"Should office managers assist in making cold calls?"

Our clients know that we ask viable candidates to complete a questionnaire.  Not only do we learn answers to important questions (i.e., why did you leave your last job), we also learn about their communication style by the "way" they respond.  Here are tips on identifying an individual's style by their writing samples:

• D - Brief, direct answers (I was recruited to lead a project.)
• I - Inspiring answers (I wanted to try something new.)
• S - Supportive answers (I wanted to work on an organized team.)
• C - Procedure driven answers (I was challenged to install a new system.)

The best interview question is "What is your greatest accomplishment?"  A candidate's response will tell you a lot about what they value the most.  An individual's values can trump their behavioral style in many situations.  Thus, knowing a candidate's DISC behavioral style is just one piece of the puzzle in evaluating a prospective employee.

Office managers tend to be high S and Cs, generally with low D characteristics.  This is generally not a good recipe for productive cold calling. In fact, cold calling could scare the heck out of your office manager.  However, they might be OK with calling existing customers to share information about a new product or service.  For best success, be sure to match an individual's behavioral style with the task's behavioral style.