Since the majority of a recruiter’s day is spent on the phone, this is the most obvious tool by which to gather new names and referrals!  Conversations can include both direct solicitations for referrals, or indirect referrals due to asking a variety of specific questions that lead to the right individual.  Of course, the most obvious question to ask a candidate is “who do you know?”

This can be a great question, because it’s direct, it’s concise, and it seems pretty easy to answer. However, your chances of soliciting solid referrals in the opening moments of a call where you have not yet done anything for a candidate are very low, so review this section for many additional questions to ask and methods to use while gathering new names and referrals during the course of a phone call with a prospect. It is certainly possible that you will get some great referrals by asking this question, so it shouldn’t mean that you don’t ever ask – it just means that you should have multiple ways of gathering the same kind of information so you don’t limit yourself to just one approach. Many of the techniques in this section will allow you to gather targeted names, but not necessarily rely on the judgments of your candidates to qualify ‘who they know’ for you. Making a regular habit of asking several name and information gathering questions on every call will ensure that you not only keep a strong pipeline of future candidates, but also continue to identify every prospective candidate that exists in your niche.