When I got my start in executive search in the Fall of 1999, I joined a firm that relied heavily on using the phone. They taught me how to leverage the phone for research, sourcing, and getting candidates engaged. After a few months of learning the art of the phone, the recruiters I supported said that I gave “good phone.” I should also note that this firm still used their old 3x5 card catalog along with their contact management software. They were “old school.”

Today, we rely so heavily on using electronic means of communication, I know of quite a few recruiters and sourcers that hardly ever pick up the phone during the initial stages of a search. Regardless of whether they’re in-house or agency folks, email dominates the outreach phase of the search process.

I love using the phone today. I still send emails and the occasional InMail, but in certain situations I prefer to take control of the situation. An email or InMail can be ignored, deleted, or end up in a spam folder. Voicemails are not so easily lost or ignored. Also, the person listening hears that you are a person rather than a jumble of letters in digital form. If they’ve been ignoring your emails, they may just respond to your voicemail.

What’s interesting is that candidates also rely heavily on electronic means of communication. I recently led a seminar on “power networking” to a group of second year MBA students. I asked them to raise their hands if they had ever applied for a job online. All raised their hands. I asked them to raise their hands if they had ever emailed someone regarding a job. All raised their hands. I finally asked if any of them had cold called someone regarding a job. Only one student raised his hand.

After looking at them in stunned silence with my chin on the floor, I said, “Don’t be afraid of the phone,” at least 10 times. I then walked them through my process of turning a cold call into a warm call. These points work for both recruiters and candidates.

Research the company
Whether you’re a candidate or recruiter, you should know something about the company you’re calling into. Read the company’s website. Use tools like Hoovers, Capital IQ, or Yahoo! News. You’ll be able to ask company/product specific questions that will give the person you’re calling that “wow this gal/guy knows what s/he’s talking about” feeling.

Research the person you’re calling
This is a two-parter. Do your research to find the best person to call. Then do your research about this person. You’ll use LinkedIn, Facebook, and other online tools to find a way to convert the call from being a cold call to a warm call. There are two ways to do this. The one I use the most is affinity group method. I find at least one point of commonality that would link me to the person. The most commonly used are university alumni, company alumni, or friends of friends.

The other method is the “I have a reason to call” method. By doing your research you might find that the person you’re calling recently won an award, got promoted, or recently opened a role in which you have interest.

Confidence
The first thing you’ll want to do is lose the “Um,” Uh,” and, “Ah” from your verbal arsenal. Um, Uh, and Ah will turn off just about everyone, especially VP’s and other senior executives. You need to engage the person you’re calling and you need to do it quickly.

The process of recruiting or job searching, for that matter, is SALES. I’ll write that again. The process of recruiting or job searching is SALES. Confidence is the key to success. You’ve either got the best job or the best skills for this person, and you need to be able to sell yourself or your opportunity within the first 60 seconds of the call.

This brings me to the combination of all three of the above topics. By doing your homework about the companies you want to recruit from, you can really hone in on where you’ll get the most bang for your dialing dollars.

By finding the right person to call and then doing your research into their background, you will save time by engaging the right people early in a search. I’ve closed searches by making only 10 very targeted calls.

Don’t be afraid to work from the top down within a company. If you can “warm call” a VP or C-Level executive, you should. If you have a clear purpose for the call and you’re confident, you’ll be more likely to get what you want, be it a candidate referral or an introduction to a hiring manager.