by the time the job is posted... you've already lost

wednesday was the founders roundtable. one member has spent twenty two years in executive recruiting.

his fee is thirty percent of the placement, with a $75k minimum. that's a serious number. one signed search can carry a quarter.

and his problem was the most honest one i've heard all month. he's so busy delivering that business development only happens in bursts. a search closes, he looks up, the pipeline is empty, he scrambles. then a new search lands and the selling stops again.

if you run any high fee service you know this loop. agencies, consultants, fractional execs, lawyers. the work eats the selling.

so the group did something useful. they rewrote his question.

he came in asking how to find companies that are hiring. the room turned it into... which companies will be hiring for several roles next quarter, before they post anything publicly?

charles put it bluntly. if they're already posting on linkedin, it's too late.

sit with that for a second. the job post is the trigger event every recruiter in the city watches. the moment it goes up, the ceo's inbox fills with people who all say the same thing. you're not early. you're one more name in the pile.

everyone thinks the edge is speed... see the signal first, reply first. but if the signal is public, speed is a race you can't win. somebody with a scraper and no life will beat you to it every time.

the edge is being the person they already know when the need shows up.

at his fee level that's the only way it works. nobody hands a $75k search to a stranger from a cold email. the consensus in the room was simple... trust and multiple touches, built before there's a need.

which leaves the hard part. how do you get a ceo with no open roles to talk to you?

you can't pitch them. there's nothing to buy yet. a meeting request with no reason attached goes straight to the archive.

my answer was the same one i give everyone... stop asking and start offering.

a ceo with no current need still has a story. how they built the team. the hire that changed the company. the one that nearly sank it. almost nobody asks them about it. so ask. invite them to tell it.

that's the only cold message i know that a busy ceo with nothing to buy will say yes to. you're not taking their time. you're giving them a spotlight.

and look at what a recruiter gets out of that conversation. the ceo talks about where the company is going, which teams are stretched, who they wish they had. that's next quarter's hiring plan, out loud, months before anyone writes a job post.

it's like fishing. everyone crowds the spot where the fish are jumping. the person who fed that pond all year doesn't have to crowd anywhere.

we didn't leave it as a theory. the experiment we landed on was small on purpose. invite twenty five ceos to a short pre-interview. start with the warmest names... past clients, candidates he's placed, founders he already knows. measure how many say yes before committing to a whole show.

twenty five invites. a response rate. a decision. that's a week of work, not a rebrand.

another member at the table runs his operation on ai systems he's been building for four years. one ea, eighty five clients served. i bring it up because the excuse that you don't have time for this falls apart fast once the grunt work runs without you. the conversation is the part you keep.

long term, this is where every high fee service is heading. ai makes it cheap to watch every public signal, so public signals stop being an edge. what's left is the relationship you built before the signal existed.

we run that motion for founders and service firms through the gtm engine... the invites, the follow up, the booked conversations, so the selling keeps going while you deliver.

so look at your best client from last year. how long did you know them before they needed you... and who are you getting to know right now for next year?