For many staffing and secondment firms, cold acquisition still looks the same as ten years ago: a list, a phone and persistence. It works, but it scales badly. Returns depend entirely on one or two people who are good on the phone, and when they leave, the inflow of clients stops.
The problem isn't the phone, it's the list
Most calling rounds work off a list of companies that roughly fit. As a result, most of your conversations go to companies with no acute need. A sharply defined ICP, with sector, size, region and function group, completely changes the outcome of the same calling effort.
Multiple channels, one message
- Email for reach: scalable, measurable, and ideal for testing which message works.
- LinkedIn for recognition: people accept and read more readily from someone they've seen.
- Phone for conversion: the conversation where the meeting actually gets booked.
- WhatsApp for follow-up: short, fast, and the highest reply rate in the final step.
The point isn't more channels for volume, but the same message in several places so you're familiar by the time you call. That lifts the chance of a conversation sharply without dialling more numbers.
“Cold calling isn't dead. Cold calling when nobody has ever seen your name is.”
What to measure
Acquisition only becomes a system when you measure companies reached, reply rate, conversations, and meetings actually in the calendar. Steering on 'number of calls' hides the exact problem you want to fix. For Covebo Uitzendgroep we reached 1,770 decision-makers with a 4.0% reply rate, and at Titan Strategy Consulting 239 prospects produced 49 replies. Numbers like those make acquisition predictable instead of dependent on a good week.
A realistic expectation
Inside our Client Acquisition System we work with 5 to 20 qualified client leads per month. Not business cards, but conversations with companies that have a concrete staffing need. For most agencies that's enough to grow structurally without a second full-time sales team.
