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A1. How do I know the candidates I'm seeking are in your database?
Search Advantage is build off of the very simple principle of: You never know who someone else knows. Our database population covers all industry segments and functional disciplines at the Director, Vice President, Officer and Board Member levels. Our database isn't necessarily the target population we are trying to reach on your behalf. It is simply a launch point. Ultimately, your opportunity is exposed to the right candidates based largely on referral. Approximately two-thirds of the response to a Search Advantage search marketing campaign is from candidates who were referred into the opportunity by trusted colleagues. We expose your position opening to approximately 500,000 executives. Viral exposure potential is +5 million given most people are connected to 10 – 100 trusted colleagues.
A2. How accurate/up-to-date is your database?
Our database is approximately 99% accurate as a result of the frequency we communicate with it.
A3. What Industries does your database cover?
Our database population covers all industry segments and all functional disciplines at the Director, Vice President, Officer and Board Member levels.
A4. What job functions does your database cover?
Our database population covers all functional disciplines at the Director, Vice President, Officer and Board Member levels across all industry segments.
A5. How many people are exposed to a search?
Direct exposure is approximately 500,000 executives. Viral exposure potential is +5 million given most people are connected to 10 – 100 colleagues.
A6. What is your typical candidate response?
Depending on how narrowly defined the industry segment or position criteria is, we typically see 100 – 300 candidates who feel they qualify responding within 3 days of launch and 500 – 700 within 14 days of launch.
A7. How many candidates come to you based on referral?
Approximately two-thirds of the response to a Search Advantage search marketing campaign is from candidates who were referred into the opportunity by trusted colleagues. We've had many candidates tell us that they were exposed to a specific Search Advantage search marketing campaign opportunity by 10 or more of their trusted colleagues.
A8. How are you able to reach so many people?
Search Advantage is build off of the very simple principle of: You never know who someone else knows. Most people are connected to 10 – 100 trusted colleagues. Every person we reach out to directly creates potential for viral exposure to their 10 – 100 trusted colleagues. By reaching out to 500,000 executives directly, this creates a potential for viral exposure to their 5 – 50 million trusted colleagues.
A9. How does this work with a highly specialized or tightly defined position?
The more highly specialized or tightly defined position, the more important referrals are. Approximately two-thirds of the response to a Search Advantage search marketing campaign is from candidates who were referred into the opportunity by trusted colleagues. We commonly have candidates tell us that they were exposed to a specific Search Advantage search marketing campaign opportunity by 10 or more of their trusted colleagues.
A10. How does this work with a new/undefined/niche market segment?
The more highly specialized or tightly defined position, the more important referrals are. Approximately two-thirds of the response to a Search Advantage search marketing campaign is from candidates who were referred into the opportunity by trusted colleagues. We commonly have candidates tell us that they were exposed to a specific Search Advantage search marketing campaign opportunity by 10 or more of their trusted colleagues.
A11. What's the difference between the Search Advantage capability and any other social networking capability?
No other social networking capability initiates viral exposure to trusted colleagues by reach out directly to 500,000 people. Social network platforms are based on the principle of reaching out individually to people not collectively. All recruiters know that referrals yield the best candidates, but referrals come from networking which is extremely time-consuming one phone call (or one email) at a time. As a result, most recruiters abandon networking and simply go back to targeting people based on title and employer. Most recruiters simply look at social networking platforms as candidate databases and simply target people based on title and employer one phone call (or one email) at a time. Unlike social networking platforms, Search Advantage is a viral process initiated by instantaneous direct exposure to our complete database.
A12. What is the difference between the Search Advantage capability and job boards?
Only active job – seekers – surf job boards. In other words, a candidate has to go to a job board to be exposed to a position opening. Executives who aren't looking for a job don't surf job boards. Statistics show that job boards are extremely ineffective for recruiting high caliber executives at the Director, Vice President level and above. Search Advantage marketing campaigns communicate our client's openings directly to executives and directly through trusted colleague referrals – regardless if they are active job seekers or "passive" candidates. As a result, many more qualified candidates are being exposed to our client's openings as a result of a combination of direct and viral marketing/networking.
A13. What is the difference between the Search Advantage capability and Contingent Search?
Contingent search doesn't offer complete candidate population coverage or any indication of fit with a position beyond a submitted resume. No other candidate sourcing methodology covers a candidate population to the extent that a Search Advantage marketing campaign does. We expose your position opening to approximately 500,000 executives. Viral exposure potential is +5 million given most people are connected to 10 – 100 trusted colleagues. We supply candidates with a Skills Matrix document containing all of the weighted hiring criteria we develop in collaboration with our client. The candidate is required to supply written examples from their career as to how they specifically map into the client's weighted hiring criteria. We submit a Resume and Skills Matrix pair for each candidate we submit to a client.
B1. Is this a $10K flat fee for all positions regardless of their compensation?
Yes.
B2. What if we wanted to turn this into a fully retained search?
We would simply credit the $10K flat fee toward a previously agreed upon retained search fee and proceed with the search as normal given Search Advantage is simply the candidate sourcing front end of our Retained search process.
B3. What if we have multiple openings for the same position requirement?
Search Advantage is a great way to reduce your cost per hire for multiple simultaneous openings for the same role. We only charge a $10K flat fee for the single position requirement; we don't charge you based on the number of candidates you hire.
B4. What if we want to use you for more than one simultaneous position?
We would be happy to talk to you about your needs and develop a flat fee scale that addresses your needs.
We've filled every search since 2001 in less than 60 – 90 days.
C3. What Industries have you sourced candidates out of?
As a result of the 100% success rate associated with our repeatable business model, we have achieved success in every industry we have touched. Examples include: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Transport, Banking, Beverages, Bio Tech, Business Services, Chemicals, Computer Hardware, Computer Software & Services, Consumer Products, Manufacturers, Electronics, Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Food, Health Care, Industrial Manufacturing, Insurance, Internet, Media, Medical Device, Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, Retail, Security Products & Services, Telecommunications Equipment & Services, et al.
C4. What Functions have you sourced candidates for?
We have sourced all major functions across a typical organizational hierarchy at the Officer, Vice President, and Director levels.
C5. How long does it take before a client receives candidate submissions?
Since we are focused on supplying the best candidates, we want to make sure we've triaged a substantive portion of the candidate population. We submit the top 10 – 15 candidates typically starting approximately 15 days after launch and incrementally over the first 30 days, and continue to submit additional top candidates thereafter as they respond.
C6. How many candidates do you submit?
We typically submit the top 10 – 15 incrementally over the first 30 days after launch, and continue to submit additional top candidates thereafter as they respond. The range is simply a function of how narrow/specific the client requires the hiring criteria to be.
C7. How long does it take to get started?
We can start immediately, and can have a Search Advantage search marketing campaign launched within one business week. The sooner we can obtain the position spec criteria we require from a client, the sooner we can launch.
We collaborate with our client to build a detailed position spec. We work with our client to weight hiring criteria, inject edits/changes, and approve a finalized position spec. We take our clients through a detailed spec meeting to ensure we have captured all of the nuances associated with their position requirements. Not all information needs to be supplied verbally. We can provide a list of the information we require to build the detailed position spec for the role.
D2. How do I know you understand what we're looking for?
Our position spec development process ensures not only that we are on the same page as the client, but also that the client's extended interview team is in agreement with the position criteria. We collaborate with our client to build a detailed position spec. We work with our client to weight hiring criteria, inject edits/changes, and approve a finalized position spec. We take our clients through a detailed spec meeting to ensure we have captured all of the nuances associated with their position requirements to include communication style and cultural fit with the company and the micro team the role integrates into. We help clients anchor mission critical hiring criteria to the quantified business objectives a role is expected to deliver measurable results against. Not all information needs to be supplied verbally. We can provide a list of the information we require to build the detailed position spec for the role.
D3. How do you qualify/screen candidates for fit against employer requirements?
We supply candidates with a Skills Matrix document containing all of the weighted hiring criteria developed in collaboration with our client. The candidate is required to supply written examples from their career as to how they specifically map into the client's weighted hiring criteria. Most candidates thank us for giving them the opportunity to provide additional point on specific information about how their career makes them a strong fit for a role. They realized these are all of the first level questions they are going to need to have answers for in any introductory screening interview. We submit a Resume and Skills Matrix pair for each candidate we submit to a client.
D4. How does your process keep me from hiring the wrong person with the right skills?
Making a great hire is much more than finding someone with the right skills. Experience in similar employment situations, experience thriving in similar macro and micro company cultures, experience communicating effectively with similar personalities they'll have to productively interface with to get their job done all contribute to someone's ability to be successful in a role beyond simply possessing the requisite functional, management and leadership acumen you seek. The key is getting all this defined so you can objectively and consistently evaluate candidates against these criteria. If you don't define these nuances then you are at risk of making a subjective hiring decision based simply on how much you enjoy talking to a candidate. We provide collaborative objective assist to help you define the position requirements that will enable you to make an objective hiring decision.
D5. How are you able to get to so many "passive" candidates that are not looking for jobs?
The Search Advantage process is driven off of the simple principle of "You never know who someone knows." On average, two-thirds of candidates responding to a Search Advantage search marketing campaign have been referred to us as a result of multiple trusted colleagues referring our client's position opening to them. Many candidates have told us they were referred into our client's position opening by 10 or more of their colleagues. More than any other candidate sourcing methodology, we consistently receive responses from "passive" candidates not looking for jobs who would rebuff the direct attempts of a recruiter to engage them and get them into dialog about a position. These same "passive" candidates are being exposed to our client's position opening as a result of multiple trusted colleagues, and as a result of that exposure – they reach out to us.
Our goal is to make everyone that interacts with our process feel good about that interaction, feel we have responded in a timely manner, feel they have been kept informed about their status in a timely manner, and want to be involved with future opportunities and happily refer others in their networks to us. We acknowledge all individuals responding. We thank all individuals responding with networking referrals. We respond to all inquiries. All responding candidates receive an acknowledgement of their resume submission and a request to provide additional qualifying information via an attached Skills Matrix which contains all of the weighted key hiring criteria. All candidates responding with additional Skills Matrix inputs receive an acknowledgement of their Skills Matrix submission and notification that we will follow-up incrementally to provide them with their incremental in process status. We follow-up with every candidate to let them know if they are moving forward or if the client has decided to advance other more strongly qualified candidates. We follow-up with every candidate to let them know what the deciding/differentiating criteria were that the client keyed on to advance candidates. We provide every candidate who submitted a resume who doesn't advance to the client with a complimentary resume development toolset and access to our webinar: How to Communicate Your Executive Value Proposition.
E2. How does this increase the efficiency of my resources?
80% of the effort in recruiting is sourcing qualified candidates. Leveraging the Search Advantage process unburdens your internal recruiting resources from the need to source qualified candidates. As a result, you are able to realize higher ROI on your internal resources by focusing them on the higher value activity of evaluating the qualified candidate funnel that Search Advantage supplies.
E3. How does Search Advantage differ from your fully retained search process?
Search Advantage is simply the search marketing candidate sourcing front end of our Retained search process that precedes introductory verbal phone screening of candidates. Our Search Advantage clients then take over and continue the introductory verbal screening, interviewing, vetting, and recruitment processing of submitted candidates through to offer acceptance.
E4 Why do you offer this capability in addition to fully retained search?
Traditional Contingent and Retained search does not meet the cost per hire needs and high caliber candidate needs of many corporations. Job boards have become largely ineffective at supplying the caliber of candidates corporations seek for mission critical positions at the Officer, Vice President and Director levels. Search Advantage represents a truly differentiated alternative to Contingent and Retained search with compelling ROI at a $10,000 flat fee.
E5. Why do - other - search firms use you?
80% of search execution is candidate sourcing. For retained search firms that lack recruiting associates who focus solely on candidate sourcing, Search Advantage functions as their "virtual" recruiting associate. Search Advantage sources and supplies a qualified candidate funnel. As such, individuals responsible for bringing new search work into their firm only need to devote bandwidth to evaluating qualified candidates. Search Advantage frees up bandwidth the search firm partner can use to bring more work into their firm.
E6. How does your process differ when working with - other - search firms?
To help them build upon their database, other search firms are typically interested in – all – of the candidate resume and Skills Matrix pair submissions we receive versus simply the top 10 – 15 candidate resume and Skills Matrix pair submissions. We are happy to supply all candidate resume and Skills Matrix pair submissions. We also maintain client confidentiality and do not disclose the search firm's client when working with another search firm; we leave it up to the search firm to disclose their actual client to any candidate.
