# Ideal customer profile: recruitment agencies

A starting ICP for a small or specialist recruitment agency that wants more clients in its niche. Replace anything in [square brackets] with your own details, delete what doesn't fit, then paste the whole file into Claude, Copilot or ChatGPT.

## How to use this file

Paste this file into a new chat, then try one of these:

- "Using this ICP, give me Apollo filters and job board searches to find companies hiring [role type] in [region] right now."
- "Here are five companies with live ads for [role]. Rank them against this ICP and tell me who to contact first."
- "Write a first email to the hiring manager at [company]. Plain text, under 90 words, mention the role they are advertising, end with one question."

## About us

- Business: [Your agency name]
- Our niche: [e.g. engineering, finance, hospitality, tech, care]
- Roles we fill best: [Job titles and salary range]
- Where we place people: [Regions or remote]
- Our terms: [Contingent, retained, fee range]
- Proof we can point to: [e.g. average time to shortlist, repeat clients, specialist network]

## Who we want to reach

- Companies with roughly 20 to 250 staff in [our niche]
- Hiring [role types] more than once or twice a year
- Big enough to pay agency fees, small enough to have no in-house recruitment team
- Location: [region]
- Legal form: limited companies, LLPs and incorporated organisations only (see the rules section)

## Who makes the decision

- In companies under about 50 staff: the founder or managing director
- In larger companies: the head of the team that is hiring, then HR or the people manager
- Titles to search for: [e.g. Engineering Manager, Head of Finance, Operations Director, HR Manager]

## What they care about

- Getting good people in before the team burns out
- Not wading through CVs that don't fit
- Candidates who stay past probation
- A recruiter who understands the role without a two hour briefing

## Signals that it's a good time to get in touch

- The same role has been advertised for 30 days or more
- Several roles in our niche are live at once
- New funding, a new contract win or a new site has been announced
- Headcount on LinkedIn has grown quickly over the last six months
- A role has been re-posted after being taken down

## Where to find them

- Job boards (Indeed, LinkedIn Jobs, Reed, niche boards) filtered by our role types and region
- Apollo or a similar tool, filtered by industry, headcount and location, with "hiring" signals where available
- Companies House SIC codes for our niche: [ask Claude to suggest the right codes for your niche]
- Local business news and funding announcements

## Who to leave out

- Companies with their own internal recruitment team
- Large corporates that only use a preferred supplier list
- Companies that post "no agencies" on the job ad
- Other recruitment agencies advertising on behalf of a client
- Anyone who has asked us not to contact them

## The offer we lead with

[Make it specific and low risk. For example: "Three vetted CVs for your [role] within ten working days, and you only pay if you hire." Keep it honest. Only promise what you already do.]

## How we write

- Plain text. No attachments, no tracking.
- Under 90 words. One clear question at the end.
- Name the actual role they are advertising and say something useful about it (market rate, candidate supply, how long similar roles take).
- Never send CVs nobody asked for.
- No "hope you're well", no "I came across your profile".

## Rules we follow (UK)

- We only cold email corporate subscribers: limited companies, LLPs, public bodies and other incorporated organisations. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships need to have opted in first, so they stay off the list.
- Every email says who we are and gives a simple way to opt out. Anyone who opts out goes on a suppression list for good.
- A named contact at a company is still personal data under UK GDPR. We rely on legitimate interests, keep only what we need, and link to our privacy notice.
- This is not legal advice. The ICO is updating its guidance after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, so check the latest before you send.