ECRUITERS APPROACH TO BD IS WILDLY INEFFECTIVE…
…and you know it.
That is why it is so damn hard to motivate bright, hungry, committed people to do it.
With the right approach, the right intent, and the right process it can be a lot easier to win new business in recruitment.
The week I’m laying out why the classic approach to BD delivers a tiny fraction of the results possible and what you can do about it.
But first, let’s dig in to that number. Seriously, Fifteen Times?
Yes!
Did you know? 76% of Recruiters have no clear plan for BD.
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£2,000 AVERAGE FEE
When approaching BD most recruiters have one goal in mind. To pick up roles. As a result the Classic approach to BD targets hiring managers, with live vacancies, usually with a relevant candidate, in the hope of gaining permission to work the position.
However, we know that on average recruiters fill just 18% of the jobs they take on, and typically discount their fees by a fifth when negotiating over a live role. As a result a live vacancy delivers just 14.4% of it’s potential value.
If you’re reading this, that might feel low. I’ve cultivated an audience of elite recruiters and so I’ll assume that your fill rates are more like 25%.
Even still each role you pull is worth £2,000 on average.
DOUBLE YOUR MONEY
Working with the classic approach to BD means you must pull 2 roles a week to bill £200k per year. It’s a glass ceiling few break through – especially as job remains slow – but it’s not even that high.
Classically you have three options:
Increase your fees.
Problem is, if your main selling point is that you have perfect candidate on tap, why would an employer pay you more. I get the analogies (Picasso who spent years learning to create the beautiful image he drew in seconds, or the engineer who knows just where to bang), and they’re reasonable. But in the cold light of day, if your value proposition is that you can fill the role, and you are competing against others who will do the same, more often than not you’ll match their fees.
Increase your fill rate.
Ah yes, retainers. Again, really hard to sell retainers consistently and confidently to a client who is actively hiring and has other recruiters speccing in good quality candidates. The case for a retainer is made much stronger across a number of hires – not in the midst of a live vacancy. It can be done, of course, but it’s not a reliable way to significantly increase your fill rate.
Pull more roles.
Of course. Work harder! Why don’t we just do that… Except… recruiters are already some of the most hardworking people I’ve ever met. And, most industries simply don’t have a lot of hiring going on right now. The volume of roles you pull isn’t actually correlated to effort alone.
The outcome of this combined effort could be significant though. With effort to increase your fees, your fill rate and the volume of roles you work – with a fair wind – you might double your returns.
The ‘State of BD, 2025’ presents data from 500+ Recruitment Companies.
Highlighting 35 unique insights on how recruiters sell and powerful lessons for recruiters everywhere, with commentary from 5 leading experts.
The Radical Alternative
The 90k in 90 days blueprint, lays out a radical alternative to the classic approach to BD. We show you how to win 90k in new business every 90 days, giving you an earning potential of £360k in your second year and over half a million in year three.
The approach is based on the radical alternative to Classic BD. Instead of chasing hiring managers with live vacancies we show you how to identify great clients to hire for and approach them before they are hiring. This provides you with three distinct benefits.
- You position yourself as a strategic partner, not a reactive commodity.
- You discuss the long term impact of partnership
- You win bigger fees and more commitment
When your client is not actively hiring they have more bandwidth to see the bigger picture. The conversation becomes more strategic and more valuable. You are in turn able to share how you can impact them over a period of time and a period of hires. You can share the value of an exclusive partnership and the work you can do for them outside of hiring. And in doing so you earn the right to charge more, with upfront fees, and exclusive terms.
What that means in turn is that your average client agrees to work with you exclusively for a period of time, say three hires initially. Where once you’d had left with an opportunity worth £2,000. You are now landing commitments worth £30,000, consistently and confidently.
And in doing so you have increased your revenue by fifteen hundred per cent.
Will you win fewer clients?
Maybe.
But as you follow the path of Client Acquisition, you’ll come to find that hiring managers are much more receptive to recruiters when the conversation isn’t a plea for permission to work a live role – but instead a strategic conversation about long term impact… a conversation your competitors simply aren’t programmed to have.
Let us know your thoughts…
Take an honest look at your business development approach.
Are you stuck in the spec-and-follow-up loop? Or have you built a strategic system that consistently delivers new, high-value clients?
The answer to that question may well determine the future of your recruitment business.
Ready to transform your approach to business development?
The gap between where most recruitment firms are and where they could be isn’t just significant—it’s the difference between survival and dominance in an increasingly competitive market.
Get in touch.
And if you have any questions for me leave a comment and I’ll come right back to you.
Thanks,
Ben
P.S. Our “August Attack Plan”, is the best way to turn this year into one of your best ever. Just DM me for details
