Talent Talk: How to Close the Deal on an A-Player

This is the final part of our discussion on how to find and attract the best available talent for your company. We started with why that is important, developing a job scorecard, identifying your target talent pool, and how to present the opportunity to those potential candidates.

You probably have heard about the “war for talent” many times. When trying to close a deal with an industry rock star, the competition is better compared to a race, and the race always goes to the swiftest.

When you identify someone you want to hire, be prepared to move quickly. A strange phenomenon occurs when top performers decide to consider a new opportunity — they realize that if they are going to look at making a move — such as, to your company — they should consider all their options. This is an unintended consequence, but you are now in a competition.

During the interview process you should have discovered many things that will become invaluable to closing the deal. The two most important are motivation and compensation, in that order.

If the interview process did not reveal a primary motivator for the candidate to join your organization, other than money, do not make them an offer. They are not the right candidate, and there is a high probability that you lose them to another offer or counteroffer anyway.

You should also have learned in the interview process what compensation your candidate will require to make the move. When motivation and compensation are aligned, closing the deal will be easy. If either is off just a bit, the close will be messy, or fall apart altogether. Keeping a “deal sweetener” in your pocket is better left to late-night infomercials (but wait, there’s more!).

If losing your candidate at this stage is unacceptable, my advice is to make one offer, make it the best you can, and make it fast — no more than three business days after the final interview. Remember, the A-players are the only ones making your company money.

About the author

Paul Sturgeon is CEO of KLA Industries, a national search firm specializing in plastics, packaging, and polymer technology. If you have a topic you would like to see discussed, a company that is growing, or other ideas for this blog, e-mail Sturgeon at [email protected].