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Six Tips on Successfully Closing Candidates

It’s an employee’s market out there, which means closing candidates isn’t as easy anymore. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of closing a candidate quickly and successfully.

Finding and interviewing candidates can be a long and tedious process, and once you’ve identified your perfect candidate, there’s still a chance you’ll lose them to the competition. In today’s competitive market, your company needs to take a strategic approach to close top candidates. Not only do you need to understand the recruiting lifecycle, but you also must brush up on your candidate closing techniques. Keep on reading to learn how!

What Is The Recruiting Lifecycle?

Full-cycle recruiting, or end-to-end recruiting, includes every part of the recruitment process and typically consists of six stages:

  • The Preparation Stage serves as the foundation for all the other stages. Before you can source and interview candidates, you’ll need to set your recruitment metrics, define your ideal candidate persona, and craft the perfect job description to attract the right candidates.
  • The Sourcing Stage involves using a variety of platforms — such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Indeed — to find job seekers and advertise your openings. You can even host recruitment events and start an employee referral program.
  • The Screening Stage comprises of reviewing submitted resumes, cover letters, and portfolios to find people with your desired qualifications, skills, and years of experience.
  • The Selecting Stage involves choosing the best candidate from your applicants. To further narrow down your list of candidates, ask behavioral questions, call references, and administer competency tests.
  • The Hiring Stage consists of the job offer and negotiations. Make sure to call successful candidates to extend the offer in real-time and offer unsuccessful candidates feedback. Then, you can enter negotiations, if necessary, and close the offer.
  • The Onboarding Stage is for helping recent hires transition into their roles within your company. Introduce your new employees to their coworkers, give them a tour of the office, a tutorial on using chat and video technologies, and check in on them frequently.

Six Tips on Successfully Closing Candidates

Six Techniques To Close Your Candidates

Perhaps you’ve gone through the recruiting lifecycle multiple times already. You’re sourcing candidates, interviewing them, and extending offers only to lose them to the competition at the last minute. Well, you’re not alone! Closing candidates, especially in today’s competitive job market, is no longer as easy as it once was. The good news is that we have some tips you can keep in mind when convincing candidates to accept your job offer.

1. Understand Candidates’ Pain Points And Goals

At the heart of the hiring process is your company’s relationship with candidates. 80% of candidates would take a job with your company over a position with another organization if they formed better relationships with yours during the interview process.

Instead of simply bragging about how wonderful your company culture is, speak with candidates about their long-term career goals. Ask about the reasons they’re leaving their current company. Not only will doing so enable you to explain how your organization can help candidates reach their goals, but you’ll also gain the insights you need to effectively adjust your employment offer to close them when the time comes.

Checking in with candidates throughout the hiring process to see if their needs and expectations have changed can help as well. For example, you might learn that their current employer has recently offered them a raise. As a result, perhaps they’re considering staying at their current role, but they still dislike their commute. You can use this information to create a more attractive offer, such as a larger salary, more PTO, or remote work.

2. Be Transparent

Transparency is essential to building trust, so don’t promise more than you can give, and make sure to let candidates know where they stand. If they’re in the front-running, tell them! If it won’t work out, don’t string them along.

Also, answer all their questions honestly — even the difficult ones. Not only will answering questions about recent issues, turnover rates, and more help build a sense of trust, but it will also show that you value their time and are looking to have a long and healthy relationship.

3. Be Professional And Fair

This should be a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many candidates develop poor views of companies based on the hiring process alone. Candidates are taking time out of their days to learn more about your company and their potential place in it, so you should:

  • Be on time
  • Ask before contacting their former employers
  • Inform them if any additional parties will be at their interview
  • Examine your biases and any unfair systems in your hiring process
  • Present a fair salary. A good practice is to have a post-final round/pre-offer conversation with the candidate to get a ballpark idea of an acceptable offer. Market data can also help define what “fair” salary means. 

4. Accelerate The Hiring Process

The best candidates are on the market for less than ten days, so once you’ve found a candidate you’d love to welcome to your team, you need to move fast. Here are a few quick tips for hiring employees quickly:

  • Make the offer ASAP: Chances are your candidate is also a top choice for other companies. Get your employment offer in front of them quickly to ensure they keep your company in mind as they debate their options. It’s also important to help your candidates understand the offer. If they do not understand the value of your offer, they might not be as inclined to accept.
  • Use the latest applicant tracking technologies: Although most HR teams have heard of applicant tracking systems (ATS), customer relationship management systems (CRMS), and human resource information systems (HRIS), only 55% use them. The rest of the companies are missing out! For example, you can save time by using an ATS to easily find previous employees and anyone who has ever submitted an application.
  • Use scheduling software: Scheduling software will further help save time and headaches. Instead of sending a string of emails back and forth (and waiting hours or days for an answer) to set and confirm interview times, you can send invitations and schedule meetings with the press of a button.
  • Review your hiring process: Take a long, hard look at your hiring process regularly to pinpoint and eliminate any bottlenecks. Also, embrace change!

5. Make Candidates Feel Wanted

Job seekers want to work at an organization that truly appreciates and cares about them, so make sure you reply to their emails or calls quickly, answer any questions they have, and show them why you want them to join your company.

Making candidates feel wanted is especially important with top candidates, as these candidates know their worth and can command a high salary almost anywhere they decide to work. However, the feeling that a company genuinely wants them is far rarer, which means it’s the perfect opportunity for your company to pull ahead. Consider:

  • Announcing internally that an offer is being made. Relevant team members who have and haven’t interacted with the candidate can reach out and write a “Congrats on the offer” note. 
  • Send candidates a small yet personalized gift for making it all the way to the offer stage

6. Sell The Offer

The offer stage is one of the final hurdles you’ll need to overcome. You’ll want to:

  • Reiterate their pain points and how your company can help. Explain company growth, trajectory, and exciting upcoming projects, and offer candidates a direct line of communication with whoever will be directly managing them.
  • Raise their starting salary, if necessary and possible
  • Emphasize your company’s career and professional development opportunities
  • Share any other perks and benefits your company offers, such as incredible work culture, unlimited PTO, health benefits, or remote work

Close Candidates With Betterleap

Closing top candidates has always been tricky, and the Great Resignation has only made it even more challenging. Following our tips will give you an advantage over the competition, and working with professional recruiters can also help you find and hire qualified employees.