The Magic In the MethodExcellent Phone Sourcing Lessons

By Maureen Sharib

How I Became A Telephone Names Sourcer It’s a funny story.

I was burned out working in my previous profession and took some time off. I was emotionally shut down.

I went into therapy.

I discovered new insights into my own character.

I was introduced to computers and the Internet.

I was transfixed.

I was hanging out in AOL chat rooms.

I met someone. Someone who became my husband several years later. In the meantime he taught me – long distance and over the Internet – how

to use a computer.

He was very patient.

I was very dumb but I kept at it.

I bumped into someone on the Internet who asked me:

“What do you do?” I wasn’t “doing” anything because in my mind (then) if you weren’t earning

money you weren’t “doing” anything.

Yeah, I know.

Screwed up.

I told him, “Nothing, really.”

He said:

“Would you like to try your hand at names sourcing?” “Huh? What’s that?” I asked.

I had never heard of names sourcing.

“Well, I give you a list of companies and your job is to call into each one and get the names of certain people who hold certain titles.”

“How hard could that be?” I thought to myself. I told you I was dumb.

I got lucky. The first time I called into a company I got the name right off the bat.

Beginner’s luck.

Stupidly, I thought, “He wants to pay me for this?”

I couldn’t believe it.

“Send me more!” I told him.

He did. I spent the next year struggling through different sourcing jobs.

I was not good at it.

Eventually he stopped sending me work (he fired me).

I was bereft.

I loved the work.

I decided I had to get better at it.

But first I needed work. I collected the emails of a bunch of recruiters.

I sent them a simple email:

Hi. My name is Maureen Sharib and I’m a phone sourcer. I can help you find people for your hard-to-fill positions. Please call me. My phone number is 513 899 9628.

It was 1997. First, one recruiter called.

Then another.

Then one referred me to a colleague.

Before I knew it I had plenty of work to keep me busy.

Soon I needed help. I asked the someone I had met in the AOL chat room to help me. He did.

We formed a partnership.

We worked long distance with each other – he in New York and me in Cincinnati. It was fun.

It was heady.

We fell in love.

We married.

That’s Bob, my husband and partner today.

How I got better at phone sourcing. I started taking notes. At the end of the day I’d write out what happened

that day – good and bad.

There was plenty of bad.

There was no direction at the time on how to phone source.

The old-timer advice was to ruse.

I rused.

“Hi! We’re sending pizzas over. I need to know who wants what topping and what their names are.”

“Hi. This is Maureen in Events. I’m sending the invitations out to the Christmas party – who all is in your department?”

“Hi. This is Maureen, Jim Peters’ wife. His birthday is coming up and I want to invite all his co-workers to a barbecue. Can you tell me who they are?”

They all worked.

It was terrible. My Catholic guilt crept in.

I couldn’t sleep nights.

I felt there must be a “better” way.

I started experimenting with not using ruses.

It began to work.

I felt better with myself.

I realized the notes I had been taking at night were really “scripts.” I also realized there was a great need for teaching phone sourcing in the

world.

That’s really how the MagicMethod course came to be.

There’s one more thing I want to tell you.

Getting names was like an activity I did as a child that I wildly enjoyed. My brother and I would find duck eggs in nests around lakes at a relative’s

house.

It gave me the biggest thrill to find these well-hidden nests.

Names sourcing gave me the same thrill.

It still does.

"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake." ~ Wallace Stevens

The MMPS designation At the conclusion of the Magic In the Method telephone sourcing course you’ll

receive your MagicMethod Phone Sourcer certification. For more information on the MagicMethod telephone names sourcing curriculum

go here: http://www.techtrak.com/training.html

If you have any questions contact the author of the course, Maureen Sharib at 513 899 9628 or email her at maureen at techtrak.com