What to do when hiring managers don’t respond to your first message

“I don’t want to be salesy!” - Most 360 Recruiters

"I don't have time for all these frigging messages from recruiters!" - Most Hiring Managers

So you’re on LinkedIn. You’ve identified a few hundred perfect hiring managers. 

You shoot them a message. 

And… No response. 

What now? 

After 4 years of working closely with agency owners & consultants on their outreach & content, this is consistently one of the toughest places people find themselves. 

How do you follow up without seeming pushy? Needy? 

Or, God forbid, salesy? 

I heard this from an agency owner last week: 

“I can sell on the phone just fine, I know how to chat, how to ask questions, and when to push… But on LinkedIn the only thing I can think to do is pitch a call!”

Which… Pretty much guarantees that hiring manager will ignore you from now until forever. 

So what do we do? 

Here are 3 techniques I’ve seen work again and again: 

1. Have warm conversations
2. Show up with something to say
3. Don’t pitch until you’ve earned the right

Let’s dive in. 

Have warm conversations

Picture a busy subway station in a large city. 

People stream by a street musician, not noticing he’s playing an exquisite piece of music on a priceless violin. 

Everyone is just trying to get where they’re going. 

But what if someone who went to school with that musician walks by? 

They won’t just walk by & ignore them. They’d stop, listen, & talk. 

Well there’s something similar at work on LinkedIn. 

Those hiring managers aren’t just ignoring you because they don’t like you, or they’re too busy. 

There’s just so much input online that it’s perfectly natural for people to just ignore things that aren’t familiar, or urgent, or especially interesting. 

So one of the easiest ways to have better conversations is to try and build in some familiarity before you go sending follow-up messages to your leads. 

How do you do this? 

Lots of ways. 

Content. 

Commenting.  

Events. 

Get creative, and do what you can to make sure those ideal hiring managers are familiar with your name, your photo, and some of your ideas before you send that follow up message. 

And watch your response rates go up. 

Show up with something to say

Think about the last cold pitch you got in an email or a DM. 

It probably went something like this: 

“Hey NAME, saw you work at COMPANY.

Well I do this, and I’m good at that, and my clients love me.

Hop on a call?”

It’s all about the sender. But there’s very little substance there. 

These types of messages are easy to ignore, because they don’t really say anything. 

From a conversational point of view, they’re boring. 

There’s really nothing to talk about there. 

You can do better.

Show up with things to say. Actual things. 

Or even better, show up with questions to ask. So that you don’t have to do all the talking, but can be a good listener instead. 

Some examples: 

“Appreciate you liking my post on TOPIC. Curious, have you had to deal with ______?”

“Hey, saw you liked Dan Go’s post on intermittent fasting. Love his health tips, have you been following him for a while?”

“I was talking with a VP of Sales last week about SOMETHING. Have you seen anything like that with your team?”

The idea is to get away from just pushing for a transaction…

And try actually having a conversation. 

Lots of hiring managers on LinkedIn are actually really open to having conversations. 

They’re just sick of getting pitched by people who haven’t earned the right. 

Which brings us to our last point: 

Don’t pitch until you’ve earned the right

I’ve sent tens of thousands of LinkedIn messages and helped agency owners book hundreds and hundreds of calls. 

And almost without fail, the messages that ask for a call right away, or that ask for a call no matter what the prospect says…

End up going nowhere. 

The messaging that works? 

Makes asking for a call seem not like an imposition, but a helpful next step. 

Which is where most 360 recruiters go wrong with their follow-ups. 

They’re skipping a crucial step in the process. 

Which is: 

Finding out if someone actually has the problem you solve, and are ready to do something about it. 

Sure, the hiring managers in your network will probably need you someday. 

But do they need you now? 

Do they have open roles? 

But beyond that… Are they certain that they can’t fill the roles on their own? 

For follow-up messages to be successful, they’ve got to do one thing: 

Get hiring managers to admit to having a pain point. 

No admission, no call. It’s as simple as that. 

Even if they need you… If they think they don’t need you… They will not want to talk with you. 

So probing for pain points can sometimes take a while. 

But until a hiring manager admits to needing help… they won’t be interested in talking to you. 

Your job is to ask a lot of questions. 

The formula is this: 

Observation + Ask. 

“I saw that role for a QC engineer has been open for 3 months. Have you not been seeing the quality of engineer you need?”

Or 

“Hey, I noticed you liked my post about the Tax Manager I placed in St Louis. Curious, is your tax team fully staffed up right now?”

These questions are how you earn their confidence. 

You’re asking questions that your “hop on a call” competitors don’t even know how to ask. 

Demonstrating your expertise. Uncovering pain points. 

And earning the right to ask for a call. 

Conclusion

Most hiring managers just won’t respond to your first message. 

And that’s okay. 

But there are things you can do to move the conversation along: 

1. Have warm conversations
2. Show up with something to say
3. Don’t pitch until you’ve earned the right

Approach your follow-ups this way and you’ll stand out above the competition who are still sending 4-message automated sequences like it’s 2019.