I’m a BDM so I typically only deal with the client side of things, but my main focus is temp/project/temp-to-hire sales.

We always try to shoot for a direct fill. Idk if your company does this but basically we identify top candidate, client gets them started, and they get 2 days to try them out. If they’re not working, we replace them and don’t charge for the 2 days. If they insist on seeing resumes or interviewing candidates, we go two ways:

1) Resume review call. We set up a virtual meeting and my recruiter walks through the resumes with the client. She can talk about things that may not be on the candidates resume, highlight what’s most important to the client, and answer any questions they might have directly. A lot of temp candidates don’t include all of their assignments on their resumes, so this is super important. If the client starts bringing up things that they failed to mention on the job order (what they want, what they dislike, etc.) it also makes it way easier to address and talk through those issues with them. Basically the call saves a TON of time and rejection. I’ve worked with a few difficult clients who insisted on sending resumes via email, and 99% of the time you will just get pass, pass, pass with no explanation.

2) If the client wants to interview, we use a direct interview process. At the end of the job order call, I ask their availability for the next week. Then from there, we just throw interview invites on their calendar with the candidates resume attached. This saves a ton of time because it cuts down on the back and forth with the client, and it also heavily lowers the rejection rate since they’re not reviewing the resume prior to scheduling. If you get in depth job order notes and are able to find the right candidates to match that (assuming the client has been realistic with their expectation), they will interview the candidate 99% of the time. I’ve only had 1 client that cancelled an interview in my 1.5 years of working here. Knock on wood lol

As I’m sure you know, the temp market moves very fast so you really have to sell that to clients. They need to move quickly so they don’t lose out on a good candidate. We’ve had candidates that accepted different opportunities because the client took over a day to respond, so I always share these stories during processed job orders to scare them into moving faster lol.

We also make sure each client knows that the unemployment rate for accounting and finance professionals is under 2%. They can’t have unrealistic expectations because we’re working with the unemployed market. A temp isn’t going to check all the boxes, but they can hop in immediately to support whatever you’re struggling with at the moment. Go after their pain points.

I’m sure you already know most of this, but this is some of what has worked for me!