Those Hard To Reach Potential Clients… Some Thoughts

Every recruiter has at least a handful of these types of companies on their radar. Fitting the profile of your perfect type of client, for whatever reason, you have just never been able to get to speak to anyone there. This can be for a number of reasons.

You may be unsure who the decision maker is, you may be up against the gatekeeper from hell or you may just simply be unlucky and the person you need to speak to is genuinely hard to get hold of. It’s important not to waste your time chasing opportunities that may not be there, but here are some tips for you to try before you give up.

Don’t be lazy

Have you been out to see them? If not, why not? It’s amazing the number of recruitment consultants who never leave their desk. Knocking on doors may be awfully old-fashioned in these days of social media and email, but it’s also a method that can be highly effective.

Next time you’re in the area, simply call in and ask to speak to someone. It’s not always going to be effective, but you’ll be surprised at how much more receptive people are to someone who has made the effort to come out and see them. If they’re not available, leave some info for them with your contact details. It’s much more likely to get to them than normal post or email.

How to find out (almost) anyone’s email address

Sometimes you think that if only you had their email address so you could send them a quick introductory email then it could open the doors for you to do business together. But sometimes, it is almost impossible to find someone’s email address. This is where the internet is your friend. Go to a website called www.email-format.com. Simply place the domain name of the company in the search box and then press search. It should hopefully produce some results for you. What that website does is search the internet looking for email addresses that use that domain name, so what you’ll be presented with is a list of email addresses. If the person’s you want to contact isn’t there, don’t worry, you now know the format the company uses, such as jsmith@thecompany.com rather than johnsmith@thecompany.com. Chances are, if a person’s email address is difficult to find, they won’t get a lot of emails or spam, so yours should have a decent chance of getting read.

Research them

We’re not talking hours and hours of detailed research. Simply ‘Google’ for five minutes, and check to see if you can find them on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. It is amazing what you can find out about someone if you’re willing to spend a bit of time doing this. You research potential companies, so why not people themselves at these companies. Knowledge is power as they say! Maybe you share an interest or you socialise in the same part of town. You wouldn’t be the first (and certainly not the last) to engineer an ‘accidental’ meeting in the pub. In such situations, natural defences are down and you never know, it could be the first step towards a long and successful relationship.

The difference between good recruiters and great recruiters is the latter’s ability to think outside the box. See difficulties like these as obstacles to be overcome, not insurmountable problems, and you will see the benefit in no-time.

Till next time,

Cheryl