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Mastering Recruiting - How to automate the sourcing of candidates with LGM?
Mastering Recruiting - How to automate the sourcing of candidates with LGM?

Want to automate your recruitment to make your job offers stand out ? Keep reading!

Agathe Bancel avatar
Written by Agathe Bancel
Updated over a week ago

Are you a talent recruiter or working in recruitment and searching for candidates?

In the highly competitive field of recruitment, differentiating yourself when reaching out to candidates can be challenging. They are frequently overwhelmed with messages and might not give proper attention to every job offer they receive.

Moreover, individually contacting candidates is laborious and time-intensive.

How can you automate your approach and make your job offers stand out?

LaGrowthMachine can assist you - keep reading!

Table of content :




Do I need an expensive Recruiter account? Or is Sales Navigator good enough?

A professional LinkedIn Sales Navigator license costs 99€ per month, whereas LinkedIn Recruiter Lite costs 154€ per month.


This price difference is significant. However, is it worth it?


The main differences between LinkedIn Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Recruiter Lite are as follows:


→ Filters:

In LinkedIn Recruiter, there are two filters that you won't find in a Sales Navigator lead search:

  • Year of graduation: This can easily be replaced by years of experience in Sales Navigator.

  • Skills: Although it might seem like an interesting filter to use when targeting candidates with specific skills, such as coding in a particular language, skills are endorsed by other people and may not accurately reflect reality. In the end, it's not a precise and reliable filter to use. It would be more accurate to use Boolean search operators to search for skills throughout the candidate’s LinkedIn profile.

With Sales Navigator, there are more filters available than in LinkedIn Recruiter. Here are the ones that are relevant when looking for candidates:

  • Years in the current company

  • Years in the current role

  • Company type: This is useful if you're looking for people working in non-profit or self-employed roles, for instance.

  • Groups: Looking for people who are part of groups with specific topics can help you understand their interests and skills.

→ Network (3rd-degree connections):

With Sales Navigator, you can find and contact people who are within your 3rd-degree connection circle. This isn't possible with Recruiter Lite, and you might miss out on good candidates that other talent recruiters or recruitment companies can contact first.

Bonus: If you work for a recruitment agency, you likely handle both recruiting and prospecting for new clients. In this case, Sales Navigator is the perfect fit for you. You can use it to find candidates and also identify companies you're interested in working with through an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy.

Ultimately, if you had to choose between LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite, what would you choose?

At LaGrowthMachine, we are convinced that Sales Navigator is the best choice you can make in terms of budget and features!


How to source great candidates with Sales Navigator

We explained why it is a smart choice to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to source candidats, I’ll share good practices and best insights to explain how to master Sales Navigator when recruiting.

Headhunting talents working for other great companies (Account Based Recruiting)

Sometimes, the perfect fit for the position you're recruiting for can be found within your competitors' teams.

It's a classic recruitment strategy and a surefire approach to seek out talent that is already trained and familiar with market intricacies, for instance.

To begin with, start by identifying companies that share similarities with yours based on the products/services they offer, the industry vertical they operate in, or their company size.

Indeed, for certain positions, you may be searching for candidates who are well-acquainted with working for early-stage startups, while for others, a profile experienced in the operations of large corporations might be more relevant.

💡 Account-Based researches is usually not well-known to most people but so powerful. If you’re new to searching for accounts.

Here’s a quick video to show you how it works.

Now that you know the basics, let’s apply it to our Recruiting goals!

To accomplish this, navigate to the "Search Accounts" tab on Sales Navigator and conduct your research using filters:

  • Industry

  • Company headcount

  • Department headcount

  • Use boolean operators if you're aiming to find candidates who are working with specific product or service.

Let's consider the following example: you're searching for a Marketing and Brand Director within the fashion industry, specifically in a sizable marketing department.

I've applied the following filters:

  • Company department: 20 employees

  • Industry: "Retail Fashion and Apparel"

  • Headquarters location: France

I obtained 27 results in my search! I've only selected the companies that were a good match and compiled them into a list.

Now, onto the second phase of the research: identifying the right candidate.

To do this, let's switch to lead search and employ your list of companies as a filter.`

(Not sure how to proceed? Watch the previous video or read our article that provides a step-by-step guide on how to do this.)

Here are the filters I've employed:

  • Current job title: I've utilized various titles to ensure that I don't overlook a potentially suitable profile, including "Marketing Director," "Marketing Manager," "Head of Marketing," "Directeur Marketing," "Directrice Marketing."

💡 It can be tricky to find all the jobtitles related to the position you’re trying to fill. Fortunately, Parsinator by Farrow is a great tool for that. Just provide a few keyword, and it will return all the associated jobTitles you should search for!

  • Geographic location: France, as I'm recruiting for a French company

  • Years in the current position: "3 to 5 years," since, for this role, I'm seeking someone who has implemented processes and driven a brand strategy over several years.

I've identified 24 results!

You can either refine the search and individually select profiles to add them to a leads list or contact all of them if they appear to be relevant for the position.

Headhunting on the right timing - How to find people on the verge of switching ?

After working in the same position for 2 years, individuals might have completed their tasks and be seeking a fresh challenge. This is particularly applicable to salespeople. During this phase, they might explore new job opportunities or be open to changing roles if the right opportunity presents itself.

Identifying such individuals and proposing a new role can be a compelling strategy, as they are more likely to respond positively compared to individuals who have deeper roots within the company or those who have recently started a new position.

Identifying them becomes much easier by using Sales Navigator; follow the steps outlined below:

  • While doing a lead search, apply all relevant filters to discover the ideal candidate (Job title, company headcount, geography, etc.).

Additionally, include the filter "Years in current role = 1 to 2 years."

  • Thoroughly review the search results and initiate contact with profiles that align with your job opportunity.

  • Ask them if they're up for trying something new and challenging!

Headhunt the right skills

Headhunting the right skills on Sales Navigator using boolean parameters can significantly enhance your recruitment efforts by allowing you to identify candidates with precise qualifications.

Why Use Boolean Parameters for Skill-Based Searches ?

More precise targeting : Boolean parameters enable you to create very precise research. This helps you find candidates who possess the exact skills you're looking for, reducing the time and effort spent on sorting through irrelevant profiles.

Customized Criteria: Boolean searches give you the flexibility to customize your criteria. You can combine multiple skills, specify the level of expertise, and even exclude certain skills, allowing you to fine-tune your search.

By using boolean parameters for skill-based searches, you can efficiently identify candidates who meet your specific requirements.

This approach not only saves time but also increases the likelihood of finding highly qualified candidates who are the right fit for your job openings.


Finding talents based on Education

Here's another reason why LinkedIn Sales Navigator is more than capable of finding the perfect talent is that you can search for people based on the schools they attended.

Why building your research around schools candidats attended ?

For instance, certain schools are renowned for their strong programs in particular industries. By targeting candidates from these schools, you increase the likelihood of finding individuals with a solid educational foundation in your industry.

To do this, utilize the School filter and refine your search by the curriculum and expertise you are seeking in your candidates.

Automating your pipeline every week with Saved Search

Let's say you've tailored the search to meet all the criteria required for discovering the ideal talent for your job opportunity! But, luck hasn't been on your side so far: you've reached out to every individual, and no one seems interested in the role you're recruiting for.

Don't give up just yet—continue leveraging the fantastic search you've set up. Save it using the "Saved Search" button, and whenever a new profile aligns with the filters you've applied, it will be saved in this search.

You’ll get an email weekly with all the new results!

  1. Once you're done with your search, simply click on the "Save Search" button located at the bottom of the page

2. Name your search

3. Check out the fresh profiles added to the search every week!

4. Get in touch with those new talents!


Best practice for outreaching talents

So, now that you've used Sales Navigator to find the perfect talents, it's time to get in touch with them!

But reaching out to each one individually? That's going to take ages. And let's be honest, chasing them up when they don't reply is a hassle, and you might even miss a few.

No worries though, LaGrowthMachine is here to help you set up the perfect workflow to contact and follow up with your candidates in a super personalized way!

Curious to know more? Check out the second part of our guide!

Should you start on LinkedIn or via Email?

LaGrowthMachine allows you to reach out to people on LinkedIn and via email as well. How do you decide which channel you should start with?


In the case of recruitment, there's no need to overthink it: always start on LinkedIn first for the simple reason that you don't have any email addresses to contact your potential candidates at the beginning of the sequence.

Indeed, LaGrowthMachine will provide you with very interesting data to contact your talents: their personal email addresses.

How? By default, people on LinkedIn often share the email addresses they signed up with to their 1st-degree connection network. The email address is usually their personal email address.

When this data is shared, LaGrowthMachine will scrape it and add it to your leads' data in your audience, so you can reach out on that channel.

This explains why you should start with LinkedIn first: send an invitation, and if it's accepted, you can switch to an email if an email address has been retrieved (with an average enrichment rate of 60% for personal emails).

Here's an example of a workflow you can build when reaching out to talents:

Now, let's take a closer look at each step!

  1. Begin by visiting your talent's profile and then send a connection request. Visiting their profile helps improve brand awareness, increasing the acceptance rate when your name and company sound familiar upon receiving the invitation.

  2. You can give your lead 21 days or even longer to accept your request. Since you obtain their personal email address once connected on LinkedIn, you don't have a fallback if they don't accept your connection request. Hence, giving them ample time is recommended.

  3. Once accepted, engage with your candidates using a voice message! We'll explain later in the guide why this approach is so relevant when recruiting.

  4. If there's no reply and you have their personal email, switch to that channel. If you don't, you can continue using LinkedIn.

  5. Send as many follow-ups as long as you have value to bring to your candidates.

Should I add a note to my connection request?

As we've highlighted earlier, LinkedIn is #1 channel when it comes to finding your candidates. If you're not in their accepted network, you won't have access to their personal email, engaging with your candidate won’t be so easy.

Missing out on engaging with talent that's a perfect fit for your job description would be quite a setback, right?

That's where adding a note to your connection request comes into play. Imagine having a clear, honest message that directly asks if your potential candidates are interested in the job opportunity you're recruiting for.

This way, you can ensure you're not leaving anyone out, and you'll be firing up the interest of 100% of your audience's candidates.

What to write in your note ? As always, transparent, short, easy to understand and reply:

Pro Tips: Why should I always use voice notes when recruiting?

Voice notes are often the most overlooked feature on LinkedIn. Many people are unaware that sending voice notes is possible, let alone considering that a tool like LaGrowthMachine could automate them!

The most challenging aspect of engaging with candidates on LinkedIn or via emails is capturing their attention. They frequently find themselves inundated with solicitations.

So, how can you effectively engage and ensure your messages and offers stand out?

By building genuine relationships that resemble one person conversing with another. The more human and less robotic you sound, the more likely you are to grab the candidates' attention. When discussing personal life and career matters, nobody wants to interact with a robot.

In your approach and copywriting, avoid generic content and personalize your communication. The most effective way to achieve this is by sending voice messages!

Firstly, because people don't anticipate receiving voice notes on LinkedIn, there's a high likelihood that they'll actually listen to what you have to say.

Secondly, they won't even consider that it's generated by an automation tool. They'll assume it's a human approach; you recording yourself on your phone to address them. They'll be flattered that you took the time to record a voice message, making your message stand out.

The effort you put into recording the message implies you have something intriguing to offer, right?

Lastly, they'll instinctively connect with you. If your voice sounds dynamic, friendly, and carries a cheerful tone, they'll perceive you as a fellow human being.

After putting in such a concerted effort, they'll likely take the time to respond, even if it's just to express disinterest.

But the primary aim of the sequence will be achieved: qualifying your candidate's interest!

💡Tips for recording a voice note:

  • Be straightforward and direct: Avoid lengthy sentences that could confuse or lose your listener.

  • Keep it concise: Your goal is to grab and maintain their attention, not to ramble on.

  • Maintain a friendly tone and smile while recording your voice.

  • Conclude with a straightforward and easily answerable question: This will stick with your recipients after listening and make them more inclined to respond.

Here is an example of a voice message as a first touch in a campaign !


Some copywriting tips : why should I keep it short and straight to the point on Linkedin?

When doing automation, it’s tempting to be sending long messages with all the information about the job, hoping that it will drive interest from the candidate. But this is wrong for two reasons :

  • Whenever people receive such long messages, they instantly ignore them. Nobody likes receiving long messages from people they don’t know. Even in good faith, they’ll snooze the message “for later”, which is basically for never…

  • The goal of outreaching to potential candidates is not to convince them immediately to apply, but to open up the conversation with them. To understand if they’re open to discuss, what they are looking for, all while chatting on LinkedIn and/or on a video call!

And the stats do back this up. Linkedin has shared very interesting data on performance of recruiting messages depending on multiple factors. Most notably, when it comes to recruiting, the shorter the message, the better to get a conversation started :

Some other interesting facts :

  • Avoid sending InMails on Saturday (and probably Friday too)

Pro Tips: Use personal email rather than professional email when recruiting

As you likely read a few moments ago in this guide, LaGrowthMachine can provide you with both personal and professional email addresses. Here's an article that explains how it enhances the professional email aspect.

Why do we strongly recommend using personal email instead of professional email?

For one simple reason: you wouldn't want to offer a new job to someone using their professional email address.

Doing so could have a negative impact on your initial approach: the talent might hold you responsible for putting their job security at risk if someone discovers they're receiving job offers.

By using their professional email, you run the risk of them not responding at all. Receiving job offers in their work inbox might not be appropriate.

Now, imagine if someone from their company discovers they've replied and engaged with a recruiter?

For matters of a personal nature, opt for the personal email address. This way, things won't get mixed up, and they'll be more receptive to hearing what you have to say.

How to use personal emails with LaGrowthMachine ?

  1. First, in your campaign settings > messages > emails settings, desactivate Business emails and tick the personal emails option.

2. When using a pre-built template, change the condition Has profesionnal email with has personal email. If you’re building a campaign from scratch, choose the condition has perso email before switching via email.

How to manage all your LinkedIn + Email conversations with LGM’s Inbox?

Now that you've read all those professional tips, you know how to create cross-channel campaigns that will perform and generate lots of replies!

But imagine having to handle all the replies in your email inbox and on LinkedIn all day long. You'll be switching from one platform to another all day, and you’ll risk missing an important reply from the perfect candidate.

We understand that in recruiting, you need to be fast. The market is competitive, and qualified candidates are sought after by many recruiters, receiving various job opportunities daily.

That's why we've created the inbox so you won't miss any messages and can handle them as soon as possible.

How to ensure you master the inbox ?

One single tip : Aim for the inbox zero at the end of the day

When you finish your workday and are about to go home, there should be no messages left in your inbox. This way, you ensure you've covered all the replies from the day.

  • Archive the messages you've sent so they don't clutter your inbox visually and distract you from real replies!

  • Snooze the replies you've sent to your candidates. As we mentioned, they are in high demand and may miss your reply or forget to respond. Snooze it for 1 or 2 days. When your candidate replies or when the snooze period ends, the message will reappear, and you won't miss it!

And here is a quick video overview of the inbox :

Now you or your team have no excuse if they miss the perfect candidate!


Integrating with your ATS

No ATS? Use our Lead Qualification Feature to manage your pipeline

If you don't have an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) yet, keep reading because we have a feature that will interest you for tracking your candidates' interactions and history within LGM (LaGrowthMachine): lead qualification.

You've launched a campaign and have already received several replies from your candidates; this is great news!

Unfortunately, we all know that a reply doesn't guarantee that the deal is done.

Some candidates will let you know they aren't interested in the opportunity you're offering or that they're not looking for a new position at all.

Others may say they'll be available for a new opportunity in a few months.

Without an ATS, how can you know the stage of all your candidates so you know who to contact and when?

Our lead qualification feature can help you manage your pipeline in a simple but efficient way!

When and Where to Qualify Candidates:

  • Directly from your campaign dashboard, in the “ Actions per leads” section

Select "Lead Tag" as a filter and then choose the tag "to qualify.”

  • When handling replies in the inbox

How to manage candidate based on their status ?

From the audience section, you can easily filtrer your candidates per status!

Select the audience and the statuses you want to work on.

For instance, in this audience, I was looking for candidates qualified with a "Wrong Timing" tag so I can reach out again and offer them a new job opportunity!

To activate them in a new campaign, select them and add them to a new audience!

Simple Utilization - You have a Google Sheet or Airtable as an ATS

When reaching out to potential candidates on LinkedIn and via email, you'll likely engage with them in conversations. After these interactions, you'll get a sense of whether they're interested in the job opportunities you're recruiting for or if the timing isn't quite right. Regardless, you'll want to seamlessly integrate all these valuable contacts into your Google Sheets or Airtable.

Who knows, they might not be available right now, but in a few months, another job opportunity could align perfectly with their career goals!

You have two primary options for synchronizing your candidate data with a Google Sheet or Airtable:

  • The simplest and quickest method: Using CSV files.

  • A more automated approach: Using Zapier.

Let's begin with a straightforward and speedy synchronization using CSVs!

Step 1: Navigate to your campaign dashboard, select all your leads, and export your audience data to a CSV file.

Step 2: Import this file into Airtable, Google Sheets, or any ATS you prefer to use, and map all the relevant fields. You'll have access to crucial information for assessing your candidates from this CSV:

  • The content of their responses.

  • Tags indicating their status, such as "Wrong Timing," "Interested," or "Not the Right Fit."

  • All the data scraped and enriched by LaGrowthMachine, including email addresses, LinkedIn URLs, company names, and more.

A more automated method for integrating LaGrowthMachine with Google Sheets and/or Airtable: Zapier!

For instance, suppose you want to keep tabs on candidates who have responded, mentioning that the timing isn't right for them. You've engaged with them and believe that another job opportunity in the near future might align better with their schedule.

Let’s say you are using Google Sheet to keep track of your candidates, Here's a Zap you can set up :

  • Step 1: Select the Appropriate Trigger

The trigger event is "Lead Status Changed in Campaign." In the step details, select the campaigns to which you want the Zap to apply (for this example, we've chosen all campaigns) and the tag "Wrong Timing."

  • Step 2: Plan the Action You Want to Take!

The action event is "Create Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets." In the step details, select the Google Sheet and worksheet you've created for syncing candidates.

  • Step 3 : The final step is to map all the fields you want to synchronize, such as first name, last name, personal email, and more.

And there you have it! Your integration is complete.

Now that you understand the logic, Zapier offers endless possibilities:

  • If a candidate reaches the end of the campaign without responding, you can receive notifications on Slack, via email, or any other preferred channel to follow up with them.

  • You can track the number of leads activated by each Talent Recruiter every month. As soon as a lead enters a campaign, you can automatically update this information in a Google Sheet.

  • And the list goes on!

Advanced utilization - Recommendation of Zaps with Teamtailor

Suppose you're using Teamtailor as an ATS. It makes perfect sense that you want to track and sync everything that happens in LaGrowthMachine (LGM) with your ATS.

Here's an example of a Zap you can create:

Automatically Synchronize a Candidate's Reply in Teamtailor from LaGrowthMachine

Candidates will reply during the campaign. Keeping their profiles updated in Teamtailor and preserving the history of exchanged messages from day one is vital. This ensures you know what they're up to, when to reactivate them, and facilitates better team collaboration and information sharing.

  • Step 1: Select the Appropriate Trigger

The trigger event can be "LinkedIn Message Replied" or "Email Replied" In the step details, select the campaigns to which you want the Zap to apply (for this example, we've chosen all campaigns).

  • Step 2: Find the candidate in Teamtailor

Before synchronizing the reply, you need to identify the right candidate to synchronize the reply with.

Select the right action and then map the fields below with LaGrowthMachine data, such as the candidate's personal email or LinkedIn URL.

This way, the candidate can be found if there's a match between LGM and Teamtailor, and if no match is found, a new candidate will be created in Teamtailor.

  • Step 3 : Synchronize the reply on the candidate profile in Teamtailor

You'll be able to share information in the note section. To have a better understanding of the conversation, I suggest you sync the last message sent (Sent Message Body) and, of course, the reply (Received Message Body).

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