Time Kills Deals
As recruiters, one of our main goals is to move the hiring process along and get answers, regardless of whether it is a yes or a no. If it is a no, we move on to our next deal. If it is a yes, we firm up the details of the offer, and then we move on to the next deal. Our last post told a story about a hiring manager who stalled and lost both of his candidates. This week we also had one bank move so quickly that the hiring managers got through interviews and offer in one week; the lender was excited and eager and it was nearly effortless in closing the deal. Everyone was happy, everyone won. But, we also had a hire that almost went south because a commercial lender was dragging his feet, and the hiring manager was starting to get offended and nervous.Our candidate was a junior lender who had not made moves in his career. Much like first loves, we see the first move as the hardest to get past. He was also a deeply spiritual man who wanted time for prayer about making this move. Those two factors combined with the general nature of lenders made things difficult. Lenders can be analytical people are often extremely cautious in committing to new things. We got him everything he wanted, but we couldn’t get a yes or a no out of him. When a candidate doesn’t want to say yes, even when they got everything they wanted, we assume it will be a no in the end. There must be something we don’t know: another offer, a counter offer, etc. It will just take time and waste time to get to the no.The candidate and I kept talking about why he needed to give an answer: he was making the hiring manager nervous. Would he really want to make his hiring manager uncomfortable if he ultimately planned on saying yes? Not saying yes was killing the excitement and good will. There were other candidates who the hiring manager would lose if he didn’t give them some sort of feedback or next step quickly. If you know what you need to take a job, why would you need a week or two to think about it? Our candidate was just a slow decision maker and had not thought of all the ways this was affecting the client company.Candidates tell hiring managers they will take jobs all the time and then fail to start and our mission as recruiters is to close hard and examine every possible scenario that could play out. We need to get as close to certainty as possible that our candidates will take the job and start before we extend a written offer letter. Our normal process is not to extend any offer unless the candidate is ready to accept a position. We do not want to let our clients be used for counter offers or spend time on something that won’t result in filling our clients’ needs. When someone stalls or pushes for a written offer, we start pulling the plug. More often than not, if it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. In this specific scenario, we had assurances counter offer was not an issue. We just needed him to say yes or no!Our banker told us he would get us an answer by the end of day. And then he emailed the client and asked for more time to give his decision. It was making us both look bad. Our client responded with the most genius, well worded, compelling email we’ve ever seen from a hiring manager:“I understand that making these decisions can be difficult and there is a lot to think about.Please also consider the following:1. I have a loan portfolio that is unattended to.2. I have clients who have no banker and at risk for service issues.3. I have clients who are vulnerable to the sales efforts of other banks because we are not in touch with them.4. I have been working on hiring for some time and I need to get this behind me because I have other things I need to do.5. This is a great place to work.6. The Credit Analyst I just hired accept the job 5 seconds after I offered it.7. I have 2 other candidates for the Lender position who I am pretty confident will accept 5 seconds after I offer it.8. I have 2 other candidates I’ve been stringing along and it puts me in an awkward position to continue doing so.9. My team who would like to know who their teammate will be.10. I have portfolio’s I need to realign between bankers but is on hold until I know who is filling the open spot.I understand your needs and I hope you understand my needs. You can take as much time as you need to think about this, but I also need to move forward. I need to re-engage conversations with other candidates and if the position is still available and you are interested, I would be happy to speak with you about your decision at that time.”The candidate emailed back and said “it appears I am being selfish, and I would like to accept this position. “We printed this email out. It will be on our wall for quite some time. The lesson for candidates is not to stall out, because you will miss out. Time kills deals.