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Today’s topic came from something I genuinely didn’t expect to be writing about. It started with a survey we had done on the outside of our house. The more I sat with it, the more I realised there is a real lesson in here for anyone running a recruitment or search business.
So let me share what happened.
The Story That Started This
We had a survey before we moved to our new house.
The surveyor walked around, did the job properly, and returned with a list of items that needed attention; nothing to say it would be crazy to move there,
though several things that had been neglected by the last owner that at some point in the not to distance futured needed sorting.
The steps need replacing. The patio either needed to be repaired or ripped out and started again from scratch.
We parked several things until ‘later’.
Here is the thing that really stuck with me.
Looking at it day to day, I honestly hadn’t noticed how bad some of it had got.
I walk past it every single day. I had looked at those steps hundreds of times. The patio was just the patio to me. Nothing jumped out as needing to be done over the winter.
It took someone qualified, with an outside perspective, to walk around and say, ” This needs addressing, and here are your options.
Once they pointed it out, I could see it. Of course, I could see it.
But I could not see it on my own.
Why This Matters for Your Recruitment Business
This is exactly what happens with marketing in a recruitment or search business.
You live with your website. You live with your LinkedIn profile. You live with your BD process. You live with your CRM.
And because you see it every day, you stop seeing it.
Nothing looks broken from where you are standing. Everything looks fine. It is working well enough. You are still making placements. The business is still ticking along.
Then someone from the outside takes a proper look, and suddenly it is obvious.
Sharon and I have this conversation regularly. We have discovery calls with recruitment business owners, and within about 20 minutes, we can spot three or four things they have been walking past for two years.
Not because they are not good at what they do. They are brilliant at recruiting. That is the whole point.
It is because you cannot see your own work clearly. None of us can.
Four Areas Where Outside Eyes Make a Difference
Let me share four specific areas where I see this play out again and again with the business owners we work with.
1.Your Website
When did you last look at your website the way a potential client would?
Not as the owner. Not as the person who signed off on the copy three years ago. But as a hiring manager who has landed there for the first time and is trying to work out if you are the right recruiter for them.
Does it tell them what you do, who you do it for, and why they should pick you over the other recruiter they are also looking at?
Most websites don’t. Most websites are online brochures that list services and feature a photo of the team. They do not communicate value, and they do not convert.
That is a repair job. Sometimes it is a rip-out-and-start-again. Either way, you will not know unless someone outside tells you the truth.
2.Your LinkedIn Profile
As a recruiter, you have one of the most-visited profiles of any business owner, because you are reaching out to new people constantly. Candidates, clients, past connections. They all check your profile before they decide whether to engage with you.
And yet most recruitment business owner profiles have not been meaningfully updated in years.
The headline. The banner. The about section. The featured content.
All of it is either preselling you or quietly costing you.
If you haven’t looked at your own profile with fresh eyes recently, you should. And you should get someone outside your business to look at it, too.
3. Your BD Process
What are you doing right now to reach new clients and candidates?
Is it working? How do you know?
This is the area where I see the most “we have always done it this way” thinking. The outreach hasn’t changed in five years. The follow-up looks the same as it did before the market got this competitive. The messaging is the same as everyone else’s.
Your BD process needs an honest review, and you cannot do that review yourself because you built it.
4. Your CRM and Lapsed Contacts
This is the one I always come back to, because it is the easiest win and the most ignored.
How many clients have you not spoken to in 18 months?
How many candidates have gone quiet?
How much of your CRM is sitting there, full of people who already know you, already trust you, and are completely out of contact with you right now?
There is gold at your feet. Outside eyes will tell you that. You will dismiss it because you assume the contact has gone cold, but in most cases, the contact needs a reason to come back to you.
Rip Out or Repair?
Here is the part I want you to really take away.
The surveyor did not tell me to rip everything out.
Some of the work needed was a repair job. Some of it was fine and didn’t need touching. And some of it genuinely needed to come out and be redone properly.
Marketing is the same.
When we work with business owners in Superfast Circle, we are not telling them that everything they have built is wrong. We are helping them see clearly which parts are sound, which need repair, and which are quietly holding them back.
You don’t need to burn it all down and start again. You do need someone outside your business to tell you honestly what is what.
Because you can’t see it from where you are standing, I couldn’t see the state of my own patio until someone pointed it out. You can’t see your own marketing clearly either.
It is not a criticism. It is how human beings work.
The Question to Sit With
Here is the question I want to leave you with.
What is one thing in your marketing you have been walking past for months, quietly hoping it is still working?
Your website? Your LinkedIn profile? Your BD process? Your lapsed database?
That is the thing to get a second opinion on.
A second opinion is genuinely the most valuable thing you can invest in right now, because it is the thing that turns assumptions into action.
Thanks
Denise
How We Can Help You with This
Knowing what needs a tidy up is one thing. Knowing exactly which parts to rip out, repair, or leave alone is another.
If you would like Sharon and me to take a proper, honest look at your marketing and tell you what we see, that is what we do every day inside Superfast Circle.
Our members get a clear view of what is working, what needs fixing, and what is quietly costing them placements. They also get done-for-you content, monthly coaching calls, and a system that makes consistent marketing straightforward rather than overwhelming.
If you have been thinking about getting a second opinion on your marketing this year, book a call and let us show you how it works:
www.superfastrecruitment.co.uk/call
