You don’t need me to tell you how crucial repeat business is to your bottom line. It’s the golden chalice of recruitment. Recruiters who work with clients again and again can transform their billings, and your business as a result.
This success will see them rise above recruiters who fill one job and never work with that business again.
Recruiters who can get clients coming back for more are generally safe bets to employ, too. Not only can they win business, but retain it.
Their forecasts are likely to be stronger, and with it the chances of them hitting those targets.
But not every recruiter can produce the goods in repeat business. And short of telling them to follow the lead of those who can, what can you do to help them in their plight?
1. Mould your recruiters into relationship builders
We discussed in a previous article the difficulty some recruiters have to win business. In a ‘job-led’ market, learning how to bring in business should be a non-negotiable for 360 recruiters.
It’s the development of this business however that sets apart those who spot-fill individual roles, and those who develop their accounts to provide long-lasting fruit.
Anecdotally, there seems to be a lack of recruiters leaving the office to meet their network in recent times. Conversations I’ve had with countless founders and managers have revealed there’s less enthusiasm for doing so. And that the majority of recruiters don’t meet their clients.
Would prioritising this create a difference in perception and value? Helping them understand small touch points and why they matter should deepen relationships in 2025.
It’s no secret people like people who are like them. Alongside sector knowledge, it’s why recruiters with a career background in their market do so well. They’re similar to their network. In character, tone and demeanour.
Of course, if they never actually met their clients, they’d never know.
If you have recruiters in your company who aren’t similar to their network, or don’t meet them, is that the thing holding them back?
Would they find easier repeat business with another client base?
Or simply if they spent time with their current one? What can you do to help them become more affable? More malleable to the ways of their network?
Being a fantastic relationship builder is a skill that can be learnt. What are you doing to instill that in your team? If you’re not targeting your recruiters on client meetings right now, doing so could be a key differentiator in winning them repeat business with clients.
2. Help your recruiters build their service offering
Yes, filling jobs is their job. And at the basic level, your recruiters should be doing everything they can to succeed in that.
But how else are they going above and beyond to separate themselves from their competition? It’s likely, where client relationships haven’t developed yet, your recruiters are being benchmarked on their worth every time they work a job.
Could you help them offer an employer branding consultation to their work? Put them through a copywriting course so their job ads are the difference? Give them a bigger entertainment budget?
It may help to work with your recruiters individually to explore their abilities and interests to define how they can set themselves apart and increase the chances of repeat business.
Each recruiter in your team is different. Their candidates and clientele are different, too.
If you were building the perfect recruitment product for each market, what would it look like? Would Building Services look the same as Marketing? .Net the same as Graphic Designers?
What can you do to help your recruiters productise their offer?
3. Help them realise they are their business
You’ll have told your recruiters on multiple occasions they’re building a business, within a business. Are there any circumstances they might feel undermined in that process? Are they given the freedom, inspiration and capability to operate the way they want to?
To develop clients? To market to them? To build and showcase their personal brands?
If you were building their business, how would you do so, in a way that makes sense for them, as much as their market?
People do business with people. That’s always been the case, and probably always will be.
In a job like recruitment, where the service is the product, total accountability for the pedigree of that service is paramount.
Are they going on industry-related podcasts? Are they sharing content on LinkedIn? Attending networking events? There’s more to be done in becoming “a name” in an industry than printing business cards with “senior consultant” on them.
You’re next listen? Check out the Carrot & Stick Podcast episode where Andy Hallett talks about this very topic.
As a recruitment leader, it’s important your recruiters become synonymous with the industry. They need to do more than just get on the phone. They need to be as digital as they are analogue.
What can you do to inspire your recruiters to stand more on their own two feet? To market themselves as if their livelihood depends on it? Because, whether they realise it or not, it does.
4. Teach your recruiters to sell exclusive and retained work
Being on a PSL is great, but only slightly increases the chances of repeat business if there are 5 agencies working on every role. Your recruiters could easily carry on working every role, and not build a lasting relationship with their clients.
Exclusivity is where contingent recruitment goes up a notch. The benefits for both recruiter and client are obvious. But there’s only a benefit to selling exclusivity if they can deliver. Should they not, their reputation will suffer.
The same goes for retained work.
But recruiters don’t just wake up and decide they’re going to start selling retainers. They need training. Both on selling them to clients and delivering them.
Equally, retainers aren’t suitable for every client or role. They need to make sense for everyone in the process. But if it’s viable and beneficial to both your recruiters and their clients, selling retained work is an unmatched way to gain repeat business.
At the very least, they won’t be working for free on the one role they take on. And if they can prove their worth over one retainer, their chances of working with that client again will rise ten-fold.
5. Define your recruiters’ success by their clients’ success
Finding and employing the right talent is absolutely crucial for any business looking to meet their targets. Let alone exceed them, or grow their company.
How often do your recruiters take a job brief and start working on a shortlist without knowing how the role fits into the bigger picture?
Do your recruiters understand their clients’ work? Are they capable of seeing the bigger picture on growth and expansion? Could they benefit from more learning or development on business strategy? What are they reading around new industry developments, in order to expand their conversations with clients?
It’s fairly easy to call your recruiters experts. You can have business cards and LinkedIn titles with any word you like.
But are they actually? Sure, they might be experts in recruitment. Or candidate assessment.
But what do they know about the wider sector? What can they offer their clients that places them at a higher echelon in the minds of the people paying for their expertise?
The best recruiters are not only social networkers, but willing learners. Yours should be able to advise clients around their team growth and have deep industry knowledge to back up their advice.
If they can’t currently do that, what can you do to help them?
This goes far beyond a 3 month check in to see how their placement’s working out. It should revolve around the success of the wider business.
Bullhorn’s recent Global Recruitment Insights report showed recruiters who nurture post-placement relationships generate 45% more repeat revenue than those who don’t. Imagine what that number would be if they factored in the wider business goals with those discussions.
These five tips have been formed from conversations I’ve had with recruitment owners, managers and leaders like you, especially over the last 6 months.
Of course, every recruiter’s different. They have different skills, attributes and strengths. But if you can make repeat business a strength of your recruiters, they’ll likely be with you a long time.
