When it comes to sourcing and recruiting, it's gotten easier to find people but it's gotten more difficult to get people to respond to emails, InMails, social messages and voicemails. The poor quality and lack of sophistication of most recruiter messaging, along with rampant spamming, certainly hasn't helped. Unfortunately and yet somewhat thankfully, the bar of what people expect to receive from recruiters has been set fairly low, so the opportunity for improvement is massive. The good news is that becoming more effective at getting people to respond to recruiting outreach efforts is relatively easy because marketing & advertising has already blazed the trail - sourcers and recruiters would do well to leverage what effective sales & marketing teams has been doing for decades. In 2014 and 2015, I spoke at Talent 42, SOSUEU, and LinkedIn Talent Connect conferences on the challenges of getting people - especially "passive," highly recruited talent - to respond to recruiter outreach efforts. The decks I used for the presentations were mostly images, so I decided to add text to the slides so that the core concepts could be understood by anyone whether they attended those conference sessions or not simply by viewing the presentation (I wish more presenters would do this!).

1. ​Glen Cathey
​LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog
You've Found Them – Now What?
Finding people has gotten easier, but getting them to respond has only gotten harder

2. What is your goal in messaging
candidates? What does success
look like to you? Is it a specific
response rate?
Ultimately, the goal is simply to
get a response – it has nothing
to do with whether someone is
looking or interested in your job
not.
Any response is a "win" in that
you have 2-way engagement.

3. Messaging Conundrum – Which is Best?
50 emails @ 30%
100 emails @ 25%
200 emails @ 20%
400 emails @ 15%
15
25
40
60
# responses
Which is more efficient?
Which is spammy?
Do you care?

5. >70% *Should* Respond…
Source: 2015 LinkedIn Talent Trends Survey of over 20,000 fully employed workers in 29 countries

6. Surprised?
Only 10% of developers (highly sought after talent) said they're actively looking, yet nearly
70% would consider moving jobs. If you're not getting a 70%+ response rate, it's not
because most people aren't recruitable, it's your approach.
Source: 2015 Stack Overflow Careers Global Developer Hiring Landscape  26,086 developers from 157 countries were surveyed

7. Developers prefer email (and don't really hate LinkedIn InMails!)
65%
Source: 2015 Stack Overflow Careers Global Developer Hiring Landscape - http://bit.ly/1JaglKW  26,086 developers from 157 countries were surveyed

8. (What recruiters think)

9. (Closer to reality)

10. Understand what it's like to be constantly pursued
by recruiters…

11. Surprised?

15. 5 Whys Exercise
Sakichi Toyoda
1867 - 1930
The 5 Whys is an iterative question-asking
technique used to explore the cause-and-effect
relationships to determine the root cause of a
defect or problem.
The technique was originally developed by Sakichi
Toyoda and is "the basis of Toyota's scientific
approach . . . by repeating why five times, the
nature of the problem as well as its solution
becomes clear." – Taiichi Ohno
The tool has seen widespread use beyond Toyota,
and is now used within Kaizen, lean manufacturing,
Asana (software), and Six Sigma.

16. Perform a 5 Whys Exercise
using this problem statement:
I don't get 100% response
rate from my messages
You will find that there are a
number of different 1st answers
to why people don't respond –
you will need to explore each
with additional whys.
You can do this with peers,
hiring managers, recent hires,
candidates, etc.
This exercise might be one of
the most enlightening of your
career!

17. Be Human
Be Human
(don't be a zombie recruiter)
When you approach potential candidates, be a person 1st and a recruiter 2nd.
Treat them as a person 1st and a potential candidate 2nd.

18. Photo: James Box https://flic.kr/p/4ZJwhw
Make the effort to understand what it must feel like to
be relentlessly pursued by recruiters on a daily basis

19. Photo: WestonStudioLLC https://flic.kr/p/eVJkz3
Take the time to see things from the perspective of
potential candidates and ask critical questions

24. Source: Why are technical recruiters so clueless?

25. Be aware there are
many people and
sites that post poor
recruiter messages.
Simple rule:
Don't write anything
you'd be embarrassed
to find shared publicly
online
Source: Sh*t recruiters do
Source: @recruiterbro on Twitter

26. Do your homework before reaching out to
anyone.
Today, you have more access to information
about people than ever before in the history
of recruiting. Use social aggregators or at
the very least Google the people you're
trying to recruit to learn more about them so
you can personalize your approach and
earn a response.
If you don't take the time to research the
people you're reaching out to and
presumably trying to recruit with
personalized messages you're lazy and/or
you simply don't care.

27. Ain't nobody got time for that

28. Ideal Recruiting/Sales Process
5 Steps to Recruiting (or Sales) Success
1. Developing the relationship
2. Creating/Identifying the need
3. Preventing/overcoming objections
4. Filling the need/providing benefits
5. Advance/close the sale
Source: 5 Steps to Recruiting (or Sales) Success

29. Most Recruiter Messaging
1. Filling the need/providing benefits
2. Developing the relationship
3. Creating/Identifying the need
4. Preventing/overcoming objections
5. Advance/close the sale
Unfortunate Reality
When you reach out to potential candidates leading with specific job descriptions,
you're completely fouling the recruiting/sales process up

30. Leading with a job opportunity
is beginning at step 4 of the
sales process – filling the
need/providing benefits:
• "Would you like this drink?"

31. Start with step 1 of the
sales process – develop
the relationship:
• "How are you today?
Are you thirsty?
What can I get you?"

32. "Unexpected ideas are more likely to
stick because surprise makes us pay
attention and think. The most basic way
to get someone's attention is to break a
pattern. Humans adapt incredibly
quickly to consistent patterns. Consistent
sensory simulation makes us tune out."
​- Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick

33. What people want to know first
Source: 2015 LinkedIn Talent Trends Survey of over 20,000 fully employed workers in 29 countries

34. What developers want
Source: 2015 Stack Overflow Careers Global Developer Hiring Landscape  26,086 developers from 157 countries were surveyed
While money is always important, most people really want to know what they'd be
doing/working on.

35. To really get someone's attention, break the pattern of most recruiters by not
leading with a job opportunity and answering their questions in your first messages.
Instead, ask questions, starting off by finding out what they want.

36. A little mystery goes a long way…

37. In 1994, George Loewenstein, a behavioral economist at Carnegie
Mellon University, provided the most comprehensive account of
situational interest. It is surprisingly simple. Curiosity, he says,
happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge. Loewenstein argues
that gaps cause pain. When we want to know something but don’t, it’s
like having an itch that we need to scratch. To take away the pain, we
need to fill the knowledge gap.
One important implication of the gap theory is that we need to open
gaps before we close them. Our tendency is to tell people the facts.
​- Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick

38. Create Knowledge GapsWhen initially reaching out to
someone, focus specifically on
why you're reaching out to them,
which isn't the opening you're
recruiting for, but their specific
experience – why else did you
find and decide to contact them?
They know you're a recruiter, and
if you've been very specific as to
what it was about them that made
you reach out but you don't share
any job specifics, you've created
a knowledge gap. Because of
your specificity you imply that you
have something relevant for
them. To close the knowledge
gap they have to respond to find
out about the opportunity you
have in mind.

39. The basic architecture of
the brain ensures that we
feel first and think second.
​- Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux Source & suggested reading: Start With Why, Simon Sinek
Because of this, it is critical that you leverage human
nature (emotions) in your messaging/outreach efforts….

40. Suggested reading: Start With Why, Simon Sinek
What's your why?

41. Emotional content works best!
IPA dataBANK (the UK-based Institute of
Practitioners in Advertising) contains 1400 case
studies of successful advertising campaigns
submitted for the IPA Effectiveness Award
competition over the last three decades.
Campaigns with purely emotional content
performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) with
only rational content, and those that were purely
emotional did a little better (31% vs 26%) those
that mixed emotional and rational content.
Source: Neuromarketing by Roger Dooley
Neuromarketing
Somewhat counterintuitively, content which combined both
rational and emotional elements did not perform best!

42. Ads (messages) that engage people
emotionally work better than those that don’t.
If you can leverage amusement and generate
interest and surprise, you will likely earn a
response.
Source: Fractl – The Emotions of Highly Viral Content
Neuromarketing
One of my favorite memes

43. Humor & Surprise
"In an experiment by O’Quinn and Aronoff,
participants were assigned to “buyer” and
“seller” roles and asked to negotiate the
price of a painting. Half of the sellers
received instructions to use the line “my final
offer is $_, …and I’ll throw in a pet frog.” This
led to relaxation, smiles, and increased
compliance, with buyers agreeing to pay
significantly more money than when the frog
joke was not used.
What it means: When you make someone
smile, they relax. Humor can help break
down objections and win over an otherwise
unreceptive audience. Here’s an example of
how breaking the ice can earn you replies:"
While this example is sales related, I manage a team that
leverages humor to great effect when reaching out to high
demand/low supply talent. Ultimately, people are people –
it doesn't matter if you're selling to or trying to recruit
them.
Source: Yesware blog - Emails that get replies

44. Source - http://bit.ly/1Q8iY47
"Charles Darwin…developed the Facial Feedback Response Theory, which suggests that the act of
smiling actually makes us feel better (rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good)."
Facial feedback modifies the neural processing of emotional content in the brain, in a way that helps
us feel better when we smile. Smiling stimulates our brain reward mechanism in a way that even
chocolate -- a well-regarded pleasure inducer -- cannot match. British researchers found that one
smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 bars of chocolate."

45. Make Them Smile
How do you want people to feel when
reading or listening to your messages?
If you can make someone smile when
reading/hearing your messaging, you've
made them feel good. If people feel good
when reading/listening to your messages,
you are more likely to earn a response.
Why do you think so much humor is used
in advertising?
Because it works!

46. Take Your Job Seriously, But Not Yourself
While some may think it's silly,
unprofessional or simply doesn't work,
using humor & jokes (including Chuck
Norris references), poetry/haiku's, memes,
non sequiturs, etc., have all worked quite
well for me and my teams. We keep track
of and celebrate all of the complimentary
responses we get from people.
You might be surprised to learn some
people even respond in kind (jokes,
poetry, etc.).
But then again, you shouldn't be.
Why not?

47. Don't Be Tarzan
If your initial outreach is focused more on
getting someone's attention and engaging
them as a person rather than a recruiter
reaching out with a job, you'll get a more
human and unguarded response.
Remember, most people are open to making
a change, but they aren't taking any action to
do so, and they don't NEED to make a
change. Why be surprised by low response
rates from passive talent when you reach out
about a job?

48. Luckily, I had this moment of clarity within the first 3 months of my job as a recruiter

49. Surprise gets our attention. Surprise makes
us want to find an answer – to resolve the
question of why we were surprised. If we
want to motivate people to pay attention,
we should seize the power of big surprises.
​- Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick

50. No Surprises Here
Source – TalentBin
Email inbox screenshots from
actual developers
Mentioning opening, job, career,
opportunities, required, urgent, requirement,
etc. will only serve to make your emails blend
in with all of the other emails mentioning the
same. You're only contributing to the noise.

51. Subject Line Surprises
Your subject lines do NOT have to mention anything
about jobs, opportunities, titles, etc.
One study found that 33% of email recipients opened
emails based on the subject line alone
69% of email recipients report email as spam based
solely on the subject line
Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to
be opened.
Subject lines that create a sense of urgency and
exclusivity can give a 22% higher open rate.
You've presumably spent some time and energy
finding the people you'd like to connect with – to not
engineer the highest probability of a response would
be a massive waste.
Source: Hubspot

52. I was working with a recruiter who was
having difficulty getting Scrum Masters to
respond. After performing a few minutes of
research online, I suggested the recruiter
use the subject line of "Pigs and
Chickens." (see the cartoon on the right)
Scrum Masters are easy to find so they get
flooded by recruiter spam. I was pretty
sure they would be surprised to see a
subject line of "Pigs and Chickens" – I
knew it would not only stand out, but that
they would likely appreciate the relevance.
I was right. 
Unexpected & Relevant
Source: Implementing Scrum
Simply Googling
Scrum Master yields
all sorts of funny and
relevant content you
could use to surprise
potential candidates

54. I recently received this
InMail from a recruiter. I do
mention Spotfire once on
my profile, but I am clearly
not a Spotfire consultant
and I live in Florida, not
Canada.
This is a classic case of a
"blast" messaging effort
whereby practically anyone
showing up in the search
results gets a message.
What do you think my
opinion of this recruiter and
his company is?

55. Nothing makes you
feel more special
than when you get
an email from a
recruiter because
you happen to
mention the
keywords they were
searching for. 
Don't send emails
like this!

56. Even if you're not an agency recruiter, the message above is quite clear, and it applies to all people, not just technical
professionals. I recently wrote an article on how NOT to ask for referrals – specifically not asking in your first attempt to
contact someone. Your first attempt should be solely about the person you're interested in recruiting – not about being
passed along to their colleagues. If they don't respond to your initial attempt, you can (and should) follow up, and if they
don't respond to your second attempt, politely request that since they presumably aren’t interested, they forward your
contact information to anyone they know that might be interested in taking the next step in their career and learning more
about the opportunity you originally contacted them about.
Don't Ask For Referrals in Your First Contact Attempt
Source – How to Make Technical Professionals Not Hate Your Guts – A Guide For Technical Recruiters

57. ​Energy and persistence
conquer all things.
​- Benjamin Franklin

58. Source – Yesware
If you give up after
your first attempt,
you're not really
doing your job as a
recruiter to recruit
people.
Persistence pays,
and studies have
shown that most
people will
respond if you
simply follow up.

59. ​Genius is one percent inspiration
and ninety-nine percent
perspiration.
​- Thomas Edison
Most recruiters use the same tired old email over
and over for years without ever trying anything new.
Experiment, experiment, experiment!
Try multiple messaging approaches and measure
the results (A/B testing) to discover new and more
effective approaches.

60. Leverage Data
Source: Yesware study, 500K sales emails Source: Constant Contact Source: Science of Email by Hubspot and Litmus – 6.4M emails
studied

61. Use Images

62. Keep Mobile in Mind
Source: Litmus
40% of emails are
opened on mobile
1st, predominantly
on phones.
Keep this in mind
when generating
your messages to
potential
candidates as
people will make
quick judgments to
delete or respond
based on what
they can initially
see on their
mobile device..

63. Candidate personas are fictional,
generalized representations of your target
talent, divided into unique segments that
group current situations, what they do, goals
(what they want to accomplish), motivations
and attitudes into groups. Personas can:
• Help you better understand and relate to the
people you are trying to source & recruit as
human beings and not just potential candidates
• Allow you to strategically tailor your approach &
messaging content to the specific needs,
behaviors, and concerns of each persona to
increase response
Leverage Candidate Personas
Adapted from Hubspot and Krux SMB
Source: Bufferapp.com http://bit.ly/1pcEqUu

65. Start From the Bottom
Nearly everyone processes results from
the top down.
People at the top of search results are
there primarily due to keyword
frequency – which has nothing to do
with how good they are/how strong of a
potential candidate they might be.
People at the top of search results get
messaged by everyone and it can be
very difficult to be the signal amongst
the noise and earn a response. People
past the top 10% - 20% of results are
seldom even reviewed, let alone
messaged, allowing you to be one of a
few messages or even the only one,
often yielding higher response rates.
Last page of 758
results and this
woman looks
awesome!

66. • Be human!
• Start with why
• Do not blast - personalize your messaging
• Gather additional info through other social sites
• Develop an arsenal of (anti)templates you can customize/personalize
• Leverage empathy & perspective!
Key Takeaways

67. Key Takeaways
• Get creative with your subject lines and content – experiment!
• Use humor and surprise and leverage knowledge gaps
• Develop personas for your target talent pool
• Capture and celebrate successes
• Perform your own 5 why exercise specific for your team/company
• Read Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

68. I've learned that people will forget
what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never
forget how you made them feel.
​- Maya Angelou

69. Be Human