Posted on May 11, 2015
Where are my Recruiters AT? Give me some pointers as I head to recruiting duty
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Responses: 13
Be your self.
Take the tools USAREC and the Army gave you and figure out how they work for you. The people, you will have the mission to recruit, know the bad thing about serving in the military and there are plenty of them, but they don't know all the reason you love serving. Just tell them your story and you will be fine.
Oh yeah, one more important thing, always remember to ask them to join.
Take the tools USAREC and the Army gave you and figure out how they work for you. The people, you will have the mission to recruit, know the bad thing about serving in the military and there are plenty of them, but they don't know all the reason you love serving. Just tell them your story and you will be fine.
Oh yeah, one more important thing, always remember to ask them to join.
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SFC (Join to see) I spent many years in recruiting command, 21 to be exact. I will tell you that I was voluntold when they drafted me into USAREC. Coming out of Aviation at the time and being sent to Grand Forks ND by USAREC was not my idea of fun. As you can tell I changed my mind about that down the road.
First and foremost as others have said pay attention in school, that sets the foundation for you., once you get to the station and hit the street, you will find out what works for you but always keep the basics.
Do not let yourself fall in with the cancerous individuals that hate the Army and world because they are on recruiting duty. You are a SSG and as an NCO we know what to do. Leaders will change throughout your time in recruiting, so do your job to the best of your ability and you will be fine. Under today's structure in the command every person has a place on the team. Where you fit into that will be determined by you and your center leader. The accomplishment of the mission is the result of the teams hard work.
You can have a lot of time with the family and attend events that you may not have been able to in the past. It is a great job that allows you to bond with the family again. Remember why you are out there and the bottom line which is to recruit great young men and women in to our Army to take your place when you retire.
The easiest way to do well in recruiting is a positive attitude at all times. Know your competitors programs as well as ours. Meet and greet everyone in your high school and establish your creditability and rapport with them. It is always easier to have referrals join then smiling and dialing or face to face prospecting for them all. Get invo9lved with your community, have your spouse and yourself volunteer for events or organizations that will build your influencers.
Do what is right and always live your NCO Creed. If you have problems recruiting ask for help, listen to your teammates if they use something that is working, take it and make it your own. Above all be yourself, it is much easier to be drawn in to community, school and the local life when you are, you. Remember you not only represent your center, company and USAREC, but, you are the Army to everyone in that area.
I hope this helps you with a few insights. I could give you more pointers probably for days. I wish you and your family the best of luck and you know where to find us on RP. Salutes
First and foremost as others have said pay attention in school, that sets the foundation for you., once you get to the station and hit the street, you will find out what works for you but always keep the basics.
Do not let yourself fall in with the cancerous individuals that hate the Army and world because they are on recruiting duty. You are a SSG and as an NCO we know what to do. Leaders will change throughout your time in recruiting, so do your job to the best of your ability and you will be fine. Under today's structure in the command every person has a place on the team. Where you fit into that will be determined by you and your center leader. The accomplishment of the mission is the result of the teams hard work.
You can have a lot of time with the family and attend events that you may not have been able to in the past. It is a great job that allows you to bond with the family again. Remember why you are out there and the bottom line which is to recruit great young men and women in to our Army to take your place when you retire.
The easiest way to do well in recruiting is a positive attitude at all times. Know your competitors programs as well as ours. Meet and greet everyone in your high school and establish your creditability and rapport with them. It is always easier to have referrals join then smiling and dialing or face to face prospecting for them all. Get invo9lved with your community, have your spouse and yourself volunteer for events or organizations that will build your influencers.
Do what is right and always live your NCO Creed. If you have problems recruiting ask for help, listen to your teammates if they use something that is working, take it and make it your own. Above all be yourself, it is much easier to be drawn in to community, school and the local life when you are, you. Remember you not only represent your center, company and USAREC, but, you are the Army to everyone in that area.
I hope this helps you with a few insights. I could give you more pointers probably for days. I wish you and your family the best of luck and you know where to find us on RP. Salutes
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SFC (Join to see)
Great thought that I never even entertained honestly, that of understanding our competitors programs. Knowing what they offer versus what we are offering. Thank you CSM.
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Read "See you at the Top" by Zig Ziglar. ensure you understand the Tricare insurance system. and become a student of sales training.
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MAJ (Join to see)
Yes, and in studying sales training, recognize the difference between a large sale (like a career for the next several years of a prospect's life), and a small sale (like a department store purchase). I recommend the book Spin Selling for a relatively succinct explanation. More steps in a large sale in vole more relationship - building and personal investment from both parties.
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You will get lots of advice from seasoned recruiters in your Company & hopefully here too. Be flexible enough to use the parts that fit for you, but make it your own style rather than trying to do it exactly like someone else. Do your own research to supplement what USAREC and fellow Recruiters hand you. Know your market and your applicants better than anyone else around, and be willing to share that knowledge. Train yourself and others constantly, and approach this as a profession, not just an assignment. Make time for your family - work the mission hard during the duty day, so you aren't working it on family time. Lastly, obviously never compromise your values - Recruiters have a tough job, which means it is even more important to check how stress may impact decisions of you self and others. The popular or easy choice may not always be the right one.
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SFC (Join to see)
Thank you Sir, that sounds like amazing advice. Advice that not only will help in meeting mission but in working with peers.
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MSG Brad Sand
SFC (Join to see)
MAJ (Join to see) makes some good points. Also, don't be afraid to work out side the box either. Plan in things during the work day with family and have them help you recruit! Show that civilian that you can have a family and be a soldier.
I would tell my recruiters to plan their grocery shopping during the middle of the day and take the family...or at least wife...with them and make sure they knew what was going on. If your wife is invested, you have a force multiplier. Then ask a question in every department. The 'kids' working in a grocery store during the middle of the week and during school hours are normally prime applicants. Probably a HS Grad, and not currently in college (money ?) Think about everyone you grew up with or know...how many dreamed about growing up to work in a grocery store?
MAJ (Join to see) makes some good points. Also, don't be afraid to work out side the box either. Plan in things during the work day with family and have them help you recruit! Show that civilian that you can have a family and be a soldier.
I would tell my recruiters to plan their grocery shopping during the middle of the day and take the family...or at least wife...with them and make sure they knew what was going on. If your wife is invested, you have a force multiplier. Then ask a question in every department. The 'kids' working in a grocery store during the middle of the week and during school hours are normally prime applicants. Probably a HS Grad, and not currently in college (money ?) Think about everyone you grew up with or know...how many dreamed about growing up to work in a grocery store?
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MAJ (Join to see)
One other thing that was crucial to my success: Treat every applicant as a long-term genuine relationship, not as a means to an end or as "a number". I have run into many people I recruited years later, and the mutual respect and appreciation built from that first contact onward is a bond that lasts. I made a lifetime commitment to everyone I recruited that as long as they did right by the Army and their fellow Soldiers, they could always count on me to do the same for them as part of the Army family.
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I was on Recruiting duty from 05-07, and I really enjoyed the School and assignment. Yes it was really long hours, but to share my experience to Families was really rewarding. I hope you enjoy this assignment as well.
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Make sure you are meticulous in making sure your tools match up. If you are going to do the work, make sure the tools you have reflect the effort you put in. This helped me when I went through a dry spell.
Find a style that works for you and stick with it. I made most of my money doing telephonic prospecting (P1). Others I worked with were better at face to face prospecting (P3). P3 is much more reliable for appointments showing up. Spend as much time in your schools as possible. As the students get to know you, they will be your funnel in the years to come. This will help as well.
Find a style that works for you and stick with it. I made most of my money doing telephonic prospecting (P1). Others I worked with were better at face to face prospecting (P3). P3 is much more reliable for appointments showing up. Spend as much time in your schools as possible. As the students get to know you, they will be your funnel in the years to come. This will help as well.
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SFC (Join to see)
Best of luck to you out there. I did not like my time in recruiting but others did.
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What a lot of the responses are saying about school and the work place are true and you hit the nail on the head from your personal experience with the 25th. (My personal experience) If you have a wife and kids, recruiting is a great assignment. Mandatory to take 7-14 days of leave quarterly which affords you predictability when planning vacations, no field exercises or training deployments (no weeks away from home), PT was on your own (no more 0500 wake up to make a formation), unless near an installation civialns are your health care choice. The change in work environment allowed me to meet my wife. The work was tough, but being able to come home every night for 4 years straight (I extended for 1 year to get married) was the biggest upside of recruiting for me. Best of luck to you.
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SFC (Join to see)
That is something that I am working out, because we wont be near an installation so healthcare for the family is something that I am trying to figure out. I am trying to get with my sponsor about these things, but that is going to be a first stop when I hit ground there, the station to make a face to face with the Station Commander and my Sponsor. Then my daughters college and then figuring the rest of it out.
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SSG Brian MacBain
SFC Pharr Jr, I wish that recruiting was like that in 1999 when I was a recruiter. I am married and have 2 boys. I hardly saw my boys except on Sundays that was our only day off. We had no mandatory quarterly week leave. We were required to be at the station by 0700 and we could not leave until between 2200-2300hrs. So, from your story, I see it had greatly improved.
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SFC (Join to see)
Yeah I came to recruiting hearing of the horror stories from the Usarec veterans. My comments were based on my experience though. I was fortunate to be in a recruiting center that was successful. Because of that our work hours were set in stone by the brigade commander. Those less successful in other brigades I'm sure felt the pain. But yes, the times have change a great deal since the late 90's
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As I head to Volunteer recruiting duty, leaving the 25th, I am happy. I don't need to hear all the naysayers, I have Battles that are recruiters, some HATE it, others LOVE it so like everything else it is what you make it. The 25th is one of those places that you would think everyone would LOVE. I only came out here (especially as a Tanker) because I was chasing an Afghanistan deployment. I got here and things were a WORLD different, it was like a TOTALLY different Army altogether. I was dumbstruck, but after three years I have become USED to a LOT of things out here. It is all what you make it, and I am looking forward to it. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Long hours? Yeah I am a PSG out here I do those anyway, working weekends, already prepped the family for that. What else ya got?
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SSG Brian MacBain
SSG Herpel, I will try not to be a naysayer. I know recruiting has change since I was a recruiter back in 1999. I was a recruiter out of Yorktown VA. My station commander (SC) (and that titled went to his head big time) made us work from 7am to 11pm 6 days a week. We had recruiters that would do drive-bys to see if he left or the night. Oh, that SC would go home to his family by 1900hrs and then call in for the numbers. He was an SFC and we had SFC and SSG for recruiters and he treated everyone like PVT's. Needless to say, gave me a bad taste in my mouth. However, it is what you make of it. If you have a great SC and recruiters in your office, you will do great. You will need a lot of patience. I wish you luck.
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SFC (Join to see)
Yeah I know that there are situations like that and honestly it is Army wide though and that is something that is not dissuasive (not that it would matter anyway I am headed there shortly anyway). Anyway, I think regardless where you are you experience things like that. The person in charge leaves and there you are working and it leaves that bitter taste in your mouth right? Like I mentioned though and it was a BIG reason that I chose to volunteer I had battles that went, some HATE it, I mean wholeheartedly hate it and tell me so, cannot WAIT until their "sentence" is up, then others who I tended to get most of my information from who love it. They would tell me the good and bad, so it is not as though they only told me the good, they informed me both sides. Like you said, it is like anything else in the Army and is what you make of it.
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SFC Charles S.
My best advice, You said it... Don't need the Naysayers. If you are going, Make the Best of it. It's like going to any new duty station, If you have it in your head that it will suck... It is a self fulfilling prophecy. It will Suck. If you go there with an open mind and do what you are trained to do with the purpose and mission you are given... You will achieve it and do well.
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SFC (Join to see)
I think that I have the added benefit that I volunteered for it too?? At least that seems to be the trend that I have seen. Volunteer Recruiters seem to be happier with it than those that were detailed on it. Not a survey proven fact, just from the Battle buddies that I have seen go both ways. Thanks for your advice though SFC Staley much appreciated
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Pay attention at school, study always and double check your work. Honor graduate was too easy for ARC. When you get to your station, figure out your style of recruiting and be more successful than the best recruiter in that station. You will be untouchable. Make sure you have the right mentality. Alot of people go to recruiting pissed off at the world.
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SFC (Join to see)
Nice...yeah I have been trying to figure that out now. I actually work on my guys that I have here (I know reenlistment is different that enlistment) but still I have been trying to figure out my style. Should be interesting. Good advice though about ARC thanks
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Own your schools. Don't grow over reliant on the grad market. If you don't own your schools you won't have a grad market in year 2 or 3.
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