Last week, I was talking to an entrepreneur who excitedly shared about an amazing new hire on his team. After discussing new hire for a bit, I asked what led to being able to recruit this new person. He said that he had been building a relationship with him for three years.
When his previous employer announced they were being acquired, he inquired about the duration of the earn-out or vesting post-acquisition. The person shared that it would be 24 months, so the entrepreneur set a reminder in his calendar for every quarter to check back in with this person, stay top of mind, and continue the recruiting process with an eye towards a start date that was at the end of the 24 months. Sure enough, two years went by, and on day 24 months and one day, the new hire started.
This is a great lesson for entrepreneurs as hiring extraordinary talent is one of the most valuable skills. While you can find someone on occasion that works out and the timing is perfect, the vast majority of the time, great people already have existing jobs and aren’t looking to move. Similar to a sales pipeline, the best way to think about it is having lots of potential opportunities in the pipeline and running a process, keeping track of important dates, considerations, elements of the relationship, and working it through a process.
Build the process, follow the process, and the end result is an active pipeline of great candidates with an understanding of where they are on their own timing schedule and the potential to bring them on the team. Entrepreneurs would do well to think through the role timing in recruiting talent and always remember the old adage: The best time to start recruiting for that great person was years ago, and the second-best time to start is now.
David Cummings on Startups 