6 Key Questions BEFORE Taking a Client Brief

Zoho offers beautifully smart recruitment software to help you grow your business. Here they share the 6 Key Questions BEFORE Taking a Client Brief.  We’ll have more great content from them over the coming months.

There are two parts to taking a client brief.  The first is qualifying the job to ensure it’s one you CAN actually fill.  Here are the six questions you should ask before you even start to talk job descriptions.

1. How long has this role been vacant?

If they say anything other than 24 hours you need to get some answers before progressing.  Are they lacking motivation to fill the role (question 4) or struggling to find the right person.  Is there a blockage further up the chain (question 3) or are they just an unattractive proposition

2. What have you done so far to fill the position?

Firstly you want to ensure there is real impetus to hire but secondly there is no point re-tracing the steps that other recruiters have taken.  This is a nice opportunity to up sell a bit of search and/or to get a commitment to retain.

3. Who else is involved in the recruitment process?

You need to know exactly who the invested parties are and make sure you are dealing with the organ grinder not the monkey.  Unless you are engaged with the decision maker you’re not looking at a smooth ride.

4. What happens if you don’t hire a candidate within your ideal timescale?

Again an opportunity to assess the importance of actually filling the job as well as to emphasise the key importance you have in the process (think retained assignment).  Possibly also a chance to talk about interim/contract candidates if you offer them.

5. If I found you the perfect candidate could you see them this afternoon?

Obviously you’re client isn’t sitting around with nothing else to do but you do want to hear a response which shows they are really up for getting the right person on board as soon as possible. Walk away if the answer is wishy-washy!

6. If you also thought they were the perfect candidate could you offer them tomorrow morning?

Great way to double check who else is involved in the process and to weed out information the potential client forget to share such as internal applicants, complex hiring models, etc.

Sadly of course that’s not it – you now need to go on to ask the other gazillion questions to ensure you know what you are looking for. This is a great article with the key elements of taking job briefs.

More from Zoho next month!