One thing no recruitment agency leader in the world can afford to do.

And that is… nothing!

With 5 decades in recruitment, I believe this is the moment of greatest threat our industry has ever faced.

It is also the time of greatest opportunity!

If recruitment owners and leaders don’t take crucial action and build key competencies in the next 12 months, they are unlikely to be around in three years.

I speak to so many who are ‘waiting for the market to improve’.

That is a slippery slope to recruiting hell!

You don’t ‘wait for the market’. You devise a plan based on change and you ‘make the market’.

You need to react to implementing the right technology, sure. But it’s more than that! Your very business model must change. Your recruiter skills must evolve. Your candidate access plan must be totally reinvented. What you measure is out of date! Some of your clients need to be ‘let go’. I mean it.

Your biggest threat right now is doing nothing.

I have been talking about this for 18 months and laid out the “Recruitment Leaders Growth Playbook” in my recent speaking tours across New Zealand, Australia and the UK, hosted by the excellent folk at APositive.

I am passionate about it. I have researched extensively and have nearly half a century of experience across changing markets to draw on. Literally every attendee at the events agrees with almost everything I say.

But ‘agreeing’ and ‘doing’ are very different things!

Leadership is action

Making a move.

Doing something

Executing a plan.

Holding yourself and others accountable.

And that is why I was delighted by this note from Abi Macleod  a recruiting leader at Aspire Recruitment based in Manchester and Liverpool, UK, who attended my event, took on board the advice offered, and devised her own plan for her business.

Abi is second from the left in the featured article picture above, taken at one of our Manchester events a few weeks ago. I am sure she will be happy to connect with like-minded recruitment leaders on LinkedIn

Her story speaks for itself. This is about making the right things happen. This is a great example of a leader being brave enough to implement change.

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Early in 2026, I had the privilege of attending a Greg Savage event. I had read his books and was revisiting our action plan for the new financial year.

These were my key takeaways from the event.

• Review your clients and drop the ones wasting your time.
• Increase your fees.
• Charge for consultative advice.

Using Bullhorn Analytic data, I did this with 2 of my consultants who were selling hard but not consistently hitting target.

Results within 6 months:

Consultant #1

• Reviewed 100% of trading clients (jobs taken in 2025) and increased % margin on all new jobs taken moving forward. We didn’t lose one client! One even said they weren’t surprised, as we provided the best service and were the cheapest.

• We walked away from one client who constantly gave us vacancies, created a lot of ‘noise’ which generated a lot of work – however resulted in either credited placements or no placements at all.

• Better qualifications of jobs.

• Repeat business from a leading global organisation that has taken us 3 years to convert and was using us on a sporadic basis.

• More exclusivity across clients (6 weeks of tight client control even through a rejected offer – we rematched and placed again)

• Consultant billing more and hitting target more consistently

• Consultant has now been engaged to read the Savage Truth 😊

Consultant #2

• Increased our focus on temp-to-perm fulfillment.

• Charged full fees for temp-to-perm conversions

• Moved from a weak PSL relationship to exclusive temp supply.

• Moved away from a ‘noisy’ client with limited growth, low commitment, used multiple agencies and had a high turnover of temps on a low margin that took a full week to match on for very little return

• The consultant has doubled revenue, consistently overachieves target, and is overtaking the very established top performer, which is pushing up the overall team’s performance.

Workshop Delivery/consultative advice

• I have been supporting a colleague and have now moved away from complimentary workshops; we saw a slight dip; however, the clients are now coming back, and we have developed this as a chargeable service.

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This is what we all must do.

Of course, some parts of recruitment are sacred and must be maintained.

But we also must slaughter sacred cows.

• Work exclusive and retained.
• Sell ‘process’, not placements.
• Lift our fees for the better-quality work we do
• Understand the difference between which parts of the recruitment process can be replaced by AI and automation…and understand which parts should be replaced.
• Evaluate and quite likely change your business model. Move to ‘partnerships’, not “competition”
• Make sure your recruiters are TechnoEmpaths.
• Reinvent your pricing strategy.
• Redefine what is a ‘good client’ and upgrade continuously
• Specialise. Go narrow. And deep.
• Lead by getting closer to your people than ever before
• Build, implement and drive a real learning ethos
• Build your ‘Visible Personal Authority’. Authenticity and insights is the future of reputation and branding
• Measure the right things. Some old. Some New

These are just a start. We covered this and much more in detail during the “Playbook”.

But learn and act you must

Do what Abi did

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