Sourcing sounds a little bit like sorcery, and in some ways they can be a little bit similar. Good sourcing is a mix of skills, habits, and tools. We’ve never really practiced the dark arts, but sorcery seems like a good mix of stuff too.
4. Top 5 favorite Boolean hacks
★ “NOT” Is not used enough!
★ “filetype:” (oldy but goody)
○ pdf
○ xls
○ ppt
★ Zip codes for geolocation
○ don’t forget the “…” for number range
★ “VS.” (try it for comparing technology and discover new keywords)
★ Search for custom search engines that are already written
○ This one searches for Ruby AND Python on github - link
5. Top 3 most effective productivity hacks
★ TECHNOLOGY: Calendly
○ Automate your scheduling, don’t hire a secretary - it’s almost 2019 bro - self service ftw
○ Be ok if folks don’t like you trying to Bot them - it’s fine to break your flow for customers
○ Systematic consistent experience for everyone reinforces fairness - branding
★ TEAM: Gig Econ
○ outsource/insource/oversource your remedial & clerical tasks - e.g. sales follow up
○ Use smaller firms to help you look bigger - optics
○ Work ON your business instead of IN your business, but never delegate your ‘core’
★ TECHNIQUE:
○ Your business process is dictated by demand gen, not the other way
6. Biggest reasons why research doesn’t realize ROI
★ Be Systematic - map out your sourcing workflow
○ Write out a list of your top 5-10 sources
■ Github
■ Stackoverflow
■ Linkedin (we all speak Linkedin)
■ Quora
■ Boolean on google
■ ATS/CRM (we’ve collected 4mm+ data fields hand tagged)
○ Use your Boolean library - get on results faster
★ Give yourself a shot clock on how much time you’re going to spend on research
★ Tracking - if you don’t track it, you can’t tell the story
○ Source, Viewed, Outreached, Intro’d to HM
★ Give your process a chance
○ You need to run you model for few cycles
8. How to track, measure, and evaluate everything
without losing your mind
★ TEAM:
○ Only require your employees (OR vendors OR contractors OR “side hustlers”) to own / report
on #’s they can actually control the output of
○ Consolidation of reporting should be owned by 1 person, not 3
○ Try to run 3-5 cycles (regardless of time between metrics) before making drastic changes
★ TECHNIQUE:
○ Pithy, color-by-#, type ‘charts’ (e.g. funnel kpi’s) are table stakes now
○ Evolution is OK!
★ TECHNOLOGY:
○ Automate the data pulls for the Exec Dash
○ Only report on things machines track - humans have fat fingers
9. Why you don’t get respect at your organization
★ Set SLA with internal clients
○ Let them know what they can expect
○ Use a tool like docusign to remove friction points for approval
○ Get your goals in writing: deliverables and time frame
★ Pair Up with HM’s - let them see behind the scenes of sourcing
★ Be the owner of your data with strong data hygiene
★ Be the thought leader in your org on sourcing
○ Conduct brown bags with team
○ Shareback from conferences
○ Attend meetups, webinars, conferences
10. When to GSD and when to delegate
★ TEAM:
○ Anyone that works with you is eligible to do low priority tasks
○ Anyone that is not fully busy is even more eligible for said task(s)
○ Rule #1 - show up
★ MORE TEAM:
○ The deleget can delegate but they retain ownership - can’t delegate the initial responsibility
○ “...if it’s important but not THE MOST important then you shouldn’t be doing it as an owner…”
★ TECHNIQUE/TECHNOLOGY:
○ Example; EDA/Chrome Ext. march - ‘get emails’ - 2 to 3 min.’s per profile is TOO LONG
11. Staying close to the money / first things first
★ Getting candidate engagement is #1 task
○ Intent discovery is your mission
○ When in doubt - send it out
○ Land grab for attention
★ Mobilize your influencers (internal and externally)
○ Employee referrals
○ Social
○ Friends of Friends
○ HM’s network (network with 1st degree)
12. Our 2 most important rules to source by
★ RULE [set] 1:
○ Show up - however you define that.
○ Don’t turn off the music AND/OR create that ‘environ’ conducive to crushing SOURCING
○ When in doubt, send it out
○ tbd.
★ RULE 2
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