The short answer
UK recruitment agencies win clients through referrals, named outreach to hirers, job postings, networking and search. The only hirer survey opened for this piece, run by YouGov for the REC in 2017, found clients most wanted an agency that understood their business and sent fewer speculative CVs. A route that proves that before the first call fits best, and a four-week count shows which one an agency should keep.
Key takeaways
- A 2017 YouGov survey for the REC asked 400 HR decision-makers who had used an agency what would improve working with agencies.
- 60% wanted the agency to understand their business and brand better, and 50% wanted fewer speculative CVs.
- A recruiter survey with no stated sample put the phone first for early leads. It measures opinion, not results.
- Unsolicited marketing calls to a line on the register kept under regulation 26 of the 2003 Regulations are barred, so check before calling.
- Two routes counted for four weeks tell an agency more than a list of ten. The worksheet figures here are invented.
Imagine a UK recruitment agency with eight consultants and a quiet two months behind it. The managing director asks what other agencies do to win clients and is handed a list of tactics, each written by a company that sells software to recruiters. None of the lists says what a hirer wanted in the first place. One survey does. In February 2017 YouGov asked 400 HR decision-makers who had used an agency what would improve the experience, and the two leading answers were about understanding and about speculative CVs. That is nine years old, but it gives the question something to be tested against.
What hirers told the REC they wanted from an agency
The only hirer survey opened for this piece dates from 2017, so it shows what clients asked for then and not what they ask now. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) published the results on 6 April 2017. YouGov surveyed 553 HR decision-makers between 9 and 17 February 2017, and 400 of them had used a recruitment agency to fill a vacancy. Respondents could choose more than one answer.
| Answer given | Share of the 400 |
|---|---|
| If the agency understood our business and brand better | 60% |
| If the agency sent fewer speculative CVs | 50% |
| If there was an opportunity to give feedback during the process | 27% |
| If agency and HR professional communicated more often | 25% |
| If the agency provided market intelligence and research | 23% |
The same release says 47% of the hirers had been asked by an agency for feedback and 44% had not. A route to new clients that begins by asking a hirer what went wrong last time answers a gap nearly half of them reported. The survey cannot say how many would now switch agency, so it supports a question to ask, not a forecast.
What a survey of recruiters adds, and why it cannot settle the question
A recruiter survey found exactly half of respondents preferred the phone for early leads, but it states no sample size and no date. Agency Central surveyed recruiters who had at some point launched an agency and asked which method was most effective for sourcing leads in the early days. Half chose the phone. Digital channels, meaning social media and content, together took 33%. Networking took 17% and content production alone 6%. The page carries no publication date, and its footer reads 2000 to 2022.
That is a count of what founders feel worked, not a count of clients won by each route. It answers a different question from the REC survey, which asked hirers what they wanted. A founder can prefer the phone while the hirer on the other end wants a consultant who has read about their business first, and both can be true. Neither survey ranks routes by results, and this piece does not pretend to.
Which route answers which complaint
Set each route against the complaints in the REC table and the weakness shows before any money is spent. The map below ranks nothing by results. It asks what a route has to show a hirer before it can answer the leading complaint, and what it takes from a partner.
| Route | Complaint it can answer | What the agency shows first | What it asks of a partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral from a past client or candidate | Understanding the business, because the referrer has already vouched | A named contact who will take the call | One call to the referrer and one to the hirer |
| Named outreach to a hirer in one specialism | Understanding the business and brand | One placed profile that fits their likely needs | Weekly review of the list and the replies |
| Speculative CVs sent to a hirer | None. It is the second complaint | Nothing the hirer asked for | Little time, which is the trouble |
| Job postings read as a prompt for a call | Market intelligence and research | A note on what the role is likely to cost to fill | Reading time before each contact |
| Website and search | Understanding, if the pages are written for the specialism | Pages a hirer can read before replying | A slow start and steady upkeep |
Read down the second column. Most of the routes depend on the agency knowing something specific about the hirer before it makes contact, and that is the cost the survey was pointing at. A consultant who cannot say in one sentence why this hirer needs this profile has not yet earned the call.
The rule to check before a consultant picks up the phone
Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 bars unsolicited direct marketing calls to a line on the register kept under regulation 26. It also bars them to a subscriber who has told the caller not to call. A number listed for less than 28 days does not put the caller in breach, and a subscriber can say that calls from a particular caller are fine. The regulation further requires that the caller does not block caller identity and gives a line on which they can be contacted.
Whether the register covers a particular business line, and what applies to email and LinkedIn messages, are questions for the agency's compliance contact. This piece does not answer them. What it can say is that the check belongs in the routine: list the named hirers and check each number. Then keep the date of the check beside the record of the contact.
A four-week count with a stop line
Pick two routes and count the same things on each, with the stop line set before the first contact. The sequence below fits a team that can spare a few hours a week. Nothing in it needs a supplier.
- Before week one. Choose one specialism and list the hirers by name. Check each number as above. Write the stop line down, for example no meeting from 30 contacts.
- Week one. Each consultant contacts the hirers on the list with one placed profile that fits. Record the date, the route, the role of the person contacted and the reply.
- Week two. Ask every hirer who replies one question: what would make working with an agency better? Write the answer down in their words.
- Week three. Run the second route on a separate list, such as asking past clients for introductions, and keep the same record.
- Week four. Count replies and meetings for each route and divide the hours spent by the meetings. Then apply the stop line.
Here is the arithmetic on invented figures. Route A is named outreach: 30 contacts and 6 replies, which led to 2 meetings. Route B is asking past clients for introductions: 10 requests and 4 introductions, which also led to 2 meetings. Assume each contact or request takes 15 minutes.
| Route | Contacts | Replies | Meetings | Hours per meeting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: named outreach | 30 | 6 (20%) | 2 | 3.75 |
| B: past client introductions (replies are introductions) | 10 | 4 (40%) | 2 | 1.25 |
The useful reading is the hours per meeting. Seven and a half hours of A against two and a half hours of B, divided by two meetings each, gives 3.75 and 1.25. If the stop line was no meeting from 30 contacts, Route A cleared it with two meetings where none would have stopped it. Repeat the count for a second month before moving a partner's time from one route to the other.
Where an agency helps and where it does not
A specialist agency can build the pages and the record, and it cannot make a hirer reply. It can write website pages for the specialism and set up the record of where each enquiry came from, which our article on tracking an enquiry to a signed client walks through. It can also price the site against what a recruitment agency should pay for a new website. It cannot supply the placed profile or judge which hirers are worth a call. Those stay with the consultants, and so does the conversation. What we look at for recruitment agencies is on the recruitment agencies page.
When the routes are chosen
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Wait until the agency can name its specialism and say in one sentence what it will show a hirer first. Without that sentence, every route above becomes speculative CVs with extra steps. Wait too if no partner can review the list each week, since a count nobody reads changes nothing. A UK agency whose real shortage is candidates gains more from the candidate side first, because more clients then add only vacancies it cannot fill.
Frequently asked questions
What UK recruitment agencies ask about winning clients.
How do recruitment agencies get new clients in the UK?
Through referrals from past clients, named outreach to hirers in one specialism, job postings used as a prompt for a call, networking and a website written for the specialism. No source opened for this piece measures which route wins most clients, so an agency should count replies and meetings on its own routes for four weeks.
What do hirers want from a recruitment agency?
In a YouGov survey for the REC in February 2017, 60% of the 400 HR decision-makers who had used an agency said working with agencies would improve if the agency understood their business and brand better, and 50% said fewer speculative CVs. The survey is nearly nine years old, so it shows what hirers asked for then.
Is cold calling the best way for a recruitment agency to win clients?
One recruiter survey found exactly half of respondents preferred the phone for early leads. The page gives no sample size or date and measures opinion, not results, so it cannot rank the phone above any other route. The first check on a call is regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
Can a UK recruitment agency phone any hirer?
No. Regulation 21 bars unsolicited direct marketing calls to a line on the register kept under regulation 26 and to a subscriber who has asked not to be called, with a 28 day grace for new listings. Whether the register covers a particular business line, and the rules for email and LinkedIn messages, are questions for the agency's compliance contact.
How long should a recruitment agency test a route to clients?
No source gives a standard length. Four weeks is this piece's working rule: long enough for two contacts per hirer and a record of replies, short enough to stop a route that has produced no meetings. Set the stop line before the first contact so the result cannot be argued afterwards.
Sources and useful reading
Three pages were opened and read on 6 November 2026 for this article. The REC survey is dated 2017 and the recruiter survey carries no stated sample or date. Every figure in the worksheet is invented.
- REC: excellent customer experience key to growth, for the YouGov survey of 553 HR decision-makers and the answers of the 400 who had used an agency.
- Agency Central: how recruitment agencies find new clients, for the recruiter survey on the most effective method of sourcing early leads.
- legislation.gov.uk: Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, regulation 21, for the rules on unsolicited direct marketing calls.
This article is commercial decision support and is not legal advice. The REC survey was published in 2017 and may not describe hirers today. The four-week count and its figures are invented to show the method and describe no real agency. Check the regulation and take advice from the agency's compliance contact before relying on any rule.