We think of recruitment business development as almost it’s own standalone concept – not as something that you do naturally in every part of your day.

So when recruiters need more business, we tend to immediately look for more people outside of what we have.

More prospects.

More hiring managers.

More companies.

More cold calls.

More names added to some enormous BD list that we’ll attack with enthusiasm.

But after nearly 20 years recruiting in the same market, I reckon there’s another question worth asking first:

Who do you already know?

And I don’t mean just your current clients.

I’m talking about:

• Every candidate you’ve helped (not just placed).
• Every hiring manager you’ve worked with.
• Every old client who’s since moved companies.
• Every candidate who’s since become a manager.
• Every person you’ve had a good conversation with but never actually did business with.

There can be a sh*tload of potential just sitting there.

And most recruiters are probably doing nowhere near enough with it.

We tend to be obsessed with NEW business

I understand why. I get it.

New logo.

New client.

New job.

Feels like BD.

Calling someone you’ve known for six years?

Doesn’t really feel like prospecting. Feels like a chat with an old friend.

But I’d argue that’s exactly why it can be so valuable.

There’s already context.

They know who you are.

Hopefully they know you’re good at what you do.

You might know their career, their market, their team or the problems they typically have hiring.

You’re not starting from zero.

There’s broader business research behind this too. Research published in Harvard Business Review in 2024 found referred customers didn’t just behave differently themselves – they went on to generate 30-57% more referrals than non-referred customers.

More recent HBR research analysing more than 10 million consumers also describes referrals as a significantly underused source of growth.

Obviously that’s not recruitment-specific research.

But the underlying behaviour makes sense to me.

Trust travels.

If somebody trusts you enough to put your name in front of somebody else, that’s a very different starting position to:

“Hi Steve, Brett here from ALRA. We’ve never spoken before, but…”

And don’t get me wrong, cold BD absolutely has its place. I have some fantastic clients (new and old) that came from an originally, completely cold outreach.

But I’d be checking the warm doors as well.

Start with the people you’ve already helped

Here’s where I’d start.

Go through your CRM.

Not looking for jobs.

Looking for people.

Who have you placed in the last five years?

Where are they now?

Who’s been promoted?

Who’s moved company?

Who’s now leading a team?

Who did you help through a job search even if you didn’t ultimately place them?

Who gave you a great testimonial?

Which clients did you genuinely do a good job for?

Who used to be a client but has moved somewhere else?

Who haven’t you spoken to in two years despite having had a brilliant relationship with them?

There’s your first BD list.

And the reason I like starting here is because you’re not manufacturing a reason to contact them.

You have one.

You know them. They know you.

Candidates don’t stay candidates forever

This is something recruiters should probably think about far more.

The candidate you’re speaking to today might be your client in five years.

I’ve been recruiting Environmental Consulting for nearly 20 years.

Think about what happens to people over that period.

• Graduate becomes Consultant.
• Consultant becomes Senior.
• Senior becomes Principal.
• Principal becomes Manager.
• Manager becomes Director.

People change businesses.

They build teams.

They start companies.

They become responsible for hiring.

And recruitment relationships can travel through all of that.

That’s why I’ve never particularly understood recruiters who treat candidates as though they’re somehow below clients in the pecking order.

They’re both people in your market.

And their position will change.

Your reputation follows you.

There’s also some interesting large-scale research on professional networks here. A study published in Science used experiments involving around 20 million LinkedIn users, 2 billion new connections and 600,000 new jobs. It found that moderately weak professional ties – people we know, but aren’t necessarily particularly close to – can be especially useful in creating new employment opportunities.

Again, that’s research into job mobility rather than recruitment BD specifically.

But I think the lesson translates.

The people sitting slightly outside your immediate circle can connect you to parts of the market you’re not currently reaching.

Which is why maintaining relationships matters.

Your network is bigger than your current client list

I think recruiters sometimes define their network far too narrowly.

You’ve got:

Current clients.

Obviously.

But then you’ve also got former clients.

• Placed candidates.
• Candidates you’ve represented and didn’t place.
• Candidates you interviewed five years ago.
• Hiring managers who’ve moved businesses.
• People you’ve met at events.
• Old colleagues.
• People who regularly engage with your LinkedIn content.
• People who’ve referred someone to you.
• People you’ve referred somewhere else.
• People you’ve helped with absolutely no commercial outcome whatsoever.

Those relationships don’t suddenly disappear because there isn’t currently a job attached to them.

And I think this is where good niche recruiters have a huge advantage.

You’re not trying to know everybody.

You’re trying to know your market.

But don’t suddenly become that annoying prick

Important caveat.

Your network isn’t an ATM.

You can’t ignore someone for four years and then pop up with:

“Hey mate! Hope you’re well! Random question… can you introduce me to the CEO?”

People can smell it and it smells kinda feral.

The reason warm BD works is because there’s a relationship there.

That means occasionally speaking to people when you don’t need anything.

Congratulating someone when they get promoted.

Checking how the new job is going.

Sending something useful.

Making an introduction for them.

Helping their mate who’s looking for work.

Answering a salary question.

Being useful. Being kind. Being friendly.

Have you actually built a relationship worth referring?

Because if you’ve done a sh*t job for someone, asking them to recommend you isn’t going to magically fix that.

Not all that long ago I found myself in an unexpected but perfect example of this.

I worked with a candidate about 5 years ago. Got him 4x interviews at great companies for a Principal level role (so a sizeable fee). He took the 1x role that he had applied to under his own steam.

I could have ended it badly, instead I genuinely wished him well.

Checked in with him a couple of times to see how he was going, talk smack about footy and about the market.

About 6 months ago he was promoted to a Director level role.

He called me with $180k of retained work.

Relationship building, referrals, all of it is a long-game. Build a relationship where you’re the first person they think of.

Ask for the introduction

Recruiters are pretty good at asking candidates:

“Do you know anyone else who might be looking?”

But how often do we ask:

“Do you know anyone who might need someone like me?”

There’s a difference between aggressively fishing through someone’s contacts and simply making it clear that introductions are welcome.

If you’ve just filled three roles for a client and they’re genuinely happy with you, that’s probably not a ridiculous time to ask whether anyone else in their network is struggling with similar hiring.

If somebody you’ve worked with moves to another business, stay in touch.

If one of your candidates becomes responsible for hiring, congratulations – the relationship has just changed.

And when somebody offers to introduce you?

Take the introduction.

This sounds embarrassingly obvious.

But plenty of recruiters spend hours finding cold prospects while completely ignoring people who’d happily open a door for them.

Don’t mistake warm BD for lazy BD

This is important.

I’m not saying:

Stop cold calling and wait for referrals.

No chance.

You still need to create new relationships.

Your network will eventually become very small if all you ever do is circle the same people.

Cold outreach expands the network.

Warm relationships deepen it.

You need both.

In fact, Gartner’s 2025 B2B buyer research found 73% of buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.

That’s the bit I’d pay attention to.

Not don’t approach people.

Don’t approach people with sh*t that has absolutely nothing to do with them.

The colder the relationship, the more important relevance becomes.

• Why this company?
• Why this person?
• Why now?
• What do you know that might actually be useful?
• What candidate do you represent?
• What’s happening in their market?

Give the conversation a reason to exist.

Your candidates are one of your biggest sources of market intelligence

This is another thing I think gets underestimated.

If you’re properly specialised, candidates tell you what’s happening in your market every bloody day.

Who’s hiring.

Who’s losing people.

Who’s just restructured.

What salaries are moving.

Which projects have been won.

Who’s unhappy.

Which businesses are building teams.

Which skills are suddenly impossible to find.

What’s happening with bonuses.

Why people are leaving.

You shouldn’t be treating candidates like little CV vending machines.

Listen to them.

10 proper candidate conversations can tell you more about what’s happening in your niche than an afternoon scrolling LinkedIn.

And that information makes your client conversations better.

Not because you’re gossiping about confidential sh*t (please don’t do this).

Because you understand the market.

And market knowledge is super bloody valuable.

Great candidates can create great BD conversations

I’ve talked about this before because I much prefer calling a client with something concrete.

A genuinely good candidate gives you that.

You’re no longer calling to say:

“Hello. Would you perhaps like some recruitment?”

You’ve got something to discuss.

Someone with a particular skill set.

Someone from their market.

Someone who’s done the type of work their team does.

Someone you genuinely think they should know.

They might say no.

No worries.

But now you’ve started a conversation around something real.

And this is where specialisation starts compounding.

The better you know your candidates, the better you understand your market.

The better you understand your market, the better your BD conversations become.

Better conversations create more relationships.

More relationships create more market information.

And around you go.

Stop judging BD by whether you got a job

This one does recruiters’ heads in.

You make the call.

Good conversation.

Learn something useful.

Build a little rapport.

They tell you they’re probably hiring in three months.

No job today.

Recruiter walks away thinking:

Didn’t get anything from that.

Yes you did!

You moved the relationship forward.

Not every BD call needs to end with:

“SEND TERMS IMMEDIATELY.”

Sometimes the win is information.

Sometimes it’s permission to call again.

Sometimes it’s finding out what they actually hire.

Sometimes it’s learning they never use agencies.

That’s useful too.

You can stop wasting your time.

The commercial outcome might come on conversation three, six or ten.

Or never.

That’s BD.

Play the long game with people – always.

This is probably the bit I care about most.

A dedicated recruitment career can be bloody long.

Nearly 20 years into mine, I still work in the same broad market I started in.

So squeezing every possible dollar out of every interaction has never made much sense to me.

People remember how you treated them – both the good and the bad.

Candidates remember whether you actually listened.

Clients remember whether you sent them good people or just CV-bombed them.

People remember whether you disappeared once there was nothing in it for you.

They remember whether you were straight with them.

And your reputation compounds.

That’s much harder to measure than today’s call numbers.

But over a long career, I’d argue it’s considerably more valuable.

Do a network audit before your next giant BD list

So here’s the practical bit.

Before building another list of 300 companies you’ve never spoken to, spend an hour inside your own network.

Look for:

• Former candidates who’ve moved or been promoted.
• Placements who are now hiring.
• Previous clients who’ve changed companies.
• Happy clients who may know other hiring managers.
• Dormant relationships worth restarting.
• People who’ve previously referred others to you.
• Good candidates who could create relevant client conversations.
• People you haven’t spoken to for absolutely no good reason.

Then pick up the phone.

Not with some ridiculous 14-step networking sequence.

Have a conversation.

See how they’re going.

Find out what’s changed.

Be useful where you can.

And where it makes sense, ask for the introduction.

Because your next client might be someone you’ve never met.

But there’s a pretty decent chance someone you already know knows them.

I love some low hanging fruit – so that’s a bloody good place to start.