In a previous article this year, we detailed 5 ways you can turn your recruiters into repeat business machines. Consultants who sell retainers. Who harpoon whales that use your business again and again.
We told you to:
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make them into relationship builders,
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help them build their service offering,
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embrace their entrepreneurial side,
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sell retained projects,
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and redefine their success metrics, through their clients’ lens.
You can read the full piece here.
But today, we’re going to run through some ideas that could help you bring those practices into the real world.
If your recruiters are struggling to keep hold of their clients, costing you money, time, and sanity, these tips could turn the tide of fortune.
Let’s dive in.
Tip for relationship building
Friends trust friends with their business. Of course, most hiring managers are unlikely to go out of their way to become friends with a recruiter.
And so it’s your recruiters’ job to take their current clients on that ride. And if friendship isn’t the end goal, a better relationship should be. One where value’s given on both sides. One where mutual respect‘s given. A partnership built on trust and accountability.
This can happen on the phone, of course. But it’s a much longer and harder journey than doing it in person.
Task your recruiters with taking an existing client and inviting them to an event.
The event should be centred around something the client already likes. It could be a round of golf. It might be a fancy dinner. Maybe afternoon tea at the Ritz? Or a sporting fixture where the conversation can naturally turn to topics other than work and hiring.
Harmonious relationships aren’t built overnight. They take time.
But the more your recruiters take active steps toward building their client relationships, the stronger they’ll be.
Anecdotally, it seems very few recruiters are leaving the office to go and meet their network in 2025. If yours do, they’ll stand out. And that line they parrot about long-term partnerships will look slightly more rooted in truth.
How many clients should they see, in person, on a weekly basis? More than they’re seeing now. But if they’re not currently meeting any, start targeting them on this metric.
The beauty in this technique is, it’s fun for all involved. Would your recruiters rather be sinking a beer and chatting or doing admin?
Because the former is still doing business.
They’re just not currently thinking like that. If that’s down to you, there’s an easy fix. If it’s down to them, targeting meetings and laying out the expectation might turn the tide.
How to help them build their service offering
In our previous article, we asked: Could you help your recruiters offer employer branding strategy to their work? Put them through a copywriting course so their job ads are the difference? Give them a bigger entertainment budget?
The key to making this approach work with your recruiters is building an offering that accentuates their skills and desk.
If they work a contract desk, where roles come and go within minutes, a copywriting course might not benefit them as much as it would a permanent recruiter where roles take months to fill and they can place ads with an onus on fit over speed.
Task #1:
Ask your recruiters what they’re great at. Then, what they’d like to be better at.
If you can align this to their clients and the gaps they have in their business, you’ll start to strategically help them build an offering that goes above and beyond filling jobs.
Task #2:
Help them expand their business offering. Design the newly adopted or improved upon skill into an offering that comes at a premium.
Whatever the skill is, even if they offer it for free as a nice bolt-on service it’ll help set them apart from their competition.
Help them embrace their entrepreneurial side
If your recruiters lost their salary tomorrow, and had to rely on placements alone, what would they do?
Would they finally start posting on LinkedIn? Sharing content which attracted their target clients and candidates?
Would they finally go to some networking events? Where people from their industry filled the floor keen for conversation and levity?
Would they start thinking about their marketing via other methods than just getting on the phone? A billboard outside a client’s competitor’s building? Run paid for ads on Instagram? Grow a TikTok account breaking down industry related myths and legends?
In 2025 there are thousands of ways to be more entrepreneurial. But you’ll need to give them the opportunity to test different formats and avenues. Because the very nature of entrepreneurialism is that some ideas won’t work out.
Does that mean they all stop at the first sign of failure? Or could your collective operating power be enough to attack new ideas with more gusto than if they were struggling on their own?
You’ve been telling your recruiters they’re running a business within a business for years. They have to actually believe that if they’re to find repeat business with repeat customers.
And the impetus might need to come from you.
Tips for selling retained projects
A warning before we go into this topic.
Not every recruiter should be selling retainers. Some industries and levels of role just aren’t suitable. And even if your recruiters are able to sell retainers to clients, if the delivery doesn’t live up to expectations it may harm relationships rather than build them.
But despite that…
If you can guide your permanent consultants in the ways of selling and delivering retained work, it’s a much more effective way of protecting both fees and relationships.
So how do you do it?
Well, not by just telling them to sell 33% up front and hoping for the best. Your recruiters need specialist help. If they didn’t, they’d already be selling retained work. And delivering on it.
There are so many external experts on developing this skill you could bring in to help your recruiters. Trying just one of them might be enough.
But do your research. Ask your friends in the industry who they’ve used in the past. And explore free guidance in the form of content that might give them tips along the way.
Your recruiters won’t just wake up one day and sell a retainer. But once they understand the potential impact doing so could have on their business, they’ll want to pursue learning the ways of doing so.
Tips for redefining their success metrics, through their clients’ lens
Your recruiters define their success through their own lens. And that makes sense. To a degree. If they’ve been around long enough, they’ll know the fee’s not safe until the candidate passes probation.
Long after the start date, and beyond the actual payment of the fee.
A candidate they’ve introduced who’s gone on beyond probation, stuck it out for three months and no rebate’s due. This is success.
But is it? For your recruiter, in the short term, yes.
Is it for their clients? Maybe. Maybe not. There’s every chance the candidate could leave in month 4. Or turn out to not be as good as everyone hoped. On the flip side, they could also go to be the best hire they’ve ever made.
But what if your recruiters started taking that eventuality and attaching their success to the long-term success of the hire?
What if their fee hinged on success metrics the candidate created? With payments split upon various benchmarks? Maybe 12 months from the start date? Or upon completion of a specific project? Or a revenue target, proving ROI?
This might sound like a wild suggestion. And I’m certainly not arguing 100% of the fee should be sold in this way. But a fraction of it? It could be a dramatic differentiator.
You might need to tailor it to the hire, industry or seniority. And this won’t be viable for some. But one thing it would do is give your recruiters’ clients confidence the work being done was beneficial to them now and in the long-term.
It’d prove your recruiters aren’t just working on quick fixes. It’d prove they focus on long-term partnerships, far more than a catchphrase on the company website.
When building out the retained deliverables from the tip above, why not talk about structuring placements fees with success metrics in mind?
