Hiring for Startups: How to Recruit the Un-Recruitable

Startup recruiting is difficult. The challenges are twofold: finding incredible talent and making them want to join your team.

I’ve been doing the impossible task of hiring way above my "talent class" for over a decade, and it's one of the reasons why we could succeed with our sales platform in the hyper-competitive CRM space, where we're up against competitors with multi-billion dollar budgets. And here’s what I’ve learned about startup recruiting.

Little Steps, Not Giant Leaps

Don't ask amazing people to make a life-changing decision, like immediately coming to work for your company. That's a giant leap, and it's too easy to reject it.

The type of person you want to hire should reject that. You probably don't want to hire anyone you can hire that easily just by throwing out an offer.

Instead, make the first step compellingly small.

Relationships progress in increments. Deepen the commitment step by step, rather than requesting someone to go full-in before they even had a chance to fall in love with your startup.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” —Lao Tzu

Make it noncommittal, seemingly small and insignificant.

Step #1: Say Hello

When you deal with rockstar talent, you need to get on the phone with them as soon as possible. The goal is not to offer them a job immediately but to get to know each other and start building a relationship with the candidate. Make sure you keep it casual so people can put their guard down. Here’s what you say.

Ask them questions:

• What are their goals in life?
• What do they want to accomplish?
• What are they passionate about?
• What do they love most about their current role, company, and team?
• What's missing? What would they change in their current role, company, and team?
• Etc.

Once you’ve gotten to know them and you sense a potential good match, initiate the next small step.

This process is all about small steps. You go from the first phone call (the first tiny step) to the next step (coming in to meet the team and give us a chance to meet you).

Step #2: Dating

The first meeting usually involves them stopping by the office and spending time with the team, which can last anywhere from an hour to a whole day.

Do you sense there’s a great connection? Are both sides getting more engaged and excited?

Now is the time to come clean and tell your potential superstar hire your intentions:

You indicate you are interested, but you’re not asking them to join full-time yet! It’s too early.

Remember, small steps, not giant leaps. It would be too easy to refuse your offer at this point, and both sides have to do a bit more homework to really know that this is a great fit.

Instead, you say this:

Step #3: Small Commitments

So Mike spends a whole weekend with your team, and you have great work chemistry. You sense there’s a perfect culture fit. It’s time for the next step.

This step can be bigger. You’ve built some emotional momentum, and Mike has already committed some of his time to your company. The steps progressively get bigger, ultimately leading to the giant leap of making an offer.

Two good ways to do that would be to ask them to work with you:

• on a part-time basis OR
• as a three-month contractor or consultant

Here is your pitch:

If they’re truly a great fit for your startup, they won't be able to avoid gradually falling in love with your company and your team.

If they do, you pitch them to take the final giant leap and do the unthinkable of joining your company now that they know they can't live without it anymore :)

What if it’s a Position They Don’t Want … Like a Sales Job?

Sales hiring is particularly challenging because you should not hire experienced sales professionals as a startup. You should hire talented people who understand business. And many don’t find the idea of being a “sales rep” and cold-calling prospects very tempting.

Sales don’t enjoy a particularly good reputation.

When you think of "sales" or "selling," what’s the first word that comes to mind?

When Dan Pink surveyed people, he received replies such as pushy, sleazy, manipulative, dishonest, and annoying.

Make it clear that it’s about your team and your vision, not “a sales job”.

Always sell them on the idea of working with your team and being part of your company, not on the exact execution of things and their position as a sales rep.

Understand their big goals and their motivation for wanting to be in business. Help them realize how their goals and your job offer align.

Be Rigorous and Keep Following up

Hiring great people is difficult. The easiest thing is to lower your standards, find someone subpar, talk yourself into believing they "have it," and give them the job.

Don't do that. Don't rush it just because you need to find someone quickly. In the end, hiring the wrong person will cost you more than taking the time to hire the right one. Sometimes, hiring someone took me five years—but it was worth every minute.

Use technology to ensure that you keep nurturing the relationship. We at Close actually use our CRM as an ATS (Applicant Tracking System), and follow-up reminders are a great way to ensure that we nurture relationships even as the number of potential candidates grows.

In addition, using a hiring platform can help streamline the relationship-nurturing process, allowing you to manage and communicate with candidates efficiently throughout the hiring journey.

Especially in the early days of a startup, you want to have a team of superstars. The process I shared with you today can help you hire the kind of talent that would usually decline the invitation to interview with you in the first place. And that's a massive competitive advantage.

Want more advice on hiring fantastic talent for your company? Get a free copy of The Sales Hiring Playbook!