I enjoyed this recent article from NZ recruiter Karl Harenburg reminding us of the importance of picking up the phone. It sounds so obvious yet we appear to have reached an era of such information overload that I think it really is the only way to cut through all the noise nowadays.
We had a team gathering yesterday with our Business Managers from Christchurch and Wellington joining us in Auckland and part of the meeting centered around what we found to be the most effective sales tools. It really didn’t require much debate – the phone is still the most effective tool of course.
If you want a conversation with me, that is hands down the best way to go. I will always answer or quickly call back. I bumped into an in-house recruiter at a bar in the same building as the Randstad Awards last night (not gatecrashing – honest). We were having the same conversation and as I looked at my phone screen, with all the app icons festooned with red circles telling me what number of notifications I hadn’t looked at yet, it dawned on me that the only one I ever really care about is when there’s a red circle in the corner of my phone icon.
I love it. If you need things to happen, or want to get your message across in an effective way, then there really is no equal. And yet we keep on trying to develop more and more “clever” ways to communicate, to market, to sell, without pressing that phone icon.
I wouldn’t claim to love cold calling but I will always gladly do it. I still remember the first time I was forced to make a difficult phone call. It wasn’t in a recruitment office or on some sales floor either. I was at school and some friends of mine played for a rival football team in the next town over. They persuaded me to join their team. They were top of their league, had nicer pitches, and gave all their players their own kit bag. That was enough for me. But telling my Dad didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped. He was happy for me to swap teams, but calmly told me that I would, of course, have to inform my current team coach, and handed me his phone number.
I was so nervous to make that call I was practically sick.
But I did it. It probably scarred me. But at least they’re scars that eliminated my fear of making calls in the future.
So there you go. Make your kids make difficult phone calls. It’ll do them good. Especially if you want them to grow up to be recruiters. Oh….
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ve got some calls to make. Happy Friday!
