389 - What NOT To Do When Interviewing Your Chairperson!

0:00Bruce Whipple:Recently, I saw two mentees make the same mistake when interviewing a potential chairperson. Both were intelligent, both had made real progress, but both handled the interview poorly. The first interview lasted two and a half hours. The second lasted about 90 minutes. And in both cases, during the very first conversation, the mentee offered the candidate a position on the board. In one case, they even offered equity. Now think about what that signals. It signals that joining the board is easy. It signals that the bar is low. And that is the exact opposite of the message you want to send. When you're interviewing a chairperson candidate, you have to remember something very important.

0:50Bruce Whipple:You are interviewing them. You are not being interviewed. Even if the person is impressive, even if they seem like the perfect candidate, you should never make an offer in the first conversation to have them join your board. Instead, you want to signal that this is a serious process, explain that you have additional interviews to complete, which you should, and then tell them that you felt very good about the conversation if you did, and that you will circle back to them in a week or you pick the time frame, and then make sure you do. That simple step alone changes the dynamic. It shows that joining your board is not something that happens casually.

1:33Another mistake I see frequently is that mentees do not prepare for the interview. They do not know exactly what outcome they want, what we'll call the exact desired outcome, EDO. So the conversation drifts, they go down rabbit holes, they talk about details, don't matter. and strong candidates are typically very crisp communicators. If you wonder how to communicate with them, you could do worse than to purchase Selling DeVito, V-I-T-O, which stands for Very Important Top Officer. It's a book that, geez, I read 30 years ago. They expect the conversation to have direction. They are usually trying to understand three things very quickly.

2:16Why this industry? Why is this important to you? And what are you going to do differently than everyone else? If you cannot answer those questions clearly, it creates doubt. Another common issue is pauses and slow responses. Now that's normal when someone is new to the process, but it does not create confidence. The key is preparation. Know your story. Know your strategy. Know why you chose the industry. But there's another important part of the interview that many mentees forget. You should also be asking what the candidate's goals are. What motivates them? What do they want to accomplish in the next phase of their career?

3:00When you ask those questions, something interesting really does happen. Most candidates are surprised. They are used to being asked for advice. They are not used to someone asking what's important to them. That question alone can strengthen the relationship significantly. Finally, one last point. The absolute priority when selecting a chairperson is this. They must have completed acquisitions as a principal, not as an advisor, not as a private equity consultant, not as a banker. You want someone who has personally done acquisitions, C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, those are the people you want.

3:46Someone who's been in the seat, someone who understands the decisions you will be facing because that experience cannot be replaced. Interviewing a chairperson is one of the most important steps in building an acquisition platform. Take that process seriously. Prepare and remember, you are interviewing them. One of the things that people get nervous about are the objections. And someone, you're listening to them now, created a course on the top 10 objections when acquiring a business. So go over to brucewhipple.com. Right in the middle of that page is Take My Free Class. It's a course, video course, on the top 10 objections and how to answer them.

4:33That in and of itself will give you a lot of confidence. So I hope that helps. And I hope you remember what you are doing, your exact desired outcome, and that you are interviewing them, not the other way around.