Hiring a new candidate entails certain requirements, such as reading through resumes, conducting interviews, and negotiating salary. However, when hiring a c-suite executive, the stakes are quite a bit higher. Once you feel like you’ve found the right fit for your company, it’s an opportunity you do not want to lose. Follow this guide to hiring c-suite executives so your company is put in the very best hands.

Listen to your candidate

Listen to what this potential new hire is looking for in a move, even if they’re not currently wanting to make a transition. If you can gather from them what they’re looking to do five or ten years from now, you might be able to line them up with a possible position. Think like the candidate; what do they want out of life? Matching up their head and their heart might move them to a new company.

Negotiate

Executives have earned the right to be picky, and they’re safe where they are. They bring in top dollar for their families and – sometimes even more important – a certain respect at their current employer. How can you get an executive to leave their bread and butter for caviar? It starts with negotiating – and negotiating more than just a compensation package. What do they want out of life? How will their families handle a transition? Will they need to move and uproot their lives and their kids’ lives? These are all worth consideration in the negotiation phase.

Follow up

Following up may seem unnecessary, but if you do it the right way, it can turn around some of your lost opportunities. Say a candidate recently withdrew from consideration to be a partner for an ad agency. Maybe it was only because of some perception she received, or perhaps it was something she wasn’t 100% confident about. Follow up with her a few days later with a strong package, further emphasizing how it will meet her career goals and her lifestyle goals. Tell her the company is seriously considering her as an asset to the team. She might reconsider, or she might not. You’ll never know without following up.

Convincing a c-suite executive to make the switch and commit to your company isn’t an easy task. Be genuine and sincere, put yourself in their shoes, and dig deep. You never know how things will shake out!