How To Win New Clients For Your Recruitment Agency
The journey for recruitment agencies – from start-up to scale up to enterprise – involves – and relies – on building and sustaining relationships. Client recruitment can be troublesome without a strategy in place. You might be proficient in attracting candidates, but without clients to put them in front of, your agency could falter. Looking – and engaging – clients for your recruitment agency is explained in fuller detail here..
How do recruiters find clients?
Clients to a recruitment agency are as vital as candidates. And like engaging candidates, there are many methods to address looking for clients for your recruitment agency.
Knowing your market sector implicitly, having a plan, and understanding you can’t help every recruiting business are absolutely core when it comes to sustained delivery, satisfied clients, and growth-on-growth of your agency, wherever in the world you are operating.
Top tips for winning new clients for your recruitment agency
It can be a struggle and even more so if you don’t adopt an open strategy in engaging clients, because they all won’t come from the same source. In recent times, it’s a mix of digital methods – through positive reviews – attending events and networking, introductions, and recommendations. So, it’s important to stress the approach to client recruitment is a team effort rather than you going solo and trying to forge your own path.
The focus on building on recruiting clients comes under the microscope when you consider that 44% of companies have a greater focus on customer acquisition vs. 18% that focus on retention*. When you are a start-up, building a client base is a necessity and concentrating on new business continues to be a driving factor throughout your agency’s lifecycle.
Using technology is also key and using recruitment software can help you be efficient and successful.
Networking and events
Meeting people at events can introduce you to clients looking for recruitment agency services. When you meet, face-to-face, the greeting is warmer, and you can build trust and a relationship. You cannot connect with companies looking for recruitment services permanently from behind your desk, so encourage your consultants to engage in events that can introduce you to hiring managers and decision-makers. In today’s recruitment environment, consultants are driven, accountable, and have built a personal brand, and this is further built upon at recruitment networking events, seminars, and functions. As a further tip, building a relationship at events like these doesn’t mean going offering full-on selling at the earliest opportunity. It’s about nurturing the relationship to when it’s the right time for the client to engage with you. It can be a long game.
When you’ve been to an event, connect with the people you’ve met on LinkedIn and send a friendly reminder email. Also, log their details in your recruitment CRM. Having their details at your fingertips will help you in the future.
Recommendation
Being introduced via recommendation is another highly credible method to win a client. Your agency may offer an introductory fee, but as an agency, the introduced client will be encouraged because a mutual acquaintance believes both parties can assist each other.
Also, don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from colleagues – past and present, friends, neighbours, associates, family. Also, think laterally. There are connections who have recently moved jobs and those who are highly influential in your industry. Pick up the phone, write an email, meet for a coffee – there are many ways. Be brave and ask for an introduction because you have a relationship. What is the worse they can say?
Candidates can be the key
At the start of this piece, we explained how candidates are as important to an agency as a client, so why not work with your candidates? When a talented candidate presents themselves, ask them who they’d like to work for. This can open a door for you – not just for this candidate but for future openings too.
Alternatively, do your research on the sector. With a candidate with the skills an employer is looking for, this could end up a happy marriage for all concerned.
Additionally, ask for referrals for candidates you’ve placed with their previous employers (if they left on good terms) and build a pipeline in this manner, too. Make the relationships work for you too.
Leverage customer success stories
When you’ve successfully placed a candidate and the feedback from the client is nothing but delight, ask for a case study or testimonial to help your business development purposes. Proof of a job well done is gold and will help your outbound efforts.
Job boards and LinkedIn aren’t just for candidates
Client recruitment also comes from using job boards and LinkedIn. Sometimes, in ads online, key detail is given to reveal the identity of the hiring organisation. Use LinkedIn to find an introduction and this can be another way to prospect and fill a client’s hiring need.
* Source: Customer Acquisition Vs.Retention Costs (invespcro.com)
