Follow Up & How You Do Things

Leadership.  Sales.  Recruiting.

Crowded places.  Lot’s of competition.  Doesn’t make what you do very unique.  Plenty of other people that have the skills to lead, sell and recruit.

What differentiates the extraordinary leader?  The remarkable recruiter?  The sales RockStar crushing plan?

How they do things.

Increasingly, how you do anything is how you do everything.

The best Sellers, Recruiters and Leaders follow up and follow through.

They avoid making promises they can’t or don’t intend to keep.  They do what they say they are going to do.  When they say they are going to do it.

Seems like common sense.  It is far from common practice.

This recent article from the Star Tribune, Job Recruitment Etiquette? You Wish opines and all too familiar frustration with basic follow up:

“I do have a problem going through an entire interview process (which can include a phone interview and two or three face-to-face interviews) and never hearing another thing. Are U.S. companies today full of cowards or so disrespectful of the unemployed that they simply don’t care to communicate with us? I am so grateful when I am rejected, because then I can focus my energy elsewhere.”

This is an opinion piece.  You might not agree with the opinion.  You might have reasons as to why she doesn’t deserve a phone call after her third interview.

However, her opinion matters.  Perception is reality.  It’s that simple.

It is fun to talk about how to use Pinterest for recruiting and sales.  It is more important to talk about how to pick up the phone to follow up and why that really matters.  Even when the conversation is hard.  Even when we are busy.  I suppose that makes for a boring blog entry.  It does make for really good daily practice.

Even if your work product is an A you can’t excel with a mediocre process.  Process counts.  Process is the how.

GameChangers show up 5 minutes early.  Deliver proposals a day early and don’t forget to follow up after the call, interview or meeting.  They do the right things and they do things right.

How do you do things? Decision around how.  Differentiate around how.  Deliver consistently around how.  Make how special.

How you do it is all about the experience.

If you are obsessed with how you do things and who you do them with it is quite likely you’ll be doing a lot more of whatever it is you do and will always have a place to do it.