If you’re not selling your opportunity to everyone you interview, you are taking a big risk come offer time . . .and beyond.
Let me tell you a quick story about an old client of mine many years ago. It was a startup firm that quickly grew with a thousand people. When they interviewed people, they had two goals in mind. Number one was to hire someone for their jobs, of course. But number two was they wanted to make sure that when people walked out, they thought to themselves, "Man, I hope I get this job." And, if they didn't get the job, they were so disappointed.
"This firm was terrific. You know, they've got high standards. They present themselves extremely well. They seem to do great work. I really wish I'd gotten that job," they would think to themselves. Is that the way people leave your office? Seriously, is that how they leave your firm after an interview?
No? You're missing a great opportunity. The fact of the matter is, when a potential hire comes to your firm, it's an opportunity to sell the organization to them, make them fall in love. Because, after all, if they're not in love, the likelihood of their taking the job unless they're desperate is somewhere near non-existent, right?
So often, whether you, in HR, are preoccupied, or you, as a manager, are just thinking of 27 different things, you're not focused on the one thing that you need . . . actually, two things that you need to.
Number one is one that you're doing and that is you're evaluating and assessing their knowledge but, the second thing, is making them want to join you for all you're doing, all this work and taking all this time to evaluate someone and, if you make an offer and they're not interested because you kind of turned them off with your disinterest, what good was all this?
So, I want to encourage you take some time to sell the opportunity. It's not just what you say . . . you know, if you say "we got this job here, it's a nice opportunity," and you don't seem passionate about it, if you've appeared disinterested because you've been saying this over and over again to every person who walks in, that's not selling.
Selling is about personality and making them want to join you, making them feel good about joining you, even if that's not your eventual choice. Remember, in this age of social media, where it's so easy for people to share complaints, it's also easy for them to share positive experiences with people.
"I interviewed with his firm. Wow, what a great environment this is!" They can talk about that ad infinitum with their friends and colleagues Don't miss this opportunity because it really will make hiring a lot easier for you and for your firm.
