Sales-People: How To Make The Most Of Your Intro Call With A Recruiter

By Liam Peoples, a Senior Consultant within our Commercial Team, based in Zeren across the DACH region.

Everyone is busy. Time is limited. It’s so important – perhaps now more than ever – that every conversation, for both sales-people and recruiters alike, is efficient, and brings as much value as possible.

Typically, an introduction call between a Software Sales candidate and a recruiter will last between 20 and 30 minutes. So, with this limited time to make a good impression, how can you best make use of it to ensure that it’s a high-value conversation for both sides?

First and foremost, it’s important to remember that such encounters can be a great opportunity for both parties to take the opportunity to market their respective products: the sales-person markets themselves, and the recruiter markets their’s, and their client’s, business. At the most basic level, you should think of this introduction call as an information exchange. And, if the information exchange is successful, this will lead to a value exchange.

As a candidate, the information you will naturally be seeking, will usually include elements such as:

• Name and Description of the Business;
• Title and Remit of the Role;
• Location;
• Remote / Home-Working;
• Career Development Opportunities; and
• Compensation.

All of which the recruiter with whom you are speaking should be willing and able to give, but usually only once they have been able to ascertain the information they need about you.

So, what information will a recruiter need exactly? To answer this, we should take one step back.

Before a recruiter or headhunter contacts you about a role, first they need to ascertain the requirements of the role, and then match this with an ideal role profile. Only then will the process of identifying and contacting candidates who may fit the profile and meet the requirements, begin. The truth is, especially within Software Sales, this process can be quite formulaic.

Businesses will usually seek to hire Software Sales candidates with relevant experience in one or more of the following criteria:

• Type of Technology Sold;
• Industry / Industries Sold Into;
• Stakeholders Sold Into;
• Deal Sizes;
• Targets; and
• Attainment vs. Target.

And it is these categories that companies will ask recruiters to use as the basis for their presentation of candidates and their CVs.

Before getting in touch with you, therefore, a recruiter will want to know about your experience in one or more of these areas. This is so that you can make the most of your time speaking with the recruiter by articulating how your experience matches up with those criteria.

When discussing your experience and CV with the recruiter in the introduction call, it is helpful to have all the above information to hand. This will enable you to highlight these aspects of your experience as early and as succinctly as possible in the call. This can often be included in your opening introduction to yourself and your current role, which, including some time for general rapport-building beforehand, can all be covered in the opening 10 minutes. And it is this which can make or break your intro call.

But why is this so important in order to make the most of your introduction call with the recruiter? Because with your part of the information exchange fulfilled so quickly, you can use the remaining 10-20 minutes to gather the information that you need. This will ensure that anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of the call can be spent with you receiving information and, ultimately, providing you with greater value.

Now remember, this is a brief introduction call with a recruiter. There is no exact art and there will always be more that could have been covered, but by preparing and providing the information the client has asked the recruiter to gather, you can gain much more information and value, yourself.

Zeren exists to empower the world’s change makers. We do this by building high-performing teams in the world’s most innovative businesses, to accelerate growth by connecting visionary leaders and ambitious talent.

We are a leading global Executive Search & Recruitment Firm with teams and offices in San Francisco, Houston, New York, London, Berlin and Frankfurt.

We partner with both high growth, VC/PE backed businesses and ambitious Corporate brands placing senior leaders, building exceptional teams, or providing critical interim and consulting talent.