For experienced agent recruiting, “let’s grab a coffee” is one of the most common phrases used to try to entice candidates into a face-to-face meeting.

Have you noticed this invitation is usually met with resistance or a flat out rejection of the request?

In a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine, Gene Marks explains why this happens.  Gene is a business owner, consultant, and author.   He commonly writes for several business publications.

If you asked Gene to have coffee with you, here’s the response you’d likely receive…

The Common Response to “Grabbing a Coffee”

I don’t mean to sound rude. I really, really appreciate that you’d like to get together. But I’m a small-business owner. My days are really busy, and I don’t have the time to just “have coffee.”

I know you are a nice person and that a face-to-face meeting may very well help us in our relationship. There are some people I know who thrive on meeting others for coffee, lunch or dinner.

But unfortunately I’m not one of those people. This is not something I really want to do. If I’m not dealing with problems in my office, I have so much other work to do and problems to handle that if I do have any available time I’d prefer to spend it with my family. So having coffee with you is really low on my priority list.

If you’re trying to engage a productive agent in the recruiting process, this is probably what’s going through their mind as they process your request.

Gene goes on to explain some of the exceptions he makes to his rule of rejecting coffee invitations.  It’s worth reading through to better understand the mind of your prospects, but (spoiler alert) early-stage recruiting meetings are not on the list.

An Alternative to “Grabbing a Coffee”

The motivation to connect face-to-face with candidates is a good one.  As we discussed in previous WorkPuzzles, social presence theory informs us that a face-to-face meeting is THE most effective way to build a connection.

If you can’t get the most effective technique, would it be possible to get the second best technique?

According to sociology research, the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting is a phone meeting.  More specifically, a pre-arranged phone meeting having a specific start time and a reasonable duration.

In an email to your prospect, you might say something like this:

I know you’re busy and probably don’t have time to meet with me in person, but perhaps we could connect over the phone for about 10 minutes later this week.  Do you have a spot open in your schedule on Thursday or Friday? Let me know, and I’ll try to flex to meet your availability.

Of course, this all assumes the person knows of you, would want to talk with you, and you have something interesting and compelling to contribute to his or her career.  If you struggle with this situation, let me know and we’ll cover these issues in a future WorkPuzzle.

This we know to be true:  Getting the dialog going is often the first and most difficult obstacle to overcome in the recruiting process.

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