The Why and How of SMB Leadership Recruitment

The first wave (and highly popularized “Silver Tsunami”) is upon us and has been initially owner-centric. Most resources you will find are about buying a business, but not as much about leading the business. No surprise that just because you are good at financial modeling, leveraging debt, and negotiating with brokers doesn’t always mean you are going to be great at leading a team to drive the revenue you need to justify your purchase of the business and your long term goals of financial and time freedom. 

There are plenty of examples of someone buying a business, keeping the core (and critical) employees, and not having any immediate or long-term hiring needs. Hats off to those buyers!

But there are other scenarios where an exodus of talent awaits the new ownership despite their best efforts to have the transition go as smooth as possible. 

If you are experiencing the worst case scenario of those core leaders departing OR the best case scenario of the business booming, you are going to need to find more team members or level up the ones you have. A business bought with the right leverage can be broken with the wrong leaders.

There are a lot of misconceptions about recruiting as a whole, but in summary:

1. Recruiting is a skill. 
2. Recruiting is a sales function. 
3. Recruiting is a core business foundation. 

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Hopefully this short article will be a step towards reframing and increasing the excitement around recruiting (and not just hiring) in your business. 

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What is the difference between hiring and recruiting? 

The purpose of this article is to not focus on hiring in general, but to laser in on intentionally adding leadership members to your team. The message when “hiring” is typically about pay, general expectations of the job, and whether or not the individual will be a benefit to the company. The message in “recruiting” is more about the future opportunity of the role, the autonomous and trust of responsibility, and the benefit it is to the leader for their career and earnings. There is a difference. 

Look at your own career and current leadership team. Have you applied for a job after your 30th birthday? Did anyone on your current team apply to join? 

There is 100% still a place for job boards (I post on them all the time) but if that is your only route to find leaders then you don’t know who you don’t know. 

Typically high performers are not looking, they need to be found. 

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When is a good time to bring on a new leader?

This is unique to everyone, but sometimes it's obvious (reactive) or obscure (proactive). 

Reactive scenarios include a leader putting in their notice, a termination, or that company growth has accelerated so much and so fast that a high-level leader is needed asap. 

Proactive scenarios are the preference when you can get ahead of future leadership needs and gaps. The point is that recruiting high-level leadership roles is a compounding effort and not a windfall event and your bench needs to be built now. Leaders leaving is inevitable, but your ability to replace them efficiently (and potentially exceed the past person’s capability) is critical to your success. 

To be prepared, you need to get prepared.

ABC. Always Be 'Cruitin. 

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What can I do today as a business owner or leader?

Most people in charge of recruiting try to simply post, ping, or procrastinate. They post on a job board, they ping their friends, or kick the can to next quarter. Typically this results in a clutter of disqualified candidates, applicants who are “too close” (your niece’s boyfriend is a great kid, but can he sell?), and a consistently unfilled role that you really need filled. 

Below are a few tools you can leverage now to maximize your recruitment efforts. 

1. Second Degree Network

Be prepared to ask people who know you, but don’t know you. These can be vendors, other business leaders (who are not close friends) or acquaintances who would be happy to help connect you, but don’t have too much skin in the game. 

Surprisingly these people can be more helpful than someone who is timid to send you a bad hire due to a personal relationship. 

2. Social Media 

Building some form of brand on social media can be helpful. IF you are one of the few who have a large following on Twitter then well done creating that leverage! If you are the majority that don’t have that following then all is not lost. LinkedIn can be a faster way to get more eyeballs (especially if you need local talent) and even buying the LinkedIn SalesNav option for a month to month plan can be a huge benefit when searching and contacting talent. 

I know business owners who have made it a daily/weekly habit to connect with a specific amount of people in their space. Who knows what can come from these connections! 

Once again, recruiting is sales. Period.

3. Recruitment Partner

If you don’t have the time or desire to invest in these critical leadership hires, then consider using a trusted partner. Every year you probably trust an expert with your legal, taxes, and insurance, so its worth considering doing the same to find top talent that you work side by side with everyday. It is not for everybody, but it can be a cheat code to find the absolute best available talent.

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In summary, finding and recruiting top talent comes down to a mentality and a prioritization. 

Are you just as focused on human capital and maximizing your potential there as you are about financial capital? 

Do you prioritize finding and  meeting a potential high performer just as much as you prioritize meeting a potential large customer or fund source?

On the Mt. Rushmore of business stands the classics of Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Operations. It is time we start carving out some rock for Recruitment!

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