Every recruiter everywhere is doing everything they can to keep their current clients and add new ones. Should that include making client visits? If so, how many visits should recruiters make?
To be sure, there are many factors involved. Below are a few:
- The industry and niche in which the recruiter works
- The business model of the recruiting firm
- The proximity of the recruiter’s clients
This is a rather deep subject. To gauge recruiters’ general practices regarding client visits, we conducted a poll. (Of COURSE we conducted a poll. We love polls.)
We polled recruiters from all across the country by posing the question below:
How often do you go on client visits?
Results:
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters that selected each one:
- One or two visits per year — 33.7%
- Three or four visits per year — 16.8%
- Five or six visits per year — 5.9%
- More than six visits per year — 14.9%
- I don’t make client visits — 28.7%
Summary:
As you can see, nearly three-fourths of the recruiters who participated in the poll go on client visits. Of that number, 33.7% go on one or two visits per year, the most popular frequency. Nearly 17% go on three or four visits annually.
Here’s what’s interesting, though. While only 5.9% of recruiters go on five or six client visits, nearly 15% go on more than six visits per year. It seems as though there’s a rather sizable contingent of recruiters who have made client visits a regular part of their process.
That being said, 28.7% of recruiters indicated that they don’t make any client visits at all.
Analysis and Conclusion:
The results of this poll underscore the importance of relationships in the recruiting profession. In this case, those relationships are with hiring managers and company officials. Sure, the number and frequency of the visits may vary across industries, but that does not diminish their importance.
Client visits also allow recruiters to stay “in tune” with their clients’ needs. This is especially helpful when those recruiters are sourcing candidates and deciding which ones to present. Visiting client facilities and/or offices enables them to source and present the best fits possible.
When recruiters present better fits, they make more placements, and they get more job orders. All of those are great reasons to visit clients regularly.