Fanatical Military Recruiting

4Stop Wishing Things Were Easier

The only easy day was yesterday.

—US Navy SEALs

There is no sugarcoating it. Prospecting means facing certain rejection. This is why so many recruiters don’t do it and instead spend their time and energy seeking silver bullets, secret formulas, and shortcuts; or hanging out on social media; or ignoring prospecting altogether until they dig themselves deep into a hole; or wasting time with applicants who are disqualified.

The truth is prospecting is the hardest, most mentally exhausting part of your recruiting day. There will always be something more fun you would rather do, and it will never get easier. But the one thing that separates ultra-high performers from other recruiters is they look rejection in the face and do it anyway.

Here’s the deal. If you want sustained success in your recruiting tour, if you want to consistently make mission, then you’ve got to interrupt strangers—lots of them. The real reason that prospecting is so hard, no matter how you choose to do it, is that you are interrupting strangers. This, by the way, is why so many recruiters protest so loudly and will do almost anything to avoid making an outbound call.

It is difficult and awkward to interrupt someone’s day. You can’t control their response and that unknown leaves you feeling vulnerable and causes fear.

Your prospect’s initial reaction to being interrupted—usually a brush-off or reflex response in a not-so-friendly tone of voice—feels like rejection. Sometimes ...