QUESTION: Mike, you have talked about, especially in a softer economic environment, increasing your activity to 10 to 15 conversations per day. I am finding it harder and harder to get in touch with people on the phone, and that it’s an unrealistic target. What are your thoughts?
Why 10–15 Conversations Is Achievable in Recruiting
That is a very common response, and I do not have all of your information in front of me. But here is what I know. It is realistic, and I will defend why. One, we run a Power Hour with our clients at least once a month. During that Power Hour, our clients arrive with a prepared list of calls to make. They are not doing research. They are not looking at LinkedIn profiles. They’re not looking at extensions on Google to pull up cell phone numbers. They have got a list. Most of our clients understand that the best use of their time is to outsource research.
Suppose you are conducting your own research, meaning you spend hours a day reviewing LinkedIn profiles, entering search strings on your computer to find phone numbers and email addresses. In that case, you are engaging in an activity that costs between $9 and $20. You are doing what California pays people to do – no offense to those fast food workers – but you are doing a fast food worker wage activity when you are a consultant. When people say, “That’s a number I cannot reach,” I generally find that those are the individuals who are conducting their own research, which takes hours out of their day.
Power Hour Data: Real Recruiting Call Metrics Since 2021
Back to where we had data. We have been running this since 2021, when we initiated a Power Hour once a month. The average duration varies slightly from call to call. Still, the average attendee spends approximately 45 minutes, as our Power Hour includes a five-minute warm-up, a pep talk, 45 minutes of calls, a 10-minute wind-down, and a review of the statistics. In that 45 minutes, on average, our planned clients make 22.9 outbound call attempts and speak to 3.9 individuals.
It could be on marketing. It could be on recruiting. We do not care what they come with. So four conversations, for all intents and purposes, in 45 minutes. Extrapolate that to an hour, and you have five people in an hour. If you have three focused hours of outbound calls, you will talk to 15 people.
What if you could rebuild your recruiting firm — without slowing down business?
Join us, July 28th – August 1st | 12 PM ET
The Big Beautiful Recruiting Challenge
Metrics That Prove the Value of Daily Recruiting Conversations
Our metrics show, our KPIs show, that a tenured recruiter – not a brand new recruiter, but somebody with a few years of experience – everything is slightly variable, so take this with a grain of salt, but it is pretty standard when we track metrics, 10 conversations a day, combined marketing and recruiting, yield about $300,000 in billings, and that is for average seasoned recruiters. We know that some of you who really know your niches super well do not need that much activity. Greener people need a little bit more activity. But for the most part, when we look over a broad spectrum of hundreds of clients over the years, 10 conversations a day will yield you $300,000.
As long as you believe people are hard to get a hold of, you are going to continue to find evidence to make that true in your life. We have data that does not support that. Again, different clients, different calls, years of data, and each call varies by 10% or 15%. It all kind of sinks in at 22.9% (outbound calls) and 3.9% (contacts with individuals).
Tech Can Help — But Recruiting Still Depends on Conversations
Hopefully that helps. An editorial note on that, too, a lot of people are looking for the easy tech solution. What are the things I can do in sequences? There is a whole bunch of stuff that works okay, but it always comes down to the ones that use tech successfully have a way to connect it very quickly to a phone call with the recruiter and build a relationship. Whether the individual has a need now or not, you must dial in quickly and create relationships.
If you have been in the business, it is call after call, conversation after conversation, where some people finally get comfortable and hire you. Tech helps facilitate that because you can send out a thousand emails, but you then have to funnel that into conversations. You can text, but you have to funnel that into a conversation. Email has got to be funneled into a conversation.
The presentation cannot be as dull as, “I would like to see how I can help you, or we are a recruiting firm founded in 1692, and we have placed thousands of people in the widget industry, and I would like to see what your needs are.” Those do not work. Those do not work. You need to be compelling.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your recruitment business:
1. Grab a free copy of my Retainer Blueprint
It’s the exact, step-by-step process of getting clients to give you money upfront. https://get.therecruiteru.com/lm
2. Join the Recruiter Think Tank and connect with firm owners who are scaling, too. It’s our Facebook community where smart recruiters learn to make more money and get more freedom. https://www.facebook.com/groups/there…
3. Join me at our next event
Join us at The Big Beautiful Recruiting Challenge – July 28 – August 1, 2025 | 12–1:30 PM ET Daily | $18.50
4. Work with me and my team privately
And if you ever want to get some 1:1 help, we can jump on the phone for a quick call and
Recent Comments