Phone Sourcing – The Final FrontierOctober 3, 2013

Seattle, WAPresented By Maureen Sharib, Ensorceler

Fall 2013

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797 Irish orator

You can never plan the future by the past.

Mark Twain

Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.

“Hi, my name is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know me.”

These are the first words I say nowadays to many Gatekeepers/potential candidates/owners of companies.

I’ve been phone sourcing now for going on twenty years and I’ve seen a great deal of change in our industry.

Just as much has changed in our industry, much seems to be returning to things as they used to be.

@MaureenSharib

“The more things change the more things stay the same.” ~ Alphonse Karr 1808 – 1890 French novelist

This is what seems to me to be happening today in sourcing.

When I first started in this business most people didn’t know what a sourcer was.

How many of you remember those days?

“Hi, my name is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know me.”

I repeat that message for a reason.

Of the near-twenty years I’ve practiced this craft of telephone sourcing it took me a full several before I really gained an understanding and a footing.

I was helped in this because I came out of a business background – I had sold small businesses for twenty two years before beginning phone sourcing and compared to that challenge phone sourcing seemed like a breeze.

@MaureenSharib

Before I really understood what I was asked to do.

I know you’ve heard the story about how I started working for a gentleman in California (who, it turned out years later incubated some of the best phone sourcers in the business!) and he fired me after a year or so for not knowing what I was doing and nobody could have blamed him at the time.

But that’s not what today’s presentation is about.

My story is online and most of you who are Internet sourcers can read about it with a little bit of Boolean tracking.

@MaureenSharib

Part of today’s presentation is about having the confidence in yourself to do this thing called phone sourcing.

Few of us know each other and still fewer of us know ourselves!

I’m here to bear witness to the fact that I full well recognize the irony in the words, “My name is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know me,” as they apply to myself.

But before we go to that piece let’s stop and talk about that promise in the Sourcecon Agenda about how I’m going to show you how ONE NAME found in social media can help a phone sourcer pull that person’s entire group in an organization and help fill long-empty, hard-to-fill positions.

I know that’s important and part of why you’re here today.

Recently I was tasked with finding a Food Scientist with meat experience for a major Midwest food manufacturer.

The Hiring Manager was convinced we’d find someone out of competitor companies on the East Coast that made a particular kind of sandwich – a Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwich – you know the culprit.

On the Intake Call I’m thinking to myself, “I don’t know…”

Suffice it to say I had my doubts as I listened to the Hiring Manager describe where he thought I’d “find” these people. Sure enough my first round of phone sourcing surfaced only candidates that didn’t have the requisite educations they were looking for:

B.S. or M.S. degree in Food Science/Food Technology/Animal Science or related area with at least 3 to 5 years experience in the meat or food industry.

All I was surfacing were (mostly) immigrant grannies/grandpas and spoiled grandchildren that were the proud creators/possessors of family recipes that underscored regional food companies with millions of dollars in sales to (mostly) regional audiences.

“…not what we’re looking for…”

Interesting people to talk to with all kinds of other possibilities but not the kind of people who are going to go to work for a $2billion-in-sales food production company leading multiple complex development projects using detailed investigations, well thought out experimental design, sound scientific techniques and data based decision making.

Back To The Drawing Board“What about the schools? Kansas and Oklahoma, and, I hate to admit it, Texas A&M have strong food/animal science programs – what about them? Might they surface something?”

I cringed at the thought of chasing after academia for an industry job that required – remember- at least 3 to 5 years experience in the meat or food industry.

A couple weeks later and a hundred or so resumes generated by a strong email campaign to the professors in several of the nation’s schools known for producing food technology graduates resulted in lots of new graduates with little industry experience and – curiously – very little meat experience overall, even in their graduate studies.

I know you’re wondering, “Why isn’t she phone sourcing into other companies?”

That’s a very good question and for those of you who thought of it you get extra points for today’s session. The reason I wasn’t sourcing into other companies was I was waiting on an “approved” list to source into other specific target companies. It seems this company with the Food Scientist need is on an acquisition hunt and there are some companies they’re in talks with about purchasing (acquisourcing/acquihiring.)

This may be a good (and maybe an only) defense against the present and ongoing investigations by the United States Justice Department into companies who agree not to “poach” each other’s employees. But that’s another story and I remain unconvinced.

“Yippee-skippee. We’re good to go.”

The approved list came down and I immediately began calling into several companies. I was after maybe 50 -100 names of Food Technologists in fast-food companies like McDonalds that have R&D departments and other food-processing companies like Hormel that have teams filled with people with not only years of/ but also experience with/meat.

Why don’t I just go to LinkedIn and pull a bunch of Food Technologists/Scientists you want to ask me – right?

The answer’s simple and before we turn the page does anyone want to tell me why I don’t do that?

That’s exactly NOT what I want to do because everybody’s doing that!

Everyone likes to say, “Everyone is on LinkedIn” (or on social media somewhere.)

That’s not true.

What is true is that every sourcer/recruiter is on LinkedIn (or on social media somewhere.)

There’s a big difference.

What I do is use social media against itself. Here’s how I do that.

I find one name of a “Principle Scientist” at one of the food companies on my list on LinkedIn. Oh, by the way he has two profiles and it doesn’t appear he knows it. It also doesn’t appear he’s that interested in the social media behemoth (six contacts, rudimentary profile) and all the promise it holds out for him.

Jim Baker Principal Scientist

I call the main number of the company he works for and the Receptionist Gatekeeper answers. She doesn’t say her name. I tell her mine and then I ask for him.

He’s there (I’m a little surprised.) I ask for and get his extension number.

I ask for his email address. She tells me he has to give me his email address.

I tell her that’s fine and ask if she can transfer me but before she does I cut in (always press, when you can, for a little more info!) and ask, “In case I don’t reach him is there anyone else in his group I might try?”

She tells me who the director “of R&D” is in the group.

I ask for a little more (“Is there a manager?”) and I sense her growing cold so I politely ask if she can transfer me.

She agrees to do so and I say, “thank you.”

I have two names in the group.

Jim Baker Principal Scientist <- Found on LinkedIn

Marcy Masterson Director R & D <-given to me by the receptionist

This is a large food company so I suspect there are several others in the group based on a couple things:

I have a Director who may have multiple managers w/groups beneath them.

I have a “Principle Scientist” who may himself be in a managerial role w/direct reports beneath him.

Jim doesn’t answer but his Voice Mail does and wow! Does it ever!

“This is Jim Baker; I’m out ‘til October 1st. If this is a quality issue for Hardee’s call Susan Tobias at x4793 and if it’s an issue on the recent breading tests call Hunt Masterson or Helen Chiu-Stevenson in the lab. The lab number is x6587.”

I now have five names in the group.

Jim Baker Principal Scientist <- found on LinkedIn

Marcy Masterson Director R & D <-given to me by the receptionist

Susan Tobias / Quality? x4793 <- given to me by Jim Baker

Hunt Masterson / Lab x6587 <- given to me by Jim Baker

Helen Chiu-Stevenson / Lab x6587 <- given to me by Jim Baker

It’s time to start putting some puzzle pieces together.

I call the main number again. The same receptionist gatekeeper answers.

I say, “It’s me again; Maureen. I reached Jim’s Voice Mail – he suggested calling Susan Tobias – is she the Quality Engineer in the group?” and she answers, “Yes.” I then tell her I have Susan’s (I don’t call her “Sue”) extension and the Lab’s number but I need Helen and Hunt’s extensions.

She gives me those too.

Then I take a deep breath and prepare to dive deeper.

“In case I don’t reach them who else might I try in their group?”

I’m gambling here but I’m pretty confident, based on the amount of information I was able to gather on one lucky call to someone’s Voice Mail and bring back and share with her and the amount of information she willingly shared back with me that she’ll continue the conversation.

She’s getting invested in our relationship step-by-step.

“It sounds like you’re missing Tim Ladderly and David Marshon. They’re in that group too.”

“I don’t have them listed. Are they both Scientists?” I continue, (always taken back by this presumptiveness!) taking my cue from David’s title.

“No, they’re Food Technologists. David’s the only Principle Scientist in that group.”

She said the word that like there were other groups, confirming my suspicion but we’re about to stop here in today’s presentation because phone sourcing is filled with so many nuances they could fill an entire conference like this one.

“Yes, all of them are Technologists except for Marcy of course, who’s the Director; but I think I already told you that,” she said, beginning to reflect back over the conversation.

“Is that everyone in that group?” I ask, trying to draw her attention away from her reflective thoughts.

“Yes, that’s everyone in that group. Some of the groups are quite a bit larger…”

And there you have it. This is how you cut through the messy and aging data (you don’t hardly go near it!) with one of the oldest and best tools a recruiter or sourcer has – the phone!

This is what the final result looks like, organizationally structured.

Marcy Masterson Director R & D <-given to me by the receptionist Jim Baker Principal Scientist <- found on LinkedIn

Susan Tobias Technologist/Quality x4793 <- given to me by Jim Baker Hunt Masterson Technologist x4789 Lab x6587 <- given to me by Jim Baker Helen Chiu-Stevenson Technologist x4777 Lab x6587 <- given to me by Jim Baker Tim Ladderly Technologist <- given to me by the receptionist David Marshon Technologist <- given to me by the receptionist

Disclaimer: All these names are fictionalized to protect the guilty (me) but they are based on a real group in a real company on a real job completed the week of 9/27/13.

Guess what?

None of the other six in the group were on LinkedIn. I checked!

Same-Day Recruiting

When you do this several times a day, at the end of the day (or by noon even, if you start at the break of dawn and you’re on the West Coast) you can have yourself a list of candidates that nobody else is likely to have/has any hope of ever having that you can begin calling to fill your open positions.

Spend 5-6 hours of doing that and there’s an excellent chance by the time the whistle blows you’ll have a short list of targeted/honed candidates to send on to your Hiring Manager for consideration!

Now that we have the track technical portion covered, let’s talk about the future of sourcing…

…what I call the dark, starry night – the final frontier of sourcing.

The Final Frontier

You know those words, “Space: The Final Frontier” - the first line of the opening voiceover in Star Trek that goes…

These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise Its 5 year mission To explore strange new worlds To seek out new life and new civilizations To boldly go where no man has gone before…

I’ve long heard those words and have always thought to myself, “No, that’s not true. The mind is the final frontier.”

I think what I mean to say and have always meant to voice to myself is the idea that the inner voyage is always the greater chasm to cross.

One of the first things about phone sourcing (and the Internet sourcing that accompanied it) that captivated me in those years long ago were the strange new worlds I was introduced to.

As sourcers we explore strange new worlds, don’t we?

We seek out new life and new civilizations and certainly, as phone sourcers, we boldly go where no woman (or man) has dared gone before, don’t we?

It was 1996 in my early phone sourcing days and I was reading articles written by researchers at the former Xerox PARC (now PARC) about making things out of nothing*.

I was transfixed.

I was tunneling in to those campuses and talking to scientists about stuff I had no idea what I was talking about in order to find out who their coworkers were and I was having the time of my life.

All the while I was learning about myself (though I didn’t realize it until years later.)

*Nanotechnology, Beam-Me-Up-Scottie Stuff

What I came to realize years later was how little I knew about so many things and, consequently, how little I knew about myself.

That self-awakening has brought me circling back today to a part of what I thought I would never do again; only today it’s coupled with my phone sourcing business into a new product in early launch delivering results and promise that I’m very excited about.

This is where the future of sourcing lies.

The future of sourcing lies in what turns you on – what makes your toe tap.

Are they telling you you’re finished as an Internet sourcer?

You’re not but you know you need to do something more – we all do.

We’re all being challenged to take things to the next level.

That’s evolution and it’s the natural way of things.

So what is it you can do that’s “more”?

You can learn to communicate better.

You can learn to

ensorcel!

Winston Churchill said, about words…

“Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.”

ensorcel; ensorceler (Middle French)

To enchant, bewitch

Sourcers are challenged today to become ensorcelers.

Enchant candidates with your message.

Your message can be written.

It can be an email; it can be a text – it can be a smoke signal but at some point it needs to be expressed verbally and for that you’re going to have to come out of your shells and be willing to walk up to (dial) someone, stick your hand out and say:

“Hi, my name’s Maureen Sharib and you don’t know me.”

It’s going to require you upping your Emotional Intelligence Quotient.

If you’ve been watching the Sourcecon Ensorceler Bar behind this presentation you might have caught the clip that defined emotional intelligence as the “ability to default to grace under the onslaught of an ugly Gatekeeper.”

Before you can do that you have to be able to default to grace under the onslaught of your own harsh scrutiny towards your own abilities.

We all think there are things we can’t do.

Again, referring to the Sourcecon Ensorceler Bar, “Stinkin’ Thinkin’” is defined as:

The self-immolation we offer ourselves up to before attempting a task. Some of us possess more of it than others. A few are blessed with its absence. Usually precedes or is accompanied by pain and suffering and always leads to failure. Requires professional help.

You’re getting professional help attending Sourcecon, right now!

Only we can set the parameters in our own cycles and they start below with “Our beliefs”

(about ourselves.)

Companies spend gazillions of dollars manufacturing, marketing, and servicing PHONES

TALKING on phones is not going away.

Don’t kid yourself that ANY ONE THING or combo-platter of things in all the mobile/Internet messaging/emails/Inmails/social media ballyhooing/TRUeventing/Unconferencing/CONferencing and all the etcetera you can swallow is going to make it happen for you unless…

you make it your business to include real human contact – that voice connection between you and the potential candidate that sends that ripple along the spinal cord – that tingle that creates that kinship feeling that gets deals done.

You can do this. It’s nothing like most of you fear.

The hardest part of it is the trepidation you feel about phone sourcing.

Phone sourcing is simple.

It’s not easy but then, the fact that so few do it is proof of that, isn’t it?

The hardest part of phone sourcing is challenging yourself to do it.Once you do that, and you give yourself permission to explore and overcome those spooky spaces in your soul the dark, starry night of sourcing will appear boundless.

In all this old that is new and new that is old talk of today what will be new will be you.

Be gentle with yourself.You are a child of theuniverse, no less thanthe trees and the stars.In the noisy confusion of life,Keep peace in your soul.

~Max Ehrmann

@MaureenSharib