Welcome to The Hero 🗞️. This is approximately a 3-minute read.
🦨 Why most outbound recruiting stinks
👑 The one call-to-action that works better than the rest
💡 Why making the candidate the hero of your message gets replies
TL;DR
Clever copy doesn’t get replies -
Low pressure does.
Silence = failure
Replies (even no’s) = trust
🚨 The Real Problem
Most outbound messaging doesn’t fail because it’s cold.
It fails because you’re asking the wrong question.
Don’t ask to see a candidate for their availability.
Don’t ask for a call.
Don’t ask for 15-minutes.
The moment you ask for time, candidates feel the trap door open.
And when people feel trapped, they do the safest thing possible -
They ignore it.
Not because the role is bad.
Not because the pay is wrong.
But because ignoring you is easier than committing to anything.
The full breakdown is just below - don’t miss it! 😉
Links of the Day:
🔗 Best Links
Here are some of the best links I’ve found since last time I emailed you:
🗺️ Interview Strategy
Assess Soft Skills (link)
Interviewing Mistakes to Avoid (link)
🔎 Onboarding & Ramp
Employee Onboarding Process (link)
Common Onboarding Challenges (link)
👩💼 Candidate Experience & Recruiting Process Design
Shape the Candidate Experience (link)
Communicating the Recruitment Process (link)
📊 Retention & Churn Reduction
Retention Strategies From the Pros (link)
“Stand By Me” Retention Strategies (link)
🧠 The Insight
Your CTA doesn’t need to convert someone immediately.
There are steps to the process - and it starts with building trust and value.
When you don’t ask for a meeting or “15-minutes”…
Your replies go up 📈
Not because people are suddenly more interested -
But because replying doesn’t cost them anything (including their time).
📊 What Actually Happens When You Do This
Here’s what we see when the CTA is to just provide value:
Open rates jump to the 70-90% range.
And reply rates increase to 20-40%.
Here’s an example of a message we get weekly:
🥁 The CTA
If you want replies, don’t overthink it.
Do three things:
Make it about them (the candidate)
Keep it concise
Provide value
The two CTAs that consistently outperform everything else:
“Want to see the full job description?”
“What’s the target salary you’re looking for to consider a move?”
That’s it.
❌ No links.
❌ No meeting requests.
❌ No “15-minute chats”
No pressure - just value, and a CTA that feels easy to respond to.
To Sum It Up…
Outbound recruiting doesn’t break at the subject line -
It breaks at the ask.
Lower the pressure, and your replies will increase.
And To Wrap It Up…
When replying feels safe, people get back to you - even when the answer is no.
And replies are the only way talent pipelines get built.
Strong pipelines = faster, easier placements.
HOW WE CAN HELP?
There are a few ways:
Or you can just reply to this email.
I reply to absolutely everyone who writes me back 🙂
