You only have one opportunity to make a first impression—so don’t let your first conversation with candidates fall flat. If you don’t respond to their concerns the right way, you could lose their interest—and lose out on top talent. Follow these tips to combat the most common candidate objections and build a lasting recruiter-candidate relationship.

1. 6 Common Early-stage Objections
and How to Handle Them

2. You only have one opportunity to make a first impression—so don’t let
your first conversation with candidates fall flat. If you don’t respond to
their concerns the right way, you could lose their interest—and lose out
on top talent. Follow these tips to combat the most common candidate
objections and build a lasting recruiter-candidate relationship.

3. Sample response:
1
“How did you get my name?” Maintaining confidentiality is an
important part of networking, so it’s important to give context
around how and why this person ended up on your radar. There’s
some mystique that is associated with this “We found you” process,
and it can help to drive interest in the opportunity you’re presenting.
1
“It’s my job to find the best people in your field. Based on your profile, you’re someone
I should connect with about a current opportunity that I think would be a great career
move for you.”

4. Sample response:
2
“First, tell me about the job.” Before getting into the job details,
always start with a quick work history review. By having the
candidate talk first, you can look for potential areas where your
opportunity is superior to that person’s current job. And if it isn’t,
you’ll at least have developed a relationship with the candidate that
will allow you to further connect and ask for referrals.
“Would you be open to discussing an opportunity that I think is a great next step from what
you’re doing now?” Then follow up with the background review: “Give me a quick overview
of your background, and then I’ll share an overview of this job. If it seems interesting, we can
schedule some additional time go over the details.”

5. Sample response:
3
“What’s the compensation?” Salary is one of the most important
factors in accepting a new job, but it’s not the only way that someone
is compensated. Great benefits, time off and other employee perks
all contribute to total compensation. So when someone asks this
question, focus on how this job will help him or her achieve personal
satisfaction—based on more than just the salary.
“Think about the best jobs you’ve ever held. Were the reasons they were the best due to the
money you were making or the work you were doing?” Wait for an answer. “Now, if the job
I’m representing offered you a chance to maximize your personal satisfaction, plus offered
competitive compensation, wouldn’t it make sense to at least discuss it for 5-10 minutes?”
Most people will say yes.

6. Sample response:
4
“The job isn’t big enough.” A key strategy is to hold back a few
features of the opportunity in order to address this type of a
response. But if you gave too much away upfront, the best thing you
can do is go back to discussing the candidate’s background specifics.
“Would it be OK if I ask you a few questions about your background to better understand the
scope, span of control and complexity of the jobs you’ve held?” Then go on to look for possible
gaps in the candidate’s background such as team size, job impact made, challenges faced,
etc., to see if the job you’re representing is actually bigger than what the candidate believes. If
not, talk to your hiring manager to see if there is an opportunity for the job to become bigger
now or in the future.

7. Sample response:
5
“I don’t like the company.” If your company is struggling or has
received bad press, be prepared to offset the recruiting damage.
As a start, work with your PR or marketing departments for official
language. From there, you can message to prospects the impact
the person could have on restoring the company’s image. It’s also
possible the company reputation is based on old information, and a
turnaround has begun. If so, make sure you have some evidence to
offset the negative perceptions.
Acknowledge the candidate’s concern and then ask, “We’d love the opportunity to put your
concerns to rest. If we can do that, would you be open to exploring an opportunity with our
company?” You’ll still have to prove your case, but at least you’re moving the process forward.

8. Sample response:
6
“I’m not interested.” If the prospect says this, you likely haven’t
gone through the process of reviewing his or her background
before presenting the opportunity. You can recover from this by
simply opening up that conversation to identify areas in which your
opportunity is superior.
Respond with something unique to get their attention: “I don’t want you to make a career
decision using limited information.” Then go on to describe a few strategic points about your
job that give you enough credibility to eventually say, “Tell me a little bit more about your
background.” That way you can get the candidate to talk for a few minutes.

9. About CareerBuilder
As the global leader in human capital solutions, CareerBuilder specializes in cutting-
edge HR software as a service to help companies with every step of the recruitment
process from acquire to hire. CareerBuilder works with top employers across industries,
providing job distribution, sourcing, workflow, CRM, data and analytics in one pre-hire
platform. It also operates leading job sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc
(NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE:TRCO) and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI),
CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America,
Canada and Asia.
For more information go to
Facebook.com/CBforEmployers www.TheHiringSite.com
Twitter.com/CBforEmployers YouTube.com/CBforEmployers
LinkedIn.com/company/careerbuilder-for-employers
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