THE CHALLENGE
Ella Lamport founded Park Avenue Recruitment in 2017, building a specialist firm focused on white-collar public sector roles across housing, town planning and the built environment. As the business grew, so did the pressure to hire well.
The irony wasn't lost on Ella. "We're recruiters," she says, "but when it comes to placing somebody in our own business, actually being able to judge their skill set is really tough." Park Avenue had always hired graduates and developed people from the ground up — but without a structured way to assess whether a candidate would actually perform in a sales-driven recruitment environment, the process relied heavily on gut feel and trial and error.
THE CONNECTION: LEVERAGING THE TRN PARTNER PROGRAMME
The connection to Paul Waters Associates came through TRN. Ella's business partner Richard was part of a CEO peer group with TRN co-founder Gordon Stoddart, where Paul Waters Associates was mentioned. They followed up through the TRN team, who made the introduction.
"It was a very TRN introduction," Ella recalls.
THE SOLUTION: USE A SCIENTIFIC SALES TEST (SPQ*GOLD) THROUGH A TRN PARTNER
Dom Waters at Paul Waters Associates introduced Park Avenue to SPQ*GOLD — a specialist sales profiling tool that assesses whether a candidate has the energy, resilience, prospecting motivation and sales comfort to perform consistently in a recruitment role. Critically, it was offered on a pay-as-you-go basis — no subscription, no long-term commitment.
"There was no tough sell," says Ella. "It was just a really easy decision."
Over the following five years, Park Avenue built SPQ*GOLD into every hire they made. Ella and Richard became confident enough in reading the reports that Dom's role shifted from interpreter to sounding board — a genuine working partnership rather than a supplier relationship.
THE OUTCOME
Since 2021, Park Avenue has grown from a small team to nearly 25 people. The business has just recorded its best year and its best month to date.
"The most important thing in any recruitment business is the people sitting at the desk doing the work," Ella says. "We use the SPQ test for every single person we hire. And we've just had our best year yet. I think it's all going to be linked."
Beyond the numbers, the value is also in what didn't happen. As Dom puts it: "It's the bad hires you didn't make that make the difference." For a business scaling at pace, avoiding costly mis-hires is as commercially significant as any revenue line.
Park Avenue have continued to use Paul Waters Associates for five years — not because they're locked in, but because they choose to.
"We don't have to carry on using them," Ella says. "But we want to."
WHAT TRN MADE POSSIBLE
This relationship wouldn't exist without TRN. A conversation in a CEO peer group led to a warm introduction, which led to a five-year working partnership that has shaped how an entire business hires.
For Dom, TRN members consistently show up as a different kind of client: commercially minded, open to better ways of doing things, and serious about building something lasting. "By definition, by being part of TRN, they're open-minded and know how to run a business and run partnerships."
For Ella, TRN's wider value runs deeper than any single introduction. "Whenever I feel a bit low or uninspired, there's always something I can sign up for — a call with Gordon or James, or other business owners — and it unlocks things. And the introductions to suppliers? It's saved us a lot of money over the years, trying before we buy through other people in the network."
The TRN Partner Programme connects leading suppliers with one of the most engaged recruitment communities in the UK and globally. Whether you’re looking for brand visibility, deeper relationships, or strategic market influence, our partner tiers give you a clear, structured way to achieve meaningful commercial outcomes.
