If you can find the best candidate without having to pay a fee, I can respect that as a sound business decision. My clients (NAME DROP HERE IF YOU CAN) continue to pay me a fee to provide the BEST candidates because I've brought them the strongest people on their staff. Why not be sure you are hiring the BEST candidate? Let me send you two people on your hardest to fill opening. If you aren't blown away, you lose nothing.

My industry is successful because I find the best people in the shortest amount of time. You may dedicate 2 hours per day, sorting through the vast pool of marginally qualified candidates. I dedicate 8 hours a day, calling companies and talking to [Oracle DBAs] that are making it happen for their companies TODAY. That is MY talent pool. Only with a very good recruiter do you get to choose from that pool. You only pay a fee if the person is worth paying a fee for. That's what makes my industry fair. Let me prove it to you. Where is your need?

[NAME], to be honest, if you were NOT using your own resources, and called me to work on this, I would RECOMMEND you do. It’s less costly, and there are lots of candidates out there and you never know what you might find. But most of my clients know that they won’t get a RECRUITED candidate by doing it themselves, so they conduct their search while I conduct mine on a contingency basis. Then they simply compare and choose the best candidate. I know this market and I can provide that basis of comparison for you. All I’m asking for is a chance to compete. Does that sound fair?

I understand. You’ve invested resources, and when you consider what I cost, you SHOULD use other resources. In fact, I think in most of the recent placements I’ve made, I’ve conducted a target search while my clients use other means and I have no problem with that. All I need to know is, is there a particular company that you compete with that I can target and recruit someone from who you could not resist interviewing?

I think in nearly all of the placements I’ve made I work with clients who use other resources while they see my recruited candidates. The way they look at it is that it’s my job to find someone better than the typical person they can find on their own. Then they make an informed decision before they spend any money. Does that sound like a way we can work as well?