How Les Gore Recruits Executives—And Readers
The subject line woke us right up. It said: “You’re Fired!”
But it wasn’t, as we suspected, from our boss. A closer look at the line revealed that it was for an e-mail newsletter– the May issue of Les Gore’s Recruiting Report.
And when we opened the message, we found a thoughtful article on how to fire a subordinate. Nowhere in the e-zine, which also included an editorial and a survey, did anyone appear to be selling anything.
“I’m not pandering,” says Gore, the managing partner of Executive Search International, a boutique recruiting firm based in Newton, MA. “I’m offering what I hope is useful, valuable information.”
Gore, who has been recruiting direct marketing executives since 1982, started the monthly newsletter in January. It now goes to roughly 800 subscribers, including clients, past clients and other high-level executives.
What’s the objective?
“To get business,” he answers. “That’s why anybody markets.”
It seems to be working. Open rates have hit 85%, and the e-zine has helped Gore reestablish contact with past clients and prospects. What’s more, he has gotten “five new senior level search assignments since January,” thanks to the e-letter.
And it costs only pennies (in relative terms) to blast the newsletter through service providers Constant Contact.
Executives who stumble onto the Executive Search Web (http:www.execsearchintl.com) are invited to subscribe to the e-zine. As a sweetener, they are offered a white paper titled, ““Strategies for Finding Top-Notch Experienced Talent.”
Some readers are drawn in through viral marketing. Still others are “people who know me in private equity world,” Gore says. And some subscribers are executives placed by Gore in their current jobs, but only if “they are in a senior level position where they can affect decision making in the staffing area.”
Gore, a one-time account supervisor at J.W. Thompson, writes the monthly e-zine himself at night and on weekends.
Each issue is built around a theme. The July issue, for example, is about finding personnel.
“There are two questions I’m often asked: ‘What makes a great company?’ And, ‘What makes a company a great place to work?’” Gore writes in a personal welcome. “After 23 years, my answer’s still the same. Great People. I’m talking about the ones at the bottom, in the middle, and those at the top. In all departments. Everyone.”
As in other issues, the feature is accompanied by a “30 second survey” question on the subject (“Is yours a great place to work?”), and then by a request for feedback. All the articles appear in their entirety in the newsletter.
Another compelling topic is the one featured in his April issue. In his welcome note, Gore mentions the brutal murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen in New York. She allegedly was killed by the bouncer at a nightclub.
“So what does this grisly big city crime have to do with your business and workplace issues?” Gore asks. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Unless a person like this is working in your distribution center.”
This is followed by a best practices article titled: “Screen Test: How to Separate the Pros from the Cons.”
Yes, it’s serious stuff. But Gore points out one thing that must be obvious to readers: “I have fun with it.”
