Phone SourcingWhat It Is

What It Isn’t

Maureen Sharib

Phone Sourcer

513 899 9628 513 646 7306

Many people ask me what I do.

• “It’s simple,” I tell them.

“I call companies and find out who holds what title.”

• “I find out who does what.”

• “I find out who reports to who.”

• “I find out everyone inside a specific

department or a specific company.”

• “Sometimes I hear secrets.”

In so doing I find out lots of things.

• I find out how many reports a certain person has.

• I find out who a person reports to and how many

reports that person has.

• I find out when a position is open; about to be filled

or has been open a long time.

• Sometimes I hear things I really shouldn’t be

hearing only because people love to talk and say

things without thinking!

I find out all kinds of things.

• I find out who the Gatekeeper(s) is/are.

• Sometimes I find out who EVERYBODY is inside a

particular office. (This is one of my most valuable

phone sourcing techniques!)

• I find out department size; who’s new and who’s

not.

• In other words, I find out who’s on first, who’s on

second and who’s on third!

I find out all kinds of things that can add competitive intelligence to other

organizations.

• I can pretty much tell, talking to

individuals inside an organization (or

sometimes just listening to their

Voice Mails), what the morale is like

inside a company.

People are (generally) always happy to talk about their jobs.

• If only someone would listen.

• If only someone would invite them to

talk!

You see, phone sourcing isn’t about talking.

• It’s about listening.

I say very little on a sourcing call.

• “Hello Renee. This is Maureen

Sharib. Can you tell me who your

Cost Accountant is?”

• Sometimes she does tell me.

• Just like that.

• If they have one.

I research a company before I call it to find out the likelihood of them having one.

• Nothing fancy.

• I use Hoovers to do it.

• www.hoovers.com• If you want a low cost seat on my Grandfathered Group

Rate (about a $3000 savings!) see me after class.

I look at the company bio.

• I capture the company name,

location telephone, fax, website and

miscellaneous information about

what they do.

I’ll next find out where satellite locations are and their telephone numbers!

• Many times the hinterland locations

of a company are a wonderful way

to source a company. But that’s

another story…

If I wanted I can also look at:

• Officers of the company

• Some employees of the company

• Financial data on the company

• Ownership detail

• # of employees

• Industry Information

• Competitors

• Historical Events, News & Press Releases and Family Tree

But all I really need…

• Is the company’s telephone number

and a brief glance at its bio, number

of employees, overall size and the

location’s place in the company

hierarchy.

Some companies won’t be big enough to have a dedicated “Cost

Accountant.”• The Controller may be doing that function.

• However, there’s a possibility if the target company

is a good deal smaller than your company the

Controller may take what appears to be a backslide

on title.

• Controller Cost Accountant

It happens, but not all that often.

• Titles are important to people.

• Companies know that.

Maybe we’re off track.

• At this point you don’t really need to

know so much how I phone source as

you need to know what phone

sourcing is (and isn’t.) That’s the

subject of today’s presentation.

What (Phone) Sourcing Isn’t

• Lying, rusing or whatever you want to call “telling tall tales” to “get a name”

• Complicated

• Easy

• A 9 to 5 activityA lot of yakkity-yakhin’ on the phonePulling candidates off the

boards, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, YourSpace, wherever and passing them off

as “phone-sourced” names just because you called to see if they were “still there”

• Pushing paperwork around your desk (or fiddling on your keyboard) so you “look”

busySetting up a website/posting a job and expecting it to do the hard work for

youSending e-mail (or InMail) to contact potential candidates – this goes along

with:

• Leaving Voice Mails and then “waiting” for call backs from potential candidates

The pathway to recruiting mediocrity

What (Phone) Sourcing Is

• Simple

• Quiet Listening

• Straight Forward

• Process Driven

• Calling into companies to find potential candidates that might fill your open positions

or connecting with people in your own influence sphere who might connect you to

others who might fill your open positionsLearning - always learning - new ways

Utilizing any tool that might contribute to your success on the phone

• Hard workLong hours- it’s not “9-t0-5”

• Concentration / Tenacity / Bull Doggedness

• Mostly “lone” wolf workThe pathway to recruiting success

Do I have to lie (ruse) to get names?

• No, you don’t have to lie (ruse) to get

names.

• You do however, need to know how

to communicate with people – how to

engage someone in a conversation.

Not everyone knows how to engage people.

• Not everyone knows how to be a

good conversationalist.

• It’s why so many of us feel awkward

at cocktail parties, networking events

– even company meetings!

Most of us feel awkward in flesh-and-blood social situations.

• “What do I say?” you’re thinking as you stand there

with your heart thumping in your chest, glancing

surreptitiously around the room, feeling like all eyes are

on you.

• “Hello. My name is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know

me,” isn’t a bad first start as you stick your hand out in

front of you.

• “I’d like to get to know you! What’s your name?”

What would you say if I said that to you?

• Would you recoil from me or would

you smile, stick your hand out too

and tell me your name while you

silently breathed a sigh of relief?

How do you engage someone? Do I have to do a lot of talking?

• I like to tell this story about what a good conversationalist

is (and what one isn’t.)

• Benjamin Disraeli, one of Great Britain’s more flamboyant

parliamentary members and conservative prime minister

during Queen Victoria’s reign, was a famous communicator.

•  His main political rival was the renowned orator William

Gladstone and four-times Liberal prime minister.

Both Disraeli and Gladstone were politicians of extraordinary ability whose personalities clashed throughout their lifelong

rivalries.

• Gladstone’s style of debate was “torrential, eloquent, evangelical,

vehement, and ‘preachy’; Disraeli’s, urbane, witty, and worldly, with

a streak of romance as well as cynicism.”

•  

• The two styles of communication reveal how someone who is full of

himself — even though brilliant — can be unlikeable as a result of

pedestaling his own ego.

•  

• On the other hand, someone who is skilled in social interaction (as

Disraeli was) understands the power of listening and how it

translates in connecting with another human being.

By making a conscious effort to focus on others — to practice attentiveness — you’ll find that all the parties to the

conversation enjoy themselves.

• A young lady was taken to dinner one evening by

Gladstone and the following evening by Disraeli.

Asked what impressions these two celebrated

men had made upon her, she replied, “When I left

the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone,

I thought he was the cleverest man in England.

But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I

was the cleverest woman in England.”

You’ve all heard the old common sense adage; “God gave you two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as

you talk.”

• If you ask far more questions of the

other person than they ask of you,

you’ll experience a meaningful and

connective dialogue and the other

person will remember you for how

you made them feel.

It’s all about how you make the other person feel.

• If there’s one simple element to successful

communication, it’s listening and it doesn’t require

amazing social skill and it doesn’t require a lot of

talking.

• It just requires keeping your mouth shut and not one-

upping the other person’s story — not telling yours at

the expense of another’s.

• In general it requires keeping your finger off the trigger

of your mouth.

We often ignore the basic elements we use in both our personal and business communications.

• In truth there’s not a lot of difference in the two.

• In both, you want to engage people naturally.

• Talking with a business associate should be not

much different from talking with a friend.

• Talking with a friend employs many of the same

techniques we use in business communications

— respectful and tactful interaction.

“There is no index of character so sure as the voice.”

~Benjamin Disraeli

• Phone sourcing is a very simple - but not easy - process.

• It requires sophistication in communication technique

and comes more naturally to some people than others.

• This does not mean you cannot improve your own

communication skills.

• You can.

• It takes dedication, lots of practice and lots of hard work.

• Are you willing to do those?

There are a couple things you can do to get started improving your phone sourcing skills.

• Read.

• Google my name and the word “Gatekeeper” to get started – like this:

“Maureen Sharib” Gatekeeper

• Lots will come up that I’ve written on the subject.

• www.ere.net has a very large library of articles of mine published over the

years.

• Register for the MagicInTheMethod Phone Sourcing classes. You can find

information here: http://tinyurl.com/c8fa2qm

About Maureen…

• Maureen Sharib is a seasoned phone sourcer who began phone sourcing in 1996 for

an established firm in Northern California known for its fine phone-sourcing product

and was promptly fired (after a year or so) for not knowing what she was doing.

• Because she loved what she was doing she made it her business to get better at it

and has since gone on to successfully phone source for thousands of customers and

has become something of a maven in the business.

• She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cincinnati in Economics.

• Her writings on Gatekeeper techniques are read worldwide. You can find them by

googling her name like this: “Maureen Sharib” (and the word) “Gatekeeper”.

• You can reach Maureen at maureen@techtrak.com or call her at 513 899 9628 or

513 646 7306.

• Maureen doesn’t take herself too seriously (anymore.)

• Her website is www.techtrak.com