Winning clients without a BD team

You don’t need a sales team. You need a reason to call, and you already have two: the people you’ve placed, and the candidates you’ve vetted. What’s usually missing is the hour to use them.

7-minute read

Brief→Shortlist→Submission→Follow-through→Hunt→Outcome

In a small agency, business development is the job that always comes second. Live roles have deadlines, candidates need calling back, and the hiring manager who promised feedback by Friday still hasn’t replied. BD gets pushed to the end of the week, and the end of the week is when the chasing piles up.

Then a client freezes hiring, or your biggest account brings recruitment in-house, and you find the pipeline was really two clients. With no BD team, every gap is yours to fill, from a standing start, while you keep the desk running. A month without a new client is a month of fees you don’t get back.

A small agency doesn’t need a sales operation to fix this. It needs an hour of BD that actually happens every week, aimed at people who are likely to say yes, with something specific to say when they pick up.

What recruiters told us

Upstreamis where the pain sits now: winning clients and getting answers from them, more than finding candidates.

Hundredsof applicants per ad. Candidates are rarely the shortage. Clients are.

Every dayyou’re chasing a hiring manager for their time. Chasing eats the hours BD needs.

Recruiters told us their work still comes through people: long-term accounts, referrals, partnerships, and hiring managers they’ve helped before. BD is relationship-led. Where they’d take help is the step before the call: spotting the next opening, and finding the time to act on it.

Clients hire a person, not an agency

A hiring manager picks a recruiter the way they’d pick an accountant: on trust. They want an opinion they can rely on. Who’s worth meeting. What the market will pay. Whether the must-have at the top of their brief is really a must-have. That trust is built one role at a time, which is why long-term accounts and referrals still bring in so much of the work.

Your knowledge is the pitch. You know which candidates would move, and what for. You know that “senior” at a twenty-person start-up isn’t “senior” at a bank. You know which must-haves bend when the right person turns up. An email that shows any of that reads nothing like a list of services, and it’s the part no database can copy.

Clients don’t hire an agency. They hire a recruiter whose judgement they trust.
From our conversations with recruiters

So BD in a small agency isn’t about volume. It’s about putting your judgement in front of the right people, regularly, with something specific to say.

Where your next client comes from

Cold lists are the hardest place to start. Start from work you’ve already done. Every placement tells you something you can use: the kind of company that hires the role, the salary that closed it, the profile that got the offer.

Your placementsEvery placement is a reason to call a company like it.

The candidates you didn’t placeVetted, keen and ready. Someone else is hiring for that role.

Companies like your best clientSame size, same sector, same hiring problem.

People who’ve moved onA hiring manager you worked with, now at a new company.

Then watch for reasons to call. A funding round tends to mean headcount. A new team lead will usually want to shape their own team. A run of job posts for the same role suggests the in-house search isn’t working. Layoffs elsewhere put good people on the market, and give you a reason to ring the companies still hiring. Each one makes the call about them, not you.

Open with a person, not a pitch

The strongest opener is a candidate. Recruiters told us a common move is to take a strong CV and send it to companies likely to want it. It works because it’s specific: a hiring manager can say yes to a person far more easily than to “we’d love to support your hiring”. The candidates a client passed on are ideal, because you know them well enough to vouch for them. Here’s how to spec one.

After a placement, call while the story is fresh. Ring two companies like the one you placed with that week. You have news, not a pitch: “We’ve just placed a payments engineer with a fintech about your size. I met two other strong people in that search. Are you hiring for anything similar this year?”

When the answer is “not right now”, ask to come back: “Fair enough. Can I send you one anonymised profile when someone exceptional comes up?” It’s an easy yes, and it turns a cold contact into one who’s expecting your email.

A week of BD that fits round your desk

Book the time first. Put BD in your diary before the chasing and admin, even if it’s only an hour, and treat it like a client call you can’t move. Here’s a week that fits round a busy desk.

MondayPick five companies like your best clientWho’s hiring for the role I’ve just filled?
TuesdaySpec one candidate to eachWorth a quick call this week?
ThursdayFollow up once, by phoneI sent you a payments engineer on Tuesday. Worth a look?
FridayCheck in on a recent placementHow’s it going? Anyone else the team is looking for?

Keep a simple list of who you’ve contacted, when, and with what. Without one you’ll ring the same person twice in a month, or forget the one who said “try me in the spring”. And judge it over weeks, not days. Cold outreach gets around one reply in ten, so a quiet Tuesday tells you nothing.

The Friday call is where referrals come from, so make the ask plainly. Wait until the placement has settled, a few weeks in, when the hiring manager is pleased rather than relieved. Then ask something they can answer: “Who else do you know who’s hiring this year?” gets further than “Do you know anyone who needs a recruiter?”

Keep track of the hiring managers you’ve helped, too. When one moves to a new company, they arrive with a team to build and often no agency yet. A short note in their first month, “Congratulations on the move. If you’re building the team, I’d be glad to help”, takes two minutes and reaches someone who already trusts you.

The after-placement email

Send this in the week a placement starts, to two or three companies like the one you placed with.

Template · after a placement

Subject: [Role] hires at [type of company]

Hi [Name],

I’ve just helped [a fintech in Leeds] hire a [Role]. While we were searching, I met strong people who didn’t get that job.

If you’re hiring a [Role] or similar this year, I can send you two anonymised profiles this week.

Worth ten minutes on [day]?

[Your name]

Get each candidate’s OK before their profile goes to a new company, and agree terms before you name anyone.

Hamrr does this for you

Business development from the shortlist you already have.

A placement shouldn’t be where the loop ends. The candidates you know best are how you find the next client.

Hunt finds companies likely to hire the same candidates
Drafts the spec email with a client-safe CV
Spots a hiring manager with no reply for over a week, and drafts the chase

See how it works →

Questions

How do small recruitment agencies find new clients?

Mostly through the placements and candidates they already have: calling companies like the ones they’ve placed with, and specing strong candidates to companies hiring for the same role.

How much time should I spend on business development?

Enough that it happens every week. Put it in your diary before the chasing and admin, even if it’s only an hour.

Is it worth specing candidates to companies with no live role?

Yes, if the candidate is strong and the company is like ones you’ve placed with. Keep it short, send it to the person who’d manage them, and ask for a quick call.

What’s a good reason to call a prospective client?

Something about them, not you: a placement with a company like theirs, a strong candidate for a role they’re likely to hire, a funding round, a new team lead, or a run of job posts for the same role.

Will a tool do my business development for me?

Not the part that wins clients. That still happens through people who trust your judgement. A tool can find the openings and draft the first email, so your time goes on the calls.