Google Maps is one of my favorite websites. Why, you might ask? Simply put, you have the ability to travel nearly anywhere you want with just a few clicks of the mouse. Not only can you find the top attractions or restaurants in the area, but in many countries, you can actually dive right into a street-view, and digitally “walk” up and down the road. As a brief aside, I once plugged my childhood home address into Google Maps and saw my dad working in front of the house which was a pleasant & unique surprise.
Nick, quit rambling and get to the point. What do maps have anything to do with Sourcing? Stay with me here, but if you look at them close enough, you may see that they could be the key to your next hire.
Let’s dive into a few examples:
You’ve been tasked with finding a niche sales professional, with a territory having a central hub of Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP). You instantly dive into LinkedIn and filter your search to the Greater MSP area. You come up with a few potential leads, but like any good sleuth, you want more. You go back and reiterate your search, this time including other metros in the state, like St Cloud and Rochester. You’re still not satisfied, so you expand your search to include the entire state of Minnesota as relocation is a possibility, which yields only a few more contacts.
Rather than stopping here however, let’s take things a step further. By looking at your map, just a little bit east of MSP you notice Eau Claire WI. You might think hey, this is going in the wrong direction, as most of the territory is in MN. However, if you dive into the details a little further, you may notice potential. Not only does the Eau Claire metro have an oddly similar population size as St Cloud (69k each respectively), but they’re also almost equidistant to MSP depending on where the lead lives. Going one step further you notice that Eau Claire is a straight shot to the Twin Cities, and almost exclusively via freeway (easy traveling). In larger territories like these candidates are often more comfortable with traveling larger distances via car. This may not seem like much, but in niche spaces and more widespread geographies, one candidate can be the difference.
Okay, let’s do one more, and let’s do one that isn’t in geography Nick is comfortable with. You’re looking for that same niche sales professional, but this time in Texas. You’re given a territory of East Texas, with the main hub being Houston. Naturally you start here, and run into the same issues – some strong candidates, but wanting more. This time you look at your map and realize this geography is large, really large. You didn’t quite realize how big Texas was. You changed up your search on LinkedIn to a radius search, utilizing their max range of 200 miles from one of Houston’s many zip codes. Even though this helps catch other locales you may not have thought of, we can still take it a step further. Remember, Texas is huge, and naturally this role has a huge territory.
Depending on exact radius measurements, your search may or may not have caught Tyler, TX, which is another metro you definitely want to be targeting. Additionally, you realize Shreveport, LA is just over the Texas border (easy commute into the territory), and has a population of over 180k. Shreveport is outside of the 200m radius from Houston, and so if you hadn’t taken a look at your map, you may have missed it.
You may not have a passion for geography like I do, but if you’re a Recruiter or a Sourcer you’re a hunter, and going that extra distance (pun intended) can sometimes pay off. Do you have a similar story? If so, I’d love to hear it.
Nick Idzikowski is a Senior Sourcer with Merck, creating relationships and finding candidates across the US in roles ranging from Marketing & Sales to Precision Medicine & Medical Oncology. He won the SourceCon Digital Hackathon in 2021, and has been hooked on the competition ever since. His manager, Elyse Ryan, is speaking at SourceCon 2024 in San Diego, CA, and will be a can’t miss connection.
Relevant Music:
- PBS Voices – Reading Rainbow Remixed
- Death Cab for Cutie – Rand McNally
