On 25 February, TALiNT Partners MD, Alex Evans, hosted a Sales Enablement Lunch & Learn for 40 industry leaders at The Athenaeum Hotel & Residences in London for insights on how better use of tech and data can improve recruitment sales and marketing. Supported by partners Bullhorn, Popp, and YPP, their expert speakers offered advice on how to overcome barriers to tech adoption, personalise candidate management and screen more intuitively at scale, and focus on new metrics for sales success and performance in recruitment.
This immersive session explored the evolving role of AI in recruitment, the importance of aligning recruitment tech solutions with future strategic goals, and integrating talent and tech solutions as part of an end to end offering for employers.
Panel 1 – Tech strategy & optimisation
The importance of shifting from solution-focused to problem-oriented tech adoption
After years of buying into new brands promising a range of new functions and benefits, recruitment tech buyers are now prioritising the problem that needs fixing before selecting solutions. “If you want to reach business operations maturity, you need a plan and patience – not just tech for tech’s sake”, observed Khyati Pal, Founder of YPP Consulting, who emphasised that understanding the ‘why’ behind tech adoption is key to maximising return on investment. “AI enables businesses to reach the next level in terms of growth, but digital literacy and tech education are paramount for leaders to make informed investments,” she noted, adding that, “Without self-education and training, at board as well as management and consultant level, businesses risk under-utilising their tech stack or investing in solutions that don’t align with their core challenges and future growth strategies.”
AI’s role in managing application volume and enhancing engagement
One of the most pressing challenges recruitment teams face today is the sheer volume of inbound applications. AI is increasingly being leveraged not just to filter and manage this influx, but to improve screening and candidate engagement at scale. Automated tools can personalise communications, match candidates to roles more effectively, and free up recruiters to focus on high-value interactions. Sam Dhesi, CEO at Popp, explained how agentic workflows were personalising updates and feedback, suggesting roles tailored to candidates based on their profiles and interests, and tracking engagement. “Popp takes less than 2 days to engage 4,000 candidates, is 47 times faster than manual screening, and has saved clients 141 working days, enabling consultants to build more meaningful candidate relationships, develop talent pool strategies based on AI-driven market insights, and consult with hiring managers on talent acquisition strategies.”
The new KPIs and capabilities for successful recruiters
“In today’s delicate economy, relying solely on traditional metrics such as placements and time-to-fill offers only a narrow view of success,” explained Shaun Weise, VP Global Sales at Bullhorn. “We need KPIs combining insights from both sales and marketing to provide a complete picture of business growth, with technology and automation tying it all together.
“These include Response Efficiency, to measure the speed of follow-ups with candidates, reducing staffing cycle times and enabling agile, proactive outreach; Pipeline Velocity, tracking the speed at which candidates move through the recruitment process to close sales faster; and Client Satisfaction, to foster repeat business.”
Shaun also highlighted the new skills and capabilities needed to be successful consultants and recruitment leaders, from analytical thinking to interpret complex data and turn it into actionable insights to strategic thinking and aligning technology initiatives with broader business goals.
“We need KPIs combining insights from both sales and marketing to provide a complete picture of business growth, with technology and automation tying it all together.” – Shaun Weise, Bullhorn
Panel 2 – Sales enablement & business transformation
Our second panel brought together perspectives on successful sales and marketing from marketing, transformation and innovation leaders in staffing, search and talent solutions firms for advice on how to improve collaboration, optimise data, and capture feedback to support new business and product development.
Sales enablement needs to focus on solving the right problems
AI, automation, and behavioural insights are increasingly being used to improve business development efforts and foster stronger client relationships. Recruitment businesses that thrive in today’s market are using data and analytics to show a deeper understanding of client pain points to be recognised as advisors and tailor solutions accordingly. Drawing upon nearly two decades in Executive Search, Meg Myers, Director of Innovation & Insight at 17 Oranges, explained that new tools are making it easier for consultants to profile candidates and learn about client priorities. “The most impactful sales strategies focus on solving client challenges, not just selling services, so a continued process of insight gathering is vital to keep tailoring advice and solutions,” she explained, adding that feedback must be captured and optimised as part of your data strategy. “Whether it’s asking candidates about why they want to work for a particular employer and how their employer brand is perceived or asking prospective clients about their best and worst experiences with competitors, or what they have valued most, it can all be training data for agentic AI to collate into solutions.”
Data-driven decision-making remains crucial
Many firms still struggle with poor data quality and under-utilisation of the good stuff. The challenge is not just collecting and inputting data but building a data culture to capture the right insight. Ailsa Illingworth, Head of Marketing and Communications at RGF Staffing also leads the business development team and has recruited people with a marketing and data mindset. “There are various carrot and stick ways of encouraging recruiters to embrace data-driven decision-making and using internal ‘data champions’ to drive cultural change, but we recruited consultants who already understand why and how to optimise insight,” she explained. “This has resulted in better optimisation of Bullhorn Analytics and a much faster ROI on tech.”
By embedding a data-first mindset within their teams, recruitment businesses can improve forecasting, identify sales opportunities more effectively, and make informed decisions that enhance both client and candidate experiences.
Rise of the Chief Transformation Officer
A thread running through the event was the growing need for a leader in recruitment businesses who can drive and manage transformation, look at where it’s best to have people or tech deployed, and navigate the rectech landscape to find solutions for the right problems.
Jessica Morgan, Chief Transformation Officer at Instant Impact, has been trialling AI and analytics solutions with clients on parts of their delivery where they can learn and adapt quickly. She has also explored new roles and skills needed to optimise tech and data internally and for clients. “I think there is going to be a new type of role in recruitment businesses, like a recruitment engineer who will look at ensuring the data, and the technology hosting that data, is doing what we need it to do.”
Instant Impact has partnered with Popp and other providers like Arctic Shores as part of an integrated service offering for SME clients to support them with tech and talent solutions. “Partnerships with the right tech providers enable us to offer more scalable solutions and work with bigger clients to manage larger projects,” Jessica added.
In an increasingly crowded market, strategic partnerships will play a crucial role in differentiating brands, winning and retaining higher value clients.
“Partnerships with the right tech providers enable us to offer more scalable solutions and work with bigger clients to manage larger projects.” – Jessica Morgan, Instant Impact
Closing remarks
Our Sales Enablement Lunch & Learn shone a light on how evolving technology aligned with the right data strategy and culture is enabling more effective recruitment marketing and business development. From AI-driven candidate engagement and data-led decision-making to transformation leadership and a culture of capturing client feedback, our experts emphasised that technology can only be optimised if it solves the right problem, integrates with core solutions, and aligns with business strategy.
