The Mike Ames Recruitment Show
The Mike Ames Recruitment Show
Mike Ames
Moving across to a retained only model
46 minutes Posted Apr 8, 2025 at 4:01 pm.
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On average, UK contingent recruiters get paid for 20% of their efforts. For retained recruiters it's 98%. Fancy learning how to only do retained work?

To be clear, switching to retained could boost your profits by 500% (just do the maths).

Our next guest on the MARShow is Greg Elton of search firm Day-2, is 100% retained and has been for years.

Some of you might be saying "he probably only does mega-deals which is why they are retained"

Well, you'd be wrong.

True, some of his placements are very chunky, but Greg maintains any salary over £40k can be on a retained basis, if pitched properly.

And that's the rub, many recruiters just don't pitch in the right way to win retained work.

In this show we'll explore the following: -

✅ Which roles can be retained

✅ How to pitch to win retained deals

✅ How to overcome client objections

✅ The difference between retained and exclusive and why it matters

✅ What to do if the client is unconvinced

✅ How retained searches differ from contingent searches

Moving to retained can massively boost your profits, well of course it will if you get paid for every role you work.