This presentation will take some of the mystery (and fright) out of telephone sourcing for you!

1. Phone Sourcing
What It Is
What It Isn’t
Maureen Sharib
Phone Sourcer
513 899 9628 513 646 7306

2. Many people ask me what I do.
• “It’s simple,” I tell them.

3. “I call companies and find out who holds what title.”
• “I find out who does what.”
• “I find out who reports to who.”
• “I find out everyone inside a specific
department or a specific company.”
• “Sometimes I hear secrets.”

4. In so doing I find out lots of things.
• I find out how many reports a certain person has.
• I find out who a person reports to and how many reports
that person has.
• I find out when a position is open; about to be filled or has
been open a long time.
• Sometimes I hear things I really shouldn’t be hearing only
because people love to talk and say things without thinking!

5. I find out all kinds of things.
• I find out who the Gatekeeper(s) is/are.
• Sometimes I find out who EVERYBODY is inside a
particular office. (This is one of my most valuable
phone sourcing techniques!)
• I find out department size; who’s new and who’s not.
• In other words, I find out who’s on first, who’s on
second and who’s on third!

6. I find out all kinds of things that can add competitive
intelligence to other organizations.
• I can pretty much tell, talking to individuals
inside an organization (or sometimes just
listening to theirVoice Mails), what the
morale is like inside a company.

7. People are (generally) always happy to talk
about their jobs.
• If only someone would listen.
• If only someone would invite them to talk!

8. You see, phone sourcing isn’t about talking.
• It’s about listening.

9. I say very little on a sourcing call.
• “Hello Renee. This is Maureen Sharib. Can you
tell me who your Cost Accountant is?”
• Sometimes she does tell me.
• Just like that.
• If they have one.

10. I research a company before I call it to find out
the likelihood of them having one.
• Nothing fancy.
• I use Hoovers to do it.
• www.hoovers.com
• If you want a low cost seat on my GrandfatheredGroup Rate (about a $3000
savings!) see me after class.

11. I look at the company bio.
• I capture the company name, location
telephone, fax, website and miscellaneous
information about what they do.

12. I’ll next find out where satellite locations are and their telephone numbers!
• Many times the hinterland locations of a
company are a wonderful way to source a
company. But that’s another story…

13. If I wanted I can also look at:
• Officers of the company
• Some employees of the company
• Financial data on the company
• Ownership detail
• # of employees
• Industry Information
• Competitors
• Historical Events, News & Press Releases and FamilyTree

14. But all I really need…
• Is the company’s telephone number and a
brief glance at its bio, number of employees,
overall size and the location’s place in the
company hierarchy.

15. Some companies won’t be big enough to
have a dedicated “Cost Accountant.”
• The Controller may be doing that function.
• However, there’s a possibility if the target company is
a good deal smaller than your company the Controller
may take what appears to be a backslide on title.
• Controller  Cost Accountant
It happens, but not all that often.
• Titles are important to people.
• Companies know that.

16. Maybe we’re off track.
• At this point you don’t really need to know so
much how I phone source as you need to
know what phone sourcing is (and isn’t.)
That’s the subject of today’s presentation.

17. What (Phone) Sourcing Isn’t
• Lying, rusing or whatever you want to call “telling tall tales” to “get a name”
• Complicated
• Easy
• A 9 to 5 activity A lot of yakkity-yakhin’ on the phone Pulling candidates off the boards, LinkedIn,
Facebook, MySpace,YourSpace, wherever and passing them off as “phone-sourced” names just
because you called to see if they were “still there”
• Pushing paperwork around your desk (or fiddling on your keyboard) so you “look” busy Setting up
a website/posting a job and expecting it to do the hard work for you Sending e-mail (or InMail) to
contact potential candidates – this goes along with:
• LeavingVoice Mails and then “waiting” for call backs from potential candidates The pathway to
recruiting mediocrity

18. What (Phone) Sourcing Is
• Simple
• Quiet Listening
• Straight Forward
• Process Driven
• Calling into companies to find potential candidates that might fill your open positions or connecting with
people in your own influence sphere who might connect you to others who might fill your open
positions Learning - always learning - new ways Utilizing any tool that might contribute to your success
on the phone
• Hard work Long hours- it’s not “9-t0-5”
• Concentration /Tenacity / Bull Doggedness
• Mostly “lone” wolf work The pathway to recruiting success

19. Do I have to lie (ruse) to get names?
• No, you don’t have to lie (ruse) to get names.
• You do however, need to know how to
communicate with people – how to engage
someone in a conversation.

20. Not everyone knows how to engage people.
• Not everyone knows how to be a good
conversationalist.
• It’s why so many of us feel awkward at
cocktail parties, networking events – even
company meetings!

21. Most of us feel awkward in flesh-and-blood social situations.
• “What do I say?” you’re thinking as you stand there with
your heart thumping in your chest, glancing surreptitiously
around the room, feeling like all eyes are on you.
• “Hello. My name is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know
me,” isn’t a bad first start as you stick your hand out in
front of you.
• “I’d like to get to know you! What’s your name?”

22. What would you say if I said that to you?
• Would you recoil from me or would you smile,
stick your hand out too and tell me your name
while you silently breathed a sigh of relief?

23. How do you engage someone?
Do I have to do a lot of talking?
• I like to tell this story about what a good conversationalist is (and
what one isn’t.)
• Benjamin Disraeli, one of Great Britain’s more flamboyant
parliamentary members and conservative prime minister during
QueenVictoria’s reign, was a famous communicator.
• His main political rival was the renowned oratorWilliam Gladstone
and four-times Liberal prime minister.

24. Both Disraeli and Gladstone were politicians of extraordinary ability whose
personalities clashed throughout their lifelong rivalries.
• Gladstone’s style of debate was “torrential, eloquent, evangelical, vehement, and
‘preachy’; Disraeli’s, urbane, witty, and worldly, with a streak of romance as well
as cynicism.”
•
• The two styles of communication reveal how someone who is full of himself —
even though brilliant — can be unlikeable as a result of pedestaling his own ego.
•
• On the other hand, someone who is skilled in social interaction (as Disraeli was)
understands the power of listening and how it translates in connecting with
another human being.

25. By making a conscious effort to focus on others — to practice attentiveness
— you’ll find that all the parties to the conversation enjoy themselves.
• A young lady was taken to dinner one evening by
Gladstone and the following evening by Disraeli. Asked
what impressions these two celebrated men had made
upon her, she replied, “When I left the dining room after
sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the
cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr.
Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in
England.”

26. You’ve all heard the old common sense adage; “God gave you two ears and
one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you talk.”
• If you ask far more questions of the other
person than they ask of you, you’ll experience
a meaningful and connective dialogue and the
other person will remember you for how you
made them feel.

27. It’s all about how you make the other person feel.
• If there’s one simple element to successful
communication, it’s listening and it doesn’t require
amazing social skill and it doesn’t require a lot of talking.
• It just requires keeping your mouth shut and not one-
upping the other person’s story — not telling yours at the
expense of another’s.
• In general it requires keeping your finger off the trigger of
your mouth.

28. We often ignore the basic elements we use in both our
personal and business communications.
• In truth there’s not a lot of difference in the two.
• In both, you want to engage people naturally.
• Talking with a business associate should be not much
different from talking with a friend.
• Talking with a friend employs many of the same
techniques we use in business communications —
respectful and tactful interaction.

29. “There is no index of character so sure as the voice.”
~Benjamin Disraeli
• Phone sourcing is a very simple - but not easy - process.
• It requires sophistication in communication technique and
comes more naturally to some people than others.
• This does not mean you cannot improve your own
communication skills.
• You can.
• It takes dedication, lots of practice and lots of hard work.
• Are you willing to do those?

30. There are a couple things you can do to get started
improving your phone sourcing skills.
• Read.
• Google my name and the word “Gatekeeper” to get started – like this:
“Maureen Sharib” Gatekeeper
• Lots will come up that I’ve written on the subject.
• www.ere.net has a very large library of articles of mine published over the years.
• Register for the MagicInTheMethod Phone Sourcing classes.You can find
information here: http://tinyurl.com/c8fa2qm

31. About Maureen…
• Maureen Sharib is a seasoned phone sourcer who began phone sourcing in 1996 for an established
firm in Northern California known for its fine phone-sourcing product and was promptly fired
(after a year or so) for not knowing what she was doing.
• Because she loved what she was doing she made it her business to get better at it and has since
gone on to successfully phone source for thousands of customers and has become something of a
maven in the business.
• She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cincinnati in Economics.
• Her writings on Gatekeeper techniques are read worldwide. You can find them by googling her
name like this: “Maureen Sharib” (and the word) “Gatekeeper”.
• You can reach Maureen at maureen@techtrak.com or call her at 513 899 9628 or 513 646 7306.
• Maureen doesn’t take herself too seriously (anymore.)
• Her website is www.techtrak.com