Ask for the order, please

I’ve been doing loads of interviews over the past ten days or so.  And it’s really starting to do my head in.  Spending a good while on the phone with potential candidates is a winner, yet even when they sound fairly good, it can all fall to pieces at the end of the resulting one-hour interview.

On the phone, everyone is savvy enough to ask something like “when can we get together then”.  Although one obvious word of warning, is that many people make this sound too formal.  Closing should be a natural progression with a flow to the language.  It’s almost as if some people put this phrase into a straight-jacket… “would you, erm, can we say, meet for an interview…erm…” and the like is not good.

Then we get to the ending of the interview.  Why do people not close when face-to-face?  It’s a sales interview, so I need to see some evidence they can sell.  They must close, and then have to handle a couple of objections.  But they often don’t.  I even had one guy try and joke at the end of one, “when can I start!” without any real conviction, or even proper follow-up.  Anyhow, it’s got me so wound up, I’m going to now pass on a new category of how you should perform in such situations, and what to look out for when you’re the recruiter.