Fanatical Military Recruiting

12Qualifying: Talking to the Right People

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

—Sun Tzu, Chinese military strategist

Recruiting is a blend of art and science. The art is influencing people to make commitments. The science is finding the right people to influence.

It’s true that the more people you talk to, the more people you will enlist. That will not change. But I need to make something very clear. Nothing you learn in this book matters a hill of beans if you are not dealing with qualified prospects.

You can be the greatest prospector the world has ever known, but if you are dealing with a prospect who is not going to get past MEPS or who is unmotivated, and unwilling to engage, make micro-commitments, and advance through the process, you are going to fail. Period, end of story.

I know that you know this because it was beaten into you the moment you went to recruiting school to learn how to be a recruiter.

Ultra-high performers understand that time is mission and it is a waste of time to work with prospects who are unmotivated and not going to enlist. They know that qualified prospects are scarce, and investing too much time with a low-probability prospect takes them away from their most important task—prospecting to identify qualified prospects who can and will enlist.

But effective qualifying requires far more than just a quick profile, blueprint, or APPLEMDT on the phone. That’s only part of it. ...