Case Study: Cherry Picking Candidates
Some head hunt assignments are incredibly simple yet dangerously difficult.
They start with an email from a client…
“Can you land me James Wilson? He is the guy we need to turn this business division around. Thing is, I reckon he is on a mint and doing very well over at ABC company in Geneva . I just can't imagine a better man for this role and I really needed it sorted!”
Contained in this paragraph are many of the reasons our client wants this candidate. Yet, noteworthy by their absence are any of the reasons why James Wilson should be attracted to leave the role he enjoys to come and turn this particular business division around. So, the correct immediate riposte to our client is:
“Regardless of the stickiness of his current role, why would James want to join you?
We usually receive a range of bland responses ranging from offering him a bit more money to “he owes me”!
The problem for us is that this bluster will likely fail to pass proper diligence when it comes to influencing James to up sticks and move. So we need to qualify the assignment by diving deep into the relationship and understanding his preference for this particular candidate before we engage.
The phased approach to James only occurred once we are able to demonstrate good inside intelligence. Then through a series of conversations and meetings we gained a deep insight in James' motivation to move and identification of a couple of ‘red flags' that would need to be addressed by our client if a move was to take place.
Our client was happy to revisit the specification. We looked at the role in contrast to his historic appointments and we made some minor adjustments that would have a big impact on the whole but yield the same if not greater results from the division when the job was done.
Due to the careful foundation work the presentation call and offer process was a breeze.
James got the role he cherishes, our client got his man and we get our consulting fee!
Win, Win, Win!