to admit that no one likes to be ‘sold’ things, but everyone likes to be consulted for their problems or how they can make things better. In the same way, a consultative sales approach in recruitment can convert a cold call into a relationship-building call. The aim is to get the best client but with the right intent. 

To do so, you must do in-depth research on the client, ask the right questions, and listen to and identify their pain points. Develop good opening sentences for your recruitment cold calls because this sets the tone for the rest of the call. The consultative process builds a relationship that motivates the prospective client to move forward with the process. 

3. Connect with them online

Be it in the personal or professional world, familiarity is always preferred and comforting. In case of cold calling, connecting with your clients on social media before making a call will help you start the conversation with a background and make it less robotic.  

You can simply add them on social media platforms and engage with their content, but make sure you do not come across as spammy. You can like or drop a short yet valuable comment on their post. Given that of all leads generated from social media, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, it is one of the most preferred social networks for recruiters to reach out to potential clients.

4. Research: Make it About Them, Not You 

It is always appreciated and works in your favor when you are well researched about the client. This will help you gather plenty of talking points to keep them interested and engaged. This step towards recruitment cold calling has become much easier in this age of social media. It is possible to gain a deep understanding of a client’s background, expertise, and probably an understanding of the kind of candidates they look for too by leveraging the social networks they spend time on most. 

5. Prepare a Script

Recruitment cold calling in itself is a monotonous task, so you should try to make it as seamless as possible. Preparing a script is the most underrated, yet effective step in the cold calling process. Having prepared a script gives a flow to the conversation, avoids any disruption, and helps achieve your goal quickly and efficiently. Even small changes like using “Did I catch you at a bad time” makes you 40% less likely to schedule a meeting, while asking “How are you?” increases your likelihood of booking a meeting by 3.4X.

6. Identify Your Key Differentiator 

The most common question during an interview process is ‘how do you stand out from other candidates or ‘why should we hire you?’. Similarly, during cold calling new clients, you want to be crystal-clear on how your recruitment agency stands out and how you can be an asset to their company. The differentiation must begin early in the process to set your company apart from the competitors. 

7. Highlight Your Previous Wins

Everyone wants the best for themselves and their company, it is your responsibility to show your best self subtly, without coming across as salesy. It is important to be yourself, speak effusively about your accomplishments, and let the conversation flow naturally. Rather than vaguely saying that ‘you get the best candidates for your clients’, put numbers to your statement to add more credibility and trust. 

8. Leverage Automation to Close Deals Faster

Using automation is one of the most efficient ways to close deals without losing quality. From sourcing, potential leads on social networking sites like LinkedIn, to building a centralized database, sending emails, scheduling calls, and more – recruitment automation can accelerate your sales pipeline. 

Research reveals that sales representatives spend nearly one-third of their day actually talking with prospects. They spend 21% of their time writing emails, 17% entering data, another 17% prospecting and researching potential leads, 12% going to internal meetings, and 12% scheduling calls. 

By automating different stages of your prospecting, you can make a seamless transition from the awareness to the closing stage of a client. This is not only one of the most effective methods, but also inexpensive and easy to set up. The amalgamation of cold calling and automation can do wonders for closing a client and building long-lasting relationships. 

9. Follow Up, Without Fail

Following up after recruitment cold calling is no less than art! Research shows, surprisingly, that only 20% of leads are ever followed up. In other words, 80% of potential leads are lost without a trace simply due to a lack of follow-up. 

As much as it sounds like a tedious process, it is critical for closing the client. A follow-up is crucial since many recruiters go cold after enthusiastic cold calls, which leads clients to lose interest in the opportunity. 

10. Ask For Referrals 

B2B companies that have referrals experience a 70% higher conversion rate. It’s clear that closing a client when you are referred is a cakewalk compared to reaching out from scratch. When a client refers your recruitment agency to another client, the conversation starts with mutual trust, which makes it credible. But the question arises, ‘how do you ask for referrals from your current client?’ Only ask for referrals from your current client once you have built trust and have managed to achieve their goals. Do not be too pushy if your current client is not comfortable referring. Simply thank them for their time. 

Final Thoughts – Cold calling in recruitment

Lastly, try to make the call as warm and real as possible. Make sure you maintain a balance of listening and understanding the requirements of clients and making them aware of how your company can help achieve their goals. The main purpose of a cold call is not only to close the sale but to maintain a relationship as well. 

With Recruiterflow, you can set up automated email campaigns and build relationships with candidates and clients seamlessly. Sign up for a 14-day free trial or book a demo to explore the features and functionalities of Recruiterflow.