You Can *Find* the Candidate on Your Own, But Can You *Close* the Candidate on Your Own? Why Recruiters Still Matter

You Can *Find* the Candidate on Your Own, But Can You *Close* the Candidate on Your Own? Why Recruiters Still Matter

Jerry : I don't understand. Do you have my reservation?

Rental Car Agent : We have your reservation, we just ran out of cars.

Jerry : But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.

Rental Car Agent : I think I know why we have reservations.

Jerry : I don't think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.

Seinfeld episode “The Alternate Side,” Season 3, Episode 11

As an executive search consultant, I am sometimes asked by prospective clients why they should engage my firm to conduct a search when they can identify candidates on their own. For example, a hiring manager may tell me that they have a vast network and already have several candidates in mind for the opportunity. I never dispute this: Anyone with a good network and access to LinkedIn can find candidates. Ah, but *finding* the candidates is just the beginning! The real skill, especially in today’s competitive, often candidate-driven market, is *closing* the candidates. As Seinfeld said, anyone can *take* the reservation, but you need to be able to *hold* the reservation. Identifying candidates is one thing. Closing the deal with highly sought-after candidates who often need to be wooed in different, creative ways these days is quite another. And the closing is the most important part!

Here are some ways in which hiring an executive search consultant to conduct your candidate search can help you close the deal:

 1. We often know candidates in a different way than you do and can provide insights that you might not have given our particular kind of access. We may already be a trusted advisor to the candidate you want. You may know a candidate as a friend, from a panel, from a professional association, but we often know them from previous searches, or from having previously provided career guidance from our perspective as a recruiter, which can be a different, often deeper level of assessment and access.

2. We can act as an objective, professional mediator, and buffer in the process, which is particularly important when you do have a personal relationship with a candidate (and when there are internal candidates who also need to be considered with care). We can provide a fair and impartial process that applies equally to all candidates. Another benefit is if your friend (or internal candidate) is not ultimately chosen for the role, you can manage some of the awkwardness of that decision by pointing to the impartial process and professional recommendation of the search firm.

3. When there are internal candidates for a search, we can vet them objectively, give them helpful feedback on their careers, and work with you to help create opportunities internally and externally to help develop them – perhaps incentivizing them to stay on if they are not chosen for the promotion they sought.

 4. In addition to access to information about (or a trusted advisor relationship with) candidates that you may not have, we have access to market data you may not have, including current compensation information, industry trends, and other key metrics. This nuanced data is particularly important at the offer stage of the search process, where many searches can fall apart that were otherwise going well when it comes down to final negotiations.

 5. The logistics of the candidate process is also task heavy and benefits from skills of an experienced recruiter. These tasks include scheduling meetings and interviews, booking travel, checking references, responding to candidates and candidate referral outreach (both through formal and informal as well as internal and external channels), conducting degree and licensure verification, etc., all of which can be very time consuming. This is not your day job. It is our day job. Let us take this off your plate.

The competition for talent (especially diverse talent) has never been fiercer. These are just a few of the many ways that executive search consultants can add value to your organization’s search process and help you beat out the competition for the hire you want to make. You may *find* the candidate you want on your own, but are you sure you can *close* them on your own? And that’s really the most important part: the closing.

With gratitude for proofreading/editing to Paula Edgar, Esq.