Delivered candidates 25% faster

Chris Murdock — and his partner Tom Milic — created executive search firm IQTalent Partners to find interested, qualified and talented candidates who fit harmoniously with their clients. From the start to the end of the recruitment process, Murdock and his colleagues use their expertise, knowledge and innovative approaches to identify candidates across a variety of position levels and industries.

Build a prospect diamond, not a funnel, with “must have” search tools and accurate data Like all recruiters, IQTalent Partners is measured on how quickly it can find suitable candidates for open positions. Murdock likes to save his clients as much time as possible by having them interview only a short list of perfect matches.

Although many think of the executive search prospecting process as a giant funnel — where you start with a wide universe and then filter out people — Murdock has a different approach. “It’s more of a diamond shape: Start small, add a few more prospects and then tighten the focus. It’s how you find the diamonds in the rough!” Murdock explained.

His diamond approach would only work, however, with sophisticated search tools and highly accurate data on candidates. “I need to overload a B2B data provider’s advanced search tool with very specific keywords that cover a ton of criteria — experience, background and even interests. I want to really over stuff the search criteria,” Murdock said. “Then I need to relax a couple of the criteria to let a few more people in. That’s the diamond versus the funnel approach.”

But this kind of advanced, compound searching is something that is not provided by most B2B data providers or professional social networking sites. He explained, “Many top-tier providers don’t have enough search fields, they don’t have data on middle managers and directors and they don’t even let you export data to your own Excel files. LinkedIn Recruiter and Hoover’s used to allow you to export data, but no longer.”

Having the right contact information to actually reach prospects is also a challenge. “I’m an old school recruiter,” Murdock revealed. “Yes, I email first, but I don’t rely on it. I don’t want the main switchboard for a prospect’s headquarters office. I need direct extensions, their exact locations and even cell phone numbers to get the job done fast.”

ZoomInfo’s data and tools prove superior for more than a decade

Earlier in his career, when Murdock was an associate at Heidrick & Struggles, he worked with data from Capital IQ, Hoover’s and a B2B data newcomer called Eliyon, the company that would change its name to ZoomInfo in March 2005. That was more than a decade ago. He found ZoomInfo to be superior over competing B2B data providers then, and now he relies on ZoomInfo Pro.

“From the beginning, ZoomInfo provided better details and accuracy,” Murdock said. “Profiles include direct phone numbers and email addresses, along with up-to-date and accurate information about each person’s background and experience.” Murdock said that 99 percent of the time, he can’t find the email address or direct phone number for candidates on other services.

ZoomInfo is the fastest way to find prospects and narrow our searches. I couldn’t do my job without it. Chris Murdock, Co-founder & Senior Partner, IQTalent Partners “I love that so many business professionals have updated their own profiles on ZoomInfo,” Murdock remarked. “People have even added their personal cell phone numbers. That’s invaluable to me.” He’s thrilled with the ability to search across millions of profiles on the basis of criteria that he can’t search on using any other service. And easily exporting prospect data from ZoomInfo Pro is a huge plus.