Why recruitment is a sales job, why that’s wrong and what you can do about it.

I had a conversation about salesmen and commission/bonus recently. It was actually about Investment Bankers but the principle applies to all jobs where a significant proportion of your income depends on making a sale. The conclusion was that salesmen have an “unhealthy” interest in the outcome of the process.

In recruitment where the product is a person/career/livelihood this unhealthy interest in the outcome of a candidate introduction is universally recognised and simply wrong. Candidates don’t like it, Clients don’t like it and even many Recruitment Consultants don’t like it! So why do we put up with it?

The short answer is over-supply: Too many agencies, chasing too little business.

If there’s not enough to go around, suppliers start to compete on price and eventually you end up with firms “winning” commission-only contracts.

In addition whilst Clients moan about agency fees being too high they must remember that the current model forces agencies to take all the risk. The cost of hiring via agencies could be much lower and outcomes more satisfying if Clients paid well-chosen suppliers less on results and more on effort and expertise.

That’s where we need to get to.

Getting there will take more than reducing the number of suppliers but that’s the start point. To do this you’ll need to split the supply side into “them” and “us”. The “us” will be made up of agencies that start to evolve rapidly through diversification of products and services and up-skilling their consultants.

Those that make up “them” will wither away as Employers start to recognise the benefits of “us” and the dangers of “them”. Those that remain will embed their Consultancies deep within their clients’ structures, they will charge fees geared more to time spent, they will belong to a representative body, agree to a code of conduct and carry a badge showing how and why they are different.

Once there is balance between supply and demand and bearing in mind it’s likely to be the best that survive, agencies will still win new Clients by “selling” their services but will earn revenues that are less dependent on “selling” candidates to clients and clients to candidates.

As always it’s your opinion and observations I’m after.