Page 72 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

crossed my mind. I was just sitting, watching, learning, absorbing.
I knew I was acquiring a level of expertise that the recruitment
industry doesn’t generally have, nor does it teach. I had started to
see recruitment as part of my own journey, and I worked hard at
evaluating the future.
All around me were sales guys reviewing every lost sale, and just
like them I would constantly review my technique, my failures and
my successes: after all, if I hadn’t placed people I’d have had a very
mediocre lifestyle. So after every candidate left my office I would
ask myself what I could have done differently. Did I match that
person right? Did I not ask the right questions? Did I fail to close
it? I reviewed my performance clinically.
I compare the process to something top sports professionals do.
Take Roger Federer. Why is he a better tennis player than anyone
else? It’s a combination of talent, practice and analysis. If you play
tennis for an hour a week, maybe you hit the ball 250 times. But
imagine you play eight hours a day: how many times are you
hitting the ball now? When you play that much, you learn that if
you hit the ball in a certain way, or to a certain part of the court,
you get different results. The slightest change in technique can
mean the difference between winning and losing, and if you
analyse every stroke then you teach yourself what works for you.
And that’s all I did: each call, each interview, each pitch was
thoroughly analysed.
If there was a thermometer for recruitment, then I was starting
to hit the red zone in terms of ability. In normal recruitment,
consultants just match candidates and vacancies. At Reid Trevena
I was selling someone an opportunity. However, no matter how
good I was at getting people to believe in what was possible, I
found that when candidates got home and started talking to their
husbands or their wives, they would hear the words: ‘What
happens if you don’t sell? We won’t eat!’ I could have spent over
an hour with a candidate, but sometimes I couldn’t get them to

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