By the time you're choosing between recruitment agencies, everyone in front of you sounds much the same.

Sector knowledge, thorough process, great network.

None of it can be checked, and none of it costs anything to say.

Numbers are harder to say.

So ask for these four, from anyone you're talking to, and ask what each one actually covers.

Across our business:

• 79% of the roles we take on, we fill
• 95% of the people we place are still there 18 months later
• 92% of our clients come back for their next hire
• 881 clients

Every one of those covers the whole business, all divisions, not one team in a good quarter. Worth asking about, because that's usually where these figures get flattering.

What each one is actually telling you

Fill rate says as much about honesty as ability.
An agency that takes every brief it's offered will have a poor fill rate. One claiming close to 100% is either turning away anything difficult or counting it differently. Ours sits at 79% because we say no to roles we don't think we can do, and we'd rather tell you that at the start than bill you for finding out.

Retention is the one that costs us money to get right.
A placement who leaves at month four still gets invoiced. Nothing in our short-term interest depends on that person staying a year and a half. So 95% at 18 months is a number we have to work for, and it's the one I'd lean on hardest if I were hiring an agency.

Repeat business is the only review that's expensive to fake.
You don't go back to an agency that wasted your time. Testimonials are cheap and everybody has good ones. Getting 92% of clients to come back is harder to arrange.

Client count tells you whether the first three are a fluke.
A good fill rate across a dozen clients doesn't tell you much. Across 881 companies it starts to say something about how a business actually runs.

The questions worth asking after that

Ask what happens if the hire doesn't work out, and get it in writing rather than in a sentence on a call. Ask when the invoice lands. Ours is when your hire starts, not when we send you a shortlist. And ask who's actually doing the work, because the person selling to you isn't always the person searching for you.

None of that asks you to take our word for anything, which is the point.

If you want to talk one through, we're happy to look at whatever sales role you've got open and tell you honestly whether it's one we'd take on.

Book a call here. If the answer's no, we'll say so on the call.