Introduction
I really appreciate your time today, before we jump in I thought it would be a good start to understand what you knew about ion Search, then I could find out all about you and chat you through why I approached you in the first place.
Do you know much about Ion Search?
A very quick intro…
Ion Search – We’re a recruitment talent business, NOT a rec2rec. The difference? Reach & methodology.
Our business has two sides:
The Search Side – We longlist, shortlist, and place candidates, much like you probably do every day. Over 90% of what we do is retained. 
Talent Management – The more exciting part for you! This is closer to a talent agency than a recruitment agency. We designed it to be as close to a sports agency as possible. It’s all about long-term relationships and real career management.
Within our retained searches, we often find rockstars who aren’t actively looking but could be open in the future. Instead of a burn & move on approach, we stay in touch, catching up every 6-12 weeks to keep relationships strong until the right opportunity comes along—whether that’s right away or later down the line.
This high-touch, high-value approach means that almost every candidate we present gets placed! It even led us to the #1 global ranking for placing more experienced recruitment talent last year than anyone else.
But enough about us! I’d love to hear about you. Tell me everything—I want to hear your story!
How are things going at (your current company)?
Brief Candidate Assessment
📊 And what do the numbers look like? is this generated from your own business development?
💼 What’s your current package, and what do your billings look like?
Confirm DESK: Market / Contract / Perm / Dual Desk
✅ ACTIVE: Qualify Current Situation & Ideal Role
How is your search going?
What businesses are you already talking to? Via R2R or direct?
What stage are you at with each opportunity?
What are your initial thoughts about these opportunities?
STOP! DO YOU WANT TO WORK WITH THIS CANDIDATE?
❌ NO ❌
REMEMBER YOUR OTHER CALL OBJECTIVES – What market intel can you find out before ending the call politely?
Declining the candidate script
- Too many other opportunities and we don’t think we can add value:
“we only work with candidates exclusively so won’t be able to help at this pointbut I really appreciate your time OR we can help once you have more experience/got your billings up..”
- If the billing is too low
“We only work with candidate that bill 5 or more time their base salary so at this stage we wouldn’t be able to represent you, with this being said, I’d be more than happy to offer any advice or guidance you need”
- If not enough business development
“At the moment our clients are only looking to hire candidates with a greater amount of new business development and therefore we may not add the value to your process that we would wish to, with this being said, I’d be more than happy to offer any advice or guidance you need”
💬 REFERRALS 💬: Who else do you know who might be interested in speaking to me?
✅ YES – IDEAL ROLE ✅
What are you looking for?
❤️ Have to have’s? Nice to have’s?
🤔 Open to cross training into other sectors?
✨ What drew you to your current company?
👀 What other companies do you like the look of?
🚫 Which companies wouldn’t you want to work for and why?
🔍 Why are you looking to leave your current company?
🗣️ Have you spoken to your current business about your frustrations?
PASSIVE: Qualify How Passive
How come we are having this conversation today?
Have you ever interviewed outside your current company before? What happened?
How did you find your current role?
What drew you to them? How are they delivering on that?
If you could create the perfect career path where you are, what would it look like? How achievable is that?
If you were tempted to leave, what would the opportunity need to look like?
What would be the top three have to have’s?
So playing devil’s advocate if I get you X, Y, Z (sell back what they said they wanted), would you interview?
✅ Would interview –
OK let’s move onto your billings and discuss where you sit in the market and I can run you through the role in more detail and any others that I think fit…
❌ Would not interview –
OK well I still want to discuss your billings, where you sit in the market and then when the time is right I know how to add the most value to you and can help you meet your career aspirations…
Billing History 💰
📊 Can you talk through your billing history over the past three years?
💼 What is your billing split between business development and delivery?
📈 How do you rank on the billings board, and what does the top biller achieve?
⚠️ If revenue decreased – what factors contributed to the billings decreasing?
🔹 Permanent Recruitment Metrics
💰 What is your biggest billing month to date?
🤝 How many deals do you typically close in a month?
📏 If 360 – what is your average fee, and what percentage terms do you sign?
🔄 Deal Splits – how do they work?
🔹 Contract Recruitment Metrics
📑 How many contract runners do you have currently?
💵 What is your average weekly gross profit (WGP)?
📆 How many deals per month do you typically do?
🏆 What is the highest number of contract runners you have ever had? Highest ever WGP?
🔹 If 360 – BD & New Clients
🎯 How do you approach winning new business?
📊 How many new clients have you brought on this year/last 6 months?
📂 If contract – how many multi runner accounts?
Salary and Package 💰
💵 What is your current base salary? And current OTE?
📆 What did you earn last year?
💰 How does your commission/bonus work? (US only – Draw?) Threshold? Capped?
📊 What would the base and OTE need to be for you to move?
💸 Do you have commission owed and when will it be paid?
🎁 What other benefits do you have that are important to you?
🏢 How many days are you working from the office?
🏠 If remote/hybrid – What is the maximum number of days you will work from an office?
Personal Info 🧑💼
🎯 Why did you originally pursue a career in recruitment?
🔮 Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 3-5 years?
👨👩👧👦 Is anyone else impacted by your decision to move jobs?
📍 Where are you currently based, and how far are you willing to commute?
✈️ Would you consider relocating for a role? Where?
🏢 What type of company culture do you thrive in?
🎉 Are you social – want to have the work socials etc or not bothered by this?
👨🏫 What management style do you prefer or dislike?
Now either present the opportunities or end the call:
💼 Present the Opportunities
Use 3-5 points that relate to what they said they wanted…
Company – “What have you heard about them?”
Sectors, offices, recent growth, why it’s exciting
Top Billers/Earnings
Salary & Bens, WFH/Flex
Manager – Their style/ethos & what they are famous for
Other features which link to candidate’s needs – stability, L&D, culture, incentives etc.
…How does this opportunity sound?
Get commitment to represent and book intro call/interview with the client.
End the Call
Advise:
For me to help you in the future I advise you to…..
(e.g focus more on winning your own business and being able to demonstrate you have won and expanded at least 5 clients, get your billings up to, recruit and develop at least one person….)
Keep in touch:
I have really enjoyed the conversation and know when the time is right I will be able to help you. I will connect on LI and put it in the diary to call in 6-8 weeks.
REFERRALS: Who else do you know who might be interested in speaking to me?
Exclusivity
(If not dealing with any R2R’s or only dealing with 1) Tell them to work with just you….
“As you can understand we only work exclusively with our candidates, for a number of reasons, with confidentiality and consideration being at the heart of it. With ion you can leverage our market position to your advantage to be introduced to founders and CEO’s you wouldn’t normally have access to and the biggest client pool in the industry. Also, we want to give you the time and focus that is required, not just try to close you. We want to act like agents not sales people.
That said, we understand the importance of results—if we haven’t delivered within 48 hours, we encourage you to explore other options.
How does that sound?”
Rules of Engagement
To make this partnership work best, we both have to play our parts. We both have to:
Flexible Diaries…
Always Available for Calls….
Fully Prepare for Interviews…. Open and Honest…
Keep me updated if anything changes
How does this work for you?
Close
Availability – So let’s now confirm when you are free – Days / Times / WFH days / Video / F2F?
Confirm next steps who will do what, by when and get your next conversation booked in!
REFERRALS – “Before you go – who else do you know who would benefit from a conversation with me? (Get their name and mobile address or email)
Confirm all action points in an email…
Objections
I’m going to struggle to meet that base. I’m not going to say it is impossible but I would say it is highly unlikely based on where the market is at right now. To give you an idea we are seeing offers for people who bill between 5-7 times their base, companies just aren’t looking at anything less. Based on {recent example placements} I would think you are looking around the £ to £ mark.
It is my interest to negotiate as much as I can for you, and that is best done once you have proved your value at interview. However, we don’t want to waste time being too unrealistic early doors – what is the minimum you would need?
If still no flex or being unrealistic:
It is also important to consider how your career will be improved by moving and look at the overall OTE. You mentioned you aren’t getting any training & development/progression opps/support/learning from big billers – we need to weigh up how staying where you are with those elements holding you back will affect your overall career trajectory. On the flip side if you had those elements now you would be able to kick on much quicker and would be earning 2-3 times what you are now. So take a couple of grand less now to go 40-50K more long term. Thoughts?
Sure, I will send you an overview of what we just discussed along with links to the client’s profiles. What else would you like to know?
Give them the info above and reclose:
Now you have that are you happy that I book in a time for an informal chat?
If still not sure: What else do you need to know from me before committing to speak to them?
I’m just wondering if I have missed something that would help you make that decision or
perhaps you have some doubts over the fit for you?
Resell why it is a good opportunity based on what they said they wanted.
If they still want to think about it…
OK no problem, can you come back to me by 10 tomorrow as I’m presenting the short list to the client at 11.00 and I’d really love to include your profile…..
I’m really surprised to hear you say that. Tell me more about that – what have you heard exactly?
Who have you heard it from?
Correct anything that is just plain wrong!
Still no…
Companies go through transitional phases, in the 1970’s Ferraris were seen as old-fashioned and ugly! People are bound to talk about them, especially as recruitment is so incestuous and people put down others to make themselves look good.
Poor retention – You can’t look at poor retention as an issue. It just means that companies are striving for results and want to be the best and won’t stand by mediocre consultants just putting in shift.
Poor management – Challenge it with positive examples of good mgmt., how they have changed or talk about successful consultants the managers have grown. They must be doing something right!
Culture/Heavy KPI/Micro – Yes they do strive for high performance results and want people to be the best they can be so that they get the most out of the job. They use KPIs as a development tool. To help people earn more, they need to know the what and the how and using their personal KPIs & Ratio’s gives them their own personalised roadmap.
Something true but happened a while ago – give an example of how they have changed something.
Use examples – If we have placed people there – tell them and give feed real life back as to how happy they are….
Still not sure?
Can you trust me on this? I genuinely think they are a good opportunity for because {they can offer you these pull factors} and the only way in which you will find out the truth is by meeting them and understanding exactly what they do.
If I’m wrong afterwards, you can happily tell me so. When is good for you speak to them?
OK thank you for being honest about what you think, we need to be like this with each other to form a successful partnership.
Tell me, what is it exactly you don’t like? What else? (get all reasons out)
I’m slightly confused as I thought it was a good match because it meets your needs in terms of what you wanted…. – list all pull factors and re-sell the opp.
What is it missing? What have I got wrong here?
In most cases you have mis-sold the opportunity but if they still aren’t interested – walk away nicely:
Maybe this isn’t for you which is a shame as I think once you speak to them you will feel differently. I want to build a long-term relationship with you so let’s agree to leave this one and if I have something in the future which you think is a better fit we can pick things up again. It is important you feel comfortable with everything so I think that’s the best course of action, do you?
+Really pleased you want to find out more, tell me what are you going to look into because I can save you some time by pointing you in the right direction?
What else do you need to know from me before committing to speak to them?
I appreciate you want to think about things which is fine of course, I’m just wondering if I have missed something that would help you make that decision?
Maybe you have some doubts over the fit for you?
Re-state what they said they wanted and how this opp fits by listing all pull factors.
Are you happy to pencil a chat in now with them?
If still wants to think…
OK no problem, can you come back to me by 10 tomorrow as I’m presenting the short list to the client at 11.00 and I’d really love to include your profile…..
(Usually down to wanting to keep options open – you haven’t sold your service well enough)
+Ion is an award winning and market leading talent agency and one of my USP’s is that I only work with exclusive candidates and have a successful track record because of this.
You won’t be missing out because we are working with the organisations that present the best opportunities right now and as a result, we commit to getting you in-front of at least 5 suitable clients within the next 7 days.
You won’t miss out because unlike R2R’s we have direct contact with CEO’s and not internal recruiters, so you are going to gain a much better insight into each firm as well as having more control over the dialogue.
I don’t need to sell exclusivity to you, you know it is the better solution. You know it’s the only way to create a true a partnership giving you full control over who sees your profile, saving you loads of time throughout the process. I do however have to show you I am the consultant who you can trust to deliver not just offers, but the best offers possible.
How about you give me 48 hours and if I haven’t proved myself by then, by all means speak to others, but I have never had anyone want to yet….
OK to proceed on that basis?
You probably know most companies have done a big U-Turn on this. If you look at the highest performing companies such as X and Y, who have the biggest billers, they have the least amount of flex.
Why is it so important to you?Do you have any flexibility?
What is the absolute minimum office days you would consider if the role had everything else you were looking for and more?
We have some roles now for some really good industry leaders, and they are looking at {1 WFH home day}. These opps will give you {add in all pull factors relevant to candidate} which you aren’t getting at the moment.
To get those things you might need to flex further on days at home. Once you have started and proven yourself you may find there is further flexibility but I think it is important to manage your own expectations around that. It a case of weighing up the gains you will make career wise by being in a bit more versus losing a little of the flex you have .Thoughts?