Can I contact my old clients after leaving an agency?

Read your contract first. Many agency contracts carry a non-solicitation clause that stops you approaching clients you dealt with for a set period, so take advice if you are not sure. Companies you never worked with are fair game, and a hiring signal tells you which ones to start with.

Can I cold email UK companies about recruitment services?

Yes, if they are limited companies or LLPs. Under the UK's PECR rules you can email a corporate address without prior consent, as long as you say who you are and give an easy way to opt out. Sole traders and most partnerships count as individuals and need consent first.

Can I cold call a company registered with the CTPS?

No. The Corporate Telephone Preference Service lets businesses opt out of unsolicited marketing calls, and the ICO expects you to screen numbers against it before you ring. Calling someone who has replied and asked to talk is a different thing, and that is where the phone works best.

How long before outreach books a new agency its first meetings?

Replies usually start in the second week, once the list is built and messages are going out. On our campaigns, meetings land from weeks three and four. Cape Solutions had 25 interested conversations from one LinkedIn profile in its first 30 days.

How much time does recruitment business development take each week?

About 90 minutes a day, every day, run as a fixed rhythm: list, connection requests, messages, follow-ups and calls. That is the part most owners cannot protect, which is why it slips in the weeks that matter most.

12 NOVEMBER 2026 · 7 MIN READ · BEN FILDES

How to get clients for a recruitment agency: the UK guide, with our own numbers

The five ways recruitment agencies win clients, which one works when you are new, the UK rules on emailing and ringing companies, and the numbers from our own campaigns so you know what good looks like.

Part of Business development for recruitment agencies →

The short answer: recruitment agencies get clients in five ways, and only one of them is fully in your control. Existing clients, candidates, referrals and inbound all depend on what happened last year. Outreach to companies that are hiring right now depends on what you do this week.

This guide covers all five, what to do when you are new and have none of them yet, the UK rules on emailing and ringing companies, and the numbers from our own campaigns, so you know what good looks like before you start.

The five ways agencies win clients

Route	How fast	Who controls it	Keeps working when it is quiet?
Existing and lapsed clients	Fast	The client	Only while they are hiring
Candidates who now hire	Medium	Them	Rarely planned
Referrals	Slow	Other people	No
Inbound and search	Slow to build	You, eventually	Yes, once built
Outreach to hiring signals	Two to four weeks	You	Yes

Most established agencies run on the first three. They work until the month they do not, and then everyone is prospecting at once, in the weeks nobody has time.

Inbound is worth building. A website that keeps your live jobs in sync with your Indeed feed, and articles that answer what hiring managers search for, bring in work for years. It takes months, not weeks, so it is the second job, not the first.

The route that works on day one, and keeps working, is outreach to companies showing a hiring signal.

Your first clients as a new agency

New agencies ask the same question on every forum: six weeks in, a desk and a phone, and no clients. Here is the order we would do it in.

1. Check your contract. If you have just left an agency, read your restrictive covenants before you contact a single former client. Many contracts carry a non-solicitation clause for a set period. Breaking it is an expensive way to win your first fee.

2. Pick one patch. One sector, one region, one level of role. "Engineering and manufacturing, permanent, North West" is a patch. "Any role, anywhere" is a list of people who will not reply.

3. Build a list of 30 to 40 companies, not 400. Use the signals below. A short list of companies that need a recruiter this month gets more replies than a long one of everyone in the sector.

4. Tell your candidates you have started. Some of the people you placed are now hiring managers. A personal note, not a broadcast, and no ask in the first message.

5. Start the daily rhythm in week one. Not when the website is finished, and not when the logo is right.

Find the companies that are hiring right now

Four signals, in the order they tend to pay:

Live job adverts, especially roles open six weeks or more. A role that has been open that long is a hiring problem the company has failed to solve in-house.
New funding. The plan for the money nearly always includes people, and the agencies are chosen within weeks.
New leaders. A new head of department builds a team in their first ninety days.
Headcount growth. A company that grew 20% last year is hiring every month.

One signal is interesting. Two is a company worth your week. The full method is in how to find the companies that are hiring right now.

How to approach a hiring manager

Lead with their situation, not your agency. "I noticed the senior quantity surveyor role has been open since September" is a conversation. "We are a leading construction recruitment agency" is a delete.

Then treat it as a sequence, not a single call:

A profile view, from your own profile.
A like on something they posted.
A personal connection request with no pitch.
A short message in your voice, with one question.
The same conversation carried on by email and text.
A call, once they have replied.
A meeting in the diary, with notes.

The phone still books the meeting. It just works far better at step six than step one. Belkins' 2026 benchmarks put cold-call conversation to meeting at 4.6%. On our own campaign we rang every one of the 98 people who had replied and said they were interested, and 65 booked. That is 66%. Why we ring after the reply, not before.

The UK rules most agencies get wrong

Email. Under PECR you can send marketing emails to limited companies and LLPs without prior consent, provided you say who you are and give an easy way to opt out. Sole traders and most partnerships count as individuals, so they need consent first. UK GDPR still applies to the person's data, so keep the list relevant and honour every opt-out.

Calls. You must not make unsolicited marketing calls to numbers registered with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Screen your list against it. A call to someone who replied and asked you to ring is not a cold call.

LinkedIn. No law, but real limits. We run about 150 connection requests a week per profile, spread through the working day, and stop at the first warning. How to do LinkedIn outreach without restrictions.

What good looks like

Real numbers from our own work, so you can judge your first month:

Campaign	Reach	Replies	Interested	Meetings
Our own, 3 profiles, 3 months	5,950 people	752 conversations	98	65
Cape Solutions, 1 profile, 30 days	277 new connections	90	25	Still running
Wilson Mannion, 1 profile, 5 weeks	177 new connections	40	16	3

Your sector, your patch and your message decide your result. The shape holds: a tight list, a human pace, a reply, a call.

Measure it every Friday

Five numbers, written down every week:

Connection requests sent
Accepted
Replies
Interested
Meetings held

After a month you have a funnel, and a funnel tells you what to fix. Few acceptances means the list is wrong. Acceptances but no replies means the message is wrong. Interest but no meetings means nobody is ringing fast enough.

Then work out what each meeting costs you: everything you spend on business development in a month, divided by meetings with hiring managers that actually happened. A full-time BDM works out at about £410 a meeting. What a client meeting really costs a recruitment agency has the sums.

A 90-day plan

Weeks one and two. Patch chosen, list of 30 to 40 companies built from signals, profile tidied, first connection requests out. Replies start.

Weeks three and four. Full daily rhythm. Every interested reply rung within 24 hours. The first meetings land.

Month two. Look at the five numbers. Fix the weakest step. Rebuild the list every Monday from fresh signals.

Day ninety. The straight review: cost per meeting held, meetings to roles, roles to placements. Keep what works, cut what does not.

Run it yourself, or have it run

All of this is about 90 minutes a day. Business development without a BDM breaks the day down step by step. The plan rarely fails because it is hard. It fails because the owner is the one person in the agency who cannot protect 90 minutes.

That is what we run as business development for recruitment agencies: your team's LinkedIn profiles, inboxes and text, and a British caller who rings every interested reply. Modelled, it works out at £98 to £197 a qualified meeting. You turn up to the meetings.

Sources

Cold calling: Belkins B2B Cold Calling Benchmarks 2026. Email and calls: ICO guidance on PECR, electronic mail marketing and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service, read November 2026. BDM cost: Indeed UK average salary with employer NI and pension, over the Bridge Group 2025 median of ten meetings a month. Ours: own CRM, three accounts, three months, read September 2026. Cape Solutions: campaign export, first 30 days, read September 2026. Wilson Mannion: own CRM, 7 October to 11 November 2026. Our cost per meeting is modelled on one LinkedIn seat at three to five qualified meetings a month; your market and offer decide the result.

Get your free growth report and see your market's numbers, or book a 1-to-1 and we build your signal list live on the call.

Questions people ask

Can I contact my old clients after leaving an agency?: Read your contract first. Many agency contracts carry a non-solicitation clause that stops you approaching clients you dealt with for a set period, so take advice if you are not sure. Companies you never worked with are fair game, and a hiring signal tells you which ones to start with.
Can I cold email UK companies about recruitment services?: Yes, if they are limited companies or LLPs. Under the UK's PECR rules you can email a corporate address without prior consent, as long as you say who you are and give an easy way to opt out. Sole traders and most partnerships count as individuals and need consent first.
Can I cold call a company registered with the CTPS?: No. The Corporate Telephone Preference Service lets businesses opt out of unsolicited marketing calls, and the ICO expects you to screen numbers against it before you ring. Calling someone who has replied and asked to talk is a different thing, and that is where the phone works best.
How long before outreach books a new agency its first meetings?: Replies usually start in the second week, once the list is built and messages are going out. On our campaigns, meetings land from weeks three and four. Cape Solutions had 25 interested conversations from one LinkedIn profile in its first 30 days.
How much time does recruitment business development take each week?: About 90 minutes a day, every day, run as a fixed rhythm: list, connection requests, messages, follow-ups and calls. That is the part most owners cannot protect, which is why it slips in the weeks that matter most.

This is one of the long answers behind business development for recruitment agencies. If you would rather we ran it for you, book a 1-to-1 and we work out your numbers live.