New client roles opened while you are placing the last one.
Business development stops the week a placement gets busy. It rings the hiring managers you want, finds out which roles have been open too long, and books a fifteen-minute call with you about the brief.
Ready to set it up yourself? Start free. Not sure it fits? Ask a question
The specialist recruiter's week
A good week is candidates, interviews and an offer, and in a good week nobody does business development. Then the placement lands, the pipeline is empty, and the next fortnight is spent ringing people who have an agency already.
The hiring manager you want has a role that has been open for months and an agency that sends thirty CVs. They would take a call about that one role from a specialist who asked the right question. Nobody is asking it.
The playbook for a recruitment agency
Drafted from your interview, approved by you. One role, one call with the consultant, and fees stay off the phone.
The next step it books
A fifteen-minute call with the consultant about one open role, no fee discussion, mornings this week.
The questions it asks
- 1Are you hiring in our specialty at the moment?
- 2Which roles have been hardest to fill this year?
- 3How long has the longest one been open?
- 4Who do you use now, and what would you change about it?
The objections it answers
- We have an agency
- Most of our clients had one too. Which roles have been the hardest to fill this year, and how long has the longest been open?
- We recruit in-house
- Then the call is only about the roles that have stayed open anyway. Is there one that has been open more than two months?
- Agency fees are too high
- The consultant talks terms once she understands the role, on the call. The call is fifteen minutes and costs nothing.
What it never says
- Any fee percentage or terms
- A candidate's name or details
- A guarantee of a placement
When it hands over to you
When the lead asks for a person, asks about terms, or describes a role outside your specialty.
A call for a recruitment agency
The agent rings the operations manager of a civil engineering consultancy on behalf of a Wellington recruiter who places only engineers.
- 0:00Agent
Hi, is that Anita? I'm an AI assistant calling on behalf of Brightside Recruitment in Wellington. This call may be recorded. Have you got a minute?
The disclosure, first sentence, every call.
- 0:08Anita
One minute, yes.
- 0:10Agent
Brightside places civil and structural engineers, and only engineers, so the shortlist is three people who can do the job rather than thirty CVs. Are you hiring engineers at the moment?
The owner's proof point for a specialist recruiter, then the first qualifying question: hiring now.
- 0:21Anita
Always, but we've got an agency we use.
- 0:25Agent
Most of Brightside's clients had one too. Which roles have been the hardest to fill this year, and how long has the longest one been open?
The owner's answer to the objection, then the qualifying questions: the role and the pain.
- 0:34Anita
A senior structural engineer. Four months and counting.
- 0:38Agent
That's the role Priya, the founder, would want to talk through herself: fifteen minutes on the phone about the brief, no obligation and no fee talk. Would tomorrow morning or Thursday suit?
The next step: a short call with the founder about one role. Fees and candidate names stay with the owner.
- 0:50Anita
Thursday, after ten.
Recorded outcome
- Result
- Qualified, call booked Thursday
- Hiring now
- Yes, has an agency
- Hardest role
- Senior structural engineer, four months
- Objections
- Has an agency
- Next action
- Founder takes the fifteen-minute call
Transcript, recording and cost attached to the call
Illustrative call. Brightside Recruitment and the people in it are fictional and used in our testing.
What recruiters ask
Other trades
Commercial cleaning
Site visits booked while your crews are on site.
A twenty-minute site walk-through with the owner, Tuesday or Thursday afternoons, after which the owner writes the quote.
See the page
Accounting and bookkeeping
New monthly clients without ringing around yourself.
A fifteen-minute call with the owner about how the books run now, Wednesday or Friday mornings.
See the page
IT support
New support contracts while you are fixing someone's server.
A thirty-minute check of the network and the backups on site with the owner, no obligation, Tuesday or Thursday.
See the page
Property maintenance contractors
Maintenance contracts won while your team is on the tools.
A half-hour site walk-through with the owner, after which the owner writes a proposal, Wednesday or Friday.
See the page
Commercial landscaping and grounds
Grounds contracts booked while you are out mowing.
A twenty-minute walk of the grounds with the owner, after which the owner writes up what she would do differently, mornings next week.
See the page
Try it on your own business, free
Sign up, teach it your business in the ten-minute interview and approve the playbook it drafts. Then watch it work: it finds leads once, looks up three businesses you name and works one lead, with the transcript, recording and outcome to judge it by. No card, nothing to cancel.
- The interview and the playbook, in your words, today
- A run of leads found and checked for your market
- One lead worked, with every word on the record
A plan comes when the free trial is used up, and founding customers get our full attention while we are small.
Not sure it fits? Ask a question
A question before you start?
Whether it fits your business, how the rules apply to you, a volume above 600 leads: ask, and the founder replies by email within one business day. No sales call, no calendar.