In recruiting, business development isn’t just important—it’s essential. You can be the best recruiter in the world at finding candidates, but if you’re not actively creating opportunities, your pipeline will dry up. That’s why Top Echelon Network offers members powerful tools to generate leads, impress clients, and close more placements.
According to Top Echelon Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS, recruiters can use the TE Network to drive business development and client success. “If you’ve been in recruiting for more than ten minutes,” he said, “you understand how important it is to make business development part of your everyday.”
Whether you’re new to TE or a long-time member looking to maximize your ROI, these five steps will help you turn TE’s data and tools into revenue.
Step 1: Leverage the Network Candidate Database to Impress Clients
Every recruiter knows that first impressions with clients matter. When a prospect asks, “What can you do for me?”, you need more than a vague promise—you need hard data.
The Network Candidate Database is your secret weapon. As a TE Network member, you have access to millions of candidates other members have opted in to share. These aren’t just names in a directory; they’re active, real candidates from your partners’ databases.
Drea explained it this way:
“Basically, we’re looking at everyone’s sock drawer when we do this… and you’re not paying anything extra for it. It’s part of being a member.”
Imagine you’ve got a prospect in the PLC, controls, and automation engineering space. You run a search in the Network Candidate Database and see 1.1 million candidates that match the general criteria. Then you refine it—filtering for those active in the last six months—and the number narrows to 62,000 fresh candidates.
Those numbers are powerful in a conversation:
“Mr. Client, I have access to over sixty thousand candidates in your niche who’ve shown interest in making a move in the last six months.”
That’s not just a sales pitch—it’s proof you can deliver.
Pro Tip: Drill down further by using date ranges and keyword filters to remove outdated profiles and target exactly what the client needs.
Step 2: Expand the Conversation Beyond One Department
Sometimes, clients think of you as a recruiter for just one niche—maybe engineering, or accounting, or IT. But the Network Candidate Database allows you to broaden that scope and win more of their business.
Let’s say your client needs PLC engineers. You ask: “When this department grows, what other areas will see increased hiring?” They might mention quality control, HR, or accounting.
That’s your cue to run additional searches in those disciplines—whether or not they’re your specialty.
Drea emphasized the importance of this approach:
“That’s where you rely on your partners in the network. They have candidates, they’ve shared them so you can utilize them. You don’t have to be the expert in every niche—you just have to know who is.”
This strategy lets you pitch yourself as a single point of contact:
“Wouldn’t you rather just work with one recruiter—me—who can cover all your needs through my network, instead of juggling 20 or 30?”
Not only does this make life easier for the client, it positions you as a strategic hiring partner rather than just a vendor.
Step 3: Use Alerts to Stay Ahead of the Market
Searching manually is powerful, but you don’t have to keep doing it from scratch. The alert function in TE lets you monitor new candidates being added to the network in your chosen niche.
Here’s how it works:
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Run a search in the Network Candidate Database (for example, “Quality Assurance Engineer” in the last 6 months).
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Click “Set up alert” on the right-hand side.
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Save it.
From that point forward, TE will run that search every night at 4:00 AM Eastern and notify you of new matches.
Drea explained:
“If you always want to know who’s sharing quality assurance people, this will tell you when they’re being added to the database.”
When you see new candidates come in, you can immediately reach out to them—or to the recruiter who owns them—to line up talent before your competitors even know they exist.
This proactive approach means you’ll always have fresh data ready when a client calls with a need.
Step 4: Maximize the TEN Jobs Feed to Market More Openings
Clients aren’t the only people you need to impress—you also need to keep your candidate base engaged. That’s where the TEN Jobs Feed comes in.
The TEN Jobs Feed is a live stream of positions posted by other TE Network members. If you subscribe to this feature, those jobs appear directly on your website. Currently, 85% of jobs in the network are posted to the TEN Feed—giving you a massive expansion of the opportunities you can market to your candidates.
Here’s the workflow Drea recommends:
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Run a job search in TE Recruit for your niche (e.g., PLC automation engineers).
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Filter by “TEN Feed” to see only those jobs that appear on your site.
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Copy the quick link to those search results.
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Email that link to relevant candidates in your database.
For example, you might have 1,962 candidates in your database in the engineering niche. By sending them a link to 78 fresh jobs in their field, you’re staying top of mind and driving them to your website—where they can apply directly.
And here’s the kicker: when they apply, the recruiter who posted the job sees that the application came from your site. That’s how split placements happen.
Drea noted:
“Millions of dollars have been made in splits with that mechanism. You just have to be diligent and use it.”
Step 5: Create a Repeatable Marketing System
The real magic happens when you systematize all of this.
Don’t just send one blast email and call it a day. Instead:
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Create templates in TE Recruit for each candidate niche you serve.
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Save your searches for both candidates and jobs so you can run them instantly.
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Decide on a marketing frequency—maybe monthly or quarterly—for each niche.
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Stick to it.
Because the searches are live, the links will always pull up current results, even if you use the same template for years.
As Drea put it:
“It takes two minutes to run the search, pull up the list, and send the template. You’ve just marketed to hundreds or thousands of people in under two minutes.”
This regular cadence of outreach keeps candidates engaged, clients impressed, and your network partners busy sending you split opportunities.
Bonus: Embrace the Four Pillars of TE Network
While tools are powerful, the foundation of TE Network is partnership. Drea reminded attendees of the four pillars that make the network work:
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Trust – Be reliable and honor your commitments.
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Communication – Keep your partners informed and responsive.
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Active Participation – Engage regularly with the network’s tools and community.
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Quality – Share strong candidates and well-qualified job orders.
“Try to implement these in everything you do,” Drea advised. “They’re the difference between being in the network and truly leveraging it.”
Final Thoughts
Top Echelon Network isn’t just a database—it’s an ecosystem of recruiters, candidates, and jobs. By learning to use its tools strategically, you can impress clients with your reach, expand into new departments, proactively track market changes, and keep your candidates engaged.
To recap, the five steps are:
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Leverage the Network Candidate Database to win client trust with data.
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Expand the conversation to cover more departments.
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Use alerts to get fresh candidates automatically.
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Maximize the TEN Jobs Feed to market more openings.
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Create a repeatable marketing system for consistent activity.
Follow these steps, and you’ll not only generate more business—you’ll build lasting relationships and revenue streams.
Or, as Drea summed it up:
“It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to work it, and be regular about the promotion and getting in front of your candidates with this information. But it does work—because people have been making placements with it for years.”
If you’d like more personalized training on using TE Network tools, Drea hosts free sessions every Friday and Monday at 3:00 PM Eastern.
