Phone Sourcing – Why It' s More Important Than Ever!

Social Media On Steroids

Presented by Maureen Sharibwww.TechTrak.com

Some of you may know me from articles I’ve written online about telephone names sourcing or the seminars I’ve given around the country.

I’ve been phone sourcing since 1996 and consider myself pretty good at it.

If you’re wondering to yourself what phone sourcing is, let’s start with what it isn’t.

It’s not finding a name online and then calling into the company to see if the person is “still there”. Nope, it’s not that.

It’s not even finding a person online and calling into the company to see if the person is “still there” and if their title is still current. But even that’s closer than just finding someone online and calling into the

company to see if the person is “still there”.

Telephone names sourcing is calling into a specific company and learning who the people are who hold specific titles inside that company. It’s not easy and it’s not for everyone.

But it is simple.

Phone sourcing carries the ability to identify everyone inside a company regardless if that person is “online” or not! Think this:

Picture of Iceberg

The majority of the potential candidates available in the workforce for your open positions are not on LinkedIn. Really.

They’re not even online. At least they’re not online in a capacity that allows you to identify them as a

suitable potential candidate for your open position.

They might have a Facebook profile but no way to track them to your short list. They might be contributing to some online forums but there’s no

information online about what they do or where they do it or who they do it for!

The ONLY WAY to find ALL POSSIBLE POTENTIAL CANDIDATES that might be appropriate for your open position is to call into the places where they work. In order to do this you must be socially skilled.

You must know how to talk with people.

Surprisingly, this is a skill that is diminishing today amidst all the focus on “social media”.

What is “social media”? Wikipedia describes it as follows:

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. The term refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

Much of sourcing today embraces the social media agenda of “web-based and mobile technologies”.

Think Internet sourcing and texting. God forbid anyone would really talk to one another.

If you know how to talk with someone you can telephone names source. I said before it’s not easy but it is simple.

Here’s how I do it. “This is Maureen Sharib. Can you tell me who the Manager is for your

External Reporting group?”

Sometimes she knows and she tells me. Why does she tell me?

It’s a very good question and one I have done a lot of thinking about. I think she tells me because of one simple thing.

Can anyone tell me what that one simple thing is?

She tells me because I removed the mystery. Can anyone tell me what “removing the mystery” means?

I told her my name. She didn’t have to wonder who I was so she didn’t start to ask any questions.

Once she starts to ask questions she has a tendency to continue asking more questions. If she told me her name I also repeated it back at her, as in, “Hi, Susan, this

is Maureen Sharib. Can you tell me who the Manager is of your External Reporting group?”

I keep it very simple.

I do not say more. I do not explain to her why I need the name. I do not tell her what

organization I’m calling from. I do not try to intimidate her into telling me the name.

IF she doesn’t know the name, I help her. “This person is probably in your Finance group. Can you please transfer me

to finance?”

Chances are she can do that but before she does I ask her something else. “Can you tell me who you’re transferring me to?”

Once she tells me, I press for a little more information. “What is Marie Olender’s extension number in case I get disconnected.”

Why do I want that?

I want to learn how the company’s internal phone system works.

Why is that important?

It’s important in case I want to “stab in” for information. Can anyone tell me what “stabbing in” is?

“Stabbing in” is when you direct dial into a company (around the Gatekeeper) to the individual desk phones of the company’s employees. How powerful is that?

Let’s stop here for a minute. We’re all friends here.

Tell the truth. Does what we just went through frighten you?

It frightened the bejeezus outta’ me when I first started phone sourcing. I’d sweat bullets at the thought of calling and talking to a Gatekeeper.

I’d spend inordinate amounts of time on the Internet fiddling around looking for what I was after. It was a safe place that never asked me why I wanted the information I

sought.

It never snapped. It never snarled.

It always made me feel productive. Except…

I didn’t get paid by the hour. I got paid by the name!

It didn’t profit me to fiddle-fool around on the Internet for hours and hours and hours on my searches. Don’t get me wrong.

I have always done Internet search. But ONLY to get myself started.

The fastest way to get the information you seek is to call someone on the phone and ask for it. There is no amount of Boolean in the world today that can exceed the

results you get with the telephone.

That’s a bold, controversial and unpopular statement nowadays. I know it.

I stand by it and will argue it with anyone. Very few step up to the plate to argue it with me.

Social media is a powerful medium but you must know how to use it. If you view it as one of the tools in your toolbox you’ll be on the right track

to making it work for you.

It is constantly evolving and much of it is becoming fiscally expensive as it does. If you can access what is reasonably affordable (both in money and time) in

social media and marry it with simple yet sophisticated telephone communication techniques you’ll gain the best of both worlds.

Curiously, my prediction is that as social media “evolves” privacy will become ever more important to people. Privacy will be the new luxury.

If you know how to reach into a person’s “privacy” with the time-honored tradition of the telephone you’ll be so far ahead of your competition it will make them weep. Your “social” position will be enviable.

This will conclude today’s first lesson in phone sourcing. We’ll make this a weekly series and if you’d like to participate in next week’s

webinar and have any specific questions you’d like me to address send them to me at maureen@techtrak.com

Thank you for participating today. If you’re on Twitter and would like more tips and techniques on phone

sourcing go to www.tweetchat.com and put #SChat into the hashtag box and it will take you to our weekly sourcing chat that begins at noon (ET) on Tuesdays.

That’s in just a few minutes!

If you want to learn more about phone sourcing and Gatekeeper techniques google my name (in quotes) and the word “Gatekeeper”. Many results will appear that will give you a good feel for what I do

everyday!

Thank you again and if you have any questions about any of what we discussed today give me a call at 513 899 9628. Maureen Sharib

Phone Sourcer

www.TechTrak.com

See you next week!