This post by Exitus Advisory is part of our blog series, “The One Thing Recruitment Leaders Should Change Right Now”.
One thing Recruiters should change, NOW!
Stop accepting underperformance in sales activity, and define your BD engine!
Most recruitment businesses don’t have a business development problem. They have a consistency and an effort problem.
There are a large number of agencies in the market who are still ‘doing sales’ like we’re in the covid bounce back period and haven’t adjusted this for the market conditions we face today.
Business owners are often keen to see more clients, vacancies and in turn – revenue, which is a natural position. Often though, there is no consistent, repeatable Business Development engine that runs throughout the team. Sales efforts are usually well intended, but reliant on occasional bursts (when we don’t have enough jobs to fill), and over-reliance on regular clients and repeat business.
I spend a lot of time in recruitment businesses after running my own, and one of the common points I notice is agencies paying attention only to clients who are actively recruiting. The clients who aren’t hiring right now often disappear into the background until they become lapsed accounts. By the time someone notices, a competitor has built a relationship, won trust and secured the next contractor or perm vacancy.
The same applies to existing clients. Nine times out of ten they have more opportunities, projects, divisions, locations or hiring plans than they are currently giving to you. Many agencies never uncover that potential because they stop asking questions once they have a vacancy to work on.
A proper business development machine doesn’t rely on luck, or expecting clients to call. It should be systemised, repeatable and should include regular contact with active clients. Also, structured account management for non-billing clients, reactivation campaigns for dormant accounts, lead driven outbound prospecting, follow-up processes and clear activity expectations for everyone responsible for generating revenue.
Most importantly, it requires leaders address skill gaps, and then to stop tolerating low standards.
Too many recruitment business owners accept weak BD performance because someone is busy, because they’ve always been like that, or because they occasionally pull a rabbit out of a hat. Typically, that’s usually a matter of hours before you had planned to have a ‘reflective’ conversation which would now look disproportionate! Saved by the bell!
The agencies that grow consistently are rarely doing anything revolutionary as far as sales and client acquisition is concerned, but they ARE doing it. Regularly. They simply create a repeatable process, measure it, manage it and are still doing it weeks and months later.
If you’re looking for the single highest-impact change you can make today, build a business development machine that generates opportunities whether the market is booming or not.
Then, lead it with consistency.
Matt Fox
Exitus Advisory & Brokerage
Exitus Advisory helps recruitment business owners grow profitability with clarity and exit on their own terms.
We specialise in providing bespoke support to Leaders, Directors, Boards & Business Owners within the recruitment industry at every stage of their journey.
From launch, through growth and scaling phases to planning an exit and selling, we bring first-hand experience from having built, run and successfully exited ourselves.
We sell recruitment businesses, and work with well known brands as well as high net worth individuals and investment businesses to secure the best possible terms.
Find us on Likedin, or reach out by email matt@exitusadvisory.com
