How to Hire Talented, Passionate, Rockstar Employees in
80% Less Time…Without Looking at a Single Resume
By Andy Mackensen
HUMAN (Helping Unite Mankind And Nutrition):
www.healthyvending.com
SnackNation Healthy Snack Delivery:
www.snacknation.com
I've gone through a lot of trial and error with hiring over the last 5
years. Here's my most optimal funnel as it stands today:
-------------STEP 1:
-------------Write a SUPER-COMPELLLING job ad. Make sure you stand out from all
the other boring ones…and there are a lot of boring ones out there! Focus
on how awesome it is to work for you and how much the individual is going
to learn and grow. We hire a lot of millennials, so they're very interested in
office culture, fun work environment, and most of all personal growth (this
trumps compensation).
Make sure you give lots of instructions in the job ad. People who can't
follow instructions are a waste of time. They need to jump through
hoops. Most people spam their resume out to hundreds of companies. My
job ad specifically requests a cover letter and resume and has specific
questions to answer in the cover letter.
In this stage of the funnel, it's very easy to weed people out. If they only
send you a resume, delete them immediately. If they send you a cover letter
and a resume, scan the cover letter to make sure they at least answered your
questions. Do not spend more than 10 seconds scanning the cover letter in
this stage. Do not look at the resume at all. This is a waste of your time in
this stage and you'll see when to read the resume later in the funnel. This
stage is all about sorting through candidates who followed directions.
Note: Notice the big list of padded keywords at the bottom of the
ad. LinkedIn is like Google was in 2001. You can pad a bunch of keywords
so that your ad shows up in more searches. Use this to your advantage
before LinkedIn gets smart.
-----------------STEP 2:
-----------------For all candidates that submitted a cover letter (that, in your 10 second scan,
looked like they answered your questions) and a resume (that you did not
look at yet), it's time to tell them that they advanced to Round 2!
Here's a sample email:
From: me
To: You
Subject: [SALES SUPERSTARS] Congrats, You Made It To Round 2
Hey there!
Congratulations on making it to Round 2 of the "Sales Superstars"
position!
Here's the post to remind you: JOB POSTING LINK
What does this mean for you?
It means you made the first cut and we get a chance to "hang out" a little bit
and see if there's a good fit.
So, who are we?
HUMAN (“Helping Unite Mankind And Nutrition”) is a one-of-a-kind
nutritional distribution platform that uses healthy vending machines, selfservice healthier convenience stores, and the SnackNation direct delivery
service to bring healthier, better-for-you foods and drinks to people in the
most convenient manner possible. HUMAN is America’s leading distributor
of convenient healthy foods whose mission is to create “Easy Nutrition
Everywhere” and its vision is to make healthy food more convenient than
junk food. HUMAN can be found in over 2,000 schools, offices, hospitals,
health clubs, YMCAs, and other locations in over 40 U.S. states, Canada,
and Puerto Rico. The “better-for-you” platform delivers a wide variety of
healthy snacks, fresh produce, coffees, and locally-sourced foods. In
addition to providing healthful food options, HUMAN healthy automated
retail storefronts provide nutrition education via high-definition LCD
screens that display streaming videos and other digital content.
HUMAN has been ranked by Inc. Magazine as the #168th Fastest Growing
Private Company in America, by Entrepreneur Magazine as the #1 Vending
Franchise in the 2014 Franchise 500, and by Forbes as one of “America’s
Most Promising Companies” (two years in a row).
HUMAN donates 10% of profits to charities that fight the causes of
childhood obesity and malnutrition, with a predominate recipient of those
funds being HUMAN’s non-profit arm, HUMAN Everywhere.
We're flipping the boring, stale, and slow-to-evolve vending industry on its
head with a completely revamped, innovative, and sexy approach to
vending...and in the process helping eradicate obesity and all the terrible
health problems (and needless expenses) that come with it. We're growing
fast and we need highly motivated, highly capable sales superstars to help us
explode to the next level.
You can check us out here: www.healthyvending.com
Who are the Co-Founders?
Sean Kelly: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=2484816
Andy Mackensen: www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1364296
What's in it for you?
Here's your chance to use your sales skills to make a lot of money, help
other people, and have fun. I'm looking for ONLY A-Players for this
role. You'll be taking over a VERY IMPORTANT role in the company and
it's a big opportunity I don't take lightly.
In this role, you will help drive our company to our goal of 10,000 healthy
vending machines in the field by 2015, which will produce over 35 million
vends of healthy snacks and beverages (a huge boost for the fight against
obesity). Furthermore, you'll have the opportunity to make lasting
contributions to a great cause...something that you can truly feel good about
at the end of the day.
In short, this is a UNIQUE opportunity to "take your sales skills to the next
level" AND learn a ton. It's also an opportunity to join a hip, fun, young,
fast-growing company right when it's in the knee of the growth curve. I'm
getting 100's of applicants right now, so please make sure you show me why
you're unique and the best person for this role.
One more thing...HUMAN just got featured in four prominent publications:
1) Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies, 2013
http://www.inc.com/profile/human-healthy-vending
2) Entrepreneur Magazine Franchise 500, 2014
http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/humanhealthyvending/3342150.html#
3) Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 100 Brilliant Companies of 2011"
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219671
4) Forbes Magazine's "America's Most Promising Companies" (2012 &
2013)
http://www.healthyvending.com/blog/forbes-most-promising-companies/
Also, here's our Office Tour video so you can see what it's like inside our
headquarters, which was just ranked by Forbes and Glassdoor as one of the
Top 10 Coolest Office Spaces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-lMgsxIBV8
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/03/08/10-cool-officespaces/
NEXT STEPS to Advance to Round 3:
If you're still interested in becoming a part of the HUMAN Team, here's
what I need you to do to advance to Round 3, which is a live skype or inperson interview:
1) Check out www.healthyvending.com. See if you vibe with our message
and what we're all about.
2) Read the entire HUMAN Handbook (you may be quizzed). This is our
complete business model and concept explained, and you need to have an
understanding of what we do in order to complete your responses below:
www.HealthyVendingHandbook.com
3) Ask yourself these three questions:
a) Can I get behind HUMAN, it's mission, and help drive the
company forward?
b) Am I more excited now than I was before researching HUMAN?
c) Do I want to take on a role within a unique, fun, and fast-growing
company?
4) If you answered "yes" to all three questions above, here's what I need you
to do:
1) Create a Spreadsheet. Create a new Google Docs spreadsheet
(docs.google.com) with the filename "I Like to Crush Sales". Place the
phrase "I love sales" in cell E9. Bold the phrase and make it
green. Share the spreadsheet with saleshiring@healthyvending.com
2) Create a Short Video.
a) Create a 3-minute or less Youtube video (you can easily do this on
your phone or webcam) and set the video to "unlisted" (not "public" and not
"private").
b) In your video, answer the following questions:
i) Why do you want to join the HUMAN Team?
ii) What makes you think you're amazing at sales? Use concrete
numbers, figures, and past results.
iii) On a scale of 1-10 how weird are you and why?
iv) Why should I hire you, and only you, over all the other
highly qualified applicants?
3) Write Me an Email (send email
to saleshiring@healthyvending.com and
cc andrewmackensen@gmail.com).
a) Your email must contain the following:
i) Subject Line: **ROUND TWO: I'm About To Knock Your
Socks Off
ii) The web link to your Google Docs spreadsheet
iii) The "unlisted" web link to your Youtube video
iv) A motivating/fun/inspirational quote that will get me
absolutely stoked
v) Attach the cover letter you wrote in Round 1
vi) Attach your resume from Round 1
DEADLINE:
I must receive your email (as described in part 3 above) by 11:59pm Sunday,
February 23rd, to be considered for Round 3 interviews.
That's it! I look forward to meeting you soon.
Best in Health,
Andy
-------------------------As you'll notice in the Step 2 email, I've built up my company, talked about
how awesome it will be to work there and talked about how much
opportunity the candidate has to grow.
I also included a TON of instructions and hoops to jump through. They have
to do A LOT to make it through to the next stage. You need to give them at
least 3 days to complete the action items in this email. Thus, Thursday's
close of business is the deadline I have for myself to give the candidates the
deadline of that coming Sunday night. If a good candidate comes in on
Friday through Sunday, I put them on the following Sunday's deadline to
give them a chance to complete the tasks. Make sense?
Here's an example of a quality applicant that this funnel provides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dt8HPju1zU
How to review the STEP 2 responses:
1) Review the video first. The whole point of the funnel up to this point is to
get a quality video from someone. You can figure out if they're good or not
in the first 15 seconds of the video. If they're good, watch the whole
thing. If they're not, disqualify them. If they're disqualified, don't waste your
time reviewing anything else in their email response.
2) If the video is good, pull up their cover letter and read the entire thing.
3) If the cover letter is good, check their Google Docs to make sure they
followed directions properly.
4) Finally, if they followed directions in the Google docs, review their
resume.
Notice how in this process you're reviewing the resume LAST. Resumes
suck. They're usually a waste of time. I find it totally backwards how
companies say, "send me your resume" and then they make a decision on
whether or not to interview them based on the resume. This is totally
backwards and a waste of time.
----------------------
STEP 3:
---------------------If they had a good video, cover letter, followed directions in google docs,
and have a decent resume, it's time to congratulate them and advance them
to Round 3, which is a Video Skype Screening. That's right, a "screening,"
not an interview. This is a 10-15 minutes screening to see if they have what
it takes to have a full length, in-person interview.
Here's an example of the email:
From: me
To: You
Subject: [HUMAN Healthy Vending] Round 3 Here We Come!
Hi Luke,
Congratulations! You made it to Round 3 of the HUMAN Healthy Vending
Sales Superstar opportunity. Wow, you've come a long way. Your answers
and video from Rounds 1-2 have advanced you to our Skype video round.
Next Step:
Meet me via Skype video.
Instructions:
1) Your video Skype is scheduled for 8:30am PST on Weds, Oct 9th.
2) My Skype handle is "andymackensen". Add me to your contact list in
Skype.
3) Double check your webcam and test your Skype video chat.
4) Once you confirm the meeting time by responding to this email, I'll call
you via Skype at the prescribed time.
Looking forward to meeting you!
----------------STEP 4:
---------------If they passed the screening, they get invited for a 60-minute interview with
the department mgr. If they pass that interview, they meet with me. If they
pass that interview, they meet with my business partner Sean. If they pass
with Sean, we call references, and send out an offer.
Note: If this seems like a lot of steps…it is. And the right candidates
actually LOVE this process. They love jumping through the hoops. They
love making the video. They love following directions. These are your
perfect candidates and you've already tested them before they show-up for
their first day of work. I've built a phenomenal team of hard-working,
passionate people that follow directions and "get after it." This funnel
structure has helped me save days and days in the hiring process while
finding the best possible candidates for the position, without having to spend
hours and hours in interviews.
Overall, I hope this helps! If you take the time to swipe this info and
develop it to fit your business, you will get value from this. I promise.
Metrics:
For this job ad on LinkedIn, I got:
- 1500 views
- 271 "applicants" (submitted at least their resume through LinkedIn)
- 50 qualified in Round 1 (meaning they followed directions and submitted a
proper cover letter and resume)
- 15 qualified in Round 2 (meaning they submitted a great video response)
- 8 qualified in Round 3 (meaning they passed the 15 minute Skype
Screening and are called into an in-person interview)
- 2 hired after Round 4 (after the in-person interviews with my team,
including me)
Quick question:
After reviewing this information, do you think this would be a good info
product to sell to business owners? If I were selling this, what would you
pay for this product? It would likely be a screen capture video tutorial with
PDF downloads of all the emails and the questions I ask during interviews (a
lot of this swiped from Brad Smart's Top Grading). I'd put it in a nicelooking membership site. Thanks for you honest feedback!
Best,
Andy Mackensen
P.S. What does your company do? Are there other ways in which we can
help each other out? For example, I'd love to get my SnackNation healthy
snack delivery service into more homes and offices. Any ideas on this?
www.snacknation.com/