Five Steps to Successfully Close the Deal

After spending a lot of time, energy and money, you are ready to make an offer and close the deal! Timing is crucial to the success of any step in the recruitment process but this is especially true when it comes to the offer/contract phase.

Consider the following pointers – they can mean the difference between making a successful hire and starting all over again.

1. Strike while the iron is hot!
Be ready to make a decision within 48 hours or less of a candidate’s interview. It is even better if the candidate can walk away from the interview with an offer in hand. A candidate’s level of interest and enthusiasm is always the highest during the interview. Making an offer quickly shows the candidate your level of interest. It is important you have an objective and timely manner to collect interview feedback from the panel. I recommend sending an interview evaluation form to the interview panel with the interview itinerary. The evaluation form should be easy to fill out and return to you.

2. Give the candidate a deadline for his decision
If you are prepared to make an offer in a timely manner, it is only fair to ask the candidate for a prompt reply too. It is best to place a two week deadline on your offer/contract. During this two week period the candidate is assured the offer is exclusive to him only. If the two week deadline passes, you are free to pursue other candidates and it’s a “first come, first serve” scenario. Enforce your deadlines. Often I see my clients extend deadlines over and over. Why use deadlines if you are just going to extend them!

3. Skip the offer letter and go with the contract
This one is tough! Many of my clients have a two step process. First an offer letter goes with all the details that will be included in the contract, start date, signing bonus, compensation, scheduled, etc. Once the signed offer letter is returned, the contract is sent.
I would strongly encourage you to skip the offer letter step and go straight to the contact phase. An offer letter is not legal binding and it just prolongs the process giving your candidate more time to consider other opportunities or to shop your offer around to see if he can get a better deal!

If your organization will not forgo the offer letter step, I strongly encourage you to have a contract ready to mail out as soon as the signed offer letter is returned. Many times, my clients wait until the signed offer letter is returned before the contract is even requested/prepared – again you are just prolonging the process. I have seen client take several weeks after the return of a signed offer letter to get a contract out. Trust me; this is not the best way to instill confidence in your candidate!!!

4. Keep the contract simple
If you have a contract that is more that 5-10 pages, it is time to go back to drawing board! Candidates are intimidated when they get lengthy contracts. The simpler your contract, the faster you will get it back.

5. Use overnight mailing services instead of regular mail
Now is not the time to save some money! When you are sending out offers/contract use overnight mail and be sure to include a return overnight envelope too. This makes the right impression with the candidate and reinforces the need for a prompt reply.


Time is your biggest enemy! I can’t stress this enough. Take a look at your current offer/contract process and see if you can apply any of the suggestions I just made. They can make a big difference.