Most Recruiting Objections Are Just Smoke Screens

In this episode, I tackle one of the toughest parts of recruiting—handling objections and overcoming rejection. Every recruiting leader faces resistance, whether it’s on phone calls, emails, or social media outreach. But the best recruiters know that objections are just smoke screens. I’ll share the proven frameworks and mindset shifts you need to push past objections and build stronger relationships with recruits.

Episode Breakdown

• [00:00] Introduction – Why overcoming objections is one of the most critical skills in recruiting.
• [01:00] Why Rejection Is Inevitable – Every recruiter faces objections daily, but it’s how you handle them that determines success.
• [02:30] The Energy Shift: Fear or Excitement? – How to reframe the nervous energy before a recruiting call into passion and confidence.
• [04:00] The Top 4 Recruiting Objections – The most common pushbacks you’ll hear:
  1. "I’m not interested."
  2. "I don’t have time to talk."
  3. "I’m happy where I’m at."
  4. "Is this really not a recruiting conversation?"
• [06:00] The Power of Removing Tension – How to eliminate defensive reactions and keep conversations open.
• [07:30] The Smoke Screen Effect – Why most objections are just automatic responses and how to move past them.
• [09:00] The ‘Acknowledge, Don’t Address’ Rule – How to keep the conversation going when you hear an early objection.
• [10:30] The ‘Feel, Felt, Found’ Framework – A proven structure to address deeper objections:
  • "I understand how you feel."
  • "Others I’ve spoken to felt the same way."
  • "What I’ve found is…"
• [12:00] The Power of Pattern Disruptors – How to stop a recruit from hanging up or shutting down the conversation.
• [14:00] The Art of the Strategic Pause – Using silence to encourage recruits to stay engaged.
• [16:30] How to Stay in Control of the Conversation – The difference between a great recruiter and a reactive one.
• [18:30] The Importance of Knowing Your Script – Why the best recruiters never “wing it” and how preparation removes fear.
• [20:00] Final Thoughts & Action Steps – How to practice overcoming objections and eliminate cold call reluctance.

Key Takeaways

1. Rejection is

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
So the big question is this.
How do recruiting leaders like us whohave 12 to 15 other job responsibilities
win at this game of recruiting?
How do we build a system that allowsus to recruit effectively in a minimal
amount of time while motivatingrecruits towards meaningful change?
That is the question and thispodcast will give you the answers.

(00:21):
My name is Richard Milligan andwelcome to Recruiting Conversations.
Everybody, it's Richard Mulligan, yourhost for Recruiting Conversations.
We're back in another podcastand today we are going to talk
about overcoming objections.
If you're a recruiting leader,This is one of the things that
you deal with on a regular basis.
It's why no one's signing up totake over your recruiting role.

(00:45):
Everyone wants the relational piece ofyour, of your role, but no one wants
to have to take over the recruitingpiece of your role because you're
dealing with constant objections, right?
It's like you pick up the phone or yousend someone a direct message, whether
that be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram,wherever, a text message, and it's
normal for you to get attention back.

(01:05):
In, in response to whateverit is that you're doing.
And so we've got to be able toovercome objections, not just handle
them, but really truly overcome them.
And so I'm going to give you a littlebit of framework today that I think
will be beneficial to you in this.
What I have found is that the people thatare willing to push past the smokescreen,
you get it every single time, practicallymake a call, you get a smokescreen.

(01:28):
And it's very rarely that youwould call someone and they
would say, thanks for calling.
I was waiting for yourrecruiting call today, right?
This has to be an expectation ofsomething we deal with on a daily basis.
What's interesting to me is that overthe years of recording this podcast, my
most downloaded podcast easily by about400 percent is cold call reluctancy.

(01:52):
So I know you all are dealing with this.
I know you're dealing with objectionsbecause then it plays into being
reluctant to actually make that call.
So one of the things I've identifiedthat is helpful in get overcoming cold
call reluctancy is over preparing.
Think about it like this.

(02:12):
I do a lot of public speaking.
So I travel every two to threeweeks these days and I'm speaking.
And as I'm traveling andspeaking, I early on.
In 2018, when I was traveling andspeaking, I used to get really
nervous, and I would say nervous.
There's always an interpretationof what energy you're feeling.

(02:34):
But I would say there's a lot ofenergy that, that my, that I would
be, my body would be creating inpreparation for getting on stage
and speaking to an audience.
And I begin to interpretthat energy as excitement.
And in allowing that to propel me tobring more enthusiasm, more passion to
what I was doing when I was on stage.

(02:55):
And so the interpretationof this is really important.
There's a real nugget for you.
Are you experiencingreluctancy or is it energy?
And if it's just energy, that energycan be directed either direction.
It can become a negative narrative.
If you let it, it can also beseen as a positive narrative.

(03:16):
And one of the positive narratives that'sreally, that is very real is that as
this energy is created internally, whereyou sense it before you make a dial,
you can say it's negative, it's tension,it's cold call, reluctancy, it's fear.
It's all those things.
But in actuality, that energy is needed.
Because a simple framework aroundrecruiting is this recruiting

(03:40):
is a transference of energy.
It's a transference of my passion to youto get you excited about my opportunity.
So you can use whatever this is, whateverthis energy is, you can use this and to
propel you towards the recruit in a waythat has the recruit responding positively

(04:03):
to you because energy is attractive.
Very attractive.
I want to be around great energy.
I don't want to be around negative energy.
And so the interpretation ofthis is really important for you.
So what I would tell youis that this is very real.
You're going to deal with this regularly.
Make sure you're interpretingthis in a way that has you moving
towards this, not away from this.

(04:24):
This would be very paralyzing.
I've had leaders that couldn'tget over this at such a level.
They quit their leadership roleand moved into a production role.
Because I knew they were going to have tobuild the team and they couldn't get past
this, what they were, what, what I wouldquantify as negative energy around this.
So how you interpretthis is really important.
There's that, but when we getinto a conversation with people,

(04:47):
we're going to get objections.
And I found there's really three or fourmajor objections that you're going to get.
One of those major objectionsis I'm not interested.
Another one of those objections isI don't have time to talk right now.
I'm too busy.
And another one of thoseis I'm happy where I'm at.
Now, we're not, when you, if you usemy scripting or three parts of my
scripting, but the third part of myscripting is we remove all tension.

(05:11):
We don't try to recruit.
We try to build relationships.
And so the third part of my scriptingsays that if you're willing to have
a conversation with me, it would bea non recruiting conversation where
we'd simply get to know each other.
So that in the event, something were tochange in your career, you'd be willing
to pick up the phone and call me.
That's a simple, what I callremoving the tension framework.
And, and so in that framework,you can get a fourth objection.

(05:34):
I found that fourth objection that youcan get regularly is the, Oh, really?
Which is, this is this really,you're what you're inviting me into
is not a recruiting conversation.
You're not trying to recruit me.
So you've got to be able to overcomethat as well, because we're not,
I'm not trying to recruit you.
I've never had anybody on my team that Ihaven't built a relationship with first.
Okay, I don't know anyone that'sjoined my team that didn't

(05:57):
know me as a leader first.
So in truth, relationshipbuilding is necessary.
So my response to that is,look, I would never recruit
you before I got to know you.
And I would think vice versa, youwould probably never look to join
my team until you got to know me.
And so what I would say to that is thatsomething happens in your career and you

(06:17):
experienced some sort of trigger event.
I've done enough research on you to knowthat you're someone that I want to have a
conversation with to get to know better.
Because if something changes and I don'tknow you any better, there's no way you're
going to pick up the phone and call me.
There's no way I'm going to call you.
And if I looked up in six monthsand you're at another organization
and I haven't tried to build arelationship to get to know you, I'm
going to kick my own butt for that.

(06:38):
So I'm simply trying to builda relationship with you.
Okay.
Excuse me.
So that's the, that'd be the fourth one,but let's talk about some simple framework
early on when you're incommunication with someone and
you get early on, this is Richard.
I'm with ABC company.
I'm the regional manager.
Anything like that, anything that Iget early on is just a smokescreen.

(07:00):
If someone says, Hey, look,I get recruited a lot.
I'm really happy where I'm at.
That's early on.
You get that early on in, in aconversation and you get an objection.
It's a smokescreen.
You need to understand that in a lotof industries, people are getting
five, seven, 10 phone calls a week.
They've got to be really goodat getting you off the phone or

(07:22):
getting you out of the conversation.
And so they'll throwthe smoke screen at you.
So when you understand it's justa smoke screen, what do you do?
You acknowledge it.
You don't address it, andthere's a big difference.
Acknowledging it would be saying,if someone said, I'm happy where
I'm at, I'm going to acknowledge it.
I understand you're happy whereyou're at, so let me be real direct.

(07:45):
That's a very simple framework.
If someone said, I'm not interested, Iwant to respect the fact that you're not
interested, so let me be real direct.
That, so let me be real direct, whereyou mirror what they say, mirror whatever
they say, so let me be real direct.
We're just buying ourselves more time.
Okay.
So early on, when you get anobjection, acknowledge it.
Do not address it.

(08:05):
It's a smoke screen.
Get backed into your scripting.
Now, if it's later on in, in your phonescripting, where someone repeats that,
look, I really am happy where I'm at.
Now we have to address it.
Very simple framework to addressobjections is through feel, felt, found.
The three F's feel, felt, found.

(08:26):
Very simple framework.
Someone says, no, look, I'mreally happy where I'm at.
I understand that you feel that way.
When I talk to people, I knowa lot of people have told me
they felt the exact same way.
Here's what I found in my own career,that when the season for a change
came, I was always happy that I builtrelationship with other leaders that
I knew and trusted that I could pickup the phone and call in that moment.

(08:49):
And then I go back to my scripting.
So what I'm inviting you intois a 15 minute meeting where
no recruiting is allowed.
We simply get to know each other.
Does that sound fair to you?
And that's called gaining agreement.
So feel felt found is a very powerfulframework that will allow you to
insert any objection and say, Iunderstand that you feel that way.
Either.
I know a lot of other people Italked to have felt the same way,

(09:10):
or I felt the exact same way.
What I have found is okay.
You come back to your clothes.
That's a really powerfulway to overcome objections.
Okay.
You're empathetic.
Okay, it's not doesn't create any tensionin this conversation and in empathy
works really well and moving peopleto places where you need them to be.

(09:33):
Now, what I would say is this.
Here's what the phone data supportsin 2017, the average American was, was
spending anywhere from 32 to 35 secondson a cold call with someone fast forward
to 2019, it was down to 11 seconds.
Marketers have run the phone to alarge degree, just like marketers
run the email, get all the spamcalls that we get on the phone.

(09:56):
Or what marketers havedone to run the phone.
And so people are less tolerant of coldcalls today than they've ever been.
And so one of the things that'srelatively new is that people are
really willing to click on you, hangup on you early on into a conversation.
As a recruiter, most of you on aMyers-Briggs are going to have the

(10:17):
E and the F in your personalities.
E and FJS are great recruiters, okay?
E and FPS are great recruiters,so the E is the extrovert.
Okay?
The I on the Myers-Briggs is theI, so the E is the extrovert.
The F is the feeler, okay?
The ENFJ or the ENFP are greatpersonalities for recruiters.

(10:38):
Just be aware of that.
If you're a leader and you'relooking to hire a recruiter,
go find yourself some EN fjs.
And maybe we'll do a podcast on that oneday, because that's some great insight.
They're phenomenal recruiters.
Why?
Because they're the feeler part, theintuitive part of that personality knows
when they're about to get hung up on this.

(10:59):
If you're a recruiter and someonegoes, look, I'm not interested
in you're expecting what's next.
So one of the things that to considerin this is a pattern disruptor.
What's a pattern disruptor.
If I call you and I say.
Nancy, this is Richard.
I've done a bunch of research on you.
I know I want to have this conversationwith you because I was, I found a

(11:20):
lot of incredible things about you.
As I was doing my research, Iwas excited for this call today.
And Nancy goes, look, I'm not interested.
I know she's going about to go click.
I will say this.
Can I ask you a question?
And then I'll pause.
I was about to hang up on you.
Can I ask you a question?
Okay.
Now sometimes it won't keep them fromhanging up on you, but most times

(11:44):
you're going to find that peoplearen't quite rude enough to hang up
on you in the middle of a question.
And they'll say, sure.
Now I'm into my scripting.
Okay.
And so in your scripting, you haveto establish a really large reason
why they should meet with you.
And look, a really large reasonwhy, if I asked that question,
can I ask you a question knowingsomeone's going to hang up on me?

(12:05):
And they said, sure.
I would say, I think this industryis going to change dramatically
over the next two to three years.
Let me pause here.
I think most industries aregoing to change dramatically
over the next two to three years.
That's why you as a recruiter havea lot of job security, because
every industry is going to change.
Technology is accelerating,consumer behavior is changing.
These are all things that aretrue of every environment today.

(12:26):
So I'm going to insert a really largereason why I think the industry is
changing right now in a major way.
Okay.
And now I'm going to getinto removing the tension.
And so with that said, I would loveto invite you into a 15 minute meeting
where no recruiting is allowed.
We simply get to know each other sothat in the event something happens
in your career, you're willingto pick up the phone and call me.
Does that sound fair to you?

(12:47):
So the scripting that some ofthe scripting I'm giving, I'm not
giving the full scripting, but I'mgiving you some of the scripting.
Okay.
When I ask you that question,can I ask you a question allows
me to get into my scripting.
Okay.
So if there's three big nuggetshere in on a script early on
acknowledge, I understand you're happy.
So let me be real direct.

(13:08):
That's acknowledging later on into it.
When I get another objection,I have to address it.
And that's different.
And how I'm going to addressit is using feel felt found.
And then I'm going to goback to my close, okay.
Where I get interrupted by someone that Iknow is about to hang up the phone on me.
I will say, can I ask you a question?

(13:29):
These are three really powerfulways to overcome objections.
So here's a challenge for you.
Know your scripting so well that youcan get interrupted by anyone, anywhere,
and you can pick your scripting back up.
A lot of people will say,I'm not in the scripting.
Guess what?

(13:49):
The pros, the real professionalsin this are in the scripting.
You know why?
Because scripting works.
Most people are winging their calls.
Most people have no ideawhat they're going to say.
There's a formula to this.
Know the formula.
That's called your script.
Okay?
Know the formula.

(14:09):
The formulas work.
That's why there's formulas for success.
You gotta have script.
Okay?
Know your script.
When you know your script, whenyou know the objections that you're
going to get, and you know exactlyhow you're going to overcome those
objections, Okay, fear goes away.
Polka reluctancy goes away.
Why is that?

(14:30):
Because what you actuallyare afraid of is the unknown.
You're afraid of being embarrassed.
You're afraid of getting someone sayingsomething that you can't respond back to.
You're afraid of people hanging up on you.
You're afraid of men.
Let's put a name to some of these things.
You're afraid of some ofthese things a lot of times.
And if you're not, then great.
But I recognize that podcast of mine, ColdCall Reluctancy is the most downloaded

(14:52):
podcast I have because people are afraid.
They're experiencing these things.
What are we afraid of?
The unknowns.
Think about it like being a little kid.
When I was a little kid,lights came, went off.
I was scared.
Why?
There was something underneath my bed.
I knew it.
That's why I scooted to the middleof my bed and tucked the covers in.
I think we've all experienced that.
When I walked into Walmart on March23rd, and I could look all the

(15:13):
way through March 23rd of 2020.
And I could look all the way through myWalmart because people were so afraid
of what was about to take place withCOVID breaking out that they went in
and wiped all the shelves clean andbought groceries for three weeks,
four weeks, all at the same time.
Because they were afraid.
What were they afraid of?
The unknown.
What was about to follow.

(15:34):
So where there are unknowns, youmake knowns and fear goes away.
So light comes on as a little kid.
Guess what?
Not afraid anymore.
I was very clear there wasnothing underneath my bed.
So for you, you have to know, youhave to know your script really well.
And when you know your script reallywell, and you know how to overcome
objections, there aren't any unknowns.

(15:55):
And look, if someone gives you a randomobjection, figure out how to overcome it.
My sisters actually, A successfulloan officer in the mortgage industry.
And one time she asked me, she said,how would you overcome this objection?
And it was a random objection.
It was like, the objectionwas out of respect for you.
I'm going to decline the meeting.

(16:17):
And she's like, no, one'sever able to overcome this.
Do I?
So it depends on where you gaveit to me, or if you gave it to me
early in this, in my call, I wouldsay, thank you for respecting me.
So let me be real direct.
What'd I do?
I acknowledged it.
If it was later on.
I would under, I would actuallythen use some of the same

(16:37):
framework to, to overcome that.
And I presented that to her and shegoes, Oh my gosh, that's so easy.
I don't know why people get so hung up.
She literally said this, no one's everbeen able to overcome that objection.
And to some degree, I get it.
Two weeks ago, I got a call, acold call from somebody and I
knew who they were immediatelybecause they had sent me an email.

(16:58):
And I w I was annoyed because I getemailed all the time from people that
scrape my information from LinkedIn andstick me in their freaking database.
It just happened a few minutes ago whereI had to remove myself from someone's
list because they scraped my data fromLinkedIn and stuck me in their database.
Okay.
This person did that.
Sent me an email and theemail was interesting to me.
The title line was like, we know someonewithin 10 miles of your location.

(17:21):
That was interesting to me.
And I look at the email andthey're like, we have a client
within 10 miles of your location.
I'm like, I'm virtual.
How do you know where I'm at?
So they called me and they said,we recently sent you an email
and we have a client and it wasjust, it was a consistent message.
So immediately I knew who it was.
And I said, how'd youget my email address?
Cause I got an email from you and thispoor girl, she'd obviously had no training

(17:47):
or she'd never been asked that question.
She just wasn't prepared at all.
And I'm not kidding you, no exaggeration.
I listened to her stammer as Iwas quiet for at least 30 seconds.
And it felt like 10 minutes becauseI simply said, how did you get
my number and my email address?

(18:07):
And her response to that was, Ohmy goodness, Richard, this is true.
This is really what happened.
Oh my goodness, Richard.
I can't believe that.
Oh, I I'm losing.
I'm having a hard time thinking right now.
Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness, Richard.
Like this, I'm so embarrassed.
Like, this is seriouslywhat happened to me.
I was like.
It was unbelievable.
I felt sorry for her.
But I really wanted to see if shecould figure a way out of it because I

(18:30):
teach phone skills and phone scriptingand I'm thinking to myself, no one's
trained her on phone scripting.
That poor thing.
But I let her go on and for probably30 seconds plus, she repeated herself.
And finally in the end, Idon't remember how the end was.
I was so blown away that she said,Oh my goodness, probably 10 times.

(18:50):
And I'm so embarrassed,probably three times.
And I can't put my words togetherprobably two or three times before
we finally got off the phone.
I was thinking to myself, she probablywill make a call for the rest of the
day, because that simple question, howdid you get my number and how'd you get
my email just because I got an emailfrom you as well, took her off track.

(19:11):
But if that's you.
And you're like, Oh my goodness, that'stotally me when I get that random
objection, do yourself a favor, figureout how you can overcome that objection,
then memorize it, make it part ofyour script, because that will remove
the fear, known things don't producefear, unknown things produce fear.
So identify those, I would even imploreyou, go get some white sticky paper.

(19:35):
Put it on your walls, write yourbullet points, your script so
you can look up and just see it.
Put your objections and how you'regoing to overcome those on your
wall so that you can see them.
If this is something that's a majorissue for you, be the weird person.
If someone comes in your officeand goes, what's up with that?
I'm memorizing my script.
I'm doing the best I can to be the beston the phone or the best at scripting.

(19:56):
Be that person before you'rethe other person who's afraid
to actually make the call.
I hope this brought some value to you.
Do you know how to find me?
If, if I can bring you more value, youcan find me on my life calendar, which
is going to come in the outro after this.
I hope you're doing well.
Hope you're finding success.
Just watch the value day.
Have a great week, everybody.
Until I talk to you again onanother recruiting conversation.

(20:21):
Want more recruiting conversations?
You can register for myweekly email at 4crecruiting.
com.
If you need help creating your ownunique recruiting system, you can
book a time with me at bookrichardnow.
com.