We Don't Have a Plant

Brenda Siri, MA, our President and CEO, recently got a cold email that opened like this:

"Saw on LinkedIn that Corporate Connections is hiring for Plant Manager. Hiring for this usually means there is a gap in your operations."

It went on to pitch software that turns manual checklists into digital workflows, with a free trial and a couple of big-name customers at the bottom.

Brenda wrote back:

"This is what I would refer to as using AI and not doing your research. Had you done so, you'd know that Corporate Connections is a recruiting firm, which means the Plant Manager role is one we are working on for our client. Therefore, I'd venture to say that you have the gap in your operations, not me."

We're a recruiting firm. That search is for a client. We don't have a plant.

Where it went wrong

The email wasn't lazy on its face. It was short and clear, and it started from something real: a company posting a Plant Manager job. Plenty of companies hiring one do have problems on the floor.

The mistake was one step later. It assumed the company that posted the job was the company that needed it. Nobody checked. One look at our homepage would have caught it, because the first line says what we do.

And once the first line was wrong, nothing else mattered. The free trial, the customer names, the offer to find a time. None of it got read, because the opening already told Brenda how much attention went into it.

How I handle my own outreach

Business development is half my job, so I write a lot of first emails to people who didn't ask to hear from me. This one was a good reminder of why I don't send until I've done the homework.

Before I reach out to a company, I go look at it. Their careers page, what they're hiring for, what's changing. A new location, a leadership change, a hiring push in one department, an award they just won. I'm looking for the thing that's actually going on with them right now.

Then I ask why the hire they need would be hard in their world. A regulated industry, a small talent pool, a role that has to fit a specific culture. That's the part they care about, and it's where I can be useful.

The first sentence of my email is something true about them that I could only know by looking. If I can't write that sentence yet, I'm not ready to send.

After that it's simple. A short note on how we work, and one easy question. Would they be open to a quick conversation? No pressure, no countdown, no pretending I know their problems better than they do.

How to get it right

None of this takes a research team. It takes a few minutes and the discipline not to skip them.

Check what the company actually does before you decide what they need. A job posting tells you what they're hiring for. It doesn't tell you why, or for whom.

Make your first sentence prove you looked. Something specific and true. If it would still make sense pasted into an email to a different company, it isn't specific enough.

Confirm your premise before you build a pitch on top of it. This is the step that would have saved the email Brenda got.

Keep the ask small. One question, easy to say yes to.

Get the first line right and people will read the rest. Get it wrong and you end up telling a recruiting firm it has a problem running its factories.

Steven Nelson, Senior Recruiter and Director of Business Development, Corporate Connections LLC. This is the first edition of The Critical Hire, which will come out monthly with practical notes for hiring leaders on executive and professional search.

What's the worst outreach you've gotten lately, and what gave it away?

Next edition: Your Candidate Pool Is Smaller Than It Looks