The high cost of scattered attention: don’t let valuable clients drift away
There’s no dramatic break up, no big confrontation.
It’s happening very quietly. While chasing every new RFP and client lead that crosses their desk, most leaders don’t see that their most profitable clients are quietly drifting away. Those clients simply send new roles to more attentive competitors.
The irony is painful. These recruiters are busier than ever, yet average deal values decline and strategic relationships weaken. They’ve confused being busy with being focused, and it’s costing them their best clients.
The attention trap
Most recruitment businesses assume that more clients equals more stability. They spread their attention widely, across dozens of client relationships. They think diversification reduces risk.
In reality, it completely dilutes impact. When attention is distributed too widely, no client receives the level of service that creates genuine loyalty and preference. And premium clients get treated like everyone else. They receive adequate service but not the strategic planning and deep market knowledge they're willing to pay for and that their business value justifies.
When agencies deliver this level of strategic partnership, they earn the right to charge premium fees. When they don’t, clients turn to competitors who will.
Going for gold: the 80/20 blindspot
Typically, 20% of clients generate 60-80% of profits, yet they often receive less than 30% of senior consultant attention. The mathematical mismatch is staggering when you look at the opportunity cost.
Most recruitment businesses start their portfolio reviews by ranking clients by profit contribution. It’s a start, but incomplete. A once-profitable client may now be dormant; another might deliver consistent but modest returns that underpin cash flow.
A smarter approach is to layer RFM analysis (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value) onto basic profit rankings. By scoring clients based on how recently they have engaged, how often they use the agency’s services, and how much profit they generate, leaders gain a richer view of client value. Who deserves more senior attention? Where is the risk of churn? Who are the steady contributors that deserve protection?
The results of this analysis can then be used to segment the client portfolio into tiers (Platinum, Gold, Silver). This allows recruiters to turn analysis into action by highlighting where to re-engage, defend, or double down.
Augment with analytics, automation and AI
Predictive analytics, enhanced by AI and machine learning, can take client portfolio management beyond simple reporting. It can flag accounts likely to churn by spotting declines in job order volume, engagement, or conversion rates. This helps to generate early-warning signals when engagement begins to decline.
Prescriptive analytics then adds the “so what” by recommending the best next steps, like scheduling business reviews, sharing market intelligence, or presenting proactive talent pipeline proposals. AI can enhance this process, prioritising by likely impact to ensure that consultants focus their time where it will deliver the greatest return.
Automation supports this by triggering account-based marketing when engagement dips, sending tailored insights or talent updates and surfacing cross-selling opportunities before competitors act.
Once these insights are consistently surfaced and acted upon, agencies can rebalance resources, directing more senior attention to strategically significant accounts and creating targeted reactivation plans for dormant clients. This augmented approach improves client retention and frees consultants from admin. It shifts their focus to high-value work - market intelligence, workforce planning, strategic reviews - and elevates them from transactional recruiters to trusted advisors.
Case study: How predictive insights secured a massive win
One professional services recruitment firm piloted predictive analytics with its top 50 accounts. The system flagged high-value clients with 30% declines in job orders. Consultants were automatically prompted to schedule account reviews, supported by pre-populated briefing packs with market and competitor data.
During one of these reviews, a consultant uncovered a client’s planned expansion into a new region, a strategic move not previously disclosed. Armed with tailored insights and talent availability data, the consultant secured an exclusive project - one of the most valuable wins of the quarter.
Case study: The dilution effect
Trying to serve all client portfolios equally creates structural problems:
Service quality suffers as no client gets depth of attention.
Expertise is diluted as rather than develop specialisations, consultants are spread thin and forced to generalise.
Business Development becomes reactive rather than strategic. Consultants spend time responding to immediate requests and chasing transactions instead of building strategy.
One national engineering recruiter discovered that 20% of their clients generated the most revenue. Their consultants had been working with an excessively broad mix of clients, leading to inconsistent service delivery and declining productivity. However, a deep firmographic analysis showed that their most lucrative accounts were clustered in FMCG firms in the Midlands - a clear sweet spot where the business had a competitive advantage and strong historical performance.
Armed with this insight, they refocused on that segment and redesigned their business development strategy. Using marketing automation and targeted demand generation, they not only grew revenue but repositioned the firm as a specialist partner within a clearly defined market segment. They strengthened client relationships, and secured a higher proportion of retained and exclusive assignments.
Design a ‘Client Investment Framework’
The best recruitment businesses rebalance resources intentionally - designing their account management approach to provide differentiated service levels based on client value and growth potential.
High-value clients get senior attention, reviews, and insight, transactional clients get efficient, streamlined service and dormant clients get reactivation plans.
The most sophisticated businesses create what I call "Client Investment Frameworks" that guide decisions about where to allocate their best people and most valuable time.
Better focus, better clients
Focusing on valuable clients creates compounding returns.
Deeper relationships lead to more exclusive briefs and premium fees. That more predictable revenue means reduced volatility and better planning. Case studies and referrals lead to a stronger pipeline of similar clients. And then greater consultant expertise brings a cycle of growth and market positioning. Businesses that master focus build reputations, expertise, and competitive advantages that competitors can’t easily replicate.
That’s the power of focus: it turns good agencies into indispensable partners.
