Page 73 - James Caan - The Real Deal

7 · The Job That Changed My Life

join us after they’d spoken to their partner, so I started looking for
ways that would help me find out if a candidate was likely to say
yes or not.
Without the skills I was acquiring, 95 per cent of the people who
came in for an interview would have said, ‘It sounds interesting
but it’s not for me.’ So the skills I was honing allowed me to dig
deep into their inner sense of security, their aspirations and
ambitions. I believe that deep down everybody has those; there’s
just something inside that says ‘I want to be more successful, I
want to make a lot of money,’ either for their family, for their
security, for a sense of wellbeing, a sense of satisfaction or
self-esteem. But those emotions don’t just appear at an interview,
people don’t share them with you; my skill was to draw them out,
to make people realise those feelings existed within them, make
them understand that those emotions are real, and then to show
them the journey that could fulfil them.
Introducing them to members of staff they would relate to was
one way, and another was not to rush them into a decision: it had
to be theirs, not mine, and I discovered a way of finding out just
how keen they really were. I started to keep the initial interviews
a bit shorter – it just wasn’t viable to spend an hour with people
who weren’t going to say yes – and at the end of an initial chat I
would say:
‘That’s great. I’ve got a number of people to interview, so why
don’t you give me a call. Let’s see, it’s Thursday today . . .’
I’d pick up my diary and look at my appointments.
‘Monday’s quite difficult, I’ve got a meeting at 2.30, it should
finish at 3 p.m. What would be useful would be if you could give
me a call around 3.10 p.m. and I’ll give you a quick update on
where we are.’
I’d write 3.10 p.m. and the candidate’s name in my diary. I
knew that if I’d oversold the opportunity, they’d call at 2.30; if I’d
done the job exactly right and I’d pitched it correctly, they

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