For Your Toolbox: TTMP

It occurs to me that there are things that any recruiter needs in their toolbox, so from time to time I'll give ya something you can use out there in RecruiterLand.

Today it's TTMP.

There are lots and folks out there with lots and lots of theories about recruiting and how to be successful. I will never tell you a "wrong" way to be unsuccessful, because I don't want to come to your recruiting station and investigate you. I will tell you only what I know for a fact is real and true and will work. Please understand- if I give you something, it's because I know it works. It's not necessarily easy. There's no such thing as a "gimme" in this business.

All recruiters must do exactly three things in order to succeed. Those three things are, in order, Prospect, Process, and Follow Up. In order to Process or Follow Up, you must first Prospect, so we'll tackle that first.

I know most of you have heard of things like the MAP, conversion data, and the like. Those are all excellent tools, and the basis for all of them is TTMP. I know, I know- you don't believe in the "numbers game". Well, let me tell ya- just like any game, in order to win, you have to know the rules. Recruiting is a numbers game. And Rule Number One of this game is TTMP- Talk To More People.

No matter what your conversion data is, no matter how bad your market is, no matter how unskilled you are at selling, if you TTMP you will increase your production.

Let me tell you a story (prefaced by the statement that I generally learn things the hard way- you don't have to if you pay attention):

There once was a new recruiter who was, sadly, so shy she could never walk up to anyone and say "hi", much less ask them if they want to join the Army (ok, it was me). Fortunately, I had a fantastic station commander who saw this early, and helped me fix the situation. Five hours on the telephone a day. Yep. Five. And ya know what? I did it. Five hours, every day, 40 attempts per hour. 200 attempts per day. And in those 200 attempts, I got maybe 50 contacts. In those 50 contacts, I made maybe 2 or 3 appointments. Each and every day. You ever heard that "Practice makes Perfect?" Well, it does. The first couple weeks, I had a bunch of no-shows. I learned to change what I was saying to get more to show up. The next couple weeks, I had a bunch of unqualified folks show up for appointments. I learned to prequal while making the appointment. The next few weeks, I was only making 3 or 4 appointments per week, but they all showed up and they were qualified. I just couldn't close! From then on, it was all about refining my interview and closing skills. And I learned more with each appointment I conducted. And all this time, still continued to make 5 hours of phone prospecting a day. You can't quit prospecting once you make appointments- when you quit, you cease to TTMP. You are then only TTSP (Talking To Some People). You have to TTMP.

Even when you make mission, you must continue to TTMP because there's plenty of mission left for next month and the month after that and the month after that. Once you have Future Soldiers, you must TTEMP (Talk To Even More People) because now, not only do you have a mission, you must also be prepared to overproduce in case Johnny gets a case of the shakes and flakes out on you. And the more Future Soldiers you have, the more prepared you must be to overproduce.

There are lots of things we do in order to be successful, but there is still always an element of luck to this game. You can greatly increase your odds of success by improving your skills, building solid HS and FSTP programs, and the like. But the fact is, even if you have done everything exactly right, you really and truly have no control over whether Johnny ships or enlists. You can sell and resell him. You can babysit him. You can see him for three hours every single day. He can still, for whatever reason, evaporate into thin air. The only defense you will have is whether or not you can prove you did your job (that's what the planning guide is for- if you don't maintain it, don't expect it to be your friend here). And what does our job consist of? Exactly three things: Prospecting, Processing, and Follow Up. You can't Process or Follow Up if you didn't Prospect.

Big mission this quarter? TTMP.
Wanna go on leave for Christmas? TTMP.
Really suck at selling? TTMP.
Hate to phone prospect? TTMP in the HS, college, or community.
Can't face-to-face prospect? TTMP on the phone.

TTMP.

TTMP.

TTMP.