The Secret Sauce of building your team - Part 2

Part 2 - Setting a laser focus on your target


Now that we have defined that we need to fill the position and the results we need this position to achieve, we can start setting our focus on the target of our recruitment efforts. Again, we're going to operate guerrilla -style here so we have to focus on working smart with the resources we have.

STEP 2 - Defining your target

1. With a clear understanding of the results we need this position to achieve, look within the organization to see if anyone has accomplished such results - and think a little more broadly here; If we need someone to sell 50,000 widgets this quarter, and no one else in our company has sold that many widgets before, consider:
• Do we have someone who has sold an outstanding amount of a similar product?
• Do we have an expert on widget marketing who has sales skills?
  
2. If we find someone who appears to be a good model, let's dissect them to see why they were successful. Exactly what is it that sets them apart from the crowd?
   
• Is there something about their training, background or development that helped them get where they are? If so, can we find others with similar talent by looking in the places where this person "grew up"?
• Do they belong to professional associations for widget sellers?
• Did they attend a college or other educational program that focuses on the widget sales profession?
  
3. Recognizing that our world is imperfect, we have to plan for the fact that we may not find what we are looking for in our company. In fact, they could be working for our major widget competitor. We're not going to dig in deep on this point here, but competitive hiring (aka raiding the competition) is a real tactic and you better be aware of in terms of both your talent hunt, and protecting your valuable talent from being poached.
4. With this clear picture of the DNA of a person who can do what you need done, do a sanity check on your view - get other managers and leaders to review your model. Do they find it accurate, reasonable and feasible? Do they have any ideas to add?
   
5. Knowing the results you need and where folks capable of such results might come from, it's time to start staking out our hunting ground, our weapons and our tactics... and those points are what we will focus on next time.