You’ve been there before. You spent weeks and weeks recruiting on an assignment and you are sitting there scratching your head wondering why your client doesn’t call you back from any of the three messages you have left him.

Remember the first cardinal rule of human behavior? “People only do what is in their own best interests.” If that red-hot client turned into a luke-warm message-returner, then there’s some sort of reason why he isn’t calling you back.

Two pieces of advice: First, before you ever begin the search, test the viability of your likelihood of actually making a placement by looking at the Search Assessment Instrument on the Free Downloads (link to free downloads) section of my site. You can take five minutes to save five weeks by scoring your client on variables that must be considered before making your first candidate recruit call.

Second: If you have spent time on the search and have candidates that you want to present and you’ve left three messages (and assuming you know that he is not on vacation, not traveling, nor going through a medical emergency), then leave a message that goes something like this:

“Bob, I know you said a few weeks ago that if I came across a (position title) that you would want to interview with them quickly. I finished the candidate recruitment phase of my search and have three viable candidates who I think you would get excited about. If I don’t hear from you by Friday at noon (two or three days away) I’ll just assume that the position’s been filled and will tell them that and will release them; and if I can ever help you again in the future, please don’t hesitate to call.”

If the client is still interested, he’ll call you. If he’s already filled the position, he won’t. Either way, you’ll have your answer.

I told a recruiter this once and he asked me, “But won’t your clients get mad at you if you leave that sort of message?”


Dude Where Is My Client? continued.....