A Product, Experience, Story

Since learning about sales through books has taught me many things about recruiting I came across this phrase today that really made me take a look at how this applies to recruiting.

1. Define your product. Do you really know what your product is? Are you selling a job, a company, a work environment? You need to work very closely with the hiring manager and potential co-workers when defining the product. You could call it branding on the department level.
2. Experience. What "feelings" do you want to promote when selling a job to a recruit? The experience is best defined by those who have recently gone through it. Use testimonials from newly hired employees about their experience with your company so far.
3. Selling the story. Try telling the recruit how your organization has changed your life or the lives of the people that work there. Use promotions, employee drives to help other employees, etc.

Use any "down" time you have to put this information together so you can get to it quickly when trying to sell employment to a recruit.