For recruiters, prospecting has always been the lifeblood of success. Yet the way it’s done has dramatically changed. Years ago, success was measured by how many calls you could crank out in a day. Dial fifty numbers, hope a few people picked up, and maybe—just maybe—one of them would say yes.

But those days are long gone.

“Today’s prospecting isn’t about making fifty calls a day and hoping for a yes. It’s about relevance, preparation, and execution,” said recruiting industry trainer and speaker Barb Bruno, CPC/CTS of Good as Gold Training.

With tools like LinkedIn, Google Alerts, AI-powered outreach, and real-time market intelligence, recruiters should never go into a conversation cold. A call is only “cold” if you haven’t done your homework.

That mindset shift changes everything. Every call, email, or message should feel personalized—because it is. And the recruiters who embrace this shift are the ones who win new clients, build deeper relationships, and consistently fill their pipelines.

Why Prospecting Feels So Hard (and Why It’s Not About You)

When Barb Bruno speaks at recruiter conferences, she often asks attendees why they don’t make more marketing calls. The responses are remarkably consistent:

• “I hate rejection.”

• “I don’t want to annoy anyone.”

• “What if they hang up?”

• “No one answers the phone anymore.”

Her response is simple yet powerful: “So what? Now what?”

Rejection isn’t personal. Prospects aren’t rejecting you. They’re rejecting what they don’t yet understand: the value you bring, the time you save, the quality of talent you deliver, and the business problems you solve. If they truly understood those things, they’d welcome your call.

Your job as a recruiter is to bridge that gap and to help prospects see how partnering with you transforms their hiring process and their results.

And here’s the kicker: your top client this year may be someone you’ve never spoken to before. If you’re only building your future pipeline on yesterday’s placements, you’re putting yourself at risk. That’s why one of the most important daily activities you can do is to ask your candidates, “Where do you want to work?” Those companies belong on your prospect list.

Nine Sales Strategies Every Recruiter Should Master

Barb offers nine strategies that take the guesswork out of prospecting and turn it into a consistent, repeatable process. Let’s dig deeper into each one.

1. Preparation Is Non-Negotiable

“You have access to more information than ever before,” said Barb. “There is no excuse for making uninformed calls.”

Preparation is the new baseline for credibility. Before you ever dial the phone, send an email, or fire off a LinkedIn message, you should know:

• Who the decision-makers are.

• What the company does, including their recent growth or challenges.

• How the industry is trending.

• Where your candidates might align with their needs.

This doesn’t mean hours of research per call. It means using smart tools like LinkedIn, Crunchbase, Google Alerts, and even company career pages to gather quick insights. Preparation demonstrates respect for your prospect’s time and dramatically increases your chance of being heard.

2. Lead With a Strong Brand

Prospecting isn’t just about making contact; it’s about standing out.

Ask yourself: Why should this hiring manager work with you instead of the dozens of other recruiters filling their inboxes? The answer must come through loud and clear in your branding and outreach.

Your “brand” isn’t your logo or website. It’s your reputation. It’s the consistent promise you make and the results you deliver. According to Barb, “Your branding must answer one question: What do you do for them? Make it about their success, not yours.”

A strong recruiting brand positions you as:

• An industry insider

• A problem-solver, not just a resume-pusher

• A partner who helps companies win through talent

The better you communicate this in your outreach, the less “cold” your call feels.

3. Use Internal Intelligence

Recruiters sit on a treasure chest of insider knowledge: their candidates.

Every time a candidate says, “I’d really like to work at Company X,” that’s not just a throwaway comment. It’s prospecting gold. When you hear the same company mentioned again and again, you know where to aim your efforts.

If you’re not the one collecting candidate wish lists, collaborate with the recruiters on your team. Build a “Most Desired Companies” list based on candidate input. These are the employers your talent already wants. Positioning yourself as the recruiter who can deliver talent they’re seeking gives you an edge when you approach them.

4. Set Multiple Goals for Every Call

Not every call leads to a job order, and that’s okay. The goal of prospecting isn’t instant gratification; it’s progressive relationship-building.

Barb puts it this way: “Every call should teach you something, even if it doesn’t land you a search assignment.”

When reaching out, aim to learn:

• Who they’ve worked with before

• What frustrated them about that relationship

• How they prefer to work with external recruiters

• Which roles are consistently difficult for them to fill

Every insight you gain today becomes ammunition for a stronger conversation tomorrow. Their frustrations are the clues you need to position yourself as the better alternative.

5. Use Multi-Channel Communication

Calls alone won’t cut it anymore. In a noisy digital world, you need to meet prospects where they are, and that means across multiple channels.

Effective recruiters mix and match:

• Phone calls to make human contact

• Personalized emails to reinforce credibility

• LinkedIn connection requests and InMail messages

• Short video introductions (tools like Loom make this easy)

• Even direct mail or handwritten notes for standout touches

“A consistent, consultative approach across different channels builds familiarity,” Barb explains. “It keeps you top of mind when hiring needs arise.”

The more channels you use, the harder it is for a prospect to forget you.

6. Follow a Defined Sales Process

Too many recruiters treat prospecting as random acts of outreach. But randomness leads to random results.

Instead, Barb recommends a structured cadence: six touches over nine weeks using varied methods.

Each touchpoint should add value, not just pitch your services. Examples include:

• Sending an industry article with a quick takeaway.

• Sharing a success story about a recent placement.

• Highlighting a standout candidate (your Most Placeable Candidate).

• Congratulating them on company news or a personal promotion.

This steady drip of value builds trust and familiarity. By the time they need a recruiter, your name is the first they think of.

7. Warm Up the Call With a Strategy

If you’re still making truly cold calls, you’re making life harder than it needs to be. There are plenty of ways to “warm up” a conversation:

• Leverage your MPCs: Call with a candidate they can’t ignore. “I just spoke with a candidate who has 10 years of experience in X and is open to new opportunities. Would you like to see their profile?”

• Ask for referrals: Use reference checks to identify decision-makers. “By the way, are there other departments in your company hiring?”

• Reconnect with past employers: Candidates often move, but employers remember great placements.

“Nothing warms up a prospect like a referral, a recommendation, or a great candidate,” Barb emphasizes.

8. Set Up Google Alerts

Information is power and and timing is everything. Google Alerts gives you both.

By setting alerts for your target companies, you’ll be notified when:

• A company secures new funding.

• A new executive is hired.

• An expansion or acquisition is announced.

Each of these events signals potential hiring needs. If you’re the first recruiter to call after big news breaks, you’re in position to provide immediate solutions.

9. Embrace Social Media and AI

Recruiters who ignore digital tools risk being left behind.

Social media provides valuable clues about company culture, leadership priorities, and hiring trends. Engage with posts, monitor updates, and note when prospects interact with your content.

AI adds even more firepower. Tools can help you:

• Draft highly personalized outreach messages.

• Analyze company growth patterns.

• Segment prospects by likelihood of hiring.

As Barb notes, “AI won’t replace the human side of recruiting, but it will make human recruiters much smarter in how they prospect.”

Planting Seeds for the Future

Every call, every voicemail, every email is a seed. Some sprout quickly into job orders. Others take months, even years, to bear fruit. The recruiters who win are those who keep planting.

Prospecting isn’t about immediate results. It’s about consistent effort that compounds over time. And consistency beats intensity. Five well-researched, well-crafted outreaches a day will outproduce fifty random calls.

“The recruiter who follows through consistently is the one who eventually reaps the harvest,” Barb reminds us.

Making Prospecting a Repeatable System

If you’re tired of winging it, the good news is you don’t have to. These nine strategies form the backbone of a repeatable sales system. It’s one that not only generates more clients, but also reduces stress and uncertainty.

But there’s one more piece of the puzzle: technology. Without the right tools, keeping track of prospects, managing follow-ups, and coordinating outreach can feel overwhelming.

That’s where TE Recruit™ by Top Echelon comes in.

As the top-rated all-in-one ATS and CRM for recruiting agencies, TE Recruit™ helps you:

• Organize and track every prospecting activity.

• Automate multi-channel outreach cadences.

• Store intelligence on candidates and clients in one place.

• Measure what’s working with real-time data and analytics.

• Deliver a seamless, professional experience from the first call to the final placement.

When you pair Barb Bruno’s proven prospecting strategies with TE Recruit’s powerful tools, you stop relying on hope and start running a predictable, scalable client development process.

Your Next Step

The future of your desk depends on how you prospect today. You can continue to:

• Avoid outreach out of fear of rejection.

• Send generic emails and hope someone responds.

• Rely on past placements to sustain your pipeline.

Or you can embrace a smarter, more modern approach—one that uses relevance, preparation, and execution to win the clients you actually want.

Request a demo of TE Recruit™ today and see how the top-rated all-in-one ATS and CRM for recruiting agencies can help you prospect with confidence, land more clients, and grow your business.