Market Briefing Your 90-Day BD Strategy for Mixed Market Conditions

Recruitment markets are changing, but the need for effective business development remains constant. The challenge for recruitment leaders is ensuring their sales strategies reflect how clients are buying today, rather than relying on approaches that worked in previous market conditions.

In this market briefing, James Osborne explores how recruitment businesses can strengthen their BD strategies, build more predictable pipelines and position themselves to win higher value business as they move into 2027.

The central message is straightforward: the fundamentals of selling remain important, but the way recruitment businesses apply them needs to evolve.

Mixed Market Conditions Require a Different Approach

Recruitment businesses are navigating a combination of economic uncertainty, changing client expectations, technological advances and evolving workforce requirements.

These pressures are creating challenges, but they are also opening opportunities for businesses that can adapt.

Rather than waiting for market conditions to improve, recruitment leaders need to build sales strategies capable of working in an unpredictable environment.

That requires more than increasing call volumes or sending additional outreach messages.

It means understanding where genuine demand exists, how customers are making decisions and which services are most relevant to their current priorities.

It also means acting early.

BD strategies take time to generate results. The relationships developed, conversations started and opportunities identified today will influence revenue performance over the next 30, 60 and 90 days.

For businesses preparing for 2027, the final months of 2026 are therefore an important period for pipeline development.

The Buying Process Has Changed. Has Your Sales Process?

Many recruitment businesses are still using familiar sales methods without fully considering how their customers now buy.

Cold calling, email campaigns and speculative approaches can still generate opportunities. However, their effectiveness depends increasingly on the relevance of the message, the timing and the relationship with the customer.

Clients are often better informed before they speak to a recruiter. They may have already researched suppliers, explored their options and developed a clear view of what they need.

Decision-making can also take longer, with greater attention paid to reducing hiring risks and demonstrating commercial value.

Recruitment businesses need to adjust their sales approach accordingly.

Three changes are particularly important.

1. Clients want fewer, stronger partnerships

Many organisations still want external recruitment support, but they are becoming more selective about the partners they use.

This creates an opportunity for recruitment businesses that can demonstrate specialist expertise, commercial understanding and a genuine contribution beyond supplying candidates.

2. Internal talent acquisition teams should be treated as partners

Internal TA functions are not necessarily an obstacle to external recruitment relationships.

Recruitment businesses can support these teams with specialist searches, talent identification, longlisting and other services that improve their internal capabilities.

Working alongside internal recruitment teams can create commercial opportunities that would be missed by treating them purely as competitors.

3. Clients increasingly value insight and expertise

Clients still need access to candidates, but they also want information that helps them make better workforce decisions.

This might include understanding talent availability, candidate expectations, retention challenges or changes in their employment market.

The more useful a recruitment business becomes in these conversations, the stronger its position as a potential long-term partner.

Relevance Must Become Part of Your BD Strategy

One of the biggest weaknesses in traditional recruitment BD is approaching customers with services that do not reflect their immediate concerns.

A client dealing with employee retention problems may have little interest in receiving another speculative CV.

However, that same client may welcome a conversation about why employees are leaving, what competitors are offering or how to attract specialist talent.

The difference is relevance.

Recruitment businesses need to understand their customers' commercial priorities and use those insights to shape their approach.

This also matters when clients are not actively hiring.

A business that recruits only a few times a year may still benefit from regular market intelligence, candidate insights or workforce discussions.

Maintaining that relationship helps ensure the recruiter remains visible and relevant when hiring activity resumes.

Being front of mind should not depend entirely on whether a customer has a live vacancy.

Visibility Creates Opportunity

A recruitment business cannot build strong relationships with customers who rarely hear from it.

Visibility remains a fundamental part of business development, but it needs to be purposeful.

James challenges recruitment businesses to consider how many meaningful client meetings their consultants complete each week, encouraging them to work towards double figures.

The objective is not simply to increase meeting numbers. It is to create more opportunities for conversations that move relationships and commercial opportunities forward.

Technology can help make this more achievable.

Webinars, roundtables, online discussions and group presentations allow recruiters to engage multiple potential customers efficiently.

However, visibility alone is not enough.

A webinar that attracts relevant prospects but generates no further conversations delivers limited commercial benefit.

The real value comes from moving interested customers into individual discussions and progressing them through the sales process.

Build a Sales Funnel You Can Actually Measure

A successful BD strategy needs a clear structure.

Recruitment leaders should be able to explain how prospects enter their sales funnel, how they progress through it and which activities generate commercial opportunities.

Without this visibility, BD can become a collection of disconnected activities rather than a manageable process.

A structured funnel allows leaders to understand where opportunities are being created, where progress is slowing and where improvements are needed.

It also makes performance easier to measure.

The starting point is to establish a clear understanding of the existing pipeline and the actions required to move prospective customers towards meaningful commercial conversations.

Combine inbound and outbound activity

Rather than depending on a single BD method, James recommends developing a multichannel approach.

This involves selecting two or three suitable outbound strategies and two or three inbound strategies, based on the behaviours and preferences of the ideal customer profile.

Outbound approaches might include direct calling, email campaigns and LinkedIn outreach.

Inbound approaches focus on creating interest and encouraging prospective customers to engage through useful content, market insights and relationship-building activity.

The important point is not simply which channels are selected.

It is whether the recruitment business understands how to execute each one effectively.

For every channel, leaders should establish what strong performance looks like, how consultants should use it and how its contribution to the sales funnel will be assessed.

Use AI to Strengthen the Sales Process, Not Replace It

AI is creating opportunities to increase the scale and efficiency of recruitment business development.

However, its greatest contribution may come from supporting the activities that happen before and between client conversations.

For example, AI can help analyse LinkedIn account data to identify potential prospects, understand engagement patterns and inform future outreach.

Connected email tools can help identify campaigns that have not received responses and prepare follow-up drafts for human review.

AI can also assist with market research, lead identification and content preparation.

These capabilities reduce the time spent on repetitive research and administration, giving consultants more capacity for the conversations that require their personal expertise.

Move from vacancy chasing to hiring signals

One particularly valuable application is identifying potential recruitment demand before vacancies are advertised.

Traditional BD often involves monitoring job boards and company websites for live opportunities.

While this remains useful, it can mean approaching customers after their recruitment requirements are already visible to competitors.

Hiring signals offer a different approach.

Examples discussed in the session include:

• A business receiving new investment or funding.

• Changes within its leadership team.

• Expansion into larger office premises.

These developments may indicate that recruitment activity is likely to follow.

AI agents can monitor relevant developments across target accounts and highlight potential opportunities for consultants to investigate.

Rather than replacing the sales conversation, technology provides a more timely reason to start one.

The advantage comes from identifying potential demand early enough to discuss broader requirements and develop a stronger commercial relationship.

Focus on Winning Better Business

Business development should not be measured solely by the number of vacancies secured.

The quality of the commercial opportunities matters just as much.

Contingent recruitment can remain profitable, but stronger client commitments may create opportunities to improve conversion, productivity and revenue predictability.

Recruitment leaders should consider where they can develop relationships built around:

• Exclusive recruitment agreements.

• Retained search assignments.

• Multiple-hire projects.

• Embedded talent solutions.

• Longer-term recruitment partnerships.

• Recurring revenue services.

These arrangements require an approach based on understanding client requirements, demonstrating value and building trust.

The objective is to become a partner involved in solving wider talent challenges rather than simply another supplier responding to individual vacancies.

Don't Overlook Your Existing Customers

New client acquisition is important, but existing relationships can also hold significant untapped potential.

Recruitment businesses should understand whether they are supporting the full range of their customers' requirements.

That means exploring opportunities in other departments, identifying additional hiring needs and understanding where existing contacts can make introductions.

James refers to this approach as Operation Goldmine, a structured process for uncovering additional commercial opportunities within current accounts.

For businesses reviewing their BD priorities, existing customer development should sit alongside new prospecting rather than being treated as an afterthought.

Your 90-Day BD Priorities

A strategy only creates value when it is translated into consistent activity.

As recruitment businesses prepare for 2027, the priorities should be clear.

1. Establish the commercial objective

Be clear about the growth and profitability improvements the business wants to achieve. Ensure BD activity contributes to those goals.

2. Review existing performance

Understand what is currently working, where opportunities are being lost and how sales performance compares with relevant benchmarks.

3. Map the sales funnel

Identify the stages prospects move through, the customers currently in each stage and the activity needed to progress opportunities.

4. Select the right sales channels

Choose a manageable combination of inbound and outbound approaches based on the ideal customer profile.

5. Define strong execution

Establish what effective activity looks like for each channel, including the standards, skills and processes required.

6. Identify opportunities for AI and automation

Look at where technology can improve lead identification, research, monitoring, follow-up and reporting.

7. Turn the strategy into a 90-day execution plan

Build a practical plan that makes responsibilities, activities and performance measures clear.

Alongside these actions, leaders need to consider the culture supporting their BD strategy.

Even the strongest process will struggle if consultants lack the skills, motivation or accountability to follow it consistently.

The Opportunity Is in Execution

Recruitment businesses do not need to abandon the fundamentals of selling.

Building trust, understanding customers, maintaining visibility and creating meaningful relationships remain essential.

What needs to change is the structure and execution surrounding those activities.

A successful BD strategy for mixed market conditions combines relevant customer insight, clear sales processes, stronger commercial positioning and technology that supports greater productivity.

For recruitment leaders, the priority is to build that structure now, develop the capability to deliver it consistently and use the next 90 days to create a stronger pipeline for the year ahead.

Speaker: James Osborne – Co-Founder, The Recruitment Network