Wow, you have a great Job Order (JO)!  You cleared your fee and know everything about the position.  You have a good rapport with the hiring authority. You are excited and ready to start making calls and “fill this puppy” quickly!  Everything is set, right?  Maybe yes… maybe no!

We spend a lot of time and attention on getting details and understanding motivation from our candidates.  It will serve us well to consider taking a more “candidate-focused” approach to understanding our clients’ needs, as well.  Let me explain.

We understand that people are motivated by how their life is being affected by their job.  We understand that the best way to approach people is by inquiring about, focusing upon and satisfying their needs and wants.  Satisfy needs and you’ll have a robust practice. 

I think that we often forget that our hiring authorities are people too.  The JO you want to fill should have a direct affect on them personally in some significant way.  I want to know how much it affects them.  Before I invest a few days to weeks of my life in a search, I want to know if having the position open is really a problem. And if so, how big a problem it is.  The bigger the problem, greater the motivation to follow my advice and a process that will assure success.  I have never found anyone willing to spend a lot of time and effort to solve an inconsequential problem.

To identify how committed a client is, I make sure I ask 4 questions in this order:

 1. How long has the position been open?

• There seems to be a direct relationship between how long a position has been open and how urgent/important filling it is to a hiring authority.
• However beware of positions that have been open for more than 6 months.  They may have become accustomed to doing the work themselves and become desensitized to the pain of having it unfilled.
• How is the work being done now?
• I always want to hear that they are paying big bucks for a contractor or overtime and that the work is indeed being done
• I like it more when the hiring authority has to do the work themselves.  That way they really feel the pain. 
• Beware of “I don’t know.”  No pain, no problem, no urgency… no fee.

3. What is it costing you to have the position open?

Of course if they are paying big bucks for a contractor or overtime, you want to quantify that dollar amount and quote it back to them in total “annual dollars”.  Making it larger than a monthly cost puts it into perspective and reduces fee-sensitivity.
• Be sure to probe for non-monetary costs. What is it costing them personally?  Working evenings and weekends and missing family outings can be huge in terms of their costs …and pain. 
• Perhaps not having this position filled will cost the hiring authority’s department revenue and ultimately his/her bonus.  Now that’s a biggie!
• Generally, the more the personal costs the greater the pain.  The greater the pain, the more they’ll work your way.
4. How will you life be once it’s filled?
• This is where you really want to hear a deep sigh and a response that indicates “relief”.  Listen to what is said and how it is said.
• If they cannot define this, refer to the personal costs they have stated in #3 above and how it would feel to eliminate those costs... in personal terms.

Empathize with them whenever they express pain and make sure they know you care and can make the pain go away, “if…” Then propose a process to get it done. If there is enough pain, and you’ll hear it if there is, they will follow your lead. 

Asking these questions very early in the process of taking a JO, and carefully listening to their answers will help you get comfortable with how emotionally committed your client will be to the process and to you.  Without a strong commitment, you are gambling your time and, if working on a contingent basis, could be working for free.