A job posting that has been up for 41 days is a company telling the whole internet it has a problem. The hiring manager is tired of screening résumés, her boss is asking about the open seat, and she has probably tried two agencies that sent her people who didn't fit. For a recruiter, that posting is the best lead you can get, and you can find it with a search.
To get clients as a recruiter, stop waiting for them to call. Find roles that have sat open for a month, email the person who owns the hire, and attach one real candidate. This is how that works day to day, including the email.
Who buys recruiting and how they decide
Three kinds of buyer show up. Founders and owners at small companies who have never hired for this role and don't know where to look. Hiring managers in mid-size companies where HR is stretched across twenty open roles. And HR or talent leads who already use agencies and are comparing.
The first two are your best targets if you're independent or small. They don't have a preferred-vendor list that takes six months to join. They decide in a conversation. What they compare is simple: will this person send me people I'd actually interview, quickly, and what does it cost if the hire doesn't work out?
That last question matters more than rate. A clear guarantee period (say, a replacement search if the hire leaves within 90 days) answers it before they ask. Write your terms down in two sentences and keep them handy.
Pick your lane before you pick your list
Recruiters who say "I fill all roles" get ignored. Recruiters who say "I place estimators and project managers at commercial contractors" get replies, because the hiring manager thinks, this person has the right people in a drawer.
Choose one function and one type of employer where you already have candidates or a network. Priya, a recruiter we'll use as an example, spent six years in HR at a logistics company. Her lane: dispatch managers and operations supervisors at regional freight carriers. She knows roughly forty people in that world. She doesn't need fifty lanes. She needs one.
Find roles that have been posted for 30 days or more
Search job boards and company career pages for your lane's titles in your region. Sort by oldest. Write down the ones that are 30 days or older, or that have been reposted. A repost is a strong signal: the company took it down, changed nothing, and tried again.
For each one, write down four things: company, role, how long it's been open, and the name of the person likely to own the hire. For a smaller company that might be the owner. For a larger one, look for the manager of the team in the posting, or the head of operations. A person's first name and the role are usually findable on the company's site or LinkedIn.
Twenty such roles is a good week of work. If you'd rather not do it by hand, a lead database filtered by company size and industry gets you the hiring managers directly, and the AI worker in Rocketship can do the finding and the first email from your own Gmail while you work on candidates. Launch includes 50 leads a month, enough for a focused recruiter.
The first email: one candidate, no pitch
The biggest mistake in recruiter outreach is sending a pitch about your agency. The hiring manager has read forty of them. What nobody sends is a candidate.
Take one person from your network who fits the open role, get their permission, and describe them without their name or current employer. Keep it to a few lines.
Subject: Dispatch manager for the Riverbend opening
Hi Tom, I noticed the dispatch manager role at Riverbend Freight has been open since early September. I know someone who might fit: nine years running dispatch for a 60-truck regional carrier, strong on driver retention, based in the metro and open to a move. I can send you a one-page summary. If it's a miss, tell me what you're looking for and I'll look again. I only charge if you hire.
Priya, Lowell Search, 55 Main St, Suite 4, Columbus
That email works because it is about Tom's problem and shows evidence you can solve it. It doesn't ask for 15 minutes to "discuss synergies." It offers something he can use in two minutes.
Include your physical business address and a way to opt out. US commercial email rules (CAN-SPAM) require both, plus an honest subject line.
Sending a pitch when you should send a candidate
A rule of thumb: for every ten emails, at least seven should carry a person or a specific piece of market information. Pitch emails are the ones that say "we are a full-service staffing firm with a 15-year track record." They get a one-in-a-hundred response.
If you don't have a candidate for a role, you can still be specific. Send market information: "Dispatch managers in the metro are asking for $68,000 to $75,000 this year. The posting says $58,000, which may be why it's still open." Make sure the numbers come from candidates you have actually spoken to, not from a guess. A hiring manager who learns something from your email will read the next one.
Follow up and get the intake call booked
Hiring managers are busy and often reply to the second email, not the first. Send three touches over two weeks, each with something new:
- Day 1: the candidate email.
- Day 5: a second candidate, or one line of market data.
- Day 12: "Is the role still open? If you filled it, congratulations, and I'd like to be on your list for the next one."
When someone says "send me the profile," send it within the hour with a time for a 20-minute intake call. An intake call is where you learn what the manager actually wants (which is rarely what the posting says) and agree on terms. Come with three questions: what would make you reject a candidate in the first five minutes, what's the real top of the pay range, and how fast can you interview?
A recruiter who answers replies the same day tends to win the search over one who sends a better candidate two days later. Speed is part of what you're selling.
What to track in your first 30 days
Keep a simple sheet with these columns: company, role, days open, first email date, replies, intake calls, searches signed. After 30 days, check the ratios. If you sent 80 emails and got 6 replies, that's workable. If you got 1, your subject lines or your lane need work. If you got 6 replies and no intake calls, you're probably talking about price too early.
A realistic first month: 80 targeted emails, 5 or 6 replies, 3 intake calls, 1 signed search. If a signed search pays 20 percent of a $70,000 salary, one placement is $14,000. That's the arithmetic that justifies the work.
More for recruiters: first lines, replies and the list problem
Writing the first line of each email is covered in personalisation at low volume, and what to do once replies start is in a reply came back, now what. For a point on why the list alone doesn't make the sale, read the list is not the customer. If you place workers by the day rather than by the hire, see how a staffing agency gets clients, and for HR consultants who sit next to recruiters, how an HR consulting business gets clients. See what the AI workers handle.
Recruiters make their money on the search, not on the sending, so the sending should run without you. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number is included; a dedicated line is $5 a month.