This is shocking, and you will be inclined to deny it.

But the data is precise, and you may not know if it’s true for you anyway.

Here it is.

Two in five clients do not return to the same recruitment agency for a second job.

(From Bullhorn. Thank you. See end of article)

That’s 40%

Let’s be fair. It’s not always the recruiter’s fault. And sometimes, maybe, the recruiter does not even want to work with that client again!

But let’s be honest too

We are dropping the ball far too often.

All that work to secure a client and win a brief. Maybe we fill it, maybe we don’t

But the client goes elsewhere the next time they are recruiting!

Four times out of ten.

Holy Moley. That’s a waste!

The primary cause, according to Bullhorn, is that the recruiter does not put enough effort into maintaining the relationship after the order is closed.

And that is my definite observation as well – it has always been that way.

Too many recruiters are too busy doing the placement dance to do the follow-up grunt work.

Or hunting the ‘next deal‘ to bother much about the one just closed.

Recruiters are shockingly guilty of a complacent attitude which goes along the lines of, ‘Oh, that’s MY client” and “No worries there, this client loves me” and “Well, I placed a great person with them last time, so, of course, they will come back to me.”

All flawed. Hubris. Delusional.

The client most definitely does not love you. They are being approached by other agencies all the time. Other hiring managers are telling your client to try their favourite recruiters. They pretty much don’t think about you at all anyway.

I was speaking to Bianca Luck at people2people last week. She is phoning candidates she placed more than ten years ago and has lost touch with. She wants to spark conversations, reignite relationships, and maybe pick up job orders or candidates.

Some of them pick up and say, “Hi there, Bianca. How are you doing?” And that is after ten years. She is still in their phone! I applaud Bianca for working her network and re-opening doors. But actually, she should not have waited ten years! Bianca will say she has been busy all those years, been a top performer, and billed millions of dollars. Thank you very much, Greg, she will say 🙂 (all of which is true).

But the lesson for all of us is that the market always works in cycles, and you need to nurture your networks when you don’t need to nurture them (Read that again; it is smarter than it sounds). Then, you will suffer far less when the lean years follow the fat years. It is a case of fixing the roof before the rain comes. (Metaphors everywhere this week!)

Here are some good ideas to maintain the relationship and ensure the client has no reason to go elsewhere.

1) Be Bianca. Yes, make a set daily number of outreach calls to people you have lost contact with. Valued ex-clients and candidates. Have something more to say than “Hi, how have you been doing all this time?”. Call with a crafted message, something of value to offer. Data, an update, a top candidate, market insights, a coffee meet. And remember, don’t just do it now, because you are short of work. Do it when you have too many jobs! Yes, fix the hole in the roof before that rain comes. (Almost no one else will do what I say here. That becomes your super-power)

2) Where a job has been closed (Successfully placed by you or not), arrange with the client for a follow-up ‘performance review’ call or meeting. A debrief session. How could I do better, Mr/s Client? What do you want more of – or less of?

3) Ensure you have permission to “Reverse Market” niche candidates to your clients. What a perfect way to make sure that they do not forget you. You keep finding them high-quality candidates on spec. Be very accurate though, and provide high quality. Oh, look, I provided you with the entire process of how to do this.

4) Invite your clients to an event. Maybe it is a low-key Board room discussion in your own offices. Perhaps a public event you know they will be interested in. Yes, you pay if required. But what a cheap way to spend hours with your client.

5) When completing an assignment, always ask the two golden business development questions. ‘Who else?’, and ‘what else?’. Ask for referrals to other hiring managers. Call those hiring managers and say, “Your colleague, Mary Smith, is a client of mine, and she specifically suggested I should call you“. Language is everything, and it will be true, right?

6) And this one which has always been a favourite of mine. Bullhorn puts it this way: “Other data recruiters tend to overlook pertains to their “high-quality candidates” who were put forward for interview with hiring managers but weren’t successful”. These are the so-called ‘Silver Medallists’. They are high quality by definition, or they would not have got that far. But according to Bullhorn, 62% of the ‘just-miss-outs‘, the magnificent ‘silver-medallists’, are never interviewed by another client through the same agency. WTF? You know they are great. They are ready to move. What a waste of quality, motivated and verified candidates (Those candidates are perfect for a targeted ‘reverse market’ as per point 3 above.)

7) And now, there is a very big one for those temp and contract recruiters. Recycling temps is a ‘must-have’ magic talent. Good contractors are hard to find and difficult to replace if they sail off and get a job through another agency, having finished your assignment. And it’s even worse than I imagined. The Bullhorn data suggest that 85% of Temp job finishes are not submitted by the same agency for a new temp job. (that fact is devastating to me. Horrific). They are top-tier candidates, interviewed, screened, and placed, have great feedback, and are payroll compliant, yet we allow them to drift off into the sunset. It takes hard work, but you need to know the finish date for every candidate and start working to place them a week or more before the assignment finishes. Literally, ‘take them to market’. The money being wasted by good candidates being lost and having to be replaced is almost impossible to measure.

8) Set a timetable to initiate contact with every client you have billed with every 60 days. Find a smart reason that adds value to the client.

9) Have you spoken to every (good) candidate you placed in the past five years? So many benefits will flow.

10) Follow all your clients and prospects on social media, mainly LinkedIn. Do not be a stalker. Be professional. Ask to connect. (I bet you are not even connected to 50% of your ‘clients’ on LinkedIn. You know, the ones who ‘love you’ so much. Check now). Like and share their content occasionally. Huge leverage and awareness generated by investing 20 minutes a day

11) Tag or reference clients on your posts if it’s of obvious relevance to them (Don’t do this too often)

12) Offer to introduce like-minded clients or industry suppliers with similar issues and objectives. This can be very powerful. Think through any conflict of interest first.

13) Take your job orders face-to-face in IRL whenever you can. Don’t bother calling me ‘old-school‘. On this, I know better than you. You will get a much better spec, qualify the order, build rapport, make an impression, earn credibility and start a relationship. You will be more likely to fill the job and more likely to have set a ‘partnership‘ in play, which will flow on to the next job. If that’s not possible, do it via VC meetings. Or forget all that sh#t and just email baby! That will do fine. Who wants to be good at this job anyway, right? Let 40% of our customers be lost immediately! (FFS)

14) Follow up with every placement you make after a week, a month, six months and regularly afterwards. You will earn a lot of respect, learn a lot, and, in some cases, have great feedback for your clients.

15) Introduce your client to other key players in your team. “It was great to work with you on this Mr/s client. My Regional Director is very keen to meet you. Coffee next Friday” or. “Very happy to have helped on this accounting role, Mr/s Client. I know you have vacancies in the Supply Chain too, so I would like to bring our expert in this area to meet you. Next Tuesday?”

This is just a thought-starter list.

If you win an order, even fill a job, you don’t yet have a ‘client’. That takes consistent and ongoing work.

Think of this.

Let’s imagine I could sit opposite every person you describe as a ‘client’.

And let’s say you are an accounting recruiter. If I asked every one of them, ‘Who is the best accounting recruiter you know? Your go-to accounting recruiter?‘

How many of them will say your name? And your name alone? Not your company name. Your name and no others?

Do that with honestly and then think about your ‘client nurturing‘ strategy.

Lots of it is personalised, like most of the ideas above, but now it needs to be supported with clever digital marketing and engagement outreach.

Seriously, if the Bullhorn data is accurate, and I have no doubt it is, then it’s a tragic situation

We do all the work to win an opportunity. Fill it. And then it’s all over.

What a waste!

No wonder we hear of burnout and stress among recruiters.

Do the work as outlined above

Repeat business is the most beautiful business of all.

The data from Bullhorn was lifted from a Shortlist article reporting on a speech delivered at the RCSA Shape Conference in August. Khanh Pham and Anna Henry were quoted. My acknowledgment to them for sparking this blog

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