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Headhunter playbook: from prompt to first reply

The end-to-end playbook: how a senior recruiter goes from “I need to fill this role” to “a qualified candidate replied” in a few days of focused work.

PUBLIC · Concept Explainer

If the demo sold you on the vision and you want a concrete day-by-day to make it real, start here. This is what “using Wiggli well” actually looks like over a typical headhunting week.

Why it matters

Section titled “Why it matters”

Most sourcing advice is generic. This playbook is specific: which Wiggli features, in which order, with what targets, and what to skip.

The playbook

Section titled “The playbook”
Section titled “Day 1: Brief and search”
  • Translate the role brief into must-haves (3-5 criteria) and nice-to-haves.
  • Run a Smart Prompt with must-haves only.
  • Review the first 50 results. Right shape? Save as a Saved Filter. If not, refine and rerun.
  • Common refinements: accept AI title synonyms, set a 20-50 km radius, exclude wrong-industry companies.

Day 2: Shortlist with the AI Co-pilot

Section titled “Day 2: Shortlist with the AI Co-pilot”
  • Bulk-add the top 100-200 candidates to a project named for the role.
  • Open the AI Co-pilot (Wiggli’s in-project AI assistant) and run presets: career summary, open to work, key skills.
  • Create one custom Intelligence Column for your most important nice-to-have.
  • Sort and filter: open-to-work first, then by experience or your custom column.
  • Target: a shortlist of 30-50.

Day 3: Reveal and prepare outreach

Section titled “Day 3: Reveal and prepare outreach”
  • Bulk-reveal contacts for the shortlist. Decide which types you need (email for most cases, phone for senior follow-ups where you’ll want to call).
  • Build the campaign: email, then a short follow-up email (4 days later), then a LinkedIn connection request with a note (6 days later).

Day 4-5: Launch

Section titled “Day 4-5: Launch”
  • Add the shortlist, turn the campaign on.
  • Watch day-one sent count and bounce rate. Above 5% bounces: pause and clean the list.

Day 6-14: Reply triage

Section titled “Day 6-14: Reply triage”
  • Replies arrive in your connected inbox.
  • Triage daily: interested moves to a conversation, declined gets a polite close, no-reply continues the sequence.
  • After two weeks, check reply rate. 5-15% is normal for cold passive outreach; above 15% is strong.

What to skip

Section titled “What to skip”
  • Don’t reveal on the long list. Reveal only the shortlist.
  • Don’t write five first emails. One good one beats five mediocre. A/B test after you have a baseline.
  • Don’t read every profile manually. That’s what the Co-pilot is for. Spend your time on the borderline cases.

When to use it

Section titled “When to use it”
  • Senior or specialist roles where passive candidates are the realistic pool
  • Executive search and headhunting
  • Anywhere outbound effort is required because candidates won’t apply on their own
Section titled “Related articles”

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