(And how to unlock hidden opportunities today)
The Big Blindspot
Most recruiters can tell you which accounts bill the most. Almost none can tell you which accounts will bill the most next year. That’s a big problem for most businesses, a blind spot costing millions in revenue and killing profit.
You’re tracking placements, but you’re not tracking relationship strength. And those two things are not the same. The difference is crucial to sustainable growth.
The Plateau Problem
Here’s what happens: You have a strong account. They’ve been with you for 2-3 years. Billing £100k-£200k annually. No complaints. No red flags.
Then one day, they go quiet. Or they give a role to another supplier. Or they start pushing back on fees. You’re shocked because from your perspective, everything was fine.
But it wasn’t fine. You just weren’t measuring the right things.
Warning Signs You’re Missing
Strong accounts don’t collapse overnight. They decay slowly, through a series of small changes that most recruiters write off as normal fluctuations in the relationship.
Meetings become less frequent. “We’re just really busy right now,” they say, and you believe them. But what was once a weekly check-in has become a quarterly obligation, and the conversations have shifted from strategic to transactional.
They send specs. You send CVs. No one talks about the bigger picture anymore.
Response times slow down. It used to take three hours to get feedback on a candidate. Now it takes three days. You tell yourself everyone’s stretched thin, but the truth is you’ve slipped down their priority list. And when stakeholder access starts to shrink (when you used to meet the VP but now you only email the hiring manager), that’s not a scheduling issue. That’s a relationship issue.
Why This Happens
We make three critical mistakes.
First, we mistake historical performance for future potential. Just because an account billed £150k last year doesn’t mean they’ll bill £150k next year. Revenue is a lagging indicator. Relationship strength is a leading indicator. By the time revenue drops, the relationship has already been deteriorating for months.
Second, we confuse activity with relationship strength. “I placed two people there last quarter. The relationship is strong.” But recent placements don’t equal strong relationships. You can be transactional and active at the same time. And transactional suppliers are replaceable.
Third, we don’t have a scoring system. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Most recruiters rely on gut feel. And gut feel lies. It tells you everything is fine right up until the moment you lose the account.
The £400k I Nearly Missed
A few years ago, I had a client billing £120k/year with one of their key accounts. On paper, everything looked fine. Regular placements. No issues. But when we scored the relationship, the cracks appeared immediately.
They hadn’t met the decision-maker in six months. All communication was flowing through a junior HR coordinator… via email. They had zero visibility into the company’s hiring roadmap for the next quarter, let alone the next year. No referrals. No introductions. No strategic conversations. Just transactional placement work.
That’s not a strong relationship. That’s a transactional supplier arrangement. And transactional suppliers are replaceable.
We built a recovery plan. Booked a quarterly business review. Got face time with the VP. Aligned on their hiring strategy for the next 18 months. Six months later, that account was billing £180k. Twelve months later, £280k.
That’s £400k in expansion revenue we nearly missed because we weren’t measuring the relationship. And the scary part? Without the score, we would have kept assuming everything was fine until the day they went with another supplier.
The Cost of the Blindspot
The data is clear: 67% of revenue growth comes from existing accounts, not new logos. The average recruiter wastes 15+ hours per week on low-potential accounts. That’s £200k+ in missed expansion revenue every year per recruiter.
You’re not losing accounts because you’re bad at recruiting. You’re losing accounts because you can’t see the warning signs. And you can’t see the warning signs because you’re not tracking the right things.
The REACH Framework
This is why I built the REACH Scorecard. It’s a 5-category diagnostic that scores your client relationships on a 0-100 scale.
R – Rhythm: How often are you meeting?
E – Engagement: How responsive and involved are they?
A – Alignment: Are you connected to their strategy?
C – Commitment: Have they demonstrated loyalty?
H – Hero: Are they advocating for you?
Each category gets 20 points. Total: 100 points.
What the Score Tells You:
70-100: Strong relationship with expansion potential
50-69: Stable but transactional, needs strategic elevation
30-49: At-risk, requires immediate intervention
0-29: Declining, exit strategy or major reset required
Once you have the score, you have clarity. And once you have clarity, you can fix it.
Start With 5 Accounts
You don’t need to score your entire portfolio today. Pick five accounts: your two biggest revenue generators, your two most strategic accounts with the highest potential, and your one most at-risk account (the one keeping you up at night).
Score them using REACH. It takes 10-15 minutes per account.
By the end, you’ll have clarity on which accounts are genuinely strong, which accounts are at-risk even if revenue looks fine, and where to focus your time for maximum impact.
The Blindspot Costs You Revenue
Every day you’re not tracking relationship strength, you’re flying blind. Strong accounts plateau. At-risk accounts slip away. Expansion opportunities get missed. Not because you’re not capable. Because you can’t see what you’re not measuring.
Your Next Step
I’ve built a free REACH Scorecard you can use to score your accounts. It walks you through the five REACH categories, how to gather the evidence, how to assign scores, what the scores mean, and where to focus next. It’s the same diagnostic I use with Elite Coaching clients. And it’s free.
Get the REACH Scorecard here:
15 minutes. 5 accounts. Total clarity.
Start tracking. Before the blind spot costs you another £200k.
