Most consultants who sell to recruitment agencies have never carried a target. I took a desk of five billing £13k a week to ten consultants and a £49k week — so when I tell you what's wrong, it's because I've had the same problem.
Who this is for
Most of the billings come from one consultant and everyone else makes up the difference. You already know what happens if they leave.
You're losing placements on price because nobody has had the rate conversation with the client. It's not a pricing problem. It's a confidence problem.
No mapping, no qualification, no idea which accounts are actually worth the year. Just activity, and hope.
What I'd do
Every team, every service, every decision maker, headcount and the permanent-to-agency ratio. For public bodies, an FOI request to see the real agency spend — one number that tells you whether an account deserves your year.
This is the fastest money in your business. Lifting average hourly margin means the same number of workers out earns considerably more, and every uplift improves a consultant's billings the day it lands.
Getting your other consultants into the accounts one person currently owns. Weekly one-to-ones, daily coaching, sitting alongside them listening in on calls.
I've taken a consultant from £500 a week to £2,500 through a performance review and weekly coaching. I've also run the disciplinaries when that's what it needed.
Not activity for its own sake. I made every consultant meet their candidates face to face while competitors signed people up over the phone — it cost time and our conversions were far better for it.
I carried it. Where the target was five per cent growth on the year, we came in nearer fifteen to twenty.
I'm not going to tell you recruitment is a people business. You know that. I'm going to sit with your numbers and tell you which desk is broken and why.
Proof
First conversation is free — a full hour, no pitch deck.
