Change how you define a ‘good client’

Quality candidates are hard to find.

Candidates have a choice and can change their ‘job criteria’ in a moment.

Every recruiter knows this.

Many recruiters have more jobs than they can hope to fill.

Credit to them, they are scrambling to fill them all.

But they can’t. And they won’t.

So that raises the critical question of the day.

What defines a client worth partnering with?

Where will your best return come?

What IS a ‘good client’ for an agency recruiter in 2022?

The answer to that question is nuanced and crucial because it needs to address the short-term need to fill jobs now (That is our business after all) and also take a longer view and build trusting client relationships for the future.

But right now, I consider a ‘good client’ to have these four characteristics.

Let us dig into this and put some meat on the bones of the type of client that will allow you to maximise the placement potential of suitable candidates you meet.

A ‘good client’ will have these nine characteristics.

I am seriously suggesting you evaluate your clients on these nine. Are you working with three’s and four’s out of nine?

Why?

All the points are important, but number nine is the dealbreaker.

You get paid for ‘acceptances’ not ‘offers’, so work with clients where your candidates want to work.

That means you understand both in-depth candidate motivation and what each client really offers, in terms of compensation, culture, ethos, training, flexibility, and much more.

We are not used to this. ‘Selecting’ clients, that is. We have done it with candidates for years, but clients are somehow sacred. They select us.

Not so much now.

I am not advocating burning bridges or cutting ties. I am advising you to put your energy where the desired outcome is likely. And to do that, you may wish to revisit your Client Selection Strategy

I have talked about these strategies elsewhere in my blog, and I have in-depth video training in the Savage Recruitment Academy, including triage, exclusivity, and how to fire a client nicely.

Always keep the long term in mind. Arrogance or sloppy service will do more harm than good.

But work out which clients are keeping up with today’s candidate attraction market, and service them till they scream with delight.

Because that noise will be the sound of people accepting jobs, and we all want that.

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