Part 7: Closing The Candidate You Want
When it comes to closing a candidate, we like to compare it to closing a client. It helps us think about how we can deliver a great overall experience. Below are a few tips we gathered along the way.
Synchronous > Asynchronous
From our experience, presenting the offer face to face (or at least through a phone call) has always been more impactful. Hence we collect weak signals and feedbacks instantly and we keep the momentum going.
By only sending an email, you may convey an ambiguous signal regarding the position and how much you care about the candidate.
Recap email
After the discussion we systematically send an email with a recap of the offer. This email is super important for two reasons:
- it’s your last touch with the candidate before he/she makes his/her decision so he/she is going to read it several times
- it will probably be forwarded to several people (former boss, colleagues, friends, husband …)
So you might want to put a lot of thought into it. Below is the kind of recap email that can be sent.
to: candidate@gmail.com
subject: Head of Marketing at Startup :)Hi Aneta,Thank you very much for taking the time at lunch. Following up our discussion, Oliver and I are really pleased to make you the formal offer below to join Startup as Head of Marketing.Over the past few months, we have been insanely focused on building the next generation tool to disrupt this €3B opportunity in France & €20B in Europe. We have carefullly handpicked strong players such as Caroline to lead our Sales and Boris to structure our Product and we are convinced you are the perfect match to launch our Marketing department.You will find below more details about the package we designed for you so that you will be 100% committed and incentivized in Startup's long-term success:
- Role: Head of Marketing
- Responsabilities: Absolutely 100% of Startup's Marketing function from Strategy to Execution with the whole management of the marketing team.
- Start date: We would like you to start before March so you will be fully onboarded for the peak season
- Annual compensation of €80k (€60k + €20k)
- Stocks: €45k of BSPCE (~0.3% of Startup striked at the Seed round valuation) with a 4-year vesting plan.Some figures and valuation considerations to put this into perspective:
- We have gone from 0 to €40k of MRR in 12 months
- We plan to reach €180k in 12 months and raise a Series A just before that on a c. €35m valuation (~x15-20 ARR) implying a 25% dilution
- Our ambition is to reach €6m of ARR within 2 years and €20m within 3 years
- Our belief is to exceed €300m of valuation in 3 years
- At that time, and taking into account the Series A dilution, your shares will be valuated c. €700kWe strongly believe Startup has the potential to reach €500m-€1b valuation within 5 years representing a €1-2m potential gain for you.Feel free to tell me if you have any questions regarding how stocks work.I've had the chance to discuss with all the people who have met you over the past few days and we all loved your mindset, how committed your are and how your skills could be a great addition to the team.
We hope you will appreciate this offer we've worked on. Feel free to tell me would you have any questions. I happen to be close to XXXX on Wednesday for a meeting, maybe we can grab some coffee?Looking forward to working with you.BestMarc
Managing the reflection period
As we said before, closing a candidate looks like closing a client, you want to keep the momentum going. Hence, it can be difficult to determine how many days you can leave to the candidate to consider the offer and respond.
On the one hand, you want to keep that period as short as possible to move on the next topic, avoid the chosen candidate from receiving extra offers and managing the other finalist candidates in case of refusal.
On the other hand, it surely is an important decision for the chosen candidate to make so it is normal to think it through.
A good way to handle this is to give a reasonable duration (around 4 days I’d say) and to show the candidate you are not pressuring him/her on principle:
“I’d like to give you as much time as you need but out of respect for the other finalists, I can’t leave them too long without answer concerning the job. Otherwise I risk to jeopardize the whole recruitment process. Do you think you’ll have made your decision by next Thursday? In the meantime, please let me know if we can do something to help you :)”
