The Future of BD in the Staffing Industry

The recruitment sector is often described as cyclical, with ups and downs dictated by the broader economy.

But right now, we are not in a simple cycle.

There is no obvious “bounceback” – in fact, in all likelihood, it is already here and you may not have even noticed it!

What we have seen over the past twelve months suggests not merely another turn of the wheel this time around, but something more fundamental - a rewiring of how recruiters engage with their markets.

We have entered a new norm, a period shaped by fundamental shifts such as technology adoption (especially AI), structural skills shortages, evolving work patterns and client expectations that are higher (and different) than ever before. This is something we have been referring to as the Recruitment (R)evolution here at TRN and it is very much here.

When you look at the data, what emerges is not the particular story of growth or decline of any one particular agency, but the collective reality of an industry adjusting (at least trying to adjust) to a different way of engaging with and selling to their clients.

Whilst we have always maintained that the core components of BD in our sector have never really changed (certainly not in the 25 years plus that I have been working in recruitment!) but the wrapping, the way we do it, has.

The data reveals a shift in behaviours, sometimes deliberate, sometimes forced by circumstance, that is reshaping the art and science of business development.

We think this is exciting and creates huge opportunities for savvy recruitment businesses who are now redesigning their BD approaches to be both future fit and future relevant.

Volume versus value

Between September 2024 and August 2025, activity across the recruitment sector ebbed and flowed as it always does, but generally we picked up the phone more often and secured more first-time jobs from clients, which is good.  But what isn’t so good is that fewer of those jobs converted into placements.

Recruiters picked up the pace with their activity and put in shift, but many just didn’t realise the ROI for their efforts.

Many were starting to discover that client access, whilst hugely important in BD (and in fact more so now than ever before) is no longer the prize in itself. Whereas once the challenge was to get meetings booked in the diary with prospects (and existing) customers, now the real challenge is to ensure that not only are those meetings are booked in but that they result in qualified, quality work that can be delivered and delivered profitably.

Then something happened in this last quarter than probably goes against most people’s expectations, especially at a time when there is a real push for more sales right now - BD activity actually fell 10.4% overall in comparison to previous months!

However, despite fewer dials being made, meeting efficiency overall improved.  Completed meetings per 1,000 BD calls rose from 58.2 to 62.6 overall.

It seems people have started to realise that not having a BD strategy in place and just aimlessly making outbound calls, is just not working as well as it used to and so used this quarter to do far better targeting, albeit with less volume…

… and it seemed to have worked looking at those improvements in conversion rates.

This is something we discussed in detail at the recent TRN Retreat - even if the volume of BD activity is still lower right now, at least make the contact itself far more valuable for both you and the customer.

The currency of success

In this new world we find ourselves in, the quality of the engagement, not just the quantity, has become the currency of success.  Again, that is not new, but the lack of ROI and conversion rates have really hurt some agencies.

We’ve seen reports this year of some of the more reliable / “safe pair of hands” £300k recruiters of before, now struggling to get over £100k in billings and new recruiters struggling to get going in the first place and get an early stage traction on their desks.

For smaller agencies, the data shows that the lack of ROI from meetings initially scheduled has been significant, especially with a number of prospects cancelling, rescheduling or simply failing to turn up!

Why does this matter? Because as we know in recruitment, the bottom of the sales funnel is tightly coupled to these initial conversations at the top of the funnel. A meeting that falls through with a prospect is more than just a lost hour - it represents a delayed job brief, a candidate who may never be introduced and a deal that may never happen 30 days later.

The link between completion rates and fill rates is both stark and hugely obvious...

Recruitment agencies that do a good job in raising their show up rate (and quality) at initial meetings, fill more jobs and deliver more revenue.

The larger recruitment firms, potentially with more sophisticated processes, appear to have recognised this. Their completion rates are markedly higher, and continually improving, which suggests they are more focused perhaps about why a meeting matters (for them and the client) and are putting in more rigorous processes around the lead up to a meeting to reduce drop outs, such as better diary control and pre-meeting insights and data.

However, as you will see from the data, this also points to the fact that the larger agencies are working their warmer relationships far more than newer, prospect relationships – good for show up rates, but less so for new business deals.

Placements are the real proof… of course!

If the meeting is the top of the funnel, then the actual placement ratios at the bottom of the funnel remain the ultimate test of what is and isn’t working here.

Smaller agencies, while reducing their intake of jobs (not necessarily out of choice!), are however converting more of them into placements.

The mid-sized firms, in contrast, seem to be struggling more.  The number of new jobs added have slipped, placements have slipped further and the fill rates, while still relatively high, are trending downwards.

For the bigger players, placements are up, but not in line with the volume of jobs added.

This variation points to the fact that the smaller, more nimble firms are being more deliberate in their choices about which jobs to go after, concentrating on those they can credibly deliver and convert quickly and effectively.

On the other hand, some of the more volume-driven models are creaking under the weight of poorly committed briefs, leading to a reduction in fill rates.

The lesson here is pretty clear - in a market where customers have more choice, recruiters must insist on better quality commitments from better quality relationships (aka proper partnerships, something we have been pushing hard across the TRN community for a number of years now) in order to improve the efficiency of their work, which in turn directly impacts net contribution and profitability.

Revenue momentum masking the fragility of your BD engine

It would be easy to look at the revenue line which is creeping back up for many parts of the market (is that that bounceback that has slipped back in?) and conclude that business development is working just fine. But that’s a false economy right now, and a closer inspection of the data shows that these gains are often built on narrow foundations.

For some of the micro-agencies and solopreneurs, a handful of larger fees have carried the total higher, even as conversion efficiency slipped and for the biggest firms, sheer volume and scale has compensated for less impressive fill rates.

Sustaining this growth will require more than just a good dose of luck or significant market buoyancy. It will demand a re-engineering and a redesign of an agency’s BD engine where meetings happen and matter, where jobs and clients are properly qualified and where delivery teams can act quickly enough to turn briefs into hires (speed of hire is still one of the most important drivers in your business).

Why the shift?

There are several forces at play here, as there always tend to be.

The clients themselves have changed. Procurement teams and hiring managers are busier than ever (more is being demanded of them), they are more data-literate and have greater access to insights, and they are far less inclined to take calls for the sake of it, especially cold ones!

Digital channels and various new tech have made it easier for them to research potential agency suppliers without ever speaking to a consultant. The rise of subscription-style recruitment products (from TTP to RaaS to pure Subscription), embedded models and RPO-lite offerings has raised expectations and buyers now want evidence of value and ROI before they even commit to a conversation with a recruiter.

Technology is if course playing a big role in all this, as you would expect.

Advanced CRMs, automated sequencing tools and new AI platforms have given recruiters more opportunity than ever. But the data all shows that by just doing more of the same (more calls, more meetings, more jobs) does not guarantee more placements anymore.  In many cases, it is just noise.

“Have you noticed that many of the things you used to do from a BD perspective just don’t seem to work as well as they used to any more?”. This is a question we’ve been asking a lot of recruitment leaders this year, and for good reason.

It doesn’t mean the old classic routes to market aren’t working.  It just means they aren’t working as well as they used to… and that needs to be addressed.

Just doing twice as much right now, won’t necessarily solve the ineffectiveness of what you are doing and may possibly perpetuate it further.

The future of BD in recruitment, again nothing new here in principle, is not more but better (and then more!). Better qualification, better meetings, better alignment between the jobs you take on as an agency and the placements / outcomes you can credibly deliver.

The data shows the industry is learning this lesson in real time. For some it has meant a tough couple of years, but for others an unexpected surge in demand and opportunity.

For everyone, however, it has meant that we are now all just a little more obsessed about driving up the performance, productivity and profitability of every part of our sales engine.

In the detail

Let’s now drill down into the data in more detail, starting with those agencies with a headcount of between 1 and 5 recruiters…

Overall it’s a mixed picture, but as we suspected, it points towards a market that is starting to find its rhythm again, but not necessarily because of what they are doing.

The data paints a picture of micro agency recruiters working hard and putting in a good shift but being too reactive to their market’s peaks and troughs, rather than dictating what is going on.

Hoping the market will get better is not a strategy… but it is draining!

The data shows that general activity levels have stabilised after a pretty volatile winter period (notably the December to February dip) but growth is plateauing slightly rather than accelerating which is better, but not ideal.

Revenue, placements and BD activity have all softened a touch from their previous summer peaks, suggesting a market that remains active but is showing signs of tightening demand or decision-making delays.

We are seeing more consistent BD activity, which is good, but there’s limited growth (30 BD calls per recruiter per month) in call volume and to me that suggests most recruiters are “maintaining contact” rather than expanding outreach proactively and deliberately.  That is not going to be enough.

Similarly, looking at the client calls and meeting data, recruiters still tend to be speaking to existing clients rather than creating new relationships with their ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles).

Meetings are happening, but the top of the funnel (new ICP outreach) is flattening.

In consequence, despite all this BD activity, placements haven’t moved much in return.  What we refer to as “conversion efficiency” clearly needs some work, or all that effort will be wasted.

Are recruiters over-targeting (too many low-value calls to the wrong people outside of their ICP) or are they just not following up well enough and getting those Calls to Action in place, so important to sales engagement and pipeline conversion?  The issue will lie in here somewhere…

Sure, the pre-summer push saw a sharp rise in new companies added between June and July, but as the summer kicked in across Europe, that naturally tailed off.  Those micro agencies who continue to obsess about client meetings as we push to the inevitable end of year slow down, will see that return with new companies added, and in consequence, new jobs to work on moving in to the new year.

So, there’s a clear correlation between peaks in BD Calls and revenue uplifts a month or two later, as you would expect, so nothing new when we say that those agencies maintaining high level of BD cadence throughout Q3 will reap the rewards in early Q4.

In essence, the data is proving once again that the BD engine works, when it is consistent.

The summer dip is always predictable, but is also avoidable – we have this conversation just about every year I have been in the recruitment industry!

Every August (and December - take note!) show dips in all activity metrics, so the smart agencies will naturally pre-load their pipeline before these periods kick in to avoid that feast or famine that can ruin a good year.

They are nurturing their clients early in the run up and scheduling post-holiday follow-ups to hit the ground running as soon as everyone is back in.

The story for the smaller agencies is not vastly different to the micro agencies, although they seem to experience greater spikes and sharper fluctuations across both their BD effort (and revenues) which suggests to me they are doing more sprint campaigns and regular BD pushes to their ICPs (presumably driven by management).

Great in principle, but again, without the consistent rhythm, the data exposes much deeper dips during those quieter periods.

The mid-sized agencies are clearly more productive per recruiter but less consistent.  The peaks in effort are producing strong returns, but the quieter months hit them harder.

The data suggests more of a typical managed, KPI-driven BD culture that’s effective in bursts but could benefit from steadier rhythm and better pipeline continuity (again, nothing new here!).

It feels to me like their managers are pushing their recruiters to sell, driven by KPIs, as opposed to getting recruiters to want to sell for themselves – there is a difference that generally rears its head when the push stops.

When we look at some of the larger agencies they tend to be operating efficiently and at scale, but performance depends more on account penetration with existing customers (we refer to this as Operation Goldmine) and consistency of delivery, than on actual new client acquisition as we can see by the low number of new companies and new jobs added.

They need to be careful, however, as whilst they may be used to more of a stable, relationship-led strategy as they nurture their existing network, the smaller agencies are hot on their heels as they sharpen their outbound, new client acquisition activity further, putting some of these existing accounts at risk.

There is work to be done, of course, on the client side.

Client confidence remains cautiously optimistic, reflected in mid-year growth spurts and a continued increase in contract demand.

Whilst the market remains active, decision cycles seem to be slower – work needs to be done to create more urgency from the market and push for better / tighter relationships.

Agencies who are investing time and effort in to that are already seeing the benefits because even though the market is steady but not accelerating at the rate we would like, there is a more consistent job flow, milder seasonal cycles and more dependable placements out there to be taken.

So, as always, BD activity remains the key driver of success whatever size of agency you are, but BD efficiency and conversion now defines real profitability.

We will see the results of this, I am sure, when we review the next quarters’ data...

James Osborne
Chairman and Chief Growth Officer at The Recruitment Network

(Thank you to the team at OneUp Sales for all the brilliant data - to find out more, see https://oneupsales.com/labs)