From recruiter to advisor: structuring services clients will pay for

There is a persistent mismatch between the value recruitment businesses could create and the transactional services they actually sell.

They offer contingency placements while their clients want strategic talent advisory. They position themselves as order-takers responding to job specs while their most valuable clients need partners who shape talent strategy.

That mismatch is financially devastating. Contingency fees face constant downward pressure as clients commoditise recruitment and expect more work for lower percentages. Meanwhile, the challenges that actually keep executives awake at night like succession planning, skills gaps, market intelligence, talent pipeline development, all go unaddressed because nobody has structured a service offering around them.