Craig: Yes I have.
Animal: Well, I want you to think back Craig and tell us: What was your biggest failure as a salesperson or as a recruiter? And what did you learn from that experience?
Craig: I'll be honest with you. I had a guy interview me, his name was Todd and he was the VP Sales and it was the single toughest interview that I had ever had. He was really drilling down. Most interviews are on the surface. They ask you a question and there is very little follow up.
This guy would ask me a question and he would follow up really well with "How's that?" and "Why is that?" and "How did it make you feel?" and "What did you do about it?"
And I learned an important lesson from him which is you can't really get to know somebody in an hour interview and you really have to dig deep to get to know people in an interview situation.
Because if you're going to go to work together you're going to be spending a lot of time together. But we tend to take the interviewing process a little too lightly. So my first lesson from Todd is that it's a real, real serious thing and its almost like a marriage.
So from that point on I got to be a real tough interviewer. And when I found red flags that I felt were deal breakers I would end the interview and say "Hey, it's not going to happen. Have a good life."
Animal: Really, you're that abrupt? You seem like a nice guy.
Craig: I try and be a nice guy but at the same time I don't have any time to waste and I don't think people have time to waste.
Animal: But to kick someone out of your office? Isn't that kind of rude?
Craig: Well I wouldn't do it in a rude way but I stop them and I just say "Hey, let me be really honest with you. I think you're great and I think you're going to find great things but this particular opportunity that we're talking about today, I can't see it happening. It doesn't really mesh for me and I think in all total honesty, I should introduce you to somebody else in one of the other divisions or see that we can find another thing because this particular thing here that we're talking about doesn't seem to be flying."
Animal: What's the shortest amount of time you've got into an interview before you've given someone the boot?
Craig: Five to ten minutes.
Animal: What are these red flags?
Craig: I look for things I consider to be deal breakers. For instance, if you're in a conversation with somebody who interrupts you four or five times in the first five minutes, I'm done.
Animal: And it happens?
Craig: It happens all the time. Or it might be that we're hiring for a hundred per cent commission only and I'll start asking people "Hey, before we get into this too much I need to start talking to you about how the compensation plan here works.
And they start telling me that they need a 70k salary a year and I tell them that "This job is 100% commission only. You could make twice as much as you ever made before but you're only get paid for you sell." And they say, "No, I couldn't do that." So, sometimes that is a deal-breaker and I say "Okay, take care."
Animal: I'm surprised that you got someone into the interview who wasn't looking for a straight commission job.
Craig: You know, my style, Animal, is to cast a wide net. I'd rather bring people in just to meet them and give them the benefit of the doubt and let them see the operation and what the opportunity is.
Because the truth is I've hired hundreds of people who are used to making only 40, 50 or 60 thousand dollars a year and and I've taught them how to make a 140, 150, 160 thousand and all of a sudden their lives change. And if it wasn't for that opportunity to meet, shake hands, have lunch together or share a cup of coffee, something like that we never would have had the opportunity to make that connection.
Animal: See, I'll just come back to what you said before. It's hard for me to understand how those two things fit together.
These sales abilities are baked into your genes and yet you keep taking these people who aren't earning big money in a sales role. But we can put that aside for now.
Craig: You can go out for people who are historically exceptional for doing exactly what you're looking for or you can look for a diamond in the rough. Somebody you can shape and teach and develop and a lot of my career is looking for those types of people and teaching them the business.
Animal: Yeah but recruiters don't work on that basis. No one wants to hire diamonds in the rough from us.
Craig: Well, I think that's true to a great extent. People tend to do those types of hires on their own through employee referrals, through their own websites and job postings.
Answer Alert: Craig gave us some interesting information here, didn't he? But do you remember the question? Tell us about a failure. And, in fact, he got that job with Todd.
Source: 17.00 min mark, The Recruiting Animal Show, 07.10.24
