Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiringsm to Build Great Teams, Third Edition

Chapter 7. Recruiting, Negotiating, and Closing Offers

	Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.
	--Don Shula

Recruiting is Not Selling and Other Misconceptions About the Most Important Part of Hiring

After you’ve made an offer, but before accepting it, your candidate is probably shopping it around, hoping to get something better. As soon as a candidate accepts your offer, she gets buyer’s remorse, wondering whether she made the right decision or left something on the table. Even if the candidate doesn’t have a better offer, lack of conviction when resigning sets the stage for a counteroffer. Effective recruiting makes the difference when you want to ensure that more offers get accepted and stay closed.

Here are two fundamental recruiting principles. Violate them at your peril. First, never make a formal offer until it’s accepted. This way, there’s no time for the candidate to shop it around. Second, provide your candidate a compelling future vision that overwhelms the past. This way, there’s no chance of the person taking a counteroffer.

Note

First, never make an offer until it’s accepted.

Second, provide your candidate a compelling future vision that overwhelms the past.

Implementing these rules is what recruiting is all about. As far as I’m concerned, recruiting is the most important part of the hiring process. Everything is a wasted effort if a top candidate doesn’t accept a reasonable offer. However, don’t worry, if you’ve followed the advice ...