Dan Martell - How To Build a Pipeline of Talented A-Players

00:00:00.000 Hey there, Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur,

00:00:01.840 investor and creator of SaaS Academy.

00:00:03.840 In this video, I'm going to share with you how to build a

00:00:07.280 pipeline of talented A players in your business.

00:00:10.520 So if you've been frustrated with having duds show up,

00:00:13.580 waste your time and having to fire them, I'm going to teach

00:00:16.180 you how to not only source better candidates but also have

00:00:19.360 them hit the ground running and be sure to stay at the end

00:00:21.880 where I share with you my hiring scorecard framework on how

00:00:24.920 to get that and also the talent pipeline process.

00:00:27.920 I'm actually going to give you the specific steps that I

00:00:30.000 that I use for all of my recruiting to hire A players.

00:00:46.180 So I don't know about you, but people problems are legit. 0.59

00:00:49.680 You've got, you know, friggin' political issues,

00:00:52.720 you've got infighting, you've got folks 0.87

00:00:54.160 that are underperformers, they don't have the skills,

00:00:56.100 they're complaining all the time.

00:00:57.700 It can be draining as an entrepreneur.

00:00:59.760 And honestly, my first two companies were complete failures

00:01:04.100 because I know for a fact now that I was just accepting

00:01:07.960 anybody that showed up into my business.

00:01:09.540 I was looking for a designer.

00:01:10.800 I just hired the first person that got referred to me.

00:01:13.040 I was looking for another programmer to help me out.

00:01:15.240 I just hired the first person.

00:01:16.840 Like I had no system for recording or recruiting.

00:01:19.640 Essentially, it was like, hmm, is there a pulse?

00:01:22.020 Are they willing to work with me?

00:01:23.420 You're hired.

00:01:24.580 That is not what I'm talking about.

00:01:26.580 What I want to share with you today is how I've been able

00:01:29.460 to not only hire hundreds of people across all my companies,

00:01:32.600 but also make sure that those people show up,

00:01:34.860 are enthusiastic, they want to work,

00:01:37.000 they've got the capabilities, and they're actually

00:01:39.300 going to deliver value from day one.

00:01:41.900 So I want to walk you through the steps

00:01:43.280 for doing that in the right way.

00:01:44.940 Number one, prep the position.

00:01:47.380 I think that if you want to hire A players,

00:01:49.440 the first thing you need to do is actually define

00:01:52.280 what you're looking for, and this is the hiring scorecard

00:01:54.620 I talked about at the beginning.

00:01:56.060 To do that, you need to understand where do you want to go

00:01:58.860 the next 16 months for that role.

00:02:01.000 So if you're hiring a marketing person,

00:02:03.100 it's not about hiring somebody that can do the marketing

00:02:05.240 that you need today.

00:02:06.160 It's saying, where are we gonna be in 16 months

00:02:08.640 and what would that person look like?

00:02:10.380 What would they have had to accomplish?

00:02:12.500 And if you want to make sure that you don't have duds,

00:02:15.000 that you don't just have a warm body show up,

00:02:17.140 you need to make sure that you set the criteria

00:02:19.540 for their previous experience based on that 16 month

00:02:23.620 into the future.

00:02:24.460 I'm all a fan of training people on the job

00:02:27.720 and hiring people that are enthusiastic,

00:02:29.260 but at the same time, there are certain roles

00:02:32.160 where it makes no sense for you to just try

00:02:34.800 to train these people that have no experience.

00:02:36.800 They could be the most enthusiastic,

00:02:38.700 positive, culture fit person, but I'm a big fan

00:02:42.000 for certain, especially executive leadership roles.

00:02:44.500 They have to come with some level of experience

00:02:47.880 doing the thing, because the whole point of hiring them

00:02:49.800 is to take things off your plate.

00:02:51.580 Not to add more coaching and mentorship

00:02:54.240 and leadership conversations with them,

00:02:56.340 but to have them come in and go, oh yeah,

00:02:58.000 in my previous company we did this, this, and this,

00:03:00.080 and move it out. 0.80

00:03:00.920 So that is prepping the position.

00:03:02.180 That is being clear as to roles, responsibilities,

00:03:05.120 and expectations that person needs to have

00:03:08.260 from an experience point of view before they show up

00:03:10.920 on your team.

00:03:12.160 Number two, build candidate pipeline.

00:03:15.100 One of the biggest reasons that hiring fails

00:03:18.560 is because there's not enough candidates

00:03:20.240 in the top of the funnel, okay?

00:03:22.560 This means you actually have to do some heavy lifting

00:03:24.840 when it comes to sourcing.

00:03:25.960 For me, first place you're gonna wanna look

00:03:27.960 is amongst your existing team base.

00:03:29.560 Actually promoting your team and asking them

00:03:31.900 to go through LinkedIn, to go through Facebook,

00:03:34.060 to ask them, hey, we're trying to hire this role.

00:03:36.100 Do you know anybody?

00:03:37.300 I've even hired my recruiter to sit down

00:03:39.980 with another engineer and go through

00:03:41.980 their whole LinkedIn profile to say like,

00:03:44.040 hey, this person you know, what do you know about them?

00:03:46.240 Are they good?

00:03:47.080 Is this somebody you'd wanna work with?

00:03:47.980 Does this person inspire you?

00:03:49.620 Sourcing is a full-time thing.

00:03:51.780 So you can either get leveraged through hiring

00:03:53.420 a contract recruiter to help you with this

00:03:55.020 or you can block it in your calendar because to me,

00:03:57.820 as the founder, your job is to make sure you have

00:04:00.000 the right people on your team.

00:04:02.060 So we want to source through existing employees.

00:04:04.840 We want to source through job banks.

00:04:06.400 People say, well, great candidates aren't looking for a job.

00:04:09.100 That's not true.

00:04:10.060 I've found incredible people that had jobs

00:04:13.200 and were just kind of dissatisfied and kind of went online.

00:04:16.500 So there's incredible technology today that allows you

00:04:18.780 to publish to thousands of job banks online

00:04:21.980 to build even more top of funnel. 0.98

00:04:23.920 And then the third thing is Sniper Rifle.

00:04:25.860 Like, find companies that you admire that are further along

00:04:28.900 that you know have great training programs,

00:04:30.400 great recruiting practices, and just go directly

00:04:33.560 to those people and ask like, hey,

00:04:35.100 who's the best product manager you've ever worked with

00:04:36.860 at that company?

00:04:38.040 Get some names, call them up, ask to speak with them.

00:04:41.040 Go for the advice angle.

00:04:42.540 Hey, I'd love to get your advice on our new product design.

00:04:45.380 You're obviously very talented.

00:04:46.780 You have five minutes to just quickly review

00:04:48.380 and give us some thoughts.

00:04:49.780 And start the conversation and relationship.

00:04:51.980 Great people are gonna take a while to get over

00:04:55.260 into your world but to do that we need to build

00:04:57.580 top of pipeline for candidates.

00:05:00.300 Number three, quick to qualify.

00:05:02.920 I think too often people spend time with mediocre folks

00:05:07.040 that just waste their time and that's probably why

00:05:09.180 at the end of the day when they're on a timeline

00:05:11.220 to hire somebody and they need to make it happen,

00:05:13.100 they pull the trigger with somebody that just isn't great.

00:05:16.080 What I do instead is the first thing I ask my candidates

00:05:19.440 to do is submit a video and follow the instructions.

00:05:22.100 Why do I do that?

00:05:23.280 Well, A, if they can't figure out how to shoot a video,

00:05:26.780 feel comfortable communicating in this format,

00:05:29.440 and I'm talking like on a laptop with their phone,

00:05:31.080 whatever they want to do,

00:05:32.780 answering some simple questions about who they are

00:05:35.380 and following the instructions, I can't tell you,

00:05:37.920 I'd say 80% of the people that submit a video,

00:05:40.260 so a lot of people don't even get past the application process

00:05:43.440 because they don't even submit a video.

00:05:45.940 The people that do submit a video

00:05:47.400 don't listen to the instructions.

00:05:48.640 They don't answer the questions as they go over time.

00:05:50.680 And to me, if you can't follow that as an applicant,

00:05:54.220 then I don't want you on my team because you're just

00:05:55.880 going to frustrate me as a team member.

00:05:57.240 I mean, that's just the reality.

00:05:58.620 So I think you should be quick to qualify using videos.

00:06:02.200 Everybody's now adding this as a feature

00:06:03.780 into their applicant tracking system.

00:06:05.600 So by all means, you can keep it simple.

00:06:07.660 Ask them to figure.

00:06:08.400 I don't even tell them how to do it.

00:06:09.620 I'm just like, send us a link to your video.

00:06:12.220 You can figure out how to upload it to the internet.

00:06:14.000 It's almost a bit of a test.

00:06:15.640 And then review the videos because, man, I'll tell you,

00:06:17.980 I can learn so much by watching somebody communicate over a

00:06:21.220 video that I could probably get in person but I just don't have

00:06:24.320 the time to do that, right?

00:06:25.920 And then that way as the applicant goes through the

00:06:28.700 different departments, they use the video to get a really good

00:06:31.160 sense of the candidate.

00:06:32.500 Number four, simulate the work.

00:06:34.740 I still find it crazy that people go work at a company,

00:06:39.340 essentially get married before even going on a date.

00:06:42.140 How are you possibly going to know if this company is

00:06:45.740 everything they say it to be?

00:06:47.140 Or if you're hiring, how do you know if this candidate is

00:06:49.880 everything he says or she says that they are?

00:06:52.740 So one of my rules, and I got this from Seth Godin, is I can't

00:06:56.380 work with you till I work with you.

00:06:58.020 It's just a belief, it's a practice, it's a principle.

00:07:00.760 And to do that, I always offer up a test project.

00:07:03.760 So in the pipeline process, there's a test project, okay?

00:07:07.220 And I've got a bunch of others, I'll tell you how to get that

00:07:09.100 resource, but the test project is simulating the real work.

00:07:13.540 So whatever it is, if it's writing code, if it's designing,

00:07:15.880 if it's an assistant, if it's a marketing person,

00:07:19.080 it's actually doing the real work, okay?

00:07:21.880 It's not like, hey, go to this website and kind of tell us

00:07:25.220 what you think.

00:07:26.060 It's like, I want to see the work product.

00:07:27.320 I want to know that you're capable.

00:07:28.620 I want to see what you can produce and evaluate that.

00:07:31.760 And here's the trick for test projects.

00:07:34.020 All candidates have to do the exact same test project.

00:07:36.660 Why?

00:07:37.560 How are you supposed to compare people?

00:07:39.540 If you're hiring a new VP of marketing

00:07:41.340 and you get each one of those candidates

00:07:42.640 to do a different project, how are you supposed to compare

00:07:44.480 the quality of their work or the quality of their thinking?

00:07:47.580 So I highly recommend to find one test project per role

00:07:50.680 and have everybody do the same one so that when they submit

00:07:53.220 them, you can actually have your review team analyze them

00:07:56.380 and compare them to each other,

00:07:58.560 not have separate test projects.

00:08:00.420 Number five, sell the future.

00:08:02.920 Now look, at the beginning, you're building a top of funnel,

00:08:06.560 you know, candidates and people are applying and you're trying

00:08:09.200 to qualify and see if they're a fit and checking for values

00:08:12.040 and doing all this stuff, but at a certain point

00:08:14.600 when you get into kind of first level interviews

00:08:16.780 and eventually with the CEO and myself,

00:08:20.040 there's this trade-off of where you want to assess them,

00:08:23.660 but you also need to sell them on the future.

00:08:26.780 So one of my favorite questions, I even heard recently

00:08:29.820 that the, I think, what is their title?

00:08:32.360 Gary Vaynerchuk hired a people, culture person

00:08:36.040 at VaynerMedia, and they have this same question

00:08:38.840 that they asked in their, they did a quick write-up,

00:08:41.600 is in five years, what do you see your day looking like

00:08:44.940 or your job in a five-year period?

00:08:47.880 And to me, that's, I need to understand what their future

00:08:50.540 and what they have a vision for their life,

00:08:51.980 A, that they have one, B, that they can articulate it,

00:08:54.880 and three, is that their vision for where they wanna be

00:08:58.080 and what I need them to eventually grow into

00:09:00.820 are ideally aligned.

00:09:04.320 And if they're not, then we need to figure out

00:09:06.720 how to kind of massage that.

00:09:08.860 It might be a different role, it might be whatever,

00:09:10.360 But you need to sell the future.

00:09:11.700 You need to talk about what they want.

00:09:13.720 Talk about the compensation.

00:09:15.420 Talk about the fit, the fun, the opportunity for equity,

00:09:20.800 all that fun stuff.

00:09:21.940 The team, I think that's a big thing.

00:09:23.680 People want to work with other incredible people

00:09:25.320 that inspire them.

00:09:26.720 But then also talk about what they want to accomplish

00:09:28.860 in their life and how you're going to support them to get it.

00:09:31.220 Because I truly believe that people will go and push

00:09:35.460 and fight for you if they know that you've got their back

00:09:38.060 and you wanna see them succeed in life

00:09:39.620 outside of your own goals.

00:09:41.240 So that, to me, is a big part of, you know,

00:09:43.900 getting the right A players is selling the future.

00:09:46.700 So the five steps to build a talent pipeline of A players.

00:09:50.100 Number one, you have to prep the position

00:09:51.800 and know the roles and responsibilities

00:09:53.440 you're hiring for in 16 months.

00:09:55.540 Two, build the candidate pipeline.

00:09:57.440 Have a ton of people applying.

00:09:59.980 Number three, quick to qualify them.

00:10:02.020 I like to use videos,

00:10:03.300 but don't spend time with unqualified candidates.

00:10:05.800 Four, simulate the work.

00:10:07.200 Again, I can't work with you until I work with you.

00:10:09.300 And five, sell the future because you need to make sure

00:10:12.640 that their vision aligns with yours for what you need them

00:10:15.540 to do into the future.

00:10:17.480 So as I mentioned at the beginning of this video,

00:10:18.780 I want to share an incredible resource called

00:10:20.840 the Hiring Scorecard.

00:10:22.840 So essentially, it's the four different criterias

00:10:25.220 that I define before I hire somebody and use that

00:10:28.780 to help the hiring manager and the different team members

00:10:31.660 who are going to be involved in that process,

00:10:33.360 grade the candidates against those criterias.

00:10:36.600 And I'm also going to give you the talent pipeline process

00:10:39.960 so that you can understand the different steps

00:10:42.460 in the pipeline that I use.

00:10:44.100 For example, test projects, assessments.

00:10:47.100 I use profile assessments, et cetera.

00:10:49.200 So you could potentially implement those into your process.

00:10:51.620 The link is below in the description.

00:10:53.420 So you can click that and get a copy of the scorecard

00:10:55.980 and the talent pipeline process.

00:10:58.100 I'd love for you to implement that

00:10:59.580 and let me know how that worked out for you and your business.

00:11:01.680 Again, the link below.

00:11:02.680 Click that and get your copy.

00:11:04.260 If you like this video, be sure to smash the like button.

00:11:06.820 Subscribe to my channel if there's somebody you think this

00:11:08.740 video could serve that you care about, feel free to share it

00:11:11.500 with them directly and as per usual, I wanna challenge you to

00:11:14.500 live a bigger life and a bigger business and I'll see you next

00:11:16.640 Monday.

00:11:20.640 So I'm at...

Dan Martell - April 01, 2019

How To Build a Pipeline of Talented A-Players

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