This is a critical recruitment lesson

I originally wrote this blog on 25 July 2022.

Three years ago. Think back. Good times, huh?

I didn’t know what was coming, but I knew what I had seen so many times before.

Please read what I wrote 3 years ago. It all came true.

I encouraged you to fix the hole in the roof before that rain came. Most did not, and suffered as a result

This is the key message from that blog

My concern is that many of those recruiters have slipped on client relationship building. Sure, they are deeply entrenched in their current top five customers, whom they talk to daily.

But many of them have allowed their business development muscle to weaken.

And now I offer a similar warning, even if you are doing well. Especially if you are doing well..

AI will escalate the need for relationships, credibility and trust. Get in front of your clients now. Dont wait for the rain. Read the blog below. Update for today and get to work

Automation will take the hack work. What will you be able to do that has value in that recruiting world?

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The blog I wrote in July 2022 is below

The incredible recovery of the recruitment market since the dark days of Covid has stunned us all.

And there have been many other surprises that none of us could have predicted.

There is one extraordinary development that I would like to bring to your attention, as it encapsulates both good and bad news.

Of course, it varies from market to market, and I don’t want anyone to get hung up on the actual numbers, but in Australia, a recruiter billing $500,000 a year in GP was considered an excellent result.

The million-dollar biller was a mythical creature often spoken about in hushed tones.

I think amongst all my clients (and I am on the board of 16 recruitment companies), I can think of just one person in that category in 2019.

But the post-Covid surge has given birth to a new generation of million-dollar recruiters.

Right now, I can think of 15, maybe 20, working for the 16 companies I’m closely associated with.

And these people are good recruiters. They have toughed out the Covid calamity, they already had excellent skills which have been honed further, and they have taken full advantage of the rush of new job orders. They have honed their candidate-side skills, become more selective with clients, and focus on where the return is. No one should demean their outstanding results in any way.

But, there is a danger lurking here.

I am not suggesting that achieving $1 million in billings has been easy. But it’s also true that circumstances have come together in a most welcome way to make that achievement more possible than at any time in the past. Clients are desperate to hire, many competitors have fallen by the wayside, and primarily those high-billing recruiters are working for companies with exceptional brands that attract business like a magnet.

My concern is that many of those recruiters have slipped on client relationship building. Sure, they are deeply entrenched in their current top five customers, whom they talk to daily.

But many of them have allowed their business development muscle to weaken.

The concept of client-nurturing and outbound engagement is almost unheard of now. No one’s done a cold call for two years, and when was our last business development client meeting?

None of these million-dollar billers is likely to fail as the market turns, but many will get a tremendous shock as three or four of their key clients cease hiring, and they are left with very few relationships beyond the core group

It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true, nonetheless.

Make time for BD

You’re a $1 million biller. Well done! You have great relationships with your core group of clients. Outstanding!

But allocate time to contact all your second and third-tier clients. Contact all your placements from the last five years and see where they’re up to. Identify target companies you’d like to work with and do some BD there.

Many of my clients are experiencing record revenue, gross profit, and operating profit figures, and many of their recruiters have come sailing along on that ride.

But the wheel will turn, and I encourage you to fix the hole in your roof before the rain comes.

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