1.
Grow your client base
The staffing professional’s guide
to winning new customers

2.
Contents
Create a powerful brand 5
Engage potential clients 11
Win new clients 15
Get ahead of the competition 3

3.
We all know that the staffing industry is
fiercely competitive. But with the right
tactics, you can stand out from your
competition and win new business.
It’s not easy to break into new accounts.
Traditional methods, like cold calling and blind
emails are getting less effective. Clients have
more information than ever at their fingertips, so
it’s getting harder & harder to get their attention.
With clients making more decisions based on
recommendations and research, it might feel like
your job is getting more difficult. 68% of people
buy from companies they trust, according to
Edelman Research1
. However by using your
resources the right way, you can make these
market changes work in your favor.
By investing in your brand and engaging with
prospective clients, you’ll be at the top of the
list when it’s time for them to fill an open role.
There are several ways you can use LinkedIn
to proactively strengthen your business
development practices. This guide details
insights and best practices on using LinkedIn to
be the agency of choice. You’ll learn how to:
Engage potential clients
Win new clients
Anyone in a sales or
business development role
within the staffing industry.
Who is this
guide for?
Get ahead of the competition
Create a powerful brand
3
LinkedIn connects talent with opportunity at a
massive scale. As a staffing professional, you
play a critical role in making that a reality. We
hope this guide helps you and your firm reach
new heights.
1
2016 Edelman Trust Barometer
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

4.
Think like a marketer
Create a powerful brand to
engage and recruit new clients.
The role of business development is to find
new opportunities for the firm. This can mean
increasing profitability and revenue or simply
building important relationships.
Jump straight into sales talk, and you’re unlikely
to get a positive response. Instead, we recommend
building a strong brand to showcase how you can
be a strategic partner to your clients. This will
ultimately help you win more business.
More often than not, decision makers choose
staffing partners based on online research.
This research includes ratings and peer reviews
of agencies, the agency’s standing and reputation
and their brand presence. If you have a strong
brand in place and engage with your key
audiences on a regular basis, recruiting new
clients will become much easier.
of staffing leaders agree that
investing in their firm’s brand
generates new business.2
82%
Introduction 4
2
Global Staffing Trends 2017Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

5.
Create
a powerful brand

6.
In this section
07 Make a great first
impression
08 Create a stand-out
personal profile
10 Set up Company
Career Pages
Create a
powerful brand
It all starts with your LinkedIn
presence. This is often the first
place clients visit to find out
about you and your company.
Your LinkedIn profile and
Company Page give a snapshot
of who you are and how you
can help them.
6Create a powerful brand
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

7.
Make a great
first impression
Why your online identity matters.
In your personal and company brands you can raise
awareness about your firm. This will help ensure that
you are top of mind for your clients in the future.
The more you showcase who you are and what you do,
the easier it is for potential clients to trust you and decide
whether you can help them.
So what can you do to kick your brand up a notch?
The following pages show you how you can separate
yourself from the pack.
Create a powerful brand 7
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

8.
Tick off the basics
A well-branded profile puts all your
essential information center stage.
Create a powerful brand 8
6
For more information on how to create a star quality profile,
check out our guide: Branding to Win Clients and Candidates.
1 Engaging, friendly picture
that invites people to connect with you
2 Descriptive headline
that goes beyond your title
3 Essential links
to your firm’s website and LinkedIn Company
4 Publish long-form posts
to show your expertise
5 Killer Summary
to give clients insight into your experience
and why they should work with you
List
your experience.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

9.
Decision makers
trust their professional
networks3
A large portion of B2B buyers turn
to their colleagues and networks
for recommendations on products
and services.
9Create a powerful brand
1 Update your contact information
Add an IM handle so you can instant message.
This is an easy, quick and visible way to contact leads.
Add your Twitter handle. This lets you share your LinkedIn updates on
Twitter as well – a great way to build relationships and stay top of mind
with your target audience.
2 Add Rich Media
Boost interest by showcasing you and your company’s achievements.
Link to videos, pictures, articles, presentations, websites, blog posts and more.
These all demonstrate your expertise in engaging ways.
3 Ask for recommendations
Recommendations show your successful track record and boost your credibility.
When you successfully place a candidate, immediately ask for a quick recommendation
from both the client and the candidate. It’ll only take them a couple of minutes, and it
can increase your chances of winning new business.
*Note: try and hone in on the right level of candidates in the industries you typically
recruit into, ensuring that these recommendations are relevant and will be of interest
to prospective clients.
Add even more muscle to your profile
Make it easy for potential clients to learn
more about you and get in touch.
of B2B buyers turn
to peers or colleagues
for recommendations
on solutions.4
49%
3
Social Buyer Study, International Data Corporation
4
The 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

10.
10
Set up Company and
Career Pages
Just as your personal profile helps clients learn about
you, your LinkedIn Company Page helps clients learn
more about your firm and what you can do for them.
Make sure it communicates:
Your focus areas
The type of clients you work with
The opportunities you can deliver to clients
What clients should expect by working with you
The LinkedIn Career Page is a premium extension of your Company Page.
If your firm covers multiple industries, you’re able to deliver personalized
web experiences to each audience. Career Pages let you target your
messaging and job posts to clients and candidates with specific attributes
like location, industry and function. Both Company and Career Pages allow
you to build followers. Followers are people virtually raising their hands to
stay connected to your firm.
Create a powerful brand
Launch a Company Page today. It’s free and easy!
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

11.
Engage
potential customers

12.
In this section
12 Share status updates
13 Strengthen your
company presence
Engage potential customers
With your brand refreshed and up to
date, you’re ready to position yourself
as a thought leader on LinkedIn, and
reach out to prospective clients.
To make sure your content reaches the right people,
remember to connect with clients, prospects and industry
heavyweights. With these quality connections, your
LinkedIn newsfeed will also be a goldmine of competitive
intelligence and valuable mutual connections.
12Engage potential clients
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

13.
Engage potential clients 13
Make your brand stick with personal status updates
Your status updates are the perfect way to stay visible and engage your LinkedIn connections at scale.
Here’s how to make them work harder for you.
1 Be visual
Include images, videos and presentations in
your updates to boost interest in what you’re
sharing. The more likes, comments, and shares
your content receives, the greater its reach
throughout the LinkedIn network.
2 Be a thought leader in your network
There’s value in sharing your knowledge. Be a
thought leader by sharing and publishing content.
Give clients useful content that shows you’re an
industry expert, and they’re more likely to call on
you for guidance. Curating existing content can be
less time-intensive than creating original content.
Use SlideShare and LinkedIn Pulse to discover
quality content quickly, and use status updates
to share with your network. Status updates are a
powerful tool for demonstrating thought leadership,
and a non-invasive way to keep yourself top of
mind with potential clients.
3 Make your updates more interactive
Engage with your network by mentioning
connections in your updates (you can do this
by typing @ followed by the member’s name).
Respond to their comments in real time to
keep the conversation going. You can also add
your company name to a status update (e.g.
@LinkedIn) to engage members through your
Company Page.
When you’ve got something to say, writing long-form posts is a great way to show
your thought leadership and expertise to candidates and other professionals. Equally
sharing engaging content on the platform can be as easy as doubling up on an effort
you might already be take - eg) if you are sharing a blog post or details of a networking
event to your company website, make sure you are publishing this to LinkedIn as well.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

14.
Engage potential clients 14
Strengthen your company presence
With over 60,000 staffing and recruiting companies on LinkedIn
5
, it’s important to ensure
that your Company Page is optimized. Here’s how to make sure yours stands out.
1 Enhance your Company page
Don’t say the same things every other firm
does. Be what the competition isn’t. Turn heads
by focusing on what’s in it for candidates and
clients. Try not to talk about yourself the whole
time but what you can do for potential clients.
Add your company logo, banner image
and description
List your specialties
List any awards the firm has won.
2 Build your following
Company followers are more than twice as likely
to recommend your company to others. They also
help amplify your message by sharing it with their
own networks. To grow your follower base, add
a ‘Follow’ button to your website, and on other
social platforms; and ask your team to include
your Company Page on personal profiles and
email signatures.
Your followers are so important. Why?
79% are interested in job opportunities
95% more likely to respond to an InMail
from one of your consultants
61% more likely to share information
about your firm
2x more likely to recommend your firm
to others.
3 Share your expertise
Just like your personal network, your Company
followers are a valuable pool of existing and
potential clients. If you have useful insights to
share, they want to hear them!
Publishing posts is a great way to further
establish your brand. Useful topical advice
builds credibility by showing that your company
understands the industry. On LinkedIn, you’ll
find ready-made, share-worthy content from
Influencers, on Pulse, and in Groups.
If you’re already creating valuable content via
blog posts, newsletters, and other articles, you
can repurpose content for LinkedIn Publisher.
But you’ll also want to create original content for
your LinkedIn readers. Sharing, liking, tweeting,
posting, pinning or any other social action are
all ways to promote your firm’s brand. Isolate
the social platforms most widely used by your
target audience and start establishing yourself
as a reliable contributor.
of firms said that LinkedIn is
the best channel to build a
recruitment firm’s brand.6
6
Global Staffing Trends 2017
74%
5
LinkedIn research per Most Socially Engaged staffing agencies 2016
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

15.
Win
new clients

16.
The top 3 challenges that
staffing firms are facing
Competition for talent6
Win new clients
LinkedIn is unlike any other recruiting platform, in that it’s one of the few
places where you can leverage and reach out to mutual connections.
These warm leads are the key to greater success.
16Win new clients
59%
69% 43%
But 87% had a favorable
impression of a salesperson
who was introduced to them
through someone in their
professional network.
According to a survey of B2B
buyers or influencers on LinkedIn:
Only 4% had a favorable
impression of a salesperson
who reached out cold.
If a company is actively hiring, and you’ve built your brand effectively and
engaged them with relevant content, you have a much higher chance of
winning them as a client. There are several ways you can leverage your
connections to uncover new business.
87%4%
58%
38%
30%
Business development7
Limited budget8
6,7,8,
Global Staffing Trends 2017Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

17.
Find new clients fast
with Recruiter Professional
Services (RPS)
Reach out to the global talent pool with LinkedIn’s premium tool for staffing
professionals. Now fully optimized to help you quickly find and recruit
world-class clients faster and more intuitively, built with everything you
need to win, right there at your fingertips.
Access the world’s largest professional network
RPS gives you full access to all members within your extended network
- and gives you a revealing inside look into the profile data of prospects
outside of your network, too.
Search faster with filters
Premium filters allow you to search for new clients more quickly by
company, location, Groups, relationship type, job function and more.
Make contact directly with InMail
Use the power of direct contact. InMail gives you the power to contact any
member, whether you’re connected to them or not. It’s our trusted form of
communication that enables you to speak to potential clients. This also allows
you to reach and target hard to contact decision makers.
Boost your productivity
Automated Search Alerts can help you generate new leads, stay up to date on
targeted prospects and keep tabs on emerging market trends.
Get smart Insights
Smart Suggestions, Search Insights and Alerts tap into LinkedIn’s unique data
and insights to surface relevant information about your territory.
What is Recruiter
Professional Services?
Recruiter Professional Services (RPS) is a premium
recruiting tool for staffing professionals. It provides
you with powerful search capability, the ability to
reach out directly to clients and candidates, and
tools to help you manage your workflow. RPS
is your full desk solution to tackle both business
development and recruiting.
To find out more about RPS, click here.
17Win new clients
In this section
Find Potential Clients
1. Gain market intelligence
2. Generate new leads
3. LinkedIn Enterprise Analytics Talent
Intelligence Reports
4. Mine your prospects’ Company and
Career Pages
5. Make the most of mutual connections and
leveraging commonalities
6. Find prospects already in your network
Save Get new leads delivered to you
Win Create high quality InMails
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

18.
Win new clients
Gain market intelligence
Use RPS to learn who’s actively hiring. Over time, you can
build your own market intelligence reports. Recruiting on
LinkedIn is all about reaching the right people at the right
time. By simply entering some keywords and filters you
can identify which companies are hiring within your target
industry and location.
18
1 Using RPS, search for professionals who’ve been with their
current company for less than one year
2 Narrow down the search by filtering for location and industry
of your target audience – along with any other relevant filters
3 Save this search, and run it regularly to identify new prospects
or enable search alerts to be notifed whenever someone matching
this criteria updates their profile or joins LinkedIn. Companies
showing an increasing number of members in these results
indicate they are hiring and is the perfect time for you to reach out
4 Leverage Search Insights to identify up to 10 companies that
have hired in the last year as well, as the companies people
were in previously, and see if there is a backfill requirement
5 Don’t forget to use the “Company Size” filter to identify the
smaller less-known businesses you may not have heard of.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

19.
Win new clients 19
Gain market
intelligence
Use LinkedIn.com to learn
who’s actively hiring
On the platform you can also glean some
insights. Look at Job Alerts;
1 Turn on notifications for when jobs
within your target industries are
advertised on LinkedIn
2 The results show you what
organizations are hiring currently
This could be an opportune time to reach
out to prospective clients and see they
need your services.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

20.
20
Generate New Leads
As every salesperson knows, timing
is crucial. Get a dynamic set of
insights to see when people join or
leave a company you want to work
with. This will allow you to gain an
advantage over your competitors.
Here you can identify what organizations our target
audience have joined in the last year. This can give
you insights into who these people are; do you do
business with these organizations? Should you be
doing business with them?
20
1 Identify your target audience by entering the appropriate Job
Title and Location by either leveraging the guided functionality
or creating a Boolean Search string
2 From the Search Results page ensure the Job Title is set to “Current”
3 Select your target client or clients using the “Company” filter,
again remember to set this to “Current”
4 By setting up a search alert you will now get notified when your
target audience join this company.
Win new clients
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

21.
Generate New Leads
Remember we can also do this in
reverse to uncover who has left
your target company and what
organizations they have gone to.
1 Follow steps on page 20 but change the company
filter from “Current” to “Past not Current”.
This will allow you to identify the perfect time
to speak to clients who potentially need a
backfill as well check in with your contact
in the new organization.
LinkedIn RPS allows you to be a consultative
partner to your prospective clients and really
stand out among your competitors.
Win new clients 21
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

22.
59%
69% 43%
of search and staffing leaders
feel confident using data
to understand recruiting
effectiveness, so you could
really stand out with a
data-focused approach9
43%
9
Global Staffing Trends 2016
LinkedIn Enterprise Analytics
Talent Intelligence Reports
Set your firm apart with a data-driven approach to
business development
With over 460+ million members on LinkedIn our data is a rich source of insights into
the world of professionals enabling us to understand the behaviours of the world’s
workforce. LinkedIn’s Talent Intelligence Reports provide a holistic view of the workforce
by skillset, functional area, or country. This data gives you valuable insights to help you
make intelligent business decisions for your own firm and help you to land new business.
Validate and support strategic decisions
You can look at where the opportunities for growth are (both by Geography and by
Vertical) for your firm to do more business.
Identify quantify new business opportunities
You can analyze where there are more business opportunities for your firm e.g become
niche by industry rather than geography allowing you to expand your business in a
different direction than you previously considered.
More intelligent discussions with your clients your candidates
You will be armed with the knowledge of your prospect’s industries, to have intelligent
informed discussions with them. Imagine the edge you will have over the competition
during a business pitch.
Talk to a dedicated LinkedIn Account Executive today to find out more about
LinkedIn Enterprise Analytics.
Win new clients 2222
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

23.
Win new clients 23
Mine your prospects’
Company and Career Pages
Use Company and Career
Pages to gather information
and find common connections.
Company and Career Pages give you vital information on
a company’s hiring activities. When you follow a company,
its news appears on your LinkedIn feed – this includes
new jobs posted and status updates. This intelligence can
give you a great reason to reach out to a prospect. Follow
existing clients, competitors and potential clients to get the
inside scoop.
You can also search a prospect’s Company Page to learn
who you’re connected to within the company, and check
out the Career Pages of companies you’re hoping to work
with for information on open roles.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

24.
Win new clients 24
Make the most of mutual connections
Say goodbye to cold introductions.
Warm up leads by mentioning the people you have in common.
Rather than just dropping a name, let your mutual contact know you’re
planning on reaching out to their acquaintance, and ask for an introduction.
From:
Hi Susan,
I work for XYZ company and
see that you’re hiring. I’d love to
touch base to see how we can
partner together.
To:
Hi Susan,
I was talking with [John Smith]
the other day and he had nothing but
great things to say about you. I’d love to
have a networking call and get to know
more about you and your business.
Transform your message
59%
of buyers said they are
more likely to engage with
a salesperson if they mention
a common connection10
59%
10
Survey of 1,500 LinkedIn members who influence or make
B2B purchases and are Managers or above
New feature:
You can now group message via InMail, so you can ask your mutual connection to make an
introduction with you on the InMail.
Don’t forget to mention any commonalities you saw on their profile! eg. I notice you are
also part of the Tech Experts Group on LinkedIn.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

25.
1 Run a search for a particular company and job title,
that you are interested in working with
2 Click on advanced search options
3 Look at your relationship refinement filter
This will show you who you have first or second
degree connections with within that company,
what a way to get your foot in the door.
Find prospects already
in your network
Win new clients 25
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

26.
The alumni functionality allows you to browse members
that went to the same school as you.
1 Run a search for job title and industry, that you
are interested in working with
2 Filter by the School you attended, using the
refinement filters
3 You can also filter by industry to narrow down
your target audience.
Leverage your school as a commonality during your first
engagement with the potential client.
Use your education
history to tap into talent
This can also be done on LinkedIn.com
Win new clients 26
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

27.
27
Prioritize warm leads
A new feature within RPS allows
you to see who is following your
firm and who has publicly engaged
with updates or job posts. These
people have already interacted with
you and are a warmer lead – which
creates a much easier introduction.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide
Win new clients
Spotlights allow you to easily filter results by candidates
who are more likely to engage, based on relationships and
interactions on LinkedIn, including:
Company connections
Engaged with your talent brand, showing company followers
And more to come!
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

28.
Win new clients
Save: Get new leads
delivered to you
Use RPS to power up your lead
generation, with automated Search
Alerts to help you keep tabs on target
clients and prospects.
28
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

29.
Win new clients 29
Save: Get new leads
delivered to you
1 Click on the ellipsis icon at the top of
the search bar and click Save Search
2 Name the search and enable the
Search Alerts – ensuring LinkedIn will
automatically run this search every day
3 Every time someone joins the platform or
updates their profile and are now relevant to
your search you will get notified every day.
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

30.
1 Make contact
Get notified when someone in your saved
pipeline has been promoted. Make contact
with a congratulatory message instead of
a hard sell
2 Saved searches
Click on “Saved / History” beside the
search bar, and you can choose to be
notified by email when new people are
added to your search criteria
3 Reach out
Anytime someone relevant joins your
client’s company, reach out to them
saying you do business with their company
and would love to be a contact for them
in the future.
Tips
Save: Get new leads
delivered to you
Win new clients 30
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

31.
59%
69% 43%
71%
of buyers are more likely
to engage with a sales person
if they mention specific information
relevant to their current job.11
71%
1 Review profile
Let recipients know what on
their profile caught your eye.
Personalization is flattering
2 Grab attention
Mention mutual connections
or other commonalities
3 Show them you’re selective
Highlight what makes
them appealing.
Compliment sincerely
4 Be conversational
and brief
Write as if you were
speaking. Don’t go in
with a hard sales pitch
5 Listen well
Ask about goals of
the organization
6 Focus on goals
Think beyond the job and
frame your message around
what’s in it for them
7 Leverage content
Consider including useful
information, such as a
relevant whitepaper
8 Be patient
Don’t hound. Use status
updates to stay visible while
you wait for responses
9 Include a call to action.
Ask to continue the
dialogue, not necessarily
to apply right away.
Win: Create high quality InMails
Create high quality InMails
You’ve found them – now engage them
Through InMail, you can contact anyone on LinkedIn. The key to getting a response is having a targeted
message: 48% of B2B decision makers don’t respond to sales professionals because their message is
not personalized. Use these tips to boost your response rates and engage potential clients.
Win new clients
The 9 Golden Rules of InMail
11
The Recruiter’s Guide to Writing Effective LinkedIn InMails
31
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

32.
32
Get started today, and grow your client base.
To receive a live demonstration of the tool with
one of our dedicated sales reps, click here.
Engage potential clients
Win new clients
Create a powerful brand
Conclusion
For staffing professionals focused
on business development, LinkedIn’s
free tools and Recruiter Professional
Services (RPS) equip you with
everything you need to:
Conclusion 32
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide

33.
Additional resources
Create
Branding to Win Clients and Candidates
Engage
The Staffing firm’s guide to modern recruiting
Win
The Recruiter’s Guide to Writing Effective
LinkedIn InMails
Appendix
Footnotes:
Appendix
1
2016 Edelman Trust Barometer
2/6/7/8
Global Staffing Trends 2017
3
Social Buyer Study, International Data Corporation
4
The 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report
5
LinkedIn research per Most Socially Engaged
staffing agencies 2016
9
Global Staffing Trends 2016
10
Survey of 1,500 LinkedIn members who influence or make B2B
purchases and are Managers or above
11
The Recruiter’s Guide to Writing Effective LinkedIn InMails
33
Business Development on LinkedIn: The Staffing Professional’s Guide