Fanatical Military Recruiting

10Targeting—Leveraging the Prospecting Pyramid

The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization.

—Calvin Coolidge

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.” The great Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said those words. Sadly, this is how many recruiters approach prospecting—hoping, praying, and spraying. No plan, no direction, and no strategy.

For far too many recruiters, there is no rhyme or reason to their prospecting pattern. No plan. No objective. Just going through the motions. The result is a miserable prospecting experience, a weak pipeline, and desperation interviews with poorly qualified prospects—just to get any sort of win.

Here are a few questions to consider:

• When you get into the office in the morning and organize your prospecting block, which prospects do you decide to contact first?
• When you hit the phones, schools, and streets, how do you know who you want to talk to and why?
• What’s your strategy for building effective prospecting lists?

The bottom line is, if you don’t have a plan and you don’t know your objectives, your prospecting blocks will be far less effective.

When you build more effective prospecting lists, with clear objectives centered on specific prospecting channels, your prospecting blocks are easier, faster, more impactful, and generate far better results.

A simple rule of thumb to remember is: Better list, better outcome.

When I’m training recruiters to strategically target prospects, I begin ...