To find passive candidates, you build a longlist of everyone who could do the job, filter it by the role's requirements before you write, and message enough of them, one by one, to start a real conversation: usually 100 or more. Most won't reply, and that's normal for people who weren't looking.
Why you have to go find passive candidates
For a specialized role, the person who fits best is almost always in that 58%. They already do the job, at a similar company, and they don't read job boards. A job ad reaches the people who were looking that week. Everyone else, you have to find and write to. Who they are and what the data says is in our post on the passive candidate.
The math: why ten messages isn't a search
In a BDR search I ran, about 15% of the people we messaged replied. Some saw the message late, others weren't interested.
That number is from one search, not a benchmark, and it will move with the role and the message. But do the math with it. Ten messages at 15% get you one or two replies, and nothing says one of them is the right person. A hundred messages get you around fifteen conversations, and with fifteen you can actually choose.
That's why finding passive candidates is a funnel: a lot of people at the top, a few conversations in the middle, one hire at the bottom. The five steps below fill it.
Step 1: Build a longlist of passive candidates
Start with everyone who could do the job, not the ten who look best at first glance. Look where people in that role leave a trace: LinkedIn, the communities and events of their field, the people who applied to your past searches, and referrals from the people you placed before. On LinkedIn, a boolean search on the title, the key skills and the location gets you the first few hundred.
The shortlist comes later, out of the conversations.
Step 2: Filter by the role's requirements before you write
A longlist isn't a list of everyone with the right title. Before you send a single message, check each person against what the role really needs: the must-haves first, then the nice-to-haves. Score them the same way, so the comparison is fair.
This is what separates a longlist from spray and pray. Everyone you contact should be a real fit on paper.
Step 3: Do the outreach one by one, to enough people
With a 15% reply rate, 100 qualified people get you around 15 conversations. Depending on the role, treat 100 as a floor: the more specialized the role, the more you'll need.
Volume doesn't mean a mass message. LinkedIn's own analysis of tens of millions of InMails sent by corporate recruiters found that messages sent individually got about 15% more responses than those sent in bulk, and that the shortest ones, under 400 characters, got 22% more than the average. Keep it short, write it for that person and send it on its own.
For the first message itself, start with them, say early what the role is, and ask for fifteen minutes rather than a CV. There's more on it in how to write to someone who isn't looking.
Step 4: Ask for what the profile doesn't say
Most profiles are incomplete. They don't say the salary range someone expects, whether they'd relocate, what their last team looked like, or why they'd move. So the first conversation is for checking the fit.
Thanks for replying, Daniel. Before we go further, three quick questions so I don't waste your time: are you open to a hybrid role in Austin, what range would make a move worth it, and how big is the team you work with today?
The people who don't fit drop out here, early and politely, before anyone has spent an afternoon on interviews.
Step 5: Interview for what no profile shows
By now you know who can do the job on paper and who wants to talk. What's left is what no profile shows: how they communicate, how they handle a hard conversation, whether they'd work well with this client's team. That's the soft skills, and that's what the interview is for.
Whatever happens, everyone you talked to goes into your ATS or CRM with what you learned. Today's no can be the first call of your next search.
What usually goes wrong
- Stopping at ten. A short list feels efficient, but at a normal reply rate it leaves you with one or two conversations and no real choice.
- Spray and pray. Messaging everyone with the right title burns your reputation and your reply rate. Filter first.
- The same long template for everyone. Long, bulk messages get fewer replies. Write short, write for that person.
- Treating no reply as no. People see messages late. One short follow-up a week later is fair; five isn't.
- Interviewing before confirming the fit. If you skip step 4, you find out about the salary or the location in the second interview.
Checklist for your next search
- Longlist built from more than one place: profiles, past applicants, referrals.
- Requirements written down, must-haves apart from nice-to-haves.
- Everyone on the list checked against them before the first message.
- At least 100 qualified people contacted, one by one, for a specialized role.
- A short first message, and one follow-up.
- A first call that confirms the fit before any interview.
- An interview for what the profile can't tell you.
Frequently asked questions
How do recruiters find passive candidates?
They build a longlist from more than one place: LinkedIn, the communities and events of the field, past applicants and referrals from people they placed. Then they filter it by the role's requirements and message the people who fit, one by one.
How many passive candidates should you contact?
For a specialized role, at least 100 qualified people. In one BDR search about 15% replied: at that rate, ten messages get you one or two conversations and a hundred around fifteen. The rate moves with the role, the market and the message.
Should you message candidates in bulk or one by one?
One by one. LinkedIn's 2022 analysis of InMails sent by corporate recruiters found that messages sent individually got about 15% more responses than bulk ones, and those under 400 characters got 22% more than the average.
Where can you find passive candidates who aren't on LinkedIn?
In the communities and events of their field, among the people who applied to your past searches, and through referrals from the candidates you placed before.
How do you screen a passive candidate?
Start with a short call to confirm the fit: the salary range, relocation, their current team and why they'd move. Interview after that, for what no profile shows: how they communicate and whether they'd work well with the client's team.
Where Reclee comes in
The longlist and the filter are the steps that take days: searches, profiles open in twenty tabs, a spreadsheet to keep track.
Reclee's sourcing does that part. You describe the search in one sentence, it searches over 800 million profiles and the talent pool you already have, and hands you a longlist scored against the role's requirements, with the reason for each one. You start the next search from that longlist, not from a blank page.