If It Don’t Make Dollars, It Don’t Make Sense!
2026
–A Seven Part Series–
Part Five
by
Bob Marshall
April 14th, 2026
Part Five – …And Make a Lot of Them
If you haven’t taken the time to do this yet, now is the time to delimit your marketplace.
In today’s recruiting environment—where LinkedIn messages, emails, and AI tools are everywhere—there is still one undeniable truth: the recruiter who consistently speaks to the most decision-makers wins.
Delimiting your marketplace gives you the structure to do exactly that.
On average, I want you making 10–25 live marketing presentations (real conversations) per day. Not emails. Not messages. Conversations.
Let’s look at the math:
- 25 conversations per day
- 125 per week
- 500 per month
- 1,500 per quarter
That means you should be operating within a marketplace of approximately 1,500 hiring authority contacts.
Now here’s where many recruiters miss the opportunity…
If you’re working with large organizations (500+ employees), each individual hiring manager is a separate contact. One company can represent 5, 10, even 20 viable relationships. Suddenly, building a 1,500-contact universe becomes not only possible—but practical.
Once established, your job becomes simple:
Systematically recycle your marketplace.
Touch your core contacts at least once per quarter—more often when urgency or activity dictates. Some will need you now. Others later. But all of them need to know you exist.
Because in this business, visibility creates opportunity.
Every conversation you have does two things:
- It uncovers immediate needs
- It builds long-term positioning
That’s how you “brand” yourself—not with slogans, but with presence.
And despite all the technology available today, there is still no substitute for this:
You have to make the call.
I can’t guarantee you many things in this business.
But I can guarantee you this:
You will never make a placement with a company you don’t call.
A Short Story to Drive It Home
Years ago, I was coaching a recruiter who insisted his market was “slow.” He had good tools, a solid desk, and plenty of data—but very few results.
When I looked closer, I found he was speaking to maybe 5–6 hiring managers per day.
We reset his expectations and pushed him to 20 conversations daily. At first, he resisted—said it wasn’t realistic in “today’s world.”
But within three weeks, something interesting happened.
He reached a hiring manager he had “meant to call for months.” That single conversation turned into a search. That search turned into a placement. And that placement led to two more assignments from the same company.
Three fees—from one call he almost didn’t make.
The market hadn’t changed.
His exposure to it had.
Next week: Part Six – All Job Orders are Not Created Equal
Bob Marshall began his recruiting career over 45 years ago at MR in Reno, NV. In 1986 he established The Bob Marshall Group, International, where he has trained recruiters throughout the United States and also in the United Kingdom, Malta and Cyprus. With a dedication to executive recruiting, he continues to offer his proven training systems to individuals, firms, and private corporations both domestic and in select international territories. To learn more about his activities and descriptions of his products and services, contact him directly @770-898-5550/470-456-0386(cell); bob@themarshallplan.org; or visit his website @ www.TheMarshallPlan.org.
Bob Marshall
President
TBMG, International
247 Bryans Drive, Suite 100
McDonough, GA 30252-2513
770-898-5550
520-842-5550 (fax)