How to Get Referrals from ALL Your Candidates
Referral is a great strategy that most companies deploy; your recruitment company might have a formal referral process too.
However, nobody is connected to candidates as closely as their own consultant, so how can you use the power of referral to accelerate your own billings?
According to a Nielson study, 90% of people rely on recommendations from their network to drive their decision-making when buying products or services. The same crowd-led phenomenon applies to recruiting: many candidates will look for recruiter recommendations from friends and colleagues, as well as do some research online to see what your reviews and testimonials say!
It’s intensely important to be maximising your talent pool by effectively leveraging your referrals.
Systematise
Referrals work. Period. As long as you put them into the mix. You’ll notice that here at GSR2R we systematically ask for referrals. That way we don’t forget!
When it comes to business success, the secret sauce is always having a system and process that is regularly implemented.
What about the last Friday of everything month, ringing round some of your key connections or creating a round robin email? It works like ‘gang busters’!
Use the power of LinkedIn.
As you know, LinkedIn is the recruiter’s best friend for most sectors. But not all recruiters are tapping into the maximum potential of LinkedIn as a referral tool. Not only should you be requesting recommendations from satisfied candidates as a matter of course, but you should also be mining your candidate’s connections for possible referral possibilities to exciting new candidates.
Act quickly!
The time to ask a candidate for a referral is when they’re on a high, having just secured an interview or job through your help, or when you’ve just gone the extra mile coaching them on interview skills. The best time of all is when they’ve received an offer, so don’t dally: the candidate will soon be busy with their new role, and just how hard you worked for them will inevitably start to fade from their minds.
Ask for feedback.
If you’re finding you’re not receiving regular referrals or favourable reviews (either spontaneously or on request), there’s a worrying possibility that something in your customer service style needs addressing.
We strongly recommend that recruiters ask for feedback- and often the best way of getting people to engage with this request is through a quick survey asking them to rate your performance. You won’t always love what you hear, but the only way to success is to face your weaknesses.
Moreover, remember, if they don’t want to refer you, they’re never going to use your services again, so this is a powerful way of fixing any problems, so you have a candidate for their career lifetime.
Leverage your social media channels.
If you’re social media savvy, you’re already adding some interesting content to the mix when you’re posting jobs on Facebook and Twitter. (Please tell me you’re not just posting jobs with no engaging content to break it up?)
If you are posting interesting articles or writing quick blogs like interview tips to post online, it’s a great idea to add a ‘share this with a friend’ call to action so that your recruiter name reaches more eyeballs. Sharing articles is a subtle form of referral, but an effective one.
Try different methods.
Just because your candidate might feel uncomfortable reaching out to an old colleague to make an introduction on your behalf, doesn’t mean they’re not happy to recommend you differently. Some people don’t like being so upfront.
That’s fine, but don’t close the door on their potential to help you. Ask them if they’ll be happy to write a LinkedIn or Facebook recommendation instead.
Chances are, they’ll feel bad about declining your request for a referral so may well say yes to this smaller request! Of course, if you encounter any resistance, do not push the point, or you risk damaging the relationship.
Many recruiters hold back a little from pursuing referrals. Successful recruiters, on the other hand, know that referrals are a low-effort way of maximising their billing numbers.
Until next time,
Cheryl